Issue Position: State Government Reform

Issue Position

During my years in the House it became very obvious that the era of term limits has allowed the legislature to let many of its more complicated obligations slide. Obligations such as government oversight and holding the bureaucracy accountable are difficult and often lack the immediate political payback many find appealing. I developed a true passion for reforming some of the structural problems in our government. This is why I introduced legislation reforming term limits, limiting the length of the legislative session, creating a DEQ commission, reforming the state board of education (so the UP would be represented), reforming primary election, creating a permanent legislative ethics committee and the Legislative Open Records Act, and opening the governor's office to FOIA. There is so much more to do so that our state government works better for the people and I have a deep passion to champion these issues. One of my first successes in this area was getting passage of a bill that keeps people from being found guilty of violating state laws by breaking complicated and obscure regulations.

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