Right to Work supporters in the Minnesota Legislature still hold out hope that their bill will make it to a floor vote, and then on to the November ballot.
"We believe the public deserves and wants to see an up or down vote on this important issue," said Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie, one of more than a dozen House and Senate Republicans who gathered Tuesday morning in a show of support for the proposed constitutional amendment.
Legislative leaders have expressed doubts that there are enough votes to pass the bill, which would make union membership optional in Minnesota. The prospect drew more than a thousand protesters to the Capitol last week, chanting "kill the bill" and "shame on you" as the Senate Judiciary Committee debated and narrowly passed the measure.
Last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem told reporters he doubted there were enough votes in the Legislature to pass the bill this session. It didn't even get the unanimous support of the Republicans on the committee -- Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, voted with the DFL on the final vote and Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, sided with Democrats on a procedural vote.
Bill sponsor Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville, said he was "disappointed" by the leadership's stance, and said the bill "certainly is stalled if we don't get a Rules Committee hearing." But he said he wouldn't attempt to bypass the committee system to bring the bill up for debate on the floor.
On the House side, Speaker Kurt Zellers said he was equally unsure how many of his supporters would join him in support of the bill, which is currently in the House Commerce Committee.
"There's a great amount of interest" in the bill on the House side, said Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, "we haven't reached a conclusion about whether we're going to bring it forward yet…We're in the middle of process and figuring out exactly which proposals we're going to bring forward and when."
