Four days ago in The sorrows of young Denny McNamara beneath the unbearable lightness of being blindsided, we noted that there had been a number warnings that the Ag and Environment budget bill might be vetoed for the bad policy changes being crammed into the environment side of the measure.
That being the case, it stretched belief when Representative Denny McNamara (R-Hastings) claimed that the Governor's veto "blindsided" him. However, information has emerged that may explain McNamara's hurt feelings.
We learn in Special session could happen as early as next week — if leaders agree soon, a post by David Montgomery and Rachel Stassen-berger that Senate Majority Leader Bakk is saying that he warned Daudt that McNamara's radical agenda might well get the whole ginormous bill rejected:
Bakk said, in the waning hours of the regular session’s end on May 18, he warned Daudt that the environmental measure, which also contained language strengthening the state’s water protection zones and avian flu recovery provision for farmers, may be headed to a veto.
“I had told the speaker over those last few days that the environment bill especially that (those) poison pill provisions one on top of another is going to create a potential veto,” Bakk said. Daudt on Wednesday acknowledged that warning.
But the measure ended up including those provisions — so many that Bakk told Daudt that he would have to get Senate Republicans to vote for the bill because so many Democrats would not. In the end only 11 Senate Democrats voted for the measure. All the chamber’s 26 Republicans supported it.
It really was a terrible thing for Speaker Daudt to do to Representative McNamara. As leader of the House Republican Caucus, he really ought to have let the Hastings Republican know that his bill was heading for trouble.
Daudt shouldn't blindside his committee leaders like this.
Photo: Bakk and Daudt, whom Bakk so warned this veto was going to happen. At this point, we're not sure how nice a timeline of GOP statements about whether they were warned about the possibility of a veto might look. Or a close examination of the disgust within Bakk's own caucus at the Majority Leader's greenlighting the doomed deals. Perhaps avoiding special interest-favored sneak attacks on environmental might help when creating narratives in the future.
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