State Rep. Morrie Lanning — a five-term Republican from Moorhead who was chief author of the bill that will provide public subsidies for a Vikings stadium — won’t seek reelection in November.
Capitol hands were a bit surprised when House Speaker Kurt Zellers announced that Lanning was joining the more than 30 state legislators who won’t be coming back.
Lanning, a longtime Moorhead mayor and a city council member there before that, told the Fargo Forum that after nearly 40 years in politics, he wants to spend more time with his family.
But, the paper said, this isn’t a permanent retirement from public service:
“Be assured you will not have seen the last of Morrie Lanning,” he said this morning, before an audience of family members, Moorhead officials and local media. “I hope I’m done campaigning for a while, but I’m sure other opportunities might come my way.”
Zellers said this about Lanning:
“Representative Lanning has served his community and our state with great class, and he is a true statesman. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Morrie since before either of us came to St. Paul. His dedication to public service and the honorable way he goes about working with his colleagues are second to none. We will miss having him as a legislator. I wish him well as a colleague and a friend.”
Lanning had been chair of the House State Government Finance Committee and sat on the Capital Investment, Health and Human Services Finance and Ways and Means committees.
Talking about the contentious stadium bill, Lanning said today:
“Most people thought we had no chance of getting this done, but we proved the skeptics wrong. I hope it sends a message to people that working across the aisle, treating people with respect and working professionally, you can get things done for the people of the state of Minnesota.”
“…I’m sure other opportunities might come my way.” Hmmm….
I wonder just what those “opportunities” might be? Some form of reward, perhaps?
I’ve wondered just what threats and promises were made to all these legislators who worked and voted against the public interest in the stadium matter. It was all shielded from the public eye, of course.
Over time, maybe we’ll see some light cast on this in the careers of these legislators – i.e., what goes in to “getting this done”.