“People always pride themselves on voting for the person, not the party,” Pierce said. “They don’t think of the grand scheme of how this will affect the legislature.”
Pierce spoke Thursday night at the Monroe County Library as part of the Be a Voter Discussion Series organized by the library and the League of Women Voters. The talk was titled “How the Legislature Really Works and What They Didn’t Teach You in Civics Class.”
In the 2016 elections, Indiana voters will choose representatives for the Indiana State Senate and House of Representatives. Organizers of the Be a Voter series said they hope the talks will help prepare Indiana residents for the elections.
Kate Cruikshank, president of the League of Women Voters, said the series aims to lessen confusion about the state legislature. She said often when Pierce speaks at monthly legislative updates sponsored by the League of Women Voters, he usually ends up explaining how the system works rather than delving into current topics.
“We’re trying to give people tools to ask candidates really hard questions,” she said. “We’ve got to hold people accountable.”
Pierce explained how the party affiliation of a representative affects how the whole system functions. He said the most important day for the legislature is when the Republicans and Democrats meet separately to decide on their leaders.
Whichever party has more elected representatives will get to choose the speaker of the house.
“It’s hard to underestimate the power the speaker of the house has,” Pierce said.
He explained the speaker chooses the chairs of committees and what bills go to what committee.
Pierce said there are currently a large number of sub-committees in the Indiana Senate, and he said that could be because the speaker is trying to keep the Republican supermajority happy by assigning many of them to chairman positions.
“It’s kind of fun to be a chairman because you have some power and people come begging you for stuff,” Pierce said.
The chairmen are “dictators” of their committees, Pierce said. They choose what bills the committee hears and whether or not amendments may be added to the bills. The bills that go to the floor of the General Assembly to become laws depend on the decisions of the chairmen, who are appointed by the speaker, whom the party in the majority chooses.
Pierce said the public can track the movement of bills through the Indiana General Assembly’s website. When committees hear bills, members of the public may come to the meeting and present their arguments for three to five minutes.
“The good news is anybody can show up and very easily testify,” Pierce said. “The bad news is you better hone your elevator speech.”
