MPR Fantasy Legislature Team Page: Quorum of Six

Quorum of Six
Maroon League

Manager: Pat Smith
Bio: Hailing from Stillwater, I am currently a third-year student at the University of Minnesota. I follow politics closely, and hope to become more informed about state government through this experiment.
Strategy: My basic draft strategy was to look at the legislators' "stats" from last session ('05-'06), and to try to choose legislators who have produced in the past. Lacking the time and willpower to calculate what legislators' exact scores under league rules would have been, I used two benchmarks to rank the legislators: the total amount of bills they authored, and the amount of bills they managed to get signed by the governor. Though it is not a perfect system, I believe that it gives a good picture of what can be expected from a particular legislator.

However, with a DFL-controlled House this session, the dynamics could be totally different. Thus, in order to make my final rankings, I had to do some prognostication. I figured that House Republicans who produced well in '05-'06 would see their production drop off a bit, and dropped them in rankings accordingly, while I bumped up a few House DFLers who wrote many bills but didn't necessarily see them passed last session.

Other factors I took into consideration were caucus leadership positions and committee chairmanships. From my limited data analysis, I would say that those legislators in leadership positions tend not to "produce" (in fantasy terms) as much as one might expect, but many committee chairmen and -women seem to be very effective at getting their bills passed.

The wild card here are the freshmen legislators. Quite frankly, I had no idea how to predict a freshman legislator's fantasy production, so I largely left them off my list.

My draft strategy resulted in my obtaining my top three picks, all DFL Senators: Jim Vickerman, Linda Scheid, and Steve Murphy. My starting team is rounded out by two more senators, Thomas Bakk (DFL) and Dennis Frederickson (R). I only have one House member, Bruce Anderson (R). Overall, I am satisfied with my starting lineup and I think it will be a strong team. I am a little concerned about the solidness of my GOP contingent. I also worry about my Senate-heavy roster--will this be an asset or a liability? I will be watching the trade market and the waiver wire closely, and you may witness some roster changes before the season is over.
Blog: http://mncampaignreport.com/userDiary.do?personId=28

	Rep. Tom Hackbarth GOP		Sen. Tom Bakk DFL		Sen. Dennis Frederickson GOP
	Sen. Steve Murphy DFL		Sen. Linda Scheid DFL		Sen. Jim Vickerman DFL