Legislators predict harmony in House

AUGUSTA – Two veteran legislative leaders, who have fought more than a few partisan battles on the House floor, predicted Tuesday that next year’s legislative session will be driven by a desire to achieve greater harmony.

Propelling the quest toward a kinder, gentler Legislature, is the need to quickly devise a tax reform proposal and the realities associated with having nearly the same number of Democrats and Republicans in the House.

Rep. Joe Bruno, the retiring House GOP leader from Raymond, and outgoing House Speaker Patrick Colwell, D-Gardiner, said the expected three-seat margin between the two parties will force lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to focus on policy goals that unite rather than divide the 151 members.

“So I think you’ll actually see more negotiations and compromises this time around because things are so close,” Bruno said.

The two leaders, both of whom were barred from seeking re-election as the result of legislative term limits, said that in addition to the need for two-thirds votes on bond issues and emergency legislation, the Legislature’s image could factor into promoting consensus.

In the last election, poll after poll reflected voter dissatisfaction with the Legislature’s inability to pass a tax reform law. Although Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the governor’s office, Mainers tended to assume a monolithic view of the political process and wrote off the tax reform failure as the Legislature’s fault rather than that of a particular body or party.

“The voters in the state of Maine, by providing such a close balance here in the House, have sent a powerful message that they want both parties to work together on all the issues,” Colwell said.

The incoming 122nd Legislature will convene on Dec. 1 to elect presiding officers and organize the operations of the session through a set of joint rules for the House and Senate. While Democrats maintain an 18-17 advantage over Republicans in the Senate, a week’s worth of legislative recounts have left three races unresolved in the House.

The apparent winners – Democrat Michael McAlevey for House District 139 in the Waterboro area, Republican Rep. Jeff Kaelin for House District 42 in the Winterport area and Republican Jayne Crosby Giles for House District 43 in the Belfast area – will be provisionally seated as voting members of the House on Dec. 1. They also will be allowed to vote for their choice of House presiding officer or speaker.

With the provisionally seated members, the breakdown in the House will be 76 Democrats, 73 Republicans, 1 Green Independent Party member and 1 unenrolled member.

Rep. John Richardson, D-Brunswick, has already been selected by House Democrats as their candidate for speaker. On Tuesday, Rep. Paul Cressey of Cornish announced he would be the Republican candidate for speaker, hoping to not only win the support of GOP members, but any others who may feel excluded by the new Democratic leadership. Cressey’s bid was described by House GOP staffers as a unilateral decision that was not voted on by House Republicans when they met last week to choose their new leaders.

Believing that a few dissident Democratic votes and the support of the Green Independent Party and unenrolled member could swing the election his way, Cressey prefaced his long-shot bid for the position with a pledge to respect the desires of individual parties during daily legislative activities.

“But let the Maine people be served by a speaker who will allow all voices to be heard in public deliberations – even from a caucus of one,” Cressey said in a clear reference to Rep. John Eider, the Green Independent Party member from Portland.

Colwell said one of the new House speaker’s first orders of business will be the appointment of an eight-member Elections Committee to review disputed and challenged ballots in the three unresolved House races. That committee will send its findings back to the full House for a vote. The provisionally seated members would be free to vote for themselves, making the likelihood of a change in numbers between the two major parties somewhat remote.

In other recount activity, Deputy Secretary of State Doug Dunbar said Tuesday that there were no clear conclusions yet in two county commissioner races reviewed Monday. In Somerset County District 2, where Zane G. Libby, D-Norridgewock, unofficially defeated Philip N. Roy, R-Fairfield, by five votes, Dunbar said the dispute would be sent to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court for resolution.

In Washington County’s District 2, where Christopher M. Gardner, R-Edmunds Township, unofficially defeated Albion Goodwin, D-Pembroke, by 52 votes, the recount has been continued to next week.