during the stormy 1977 legislative session, martin helped build a coalition of republicans and moderate and conservative democrats that ultimately stripped the democratic speaker, philip d. lang, of his power. at the beginning of the session, martin encouraged his republicans colleagues to vote for conservative democrat, dick magruder, for speaker. as a result, magruder came within one vote of being elected speaker. while unsuccessful, that effort encouraged further cooperation between the republican minority and conservative democrats in the house. the influence of this coalition continued to grow throughout the legislative session. in may 1977, a small group of moderate democrats joined the coalition. in a quick legislative move, the expanded coalition voted to transfer the speaker's power to the house rules committee which was controlled by the coalition leaders. while the speaker was not removed from office, the rules committee took control of virtually every aspect of house operations. as a member of the rules committee, martin helped set the legislative agenda for the remainder of the 1977 session.