University history professor Allan Spear has not written a book in more than 20 years.
While that might land some professors in front of the tenure review committee, Spear has been applying his academic knowledge to creating laws. For the past 26 years, Spear has been a state senator from Minneapolis. For the past six years, he’s been president of the Senate.
Spear has a lot to look forward to during this legislative session.
For the first time in more than a decade, the Legislature is split between the Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican parties. Combining that with a third-party governor should make the session interesting, said Spear, a DFLer.
His Senate leadership assistant, Jonathan Copans, said teaching remains Spear’s priority, although he has learned to balance the duties of representing his district with his obligations to the University when they overlap.
Spear said the University has been supportive of his dual career. While many professors balance their time between teaching and research, he said he concentrates on teaching.
During the first year of each biennium — which runs until May — Spear teaches fall quarter. During the second year of the session, he also teaches spring quarter. He never teaches winter quarter.
Spear, 62, is a veteran of the Senate. He was first elected to represent his Minneapolis district in 1972, eight years after he began teaching at the University.
He became an assistant professor in 1965 after earning his doctorate in history from Yale University, and has taught courses in 20th century American history.
As president, Spear assigns all the Senate’s bills to committees and guides debate on bills, determining which amendments are pertinent, said legislative assistant Vicki Block. He was elected president by his fellow senators.
“When he’s in the chair, he makes sure all the rules are followed,” Block said.
But even presidents need a break once in awhile. Block said each year when the Senate reconvenes, Spear asks both Republican and Democratic senators to volunteer as parliamentarian from time to time.
While selecting senators to fill in temporarily is not uncommon, Spear’s approach of selecting them from both sides of the aisle is uncommon.
“He’s the first president I am aware of who encourages and allows minority (party) senators to sit in the chair,” Block said.
That practice is agreeable to those across party lines, like Senate Minority Leader Dean E. Johnson, R-Willmar.
The party split between the House and Senate will make cooperation and bipartisanship even more important this year, Spear said.
Unlike the Speaker of the House — the highest-ranking position in the House of Representatives — Spear is not in charge of his party’s caucus. That duty belongs to Roger Moe, DFL-Erskine, who is the Senate’s majority leader, leaving Spear more time to be chairman of the Senate’s Crime Prevention Committee.
When he was elected 26 years ago, he said he never anticipated that he would be in the Senate as long as he has been.
“I got over here and liked it and stuck with it,” Spear said. During those 26 years, he gained seniority and rose through the ranks to become the Senate’s president.
Working his way up has been challenging. During his career, Spear has authored or co-authored numerous bills to uphold human and civil rights, said Marcia Greenfield, administrator for the Senate’s Crime Prevention Committee.
In the 1970s, Greenfield said Spear authored the first bill appropriating state funds for battered women’s shelters. More recently, he authored the omnibus crime bill to increase the penalties for sexual assault.
Spear has also authored bills to protect the rights of gays and lesbians, give equal access to jobs for the disabled and create laws to protect the elderly and other vulnerable adults from abuse.
Spear’s academic knowledge and interests in criminal justice and civil rights carry over into his legislative concerns, said Kinley Brauer, chairman of the history department.
But his advocacy of civil liberties and human rights extends beyond authoring bills. Greenfield said if an issue comes up on the Senate floor to limit those rights, Spear is one of the first leaders on the Senate floor to speak against it.
His knowledge and experience have made him an expert that other senators depend on, Block said.
Spear’s legislative interests are expanding. Greenfield said he is authoring a bill to make the Legislature unicameral, which would eliminate one of the houses. Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislative branch. He is also authoring a bill to increase the number of judges in the state’s district courts.
Spear said he supports Gov. Jesse Ventura’s proposal to return the state’s budget surplus to residents through sales tax rebates, but added that the Senate will need to work out a feasible method for the return. Spear said House Republicans favor an income tax rebate instead.
While Spear has had long academic and legislative careers, he said he does not aspire to higher political office and intends to retire from the University in two years to spend more time traveling and reading.