By William Soquet, Editor-in-Chief | City of Davidson, Dodge County

The Badger Boys State Legislature kicked off yesterday after representatives and senators were elected in city elections on Sunday.

Fifty-four representatives and twenty-seven senators packed a room in Todd Wehr Hall at 2:30 p.m. yesterday to commence legislation at the state level in a joint session.

Soon after, the Senate split from the Assembly to a different room, and the Assembly split into parties to determine candidates for party and house leadership.

In total, the BBS legislature will have six sessions, but individual committees may hold hearings outside of the designated legislative times to address issues facing the legislature. Some committees, like the Finance Committee, are bicameral and bills drafted out of any committee have to clear both chambers to make it to the governor’s desk.

Within the House, the Federalist Party gained a majority with 29 of 54 members. Two Nationalists of the 25 remaining were absent from the session yesterday, leaving the minority party with only 23 members and even less leverage.

Out of the Federalist Party, eight candidates soon rose for party leadership.

In the end, Isaiah Thern, a citizen from the City of Rennebohm in Mitchell County, rose as the winner from the party. With that, the Nationalists rejoined the Federalists to determine whether the majority leader would become the Speaker of the House or not.

Both candidates made speeches, and in the end, the majority won out, gaining a few supporters on the opposite side of the aisle as well. Speaker Thern then went about deciding the four optional committees that the House would cover. Various motions were entertained, and in the end, the House decided to have committees on agriculture, rules, health and human services and housing.

The committees will be put to action for the rest of the BBS week, trying to solve problems during the week while trying to improve what already is great.