Lori Sturdevant

Legislative Lessons from the Leadership of Martin Sabo

How good public policy can regain a foothold in the Minnesota Legislature

Retired Minnesota Star Tribune columnist and editorial writer Lori Sturdevant discusses insights from her new book, “Martin Sabo: The Making of the Modern Legislature.”

An interview in the series: “Restoring Trust in Our Minnesota Institutions”

February 25, 2026

Panelists: Paul Ostrow, T. Williams, Tom Horner, Ipshita Tiwari, Chloe Zhao

“Martin Sabo didn’t like the word reform. He pushed through a lot of reforms, but he didn’t like the word because he thought the system should always be dynamic. It should just keep evolving.”

Summary

Lori Sturdevant discusses the legacy of Minnesota legislator and Congressman Martin Sabo to spotlight what strong legislative leadership looks like in practice and what it can achieve for the betterment of the state. She asserts that the best leaders in Minnesota have put governance above politics, and exercised power with an eye to long-term effects. Sturdevant opines that this tradition has been eroded by polarization, weakening institutional norms, and deteriorating personal relationships among lawmakers. To build trust again, she says, it is necessary to focus on policy outcomes, and pay renewed attention to structure, culture, and the human aspects of governance.

Background

Martin Sabo was a Minnesota legislator and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who believed in the power of government to improve people’s lives. He played a pivotal role in transforming the Legislature in the late 1960s and 1970s into a more professional, transparent and effective institution. As Speaker of the House, he prioritized good governance over partisanship, and spearheaded creation of modern legislative structures, including the House Research Department and the Office of the Legislative Auditor.

Lori Sturdevant is a veteran political journalist with more than 40 years of experience reporting on Minnesota politics for the Minnesota Star Tribune. She is the editor or author of many books on Minnesota public life, including her newest, “Martin Sabo: The Making of the Modern Legislature,” published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Discussion

What traits do Minnesota’s great political leaders share?
Sturdevant underlines that political leaders such as Martin Sabo shared a belief in representative democracy, good governance over politics, and a deep sense of stewardship toward our democratic institutions. Stewardship implied safeguarding the constitutional position of the Legislature, maintaining traditions of deliberation, and resisting the lure of focusing on short-term political gains at the cost of long-term well-being. Power was an instrument of ruling, not a goal.

What has happened to legislative culture?
According to the panelists, lawmakers used to spend much more time together - at the state capital and in Washington - and this time allowed them to know each other personally and therefore foster willingness to compromise. The increase of the frequency of travel home and the safety of political districts have decreased the possibility of cross-party interaction and undermined informal trust building.

What is the importance of legislative independence?
Sturdevant states that good democracies need legislatures that can be independent arms of government and not just the extension of executive authority or partisan apparatus. Martin Sabo would be appalled by Congress’s recent abdication of its legislative powers, she said. Sturdevant remembers times when Minnesota legislators were on the offensive to protect the legislative power and were proud of the institution. She says, today, institutional self-confidence has been lost.

What is the significance of political structure versus leadership style?
A number of the panelists express their concerns that current political conditions such as campaign finance pressures, polarization, and noncompetitive districts reward ideological purity instead of problem-solving. Sturdevant observes that such conditions influence behavior even among good-intentioned officials, and it is more difficult to maintain a culture of stewardship without structural change. Yet, she says she used to believe if we got the political structure and systems set up properly, then the state’s citizens would be well served. But over time in writing her books about Minnesota’s political leaders, she has come to understand the critical importance of personal leadership. Personalities matter, and how they interact with others in a personal way.

Why has lawmaking moved from openness in the 1970s under Sabo to closed-door decision-making today?
Both houses of the Minnesota Legislature flipped to the DFL Party for the first time in the 1972 election, with Sabo getting DFL candidates statewide to run on a platform of openness in government, Sturdevant notes. That theme had potency then, and it still does today. Minnesotans want their politicians accountable; they want their government accountable. They want to be involved in the legislative process. And the drift toward excessive secrecy today is unhealthy. It breeds distrust.

Can trust in institutions be rebuilt?
We are at an inflection point, with a lot of the old ways changing. Through the recent massive federal immigration enforcement initiative in Minnesota dubbed Operation Metro Surge, some institutions have been badly damaged while others have stepped up. Sturdevant says new forces are rising. Grassroots organizing has escalated, aided by social media, and that movement is not going away. She says that to rebuild trust, new policies will not be enough. It will take re-investment in the belief that democratic institutions are a common good that should be proactively nurtured.

“In the late 20th century, Minnesota pulled away from other states on a variety of quality-of-life measures, and in terms of economic success. It does us good to study that period and understand why that happened and how we can sustain those gains.”

Would term limits make the legislative branch less stymied?
Sturdevant argues that sustained legislative experience can strengthen institutions, using Martin Sabo’s career as an example. He made “making government work” his professional career. He chose to be a legislator and to make that a high calling. He delivered for the people, who responded by re-electing him again and again and again. The goal is to make government work well, and to do that, you need to improve the systems of government.

Final thoughts

Sturdevant concludes by stating that leaders such as Martin Sabo provide a valuable lesson: democratic institutions are not self-sustaining. They rely on individuals who perceive that holding a public office demands their duty to make the institution stronger in the future.

“Let us look for opportunities. Let us think about how we can amend our institutions so they serve us even better.”

“We have just been through something in the response to the Operation Metro Surge immigration crackdown that gives me hope. There are so many people who demonstrated they deeply care about the shared lives we have built in our state. In many ways, this is a very Minnesota-specific exercise that we have just been through. It has reminded us of the importance of government but also shown us what collective citizen effort can do for us. We may be heading into a period of renewed state and national spirit.”