Bad bills thought dead can be resurrected with legislative tricks

The Gazette 3/22 editorial ("Good riddance to bad bills") worries that "the problem with dead bills is they sometimes come back to life."

Let's trace that back to 2012, and the matter of dove hunting — something the overwhelming majority of Iowans have always opposed. Through a bit of clever legislative legerdemain, abetted by Democratic Senator Dick Dearden (an avid dove hunter) and Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (a Democrat, but for what reasons?), a bill was passed in the Senate (after a closed-door Democratic caucus) without any debate. Without a companion bill in the House, this is where it would have died. But, lo and behold, the very next day, a bill was miraculously created and "substituted" for a bill dealing with an entirely different matter — youth raccoon hunting!

Voila! The next morning. Governor Branstad signed the bill authorizing dove hunting in a private ceremony in his office. Seventy-two hours, start to finish!

I warned then that this was the type of governance we could expect, and here we are, with Kim Reynolds, someone who learned well at the feet of her master.

Jim Walters

Iowa City