I’m hearing news tonight of the passing of former Republican Legislator Sheldon Songstad, who served in the State House from 1971–1974, and in the Senate from 1975–1978 and again from 1985–1988.
Please keep his family and loved ones in your prayers.
3 thoughts on “Hearing news tonight of the passing of former Republican Legislator Sheldon Songstad”
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Sheldon was a brilliant legislator, said his former intern. Sheldon was a political genius that knew how to get things done. He’s probably the only senator to chair two standing committees at the same time. He knew the rules inside and out, and Majority Leader Harding relied him to make things happen, the ultimate political fixer. Every night before his comittee met he’d have me make 5 copies of every bill. It wasn’t until a decade later when I served in the senate that it dawned on me what he had done. He had his committee majority meet in his hotel room the night before and hash out the bills. His committee could get through dozens of bills in two hours. It wasn’t odd to hear him tell dozens of proponents and opponents “you get five minutes each, split it up any way you want!”
When the Argus ran the front page story about Jeremiah Murphy as the “King of the Legislature” in 1978, the Senator would only refer to Murphy as “King”. In those days the GOP sat on the other side of the senate, as Sheldon wanted to be able to yell out the lobby door with instructions to the lobbyist about something he needed – he treated them as his interns.
He’d throw the door open during some debate and yell “King, get me ……”
Nobody ever roamed the senate floor with such ability. RIP boss
Sheldon was a political genius!
He relied on lobbyists to keep him in the know and trusted them to be honest with him.
I did not know much about his political powers, but I do know that he was a wonderful and caring friend. God Bless him and his family.