The legislative session starts tomorrow, and you wouldn’t believe some of the people who will be running the place now. Here’s a short introduction to a few of the Republican legislators who will be chairing committees.

Steve Gottwalt (House HHS “Reform”)

The “reform” Gottwalt plans (HF1865, 2009-2010) is to eliminate MinnesotaCare by throwing those who can’t afford it into the private market. About 5,000 Minnesotans would lose healthcare coverage.

Sondra Erickson (House Education “Reform”)

Erickson’s “reforms” to our education system would involve morphing our secular public schools into evangelic Christian schools. She has opposed the teaching of evolution (Olson amendment - HJ Page 3995, April 18,2007) and voted in favor of teaching creationism, and she has been a staunch supporter of failed abstinence-only sex education (HF 2660, 2001 -2002, HF 0580 ,2003-2004). She also bizarrely sponsored a bill to ban girls from participating in high-school wrestling (HF 2437, 2002).

Tony Cornish (House Public Safety & Crime Prevention Policy & Finance)

Cornish has a simple plan to halt the recent rash of college shootings: Let all students carry guns around campus.

Linda Runbeck (House Property and Local Tax Division)

Runbeck seems to believe that our government has no place doing anything whatsoever — not even keeping our promises to veterans. She:

• didn’t want the state to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors (SF845/HF1077, 1995)
• thought it was OK to let health plans deny payment for medical services they previously authorized (SF953/HF1034, 2000)
• was against providing health care to veterans (SF1649/HF2079, 1999)
• wanted to eliminate smoking prevention from the list of activities that would be supported by the landmark tobacco settlement (SF1269/HF1600, 1999)
• introduced legislation to prohibit any MnDOT employee from helping start your disabled car or get it off the middle of the road (SF1832, 1996)

Mike Parry (Senate State Government Innovation)

Yes, this Mike Parry. Seriously. A lunatic tenther who has been in the Senate for less than a year. He’s the head of a committee now.

Julianne Ortman (Senate Taxes)

Ortman has consistently voted to reduce taxes for the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class. She has voted against at least $2 billion in property tax relief since 2003 (a long list, see below*), while voting to eliminate income taxes for the heads of out-of-state businesses doing business in Minnesota (May 7, 2008, Journal Page 9612).

Chris Gerlach (Commerce and Consumer Protection)

Gerlach has consistently voted against protecting consumers. Here are just a few examples:

• Opposing measures to ensure patients are not charged more for using oral chemotherapy than traditional chemotherapy (S.F.1761, 2010)
• Opposing measures to ensure Minnesotans get the full use of their gift cards and prohibit secret charges (S.F.69, 2007)
• Opposing measures to ensure policyholders could be compensated if their insurance company mistreated them (S.F.2822, 2008)
• Opposing measures to protect Minnesota homeowners from foreclosure (S.F.3396, 2008; H.F.354, 2009)
• Opposing measures to prohibit the disclosure of medical debt to third parties (S.F.3132, 2008)

And that’s just a few of the folks the Republicans have running things. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have Mark Dayton standing in their way.

*Ortman’s votes against property-tax relief:

• H.F. 2268: Omnibus Tax Bill. May 16, 2007; Journal Page 5364 
• H.F. 2362: Omnibus Tax Bill. April 27, 2007; Journal Page 2584 
• S.F. 1024: Omnibus Tax Bill. March 30, 2007; Journal Page 1821
• H.F. 3149: Omnibus Tax Bill. May 7, 2008; Journal Page 9623 
• S.F. 2869: Omnibus Tax Bill. April 2, 2008; Journal p. 8293 and April 3, 2008; p. 8458
• HF 2540 - Omnibus Tax Bill. April 29, 2004; Journal Page 4275
• SF 2206 - Omnibus Tax Bill III. May 6, 2005; Journal Page 2519
• SF 3131 - Omnibus Tax Bill I. April 19, 2006; Journal Page 4945
• SF 3131 - Omnibus Tax Bill I. April 20, 2006; Journal Page 4963