Proxy lawmaker idea not catching on in Iowa Legislature

DES MOINES - The 2014 Iowa legislative session may well go down as the 'Year of Absences.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, missed several days - and votes - while on National Guard Duty and, presumably, working on her U.S. Senate campaign. Her colleague, Sen Hubert Houser, R-Carson, was absent for more than a month while he worked on a family farm expansion project.

In the House, Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, was gone for about two weeks when her father died. Democratic U.S. House candidates Reps. Anesa Kajtazovic of Waterloo and Pat Murphy of Dubuque also missed a number of days during what was scheduled to be a 100-day session. Wednesday evening, Kajtazovic missed several votes to participate in a candidate forum in Cedar Rapids while Murphy remained at the Legislature.

Family, flu, campaign fundraising and unexpected demands on a lawmaker's schedule can leave a legislative district unrepresented. While that's a fact of legislative life in Iowa, it's not the case in Idaho.

Idaho has had a substitute lawmaker law since 1891 and it was expanded to include legislators in 1945. It allows Idaho legislators to appoint a replacement whenever they will be absent from the legislative session.

This year, seven Idaho legislators have named temporary substitutes for anywhere from three days to three weeks. The substitute law has been used 36 times in the past five years.

'It makes some sense,” said Mascher, a 20-year member of the House, but she's reluctant to embrace it.

'We're so picky about nobody touching our button and no proxy voting,” she said, referring to the green and red buttons lawmakers push to cast their 'yes” or 'no” votes.

'There's probably a reason we haven't gone that route,” Mascher said. 'I'd worry that someone would run and then do a Hubert Houser and not show up. Is that fair to voters?”

Houser initially thought the Idaho law 'might have merits.”

However, as he talked about it, his mind changed.

'The more I think about it, it's probably not such a good idea,” Houser said.

Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination in Iowa's U.S. House 1st District, in part, because he couldn't justify missing votes to campaign. Being able to appoint a substitute probably wouldn't have changed that.

'I like that we have to be here physically to vote,” he said. 'There's too many ways to abuse that.”

Ernst expressed similar caution about appointing a proxy 'because they're not elected.”

She's not alone. Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, and Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, expressed similar concerns.

'That would undermine the purpose of elections,” Jochum said.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, acknowledged that lawmakers, including him, have legitimate reasons for an occasional absence.

'But I think when Iowans elect someone they expect them to be there,” he said.

Like Paulsen, House Minority Leader Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown, was not inclined to adopt substitute legislator legislation out of concern about the potential for mischief.

Not to worry, said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.

'Not going to happen,” he said. 'The voters elected me, not me or my designee.”