Paul Gazelka: A failed leader

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka has demonstrated a remarkable lack of leadership and inability to govern during the recent legislative session.

The most recent example of his failure to lead was the passage of a tax bill that he knew was doomed due to Governor Dayton’s promise to veto it. Passing a major piece of legislation that you know will fail rather than working with the Governor to reach thoughtful compromises is an insult to Minnesotans and it further erodes our belief in government. As I write this Governor Dayton has vetoed Gazelka’s tax bill and now, with less then three days in the legislative session, the negotiators are saying they are beginning to work on compromises with Dayton. Why now? Why not earlier?

Paul Gazelka via his Facebook

In another remarkable failure to lead the Senate and serve Minnesotans Gazelka, along with Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt, have failed to introduce legislation required to apply for federal elections cybersecurity grants. The money is available and needed to tighten security on state voter registration systems, according to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. Gazelka is particularly at fault because legislation to apply for the grants has stalled in the Senate, according to MPR News.

Gazelka’s foot dragging has also succeeded in killing bipartisan efforts to control cell phone use while driving and to protect victims of sexual harassment.

Legislation requiring Minnesotans to use hands free telephones if they wanted to communicate while driving had thirty-five cosponsors and bipartisan support. Governor Dayton was for it and its chief sponsor in the House was Mark Uglem, a Republican. Uglem worked hard and got his bill through all the necessary committees. Then he was told by House leadership, including Kurt Daudt, Ron Kresha, and Joyce Pepin, that the bill wouldn’t get a vote for final passage.

“I’m very concerned for all the people that have been affected by distracted driving, all the people that have been killed and maimed on the highways,” Uglem told Minnesota Public Radio. “I guess I just don’t understand why something as important as this will not move through the process when I’ve cleared every committee that I’ve had to.”

In the Senate, Assistant Majority Leader and Alexandria Republican Bill Ingebrigtsen, a former county sheriff, was a cosponsor and the Minnesota State Patrol supported the bill. But Paul Gazelka put a stop to it.

“He said there are too many other big issues the Legislature still needs to grapple with, and there is not agreement that the hands-free requirement is the best way to stop distracted driving,” MPR reported that Gazelka said in a May 10th press conference. "Years ago I was negative and I've moved to neutral, so it's not like I'm trying to stop it," he said.

Governor Dayton said that he believes special interest were behind the failure to get a vote on the hands free bill. But Gazelka, not Special Interests, is the Leader of the Senate. 

Legislators: Beware, the cold kiss of death of Paul Gazelka’s neutrality.

The paw prints of Special Interests were all over a failed bipartisan attempt by the House and Senate to provide victims of sexual harassment an opportunity to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. And Gazelka was right in the thick of the mess. 

“Minnesota Senate Republicans Monday blocked a Democrat-led attempt to force a vote on what had generally been a bipartisan push to change sexual harassment law that could affect every workplace in the state. To be clear, the actual vote was on a procedural matter, but it fell strictly along partisan lines, and the Senate’s top Republican (Gazelka) said he didn’t think the matter had been properly vetted to be voted on this legislative session,” MPR wrote in it’s Capitol View blog (https://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/) on May 10th. 

The fact that the legislation had been discussed extensively in the House of Representative, and had been authored by Republican Majority Leader Joyce Pepin, didn’t matter at all to Gazelka. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce had expressed opposition to the bill and that was good enough for Legislative Undertaker Paul Gazelka. He calmly lowered the sexual harassment bill into the coffin along with the hands only bill and had his aides nail it shut.

As I’ve written this article I’ve realized my premise that Paul Gazelka is not a leader may be incorrect. He is not a leader for the women who have been sexually harassed. He is not a leader for the families that have lost someone to distracted driving. He  is not a leader for those of us that care about the environment. He is, however a cold, calculating, and effective leader for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the Representatives of Profit Before All.