Legislature set to elect new regents

Five open seats on the 12-member University of Minnesota Board of Regents are each one vote away from being filled.

But a joint committee of the House and Senate higher education committees tasked with the effort of recommending nominees for each seat to a joint convention of the full Legislature had to pursue creative procedural options on Tuesday to get there.

In an unprecedented action, the joint committee voted to recommend two nominees – instead of one – for two of the five open regent seats.

Randy Simonson (First District)

The joint committee, which comprises members of the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division and the Senate Higher Education Budget and Policy Division, is tasked with making recommendations to the full House and Senate on who should fill the seats. After members of the joint committee make their selections, lawmakers from both the House and Senate must formally elect the regents in a joint session.

The anomaly occurred after separate votes cast by the Senate and House committee members called to nominate competing candidates in the regent seats representing the first and third congressional districts. By rule, a nominee must receive the majority of votes from both the House and Senate committees.

Patricia Simmons (First District) | photo courtesy University of Minnesota

In the case of the First Congressional District seat, Randy Simonson received the majority of votes from the House higher education committee; Patricia Simmons received the most votes among Senate higher education committee members. Michael Belzer was favored among Senate committee members for the seat representing the Third Congressional District and Paula Prahl was favored among House committee members.

To resolve the deadlock for each of those seats, members relied on House and Senate research counsel to weigh-in with their best legal advice on whether state constitution and procedural rules would allow them to nominate two candidates for each contested seat. In the end, research staff said that as a procedural matter, the committee could do just that.

Paula Prahl (Third District)

The committee then voted on a motion to recommend two nominees from the First and Third districts.

Later this session, the joint convention of the Legislature — which is comprised of 101 DFLers and 100 Republicans between the House and Senate — will elect regents for each of the five seats. No date has been set for the joint convention.

Here is a breakdown of the nominees that will be forwarded to the joint convention:

First District

Randy Simonson and Patricia Simmons (incumbent)

Michael Belzer (Third District)

Third District

Paula Prahl and Michael Belzer

Fourth District

Richard Beeson (incumbent)

Sixth District

Michael Hsu

Seventh District

Thomas Anderson

Late-dropout of candidate had impact

Simmons, who announced last fall that she would not seek a third term on the board, was recommended for consideration by a minimum required number of members. She told the committee she changed her mind after learning a finalist for the seat, retired physician Dr. Claire Bender, withdrew her candidacy last week for personal reasons.

Former Republican legislator Randy Demmer was also a last-minute addition to the slate of candidates for the First District seat, but he was eliminated after the first round of voting. But after two subsequent rounds of voting among House and Senate committee members, the support between Simonson and Simmons remained split.

A similar situation occurred in the vote among committee members to recommend a nominee for the Third Congressional District from among a slate of four candidates that included late additions of former regent Darrin Rosha (who last served on the board in 1993) and former U.S. Rep. Bill Luther.

Rosha and Luther were eliminated after the first round of ballots.

Regents serve without pay for six-year terms. Terms are staggered, with one-third of the board up for election every two years. But with the death of former Regent David Larson in October, the Third District seat will be filled for only the final two years of that term, which is set to expire at the end of 2017.