Michelle Fischbach, Minnesota’s new lieutenant governor and also a Republican state senator, has politics flowing through her veins.
Fischbach grew up in a politically active family in Woodbury, earned a college degree in political science and helped her husband run a political consulting company.
But she never expected to become a high-ranking political leader, and she certainly didn’t anticipate getting caught in the middle of a constitutional tug-of-war.
“Growing up, I never thought I would be an elected official,” Fischbach said in an interview this past week.
“I had no life-long ambition. I was just interested in politics, and I thought campaigns were fun,” she said.
But now she’s at the center of a power struggle between Democrats and Republicans over which party controls the Senate, as well as who would become the state’s chief executive should Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Mark Dayton become incapacitated.
Here’s how Fischbach, 52, an eight-term lawmaker from Paynesville, landed in her predicament:
- Democrat Al Franken, accused of sexual misconduct, resigned from the U.S. Senate on Jan. 2.
- Dayton appointed DFL Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to replace him.
- Smith resigned from her state office.
- Under the Minnesota Constitution, the president of the Senate — Fischbach — automatically became lieutenant governor.
- She opts to retain her Senate seat, despite a constitutional provision barring legislators from holding other state offices. But a past state Supreme Court ruling allows her to occupy both posts, she and Senate Republicans counter.
- A DFL voter filed a lawsuit asserting Fischbach is violating the state constitution and should be barred from exercising her Senate powers. Her fate is in the court’s hands.
Republicans currently hold a 34-32 Senate majority with one vacant seat. If Fischbach is removed from her seat, the GOP could lose control of the chamber.
If she is ousted, she said she would resign as lieutenant governor and run for her Senate seat in a special election. She was re-elected in 2016 with 69 percent of the vote in red-leaning District 13 west of St. Cloud.
“I remain committed to serving the people who elected me to the state Senate,” she said.
ANTI-ABORTION PEDIGREE
Fischbach was immersed in politics as a child growing up in Woodbury. Her parents were Republican activists who took her to many political events. Her mother is Darla St. Martin, an early leader of Minnesota’s anti-abortion movement who has served as the long-time associate executive director of the National Right to Life Committee.
“I got interested in politics because there’s always something happening,” Fischbach said. “Being part of government, whether it’s in politics or the Legislature, is exciting.”
She’s a Republican, she said, because “the idea of personal responsibility, lower taxes, the whole package of Republican issues appealed to me.”
During her senior year at Woodbury High School, she attended her first precinct caucus and was elected a delegate to a local GOP convention. After graduating in 1984, she volunteered to work on U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz’s re-election campaign.
That’s where she met her husband, Scott Fischbach, now executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion organization.
Michelle Fischbach enrolled at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., but transferred after two years to St. Cloud State University to be near Scott, who was a student there. They married in 1987 and had their first baby a week before they graduated.
“We didn’t go to the graduation ceremony,” she said, “but we dressed in our robes and let everybody take pictures so it looked like we did go.”
After graduation, they moved to Washington, D.C., where Scott worked as a political consultant and Michelle mothered their two young children.
But after a couple of years, they moved back to Paynesville, Scott’s hometown.
“Woodbury was more of a small town when I was growing up,” Michelle Fischbach said, “and I wanted to raise our kids in a small town where they could have the kind of experience I did, having kids to play with, knowing the people next door and your school classmates.”
ENTERING THE POLITICAL ARENA
The couple quickly dove into local and state politics. In 1995, Michelle Fischbach was the first woman elected to the Paynesville City Council.
In the winter of 1996, DFL state Sen. Joe Bertram of Paynesville resigned after pleading guilty to shoplifting, and Fischbach ran for the vacant seat in a special election and won. She has held the seat ever since.
She always wanted to become a lawyer but put off law school until her son and daughter grew up. Then she enrolled at the William Mitchell School of Law in St. Paul, earning her degree in 2011. She does some legal work in her spare time but has not established a full-time practice.
She is, however, a full-time grandmother. “Away from the Capitol, I have way too much fun because I have three grand babies,” she said. “I spend a lot of time with them.”
Asked what people may not know about his wife, Scott Fischbach said, “She genuinely cares about people; she likes having fun with them.”
As for their political views, he said, “We don’t come from the political hack world. We’re from the old-school era of Rudy Boschwitz and Dave Durenberger … where you work with other people and are very dedicated to getting things done.”
ADVOCATE FOR RURAL MINNESOTA
Although Michelle Fischbach is an outspoken advocate for abortion restrictions, she said her greatest passion is championing rural Minnesota.
“I wanted my kids to have a small-town upbringing, and I want other kids to have that experience,” she said. “To preserve these wonderful places to raise a family, we need to make sure we provide the kinds of things — whether it be economic development, roads or schools — all those things that make a community a great place to live.”
She chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee, a panel she chose, she said, because it provides a platform for her to advocate for outstate colleges and universities, especially the two-year schools that train the workforces that make many smaller cities vibrant.
Outside of politics, Fischbach is a typical small-town grandmother. She likes to cook, especially baked goods. “Banana bread is one of my specialties,” she said.
Her favorite food is ripple potato chips with dip. Favorite vacation spot: “any place warm.”
Her idea of a perfect evening: “If I’m not hanging out with my grandkids — this sounds awful — I love to just sit and watch brainless TV, old shows like ‘Bonanza’ and ‘Gunsmoke.’ After you’ve been going all day, it kind of shuts your brain down a little bit,” she said.
“Every once in a while my grandson says, ‘Can we watch a TV show where they have color, Grandma?’ ”
LOVABLE NERD?
If all the legal wrangling surrounding Fischbach makes her appear power hungry, it’s a false impression.
She’s a legislative procedure geek, not a political power seeker.
The Senate presidency is not a powerful office. Her main job is to make sure the Senate operates by its rules.
The Senate majority leader is the real power in the chamber. He calls the partisan shots, rounds up votes, shapes the agenda and speaks for his caucus.
Fischbach is a “stickler for the rules” that make Senate floor sessions run fairly and efficiently, said Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa. “She’s direct, even-handed, has high integrity. … She’s also well-liked in our caucus and respected by the other side of the aisle.”
During an interview in her Senate office, Fischbach leafed through copies of “Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure” and “Robert’s Rules of Order” that she had marked up with dozens of Post-It notes.
When a Senate staffer warned her that this story might portray her as a “lovable nerd” obsessed with arcane regulations, she laughed but acknowledged she’s devoted to understanding and enforcing legislative rules.
“I took a class in Robert’s Rules for fun years before I was in the Legislature,” she said. As a result, she’s a “certified parliamentarian.”
AN OBVIOUS CHOICE
When Republicans took control of the Senate in 2011, “Michelle was the obvious choice for president because when we were in the minority, she was the person we looked to interpret the rules,” said former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch. “That’s what she did, and she loved it.”
The rules may be boring, but Fischbach isn’t, Koch added. “She has a quick, dry sense of humor.”
Although she’s a staunch conservative, she’s not fiercely partisan. “She’s friendly, light-hearted and engaging,” said Sen. Richard Cohen of St. Paul, the senior DFLer in the chamber who has served on several committees with Fischbach. “We’ve enjoyed working together despite our policy differences.”
She also gets bipartisan high marks for her leadership of the Higher Education Committee. “She’s direct, doesn’t play games and is easy to work with,” said state Higher Education Commissioner Larry Pogemiller, a former DFL senator. “I’m kind of a fan.”
In addition, Fischbach, the second-most-senior Republican senator, is a mentor to new GOP caucus members. Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, said she coached him when he was first elected and he found her gracious, outgoing and eager to show newcomers how to advance policies through the legislative hoops.
Minnesota’s first Republican female Senate president, Fischbach said she has encountered only one gender-related problem.
She wears high heels, and when she first mounted the Senate podium to preside over a floor session, her heels kept getting stuck in the sides of a utility access door on the floor.
“The first female president got her heels stuck in the floor!” she said with a laugh. Now she stands on a mat placed over the door.
The legal issues around her dual state offices are unlikely to be as easily resolved.