Legislature blazes new trail today

The Republican leader of the state senate, Peter Kinder, says the object is to avoid looking like a bunch of fools when senators convene at mid-day today for this year’s session. He and his Democratic counterpart, Ed Quick, have come up with a power-sharing arrangement on the night before the start of the session. Quick and Kinder will share the job of President Pro-Tem. That’s important because the President Pro-Tem assigns bills to committees. Neither party has an absolute majority in the senate. And special elections to fill vacancies could leave the senate evenly split.