As we build on our achievements in 2022, we look toward strengthening democracy and good governance in 2023. With a state legislature that meets only every other year for 90 days, our elected officials need to work fast to get to know each other to collaborate in the best interests of Montanans. In supporting the Mansfield Legacy, we brought together nearly two dozen current and former Montana legislators to make sausage: not the figurative sausage of lawmaking, but actual sausage. Republican and Democratic lawmakers made sausage in an event hosted by Mansfield Center Advisory Board member Jon Bennion and enhanced by words of encouragement from Senator Steve Daines, Governor Greg Gianforte, and Senator Jon Tester. Building on Bennion’s 14 rules for good sausage making and legislating, lawmakers agreed that such opportunities are valuable for building bridges across divides.  As Rep. Sherry Essmann (R-Billings), noted, “We’re all human beings…I’ve learned things about people today I didn’t know.”