By: State Rep. Pauline Wendzel

In early November, two Democratic state representatives from Southeast Michigan ran to become the mayors of their respective cities. The representatives both won their races, causing them to resign from the Michigan House of Representatives and moving the chamber into an even split – 54 Republican members and 54 Democratic members.

Over the course of this year, I’ve written about the blatant partisanship that has gripped Lansing. Democrats, in power for the first time in 40 years, pushed through a far-left out-of-touch agenda. They limited testimony on legislation in committee only to their supporters, if they even bothered to hold a committee hearing. They rushed through half-baked and unvetted legislation so quickly that they’ve accidentally passed wrong versions of legislation, an unprecedented error that could have had substantial negative consequences on hardworking families had the error not been caught. And most notably, for the first time in at least the last twelve years, the majority party has censored mass communications of the minority party, making it incredibly difficult for Republicans to properly communicate what’s happening in Lansing to our constituents.

Thankfully, all of that will change, at least temporarily, when the legislature returns from the Democrats’ early Christmas vacation. Until April 16th, any legislation that passes the House must have the support of at least one Republican member to become law.

With the tightest of margins, I expected at least some level of bipartisanship. Unfortunately, that never happened. Rather than work with Republicans, Democrats went it alone. Now, they’ll have no choice but to reach compromises and pass common-sense legislation that solves the problems families face. I’m committed to working with anybody to make life better for Michiganders, and there’s certainly a lot of work left to do. From fixing our local roads and bridges to lowering the cost of daily life, to fixing our state’s failing electrical distribution grid. These issues will require us to work together, and I’m hopeful the new 54-54 tie will allow us to solve problems rather than run our state into the ground with more of the same bad policies.