By Moe Wosepka, Executive Director
Montana Catholic Conference

As we make our way through the final days of the 61st legislative session, the need for reflection and review comes to the forefront. Next month we will provide a wrap-up of specific legislative issues. In that report, we will talk about what bills passed and what didn’t pass as well as make preliminary decisions about where to go next.

This month, I would like to make an observation on the make-up of this legislative session and its overall affect on our key issues.

We knew before the session started that bills would be tough to pass in the House since there were an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. The equal split not only affected the floor vote, but every committee which was also equally split. A tie vote most often signaled death for the bill, so almost every bill that was partisan went down on a straight line party vote.

The Senate was slightly different with 27 Republicans and 23 Democrats giving a slight advantage to the Republicans. Out of 150 total legislators from both chambers, there were only four more Republicans than Democrats.

There is good and bad with an equally split legislature. It is frustrating when very good bills do not make it through because of a party-line vote. The other side, however, is that some bills that were not good bills died with minor effort.

Issues affecting the common good of all shouldn’t be partisan, but they are. They are in part because those who elect those legislators are partisan. Voters have different ideologies, religions and life experiences. Voters elect representatives who support their views. Therefore, the development of partisan politics.

There are times we wished we could have had more R’s or more D’s to pass specific bills, but since our issues are on both sides of the aisle, a super majority of either side would not be beneficial to us. We would win with very little trouble on some issues, but would not have a fighting chance on others. It is also true that legislation from super majorities doesn’t stand up when the pendulum swings and the other party regains control.

Legislative efforts in an evenly divided Legislature work best if legislation is well designed and those promoting the legislation are well informed. It forces legislators and policy makers to design good legislation if they hope to have any chance of success.

Some of the bills we supported this session were not as well prepared as they should have been and they didn’t do well. That was in part because some were brought in late. The other major reason was because of the large number of bills we and our allies were working. The purpose and idea were sound, but we were not as well prepared as we should have been. Our goal in the interim is to identify those priority bills that need extra work, then do the research, and make necessary plans to pass this legislation in the next session.

In some cases an evenly split legislature is very frustrating to work with. However, there are definite advantages. In my opinion the closely divided legislature better represents the people. Legislation that passes in these situations is better legislation, and it will have a tendency to stand the test of time.


Moe Wosepka is the executive director of the Montana Catholic Conference. He can be reached by phone at 442-5761 or e-mail director@montanacc.org. Visit www.montanacc.org for more information.


Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 25, No. 4, April 17, 2009.