Kurt Daudt on the table and other totally original reform doctor stuff we've never heard before

In the Sunday Star Tribune, left-leaning opinion section columnist Lori Sturdevant positively gushes in Kurt Daudt — the legislative doctor in the House?:

. . . More often, Daudt is described as young (he’s 41), single, a former car salesman and Isanti County board member, and greener in House seniority than any speaker since the pioneer era. He’s about to start his third term. . . .

I’ll concede that calling Daudt a reformer is a bet on the come. Still, that label started to stick at a Dec. 11 legislative preview for Capitol insiders hosted by the Fredrikson and Byron law firm, as Daudt made his third or fourth mention within about 10 minutes of a desire to make lawmaking more problem-focused, data-based, analytical and open to new ideas. And frugal, too — Daudt is, after all, a conservative Republican.

Here’s a sample:

• On lagging learning: “I’m going to challenge the Democrats to come to the table, leave the special interests out of the room and look at why we have an achievement gap. You’ve got to truly analyze what’s causing the problem before you try to fix it. … If spending money solved the problem, we wouldn’t have an achievement gap. This needs new thinking.” . . .

It occurred: This isn’t the usual presession prattle from leaders about cooperation and bipartisanship. And it isn’t the naiveté of a total rookie. Daudt may be a greenhorn speaker, but he’s been minority leader for the past two years.

It occurred to Bluestem that we'd actually heard and read these sort of statements before and thus turned to our friends Mr. Nexis and Mr. Google to determine whether our memory were failing, as modern medicine and the march of time suggest happens to people of a certain age.

So we looked to what former minority leader Kurt Zellers had to say for himself as he ascended into the Speaker's role in 2011.

We found this 2010 piece in the Pioneer Press, Kurt Zellers: A visit with the new Speaker, which begins:

The new speaker of the House is Rep. Kurt Zellers, 41, an affable and respected leader who grew up on a farm in North Dakota, was first elected to the Minnesota Legislature in 2003 and lives in Maple Grove with his family. As speaker, he replaces DFL Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelliher. Zellers sat down with the Pioneer Press Opinion Page staff a few days ago to talk about the new majority's goals, the session ahead and working with Gov.-elect Mark Dayton, a DFLer. Here are excerpts, edited for clarity and brevity.

On taxes, after a governor campaign in which to-raise-or-not-to-raise was the focus

I don't think that's the first place we should start. Whatever we agree on would be a great place to start, instead of the fight everybody's looking for, that everybody's expecting. Some of the regulatory relief, (Dayton) has talked about, as a business owner, as someone who's worked in the business world, that we have to be competitive.

Daudt is the same age as Zellers was when he became speaker, although Zellers became minority leader in his 4th term (or 3 1/2, since he was elected in a 2003 special election), while Daudt assumed the reins in his second term. Experience, rather than youth, is the key here.

And just before the session in the Pioneer Press, Bill Salisbury reported in Starting Tuesday in the legislative session, the $6.2B deficit will dominate the show:

The deficit isn't the only issue on the table for Dayton and the Legislature. They also plan to:

Scour for new ways to create jobs, including streamlining business regulations.

Overhaul education to close Minnesota's "achievement gap" and improve teaching.

Rein in soaring health care costs while still delivering high-quality services.

Look for ways to finance a new Minnesota Vikings stadium to replace the Metrodome.

That Daudt rhetoric is beginning to look familiar (and who knows if the stadium financing has actually been solved; perhaps there will be a third try).

As the session began, Briana Bierschbach, then with Politics in Minnesota, reported in In Minnesota, redesigning government - or just cutting?:

Republican leaders at the Legislature unveiled $1 billion worth of cuts at a news conference Tuesday as they start to address what House Speaker Kurt Zellers called a “pretty insurmountable” $6.2 billion deficit. Cuts, however, are only half of the equation they bandied on the campaign trail.

Government reform is a major part of their plan to get out of the red without raising taxes, but specifics about redesign proposals – and the cost savings associated with them -have been elusive so far. . . .

You get the drift.

And what about when Steve Sviggum--by then no legislative spring chicken and at 47 older than Daudt or Zellers--became Speaker in 1999? It's good to remember that those were the times that tried Republican and Democratic souls, since voters had just turned down Norm Coleman and Skip Humphrey for governor in favor of Jesse Ventura.

A Lexis search revealed that the big talk was of tax cuts given the surplus.

But there were other items, via Nexis:

Republicans made quick work of changes deemed necessary when they regained control of the House after 12 years as the minority party. Speaker-designate Steve Sviggum (R) plans to reduce the number of committees by five down to 27 and wants controversial policy measures kept out of large appropriations bills. In addition, the Judiciary Committee -- bogged down during the last two-year legislative session with nearly 700 bills -- will be split into two new committees: a Crime Prevention Committee and Civil Law Committee. (STAR TRIBUNE) (Star Net, December 7, 1998, Nexis All News, accessed 12/21/2014)

And this:

The new speaker of the Minnesota House opened the 1999 legislative session Tuesday by pledging to cooperate with the other parties in the state's new tri-partisan government.

After taking the gavel, Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, turned first to DFL Minority Leader Tom Pugh of South St. Paul and said "I know we will work together."

The big question of this legislative session is exactly how well the Republican-controlled House, DFL-controlled Senate and Reform Party Gov. Jesse Ventura will work together. Sviggum sounded optimistic during his speech.

"What lies behind us and what lies between us is very, very small, very, very tiny compared to what lies within us: To be able to work cooperatively with the people of Minnesota," he said.("House GOP leader promises harmony as '99 session opens," Bill Wareham, Associated Press, January 5, 1999,Nexis All News, accessed 12/21/2014)

In short, Daudt's no "legislative doctor" but the usual promise of a new start as the Speaker's gavel changes party hands.

Photo: Spring chickens. There's a new flock every session.

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