The Thicket at State Legislatures

ROI of Government Relations

by Tim Storey

Most large companies have a government relations unit to coordinate lobbying efforts with state and federal government.  Those government relations staff often have to fight internally for limited corporate resources.  They now have some new information to bolster their argument with CEOs and CFOs--investing in lobbying boosts the bottom line.  A new study by three academics from business schools at the University of Colorado, Vanderbilt University and the University of Miami finds that companies that invest in lobbying have an average annual rate of return that is 8 percent higher than comparable companies that do not lobby significantly.  This research confirms numerous other studies as well as boundless anecdotal evidence.  Like most studies in this vein, the researchers used data for federal activity, but the principles apply to state lobbying as well.  That might explain why the numbers of lobbyists in state capitols have grown dramatically in the past decade or two. 

People who work in legislatures know that lobbyists represent a broad set of opinions and interests ranging from the far right to the far left ideologically.  They are a critical part of a well functioning democracy and legislature.  This study underscores the value of having "boots on the ground" at the capitol to make your case whether you are advocating for corporate tax incentives, funding for environmental protection or any other issue where legislatures set policy.   

Arizona Legislature Ends Session

By Jan Goehring

The Arizona Legislature adjourned sine die on Friday, June 27. With the end of the fiscal year looming and a possible partial state government shutdown at stake, the Legislature resolved a difficult budget. Facing a nearly $2 billion shortfall, the budget includes agency cuts, fund transfers, deferral of school construction and some borrowing.

In the last hours of the session, the Senate agreed to send the voters a referendum to amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. It had previously passed the House.

New laws will help improve Child Protective Services, allow photo enforcement on highways, change the high school exit exam, regulate mortgage loan originators, and strengthen DUI laws. 

Legislative Pay Raise Vetoed

by Tim Storey

It may be the most radioactive issue for legislators to deal with--their own pay.  Legislators in Louisiana must be feeling a bit burned after the governor reversed his position under intense outrage from some Pelican State residents and vetoed a legislative salary increase that the legislature approved before adjourning.  We wrote about the pay raise here in the Thicket last week.  According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Governor Jindal vetoed the bill on Monday saying,  "I clearly made a mistake by telling the Legislature that I would allow them to handle their own affairs."  It sounds like something a prime minister would say about his/her parliament. 

The Man who Links the Academy and the Legislature

by Karl Kurtz

In my 40 or so years of observing, studying and hanging out with legislators and legislative staff, I have found a great many of them whom I admire and look up to.  Somewhere near the top of my list would be Minnesota's John Brandl, who, better than anyone else I know, has been able to combine a career in the legislature and public life with "the academy," as he is fond of calling his 30-year affiliation with the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.

For 15 years, 1990-2004, John was director of the Legislative Staff Management Institute, an executive management program for senior legislative staff cosponsored by NCSL and the Humphrey Institute.  He and I were partners in this enterprise.  John, a professor of economics who served for 12 years in the Minnesota Legislature, was the person who made LSMI "jell" (an inside joke that one class will recognize).  He had a unique ability, through personal warmth, scholarly rigor, public policy perspective and hard-knocks political stories, to bring together our disparate classes of senior legislative staff from all across the country.

One of John's favorite stories is about how much he liked working in both academic and political life because one of these jobs could relieve the burdens of the other:  "When I got tired of the politics, the backstabbing and the nastiness of my job, I would leave the campus and go over to the capitol and get a new lease on life," he would say.

Lori Sturdevant of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote a marvelous column this past weekend, "The professor of policy," about John.

John is currently battling a recurrence of stomach cancer that first surfaced a year ago.  The Humphrey Institute held a dinner to honor him tonight.  I would have liked to have been there but couldn't.  Instead I share these few thoughts in The Thicket about an admirable man.  The roughly 300 legislative staff who experienced LSMI under John join me in wishing him good courage and keeping him in our prayers.

The Legislative Staff Management Institute has since moved to Sacramento under the cosponsorship of the University of Southern California and Sacramento State University, but we honor our 15 year history with the faculty of the Humphrey Institute, none moreso than John Brandl.

"A Symptom of True Political Illness"

by Karl Kurtz

Lee Hamilton, the former member of Congress who directs the Center on Congress at Indiana University, has a hard-hitting new commentary, "A Disastrous Budget Process" in which he takes Congress to task for its ongoing failure to complete the appropriations process.  Among other things, he says:

Congress has lost the institutional ability to follow an orderly budget process. As a result it has undermined its own committees, shunted most of its members to the policy sidelines, failed to maintain the constitutional balance of powers, condemned the people who administer federal programs to season after season of uncertainty, and eroded the consensus–building, transparency, and accountability that keep our democracy vital....

There is a simple solution to all this. It's called “the regular order.” For many years, Congress took up individual appropriations bills, debated them, and passed them on time. That process evolved for a reason: It safeguarded public discourse, enhanced congressional oversight, and buttressed the vital role Congress plays in forging consensus among diverse regions and constituencies.

If Congress wants to remain relevant and legitimate in these challenging times, it can start by reviving its disciplined approach to budgeting.

Initiative Fun in Michigan

by Brian Weberg

Michigan voters are going to have some fun this fall if sponsors are able to get a raft of government reform proposals certified in time for the ballot.  In addition to the proposed measures to create a part-time legislature with reduced pay and to elect state senators statewide on a proportional basis that we reported here a few months ago, recent news from the Wolverine State highlights what some are suggesting is a stealth campaign to shift the state's political balance of power under the guise of government reform. 

Proponents argue that the measure brings long-needed change to state government.  The lengthy amendment includes reductions in the number of members in the legislature, pay cuts to the governor, legislators and judges, new financial disclosure rules, lobbying restrictions and reform of the redistricting process. 

Michigan Republican Party chairman Saul Anuzis, comically struggling with a fold out copy of the initiative in a video on YouTube, commented "I've seen Michelin maps of Europe that were smaller and easier to read."  Republicans have come out strongly against the proposal, while the spokesperson for the measure is Dianne Byrum, a termed-out state legislator who completed her legislative career as leader of the House Democrats in Lansing.  However one judges the merits of the reform, it's clear that it is adding fuel to the already scorched political landscape in Michigan.   

From the Carpool Lane to the Living Room...

by Jeanne Mejeur

Utah has become the first state to make a four-day, 10-hour work week mandatory for most state employees. Oklahoma and West Virginia are currently looking into the feasibility of requiring a four-day work week for state employees.   

Other states are looking into means of flexible scheduling, such as telecommuting and flex-time.  Many telecommuting policies have been adopted to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality but they have the added benefits of reducing commuting costs for employees and saving energy dollars for the states. 

NCSL has some additional resources on telecommuting and flexible work schedules on our website and in the March edition of State Legislatures Magazine.

Jeanne Mejeur covers telecommuting, labor and employment issues for NCSL.

Death Penalty Ruling will Impact States

by Sarah Hammond

On June 25, 2008, the United States Supreme Court barred imposing the death penalty for individuals convicted of raping a child.

The challenge in Kennedy v. Louisiana came from a Louisiana man who was sentenced to death in 2004 for the brutal rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The 5-4 decision held that executing child rapists violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion.

The ruling will affect Louisiana and five other states, Georgia Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, who in recent years amended their death penalty statutes to make the rape of a child a capital offense. 

Louisiana was the first to do so in 1995, adding death for the rape of a child under the age of 12.  Unlike Louisiana, the other states limited the death penalty to defendants who had previous convictions of sexual assault against a child. 

What Constitutes Experience?

by Karl Kurtz

Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of Governing, has an interesting guest column in Newsweek entitled "Are You Experienced: Why a U.S. Senator might not trump a state legislator" in which he argues that Sen. Barack Obama's experience as a state legislator counts for at least as much as Sen. John McCain's (or Sen. Hillary Clinton's) tenure in the Senate.  His point is that state legislators get much more in-depth policy experience than U.S. senators who "are, virtually by the nature of the job, gadflies", because the state lawmakers have to become experts and negotiators themselves rather than relying on staff to do it for them.

Rather than suggesting that this state legislative experience is a reason to support Obama over McCain (or vice versa), Ehrenhalt concludes that "experience itself is a slippery commodity to measure—that there is no easy way to guess what sort of political career is ideal for a president...."

This article resonated with me not only because of my institutional bias toward the value of state legislatures but also because I have often wondered during this campaign about the claims and counter-claims of  "experience" among Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama.  But I want to add a couple of thoughts that elaborate on Ehrenhalt's conclusion about the complexity of determining what constitutes good experience. 

Louisiana Adjournment

"Chaotic legislative session comes to an end" is the Times-Picayune's headline summarizing Louisiana's legislative session that adjourned yesterday.  Here are the top lines of the story:

Lawmakers provided new money for education and health care, overhauled the state's worker-training system, bolstered the state's mental health safety net and steered tax dollars to a private school voucher program for poor children in New Orleans.

But the session is likely to be best remembered for two items that were not part of the governor's plan: an increase of legislative salaries from $16,800 to $37,500 a year, and a $300-million-a-year tax cut that the administration initially opposed but ultimately embraced....

And while House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, is a subject of derision on radio talk show and Internet chat boards, his stewardship of the pay-raise bill earned him bipartisan acclaim from his colleagues, who saw him as standing up to the administration.

"This is the closest we have come to being an independent body from the fourth floor, and that bodes well for this body," Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, said as lawmakers prepared to leave the Capitol.

We first wrote about seeds of change in Louisiana that might lead to more assertiveness on the part of the Legislature a year ago in "Changes in the Louisiana Legislature."

Reform is in the Eye of the Beholder

by Karl Kurtz

What's your definition of reform?  The New York Times today leads a story about Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's willingness to allow a legislative pay raise to take effect without his signature with:

The reformist image of Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered by Republicans a top potential vice-presidential choice, has recently taken a beating after Mr. Jindal refused to veto a sizable pay increase that Louisiana legislators voted for themselves this month.

The increase would more than double the salary of the part-time legislators effective July 8, to $37,500 from $16,800, with considerably more money available once expenses are added in. It has touched a nerve in this impoverished state....

More confounding to many citizens here than the action by the lawmakers is the inaction of Governor Jindal, who came into office this year with promises to overhaul Louisiana’s reputation for dubious ethics.

The story goes on to catalog the media attacks on the governor and the Legislature for the pay raise.

I don't quite get the notion that "reform" means refusing to raise legislative pay while increasing pay seems to constitute "dubious ethics."  I've been collecting data on legislative compensation since 1972.  Since that date the compensation of Louisiana legislators has declined by 15 percent in real terms (taking inflation into account), without considering workload increases.  The last pay raise in Louisiana was in 1980.  In the last 40 years the time demands of legislative work in Louisiana have gone from about a one-third time job to one that Louisiana legislators on average estimate is about three-quarters of a full-time job.  (See "What Accounts for the Amount of Time Legislators Spend on the Job.")

Given these facts, it seems to me that giving Louisiana legislators a pay raise is a no-brainer.  Sure, you can argue about the exact amount of the increase (the original proposal adopted by the Senate was for tripling pay) and whether it should apply to sitting members of the Legislature, but the need for a substantial increase is clear. As Speaker Jim Tucker, who managed the bill in the House (and took most of the heat for it) said in the Times-Picayune, "For all of its bad press, it was the right thing to do.  We need everybody in this state to be able to serve in the Legislature."

In my mind, Gov. Jindal would be a "reformer" if he stood up for the pay raise, signed the bill and told the public why it was important and necessary.

Does it really matter which side claims the mantle of reform?  Maybe not. I am always mindful of something that former congressman and speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Martin Sabo used to say, "Reform is what you call something that you can't get passed on its merits."

Can Where you Vote Affect How you Vote?

By Jan Goehring

Polling location may affect how you vote according to a new research report by Jonah Berger, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania. He and his colleagues studied voting patterns in Arizona during the 2000 general election and found that voters who cast ballots in a school were more likely to vote in favor of a funding increase for education. Fifty-four percent of voters at other locations supported the education measure, but this number increased to 56 percent for those who voted at schools. The study controlled for other factors such as political views, demographics and other characteristics. The researchers concluded that subtle environmental factors can impact decision-making.

Although the study indicated that polling locations can influence voting behavior, "further research is necessary to determine when they will do so, and how large an effect they may have," according to the report. 

Sine Die Traditions

by Meagan Dorsch

Each year, our NCSL contributors to the Thicket work hard to post a Sine Die (scroll down if you hit this link) for each legislature as it goes dark.

This morning, I noticed an article posted by Dan Petty at Stateline.org. Dan had a little fun with his Sine Die piece, delving into the traditions state legislatures have for the final day of session. 

Our own Karl Kurtz wrote an article on Sine Die and other Vulgarities, where you can find a great list of legislative localisms (this is also one of the most googled article in the Thicket).

Please enjoy both pieces when you have some time, and let us know of any other (Sine Die) traditions that your state might celebrate!

What Would Happen if Congress were Abolished?

by Karl Kurtz

In our work on the Trust for Representative Democracy we are always looking for creative ways to make the point that representative democracy works, not without flaws but better than any conceivable alternative.  One of the ideas that we have toyed with is to try to show what life would be like without legislatures, but we haven't quite come up with the way to do it.

In the process of searching for old documentaries on government, my colleague Gene Rose found a 1947 Coronet Instructional film, "The Powers of Congress."  This 10 minute video features a character, Charles Bentley, who complains bitterly about the burdens that the Congress has placed on him and suggests that it should be abolished.  He then falls asleep and has a dream about all the dreadful things that would happen if there were no Congress (or at least no federal government).  The dream is cleverly produced, complete with marvelous bubbles floating across the screen in a manner that seems way before its time.  When Bentley awakens from the dream, he has a new appreciation for the work of Congress and composes a speech for his service club on the subject. 

This last third of the video in praise of Congress turns pedantic in its approach, but it doesn't wipe out the campiness and fun of the first two-thirds.  You'll have fun watching it.

Wikis Make Gains in Government and Legislatures

by Pam Greenberg

Wikis are slowly finding a place in government and in state legislatures. Wikis allow users to add and edit content on a web page, taking advantage of the idea that a collective wisdom will create a better result.  Utah Representative Steve Urquhart's Politicopia, which we highlighted in 2007, was the first state legislative policy wiki. It created a place for citizens and legislators to discuss a number of policy issues facing the Utah Legislature. But wikis are also being used within and across government agencies. For example, Intellipedia is the U.S. intelligence community's wiki. California has a best practices wiki, where state employees can submit best practices in information technology, customer service, human resources and other areas.

Now, legislative technology staff in Idaho have developed Legipedia, a wiki that initially replicated a printed manual that is given to legislative attachés (session-only legislative staff) each year. The manual has instructions for new attachés about how to use the various computer applications within the legislature. The goals for the wiki were to reduce printing and distribution costs, expand the amount of information available to users, provide a faster and easier way to find information, and to "put the documentation process in the hands of the people actually doing the work so they can update the instructions to reflect the best way to handle tasks." The project was highlighted in a National Association of Legislative Information Technology newsletter article in Winter 2008, with a follow-up article in Summer 2008.

People Turn to the Internet to Reach Lawmakers

by Pam Greenberg

The Internet has become the primary source for learning about and communicating with Congress, according to research recently released by the Congressional Management Foundation.  And although Internet users want to hear from their U.S. Senators and Representatives, often they don't recall receiving a response to their communications, they are dissatisfied with the response they receive, or they feel members don't care about what they say.  Those surveyed think that information they receive from organizations they are affiliated with is more informative and trustworthy than information they receive from members of Congress. 

So, while more than 100 million Americans contacted Congress in the last five years (more than twice the rate contacting Congress in 2004), the report concludes that "it seems less actual communication is occurring.”

The report is disheartening in many ways, but it provides specific and concrete suggestions about ways lawmakers at all levels can better meet constituents' expectations.  A sampling of just a few:

• inviting citizens to take action through e-newsletters, town hall meetings and surveys
• reaching out to advocacy organizations that generate issue campaigns
• keeping citizens informed about policy issues
• changing the tone of responses to constituent communications.

The report is about congressional communications, but much of it is also applicable to state legislatures.

Report Confirms Online Influence on 2008 Election

by Gene Rose

The Pew Internet & American Life Project on Sunday released a new report, "The internet and the 2008 election," summarizing how voters in the United States are using online technologies in this election cycle. According to the report, the main findings are:

• 40% of all Americans (internet users and non-users alike) have gotten news and information about this year’s campaign via the internet.
• 19% of Americans go online once a week or more to do something related to the campaign, and 6% go online to engage politically on a daily basis.
• 23% of Americans say they receive emails urging them to support a candidate or discuss the campaign once a week or more.
• 10% of Americans use email to contribute to the political debate with a similar frequency.

Other notable findings:

• 35% of Americans have watched online campaign-related videos.
• 8% have donated to a candidate online.
• 60% agree with the statement: "The internet is full of misinformation and propaganda that too many voters believe is accurate."
• 74% disagree with the statement: "I would not be as involved in this campaign as much if it weren’t for the internet."

Here is Pew's summary of the report.

Tim Russert, ex-Legislative Staffer

New York Senate staffer Jeff Wice reported this little known fact about Tim Russert in a posting in the blog, Capitol Confidential:

...Tim Russert served as counsel to the Assembly Railroads Subcommittee in 1976. This was right after law school and before he went to work with me in the Moynihan Senate campaign. His chairman was Vincent Graber. Tim’s greatest and proudest accomplishment was to arrange a train trip with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to save Grand Central Terminal’s historic status from development.

Of course, Tim returned to Albany several years later to work for Governor Cuomo in a much more public role.

After posting this item, we received the following elaboration from Jeff:

What Accounts for the Amount of Time Legislators Spend on the Job?

by Karl Kurtz

Does increasing legislators' pay cause them to spend more time on the job, potentially turning them into full-time legislators if the pay raises are high enough? 

That was a question that I was asked by a New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter last week, as the Louisiana Legislature was in the midst of a debate over a bill that would have taken the unusual step of pegging legislative salaries at 30 percent of congressional salaries, increasing automatically with federal lawmakers' pay in the future.  The effect would have been to triple Louisiana legislators' salaries from $16,500 per year to $50,700. This bill had originally passed the Senate, but the House modified the proposal to double salaries to  $37,000.  Today the  Senate agreed to the House changes.  Since Gov. Jindal has said that he would allow the law to pass without his signature, the change will likely go into effect on July 1.

But back to the original question.  I responded that there is a relationship between pay and time spent on the job of being a lawmaker but that it is not always easy to determine cause and effect.  Generally, the more full-time the work of a legislature, the higher the pay for the members.  But do legislators spend more time on the job because they are getting more pay or do they raise the pay because the job is more demanding?  It's hard to tell.  The best answer is probably that both tendencies are mutually reinforcing.

Two years ago I, along with co-authors Gary Moncrief of Boise State University  and Richard Niemi and Lynda Powell of the University of Rochester, took a look at one side of this problem: what determines how much time legislators spend on legislative work?  We published an article, "Full-Time, Part-Time and Real Time: State Legislators Perceptions of Time on the Job," in State Politics and Policy Quarterly.  The article is based on a national survey of all state legislators that we conducted in 2002 in which we asked the question, "Averaged over an entire year and taking into account session time, interim work, constituent service and campaigning, what proportion of a full-time job is your legislative work?"  We found considerable variation in time spent on the job across states as indicated by the average responses from each state to this question in the map (click to enlarge).

But averages mask significant variations among legislators  within any given state.  For example, in Maine the average response was that being a legislator is two-thirds of a full-time job. But one in four Maine legislators said that the job was less than half-time, and 17 percent said that it was virtually a full-time job.

What accounts for the amount of time spent being a legislator?  To find the answers you can wade through the full article at the link above, or you can read a simplified summary of our findings below the jump.

No Cuts in California Legislators' Pay

by Karl Kurtz

In follow-up to a previous story in The Thicket about a proposal before the California Citizens Compensation Commission to cut pay for legislators and statewide election officials, the commission earlier this week defeated a motion for 10 percent pay cuts on a 3-2 vote.  The commission then voted 4-1 to freeze pay.  California legislators' pay will remain at 116,000 and the governor's at $212,179 for the next year.

Safire's Political Dictionary

by Karl Kurtz

The new 2008 edition of William Safire's Political Dictionary, first published in 1968, is a great resource for political junkies--legislative or otherwise--and just plain fun reading.  Here are three things I learned from a randomly selected page:

• hizzoner--This jocular word/phrase likely to be applied to any big city mayor first became popular in New York in reference to Fiorello H. La Guardia.  Chicago added its own twist when Mayor Richard Daley (the first one) came to be called "Hizzoner duh Mare."
• Hobson's choice--I had always thought that this referred to any difficult political choice involving a tradeoff and that it was probably derived from some obscure philosopher.  But no, Safire says that Hobson's choice in politics only refers to a situation in which you vote for one candidate or do not vote at all and that it is improper to use it to refer to a general political dilemma.  And it is derived not from philosophy but from a 16th century stable owner in London, Tobias Hobson, who required that all customers who wanted a horse could take only the one closest to the stable door.  By this means he could assure equal use of each horse.  "From whence it became a proverb, when what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say Hobson's Choice," in the words of Sir Richard Steele in The Spectator, No. 509.

Texas Governors' Mansion Fire

This just received from Ken Levine, deputy director of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, about the fire that damaged the Texas governor's mansion:

...The Texas Governor's mansion has been the oldest continuously occupied Governor's mansion west of the Mississippi.  The mansion is (was?) a truly wonderful historic building, on the National Register of Historic Places.  It was the home of our current president for six years and our current governor (and former legislator) for about the same.  Then Governor Bush used to hold regular breakfast meetings with Lt. Governor Bullock and Speaker Laney in the mansion.  Although of different parties, the meetings at the mansion are perhaps why the legislative and executive branches got along fairly well at that time.

Anyway, we are all pretty shocked by the images of the fire.

Photo credit: Governor's Press Office

 

Civics also not on the Test

by Karl Kurtz

A friend recently sent me a link to a wonderful, funny/sad Tom Chapin song, Not on the Test.  The song, which bemoans the fact that art and music are no longer taught in schools because they're "not on the test", was composed by Chapin and John Forster for NPR in January 2007, but I had not previously been aware of it.

When I shared the song with Ted McConnell, the new director of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (CMS campaign), I said that I wished that Forster and Chapin had included something more explicit about civics and government not being tested besides some lines about how "rational discourse" is one of the subjects that is no longer taught.

Ted came back with a clever suggestion that some (not-altogether-politically-correct) lyrics be added to the song: "No civics, no history, no geography, too.  If this keeps up our country is screwed!"

Great line, Ted!

By the way, although there is not yet any mention of it on either the CMS campaign web site or the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) page, Ted's becoming the executive director coincides with the campaign moving its home base from the Council for Excellence in Government to NCSS.

Academic Papers on State Politics and Policy

by Karl Kurtz

For the last eight years, the state politics and policy section of the American Political Science Association has convened a conference on politics at the state level.  This year's conference was entitled "Elections and Representative Democracy in the States". It was held in Philadelphia last week, and over 80 papers were presented.  I have never attended this event but have been told by many political scientists that it is the best academic conference for state politics and policy junkies. 

Most of these papers are available online and are listed here.  Some intriguing titles include "Legislative Regulation of the Initiative," "Candidate Emergence under Clean Elections: Does Public Funding in State Legislative Elections Encourage Citizens to Run for Office?," "Measuring Institutional Power in the American States," and "Uncontested Elections and Legislator Performance, Quality and Effectiveness."

More Detective Novels Set in State Capitols

by Karl Kurtz

My posting two years ago, "The Fly on the Wall and Other Novels," about mysteries that are set in state capitols generated a number of contributions from readers.  In that story I referred to correspondence that I had had many years ago with two fellow legislative junkies in California and Hawaii about this subject but could no longer find.  Rummaging through some old files recently, I found their letters and am delighted that they add substantially to the list of detective novels set in state capitols.

From a 1994 letter from the late Yen Lew, then the ombudsman for the Hawaii Legislature (hyperlinks added):

Two recent books to include in the listing are Running Mates by John Feinstein [who covered the Maryland Statehouse for the Washington Post for two years before becoming a sports reporter] and The Texas Capitol Murders by Bill Crider.

The Sean Hanlon book I would include is Deep Freeze where the hero works for the speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives. This book is part of a series.  I haven't read all the others, but I think this is the only one with a legislative backdrop.

Rare State Legislative Primary Defeat for Incumbent in California

by Karl Kurtz

Yesterday was state primary election day in California.  In a highly unusual event (the last time was 12 years ago), incumbent state Sen. Carole Migden was defeated in a Democratic primary in San Francisco by Assemblymember Mark Leno (photo).  In most term-limited states, and especially California, quality challenges to incumbent legislators are rare because most ambitious challengers wait for term limits to open up a seat.  But Leno was termed out in the Assembly, and Migden's highly publicized campaign finance irregularites and personal foibles made her an inviting target, despite the fact that she had won elected offices for 18 years and served as chair of both the Assembly and Senate budget committees. 

Because the Senate seat has a heavy Democratic advantage in registration, Leno is likely to win this Senate seat in November.  See today's Sacramento Bee for a rundown on that race as well as the two property rights initiatives on the ballot.

In an aside, as the presidential race has turned out, imagine what the stakes would have been if California had not pushed its presidential primary up to super Tuesday and kept it with the state primary in June!

Fixing a Deficit in State Legislative Experience in the Presidency

by Karl Kurtz

In Governing's Ballot Box blog today, Alan Greenblatt notes that it is rare in modern political history that former state legislators become president and that Sen. Barack Obama's claiming of his party's nomination for the presidency means that "...now every state legislator in the country -- all 7.400 of them -- can, like U.S. senators, look in the mirror and see a potential president."

In January 2007 in The Thicket we noted that six of 19 declared candidates for president in the 2008 election were former state legislators.  How soon we forget Tancredo, Gravel, Vilsack, Thompson and Kucinich, leaving only Obama as a presidential candidate with state legislative credentials.  We have also written in "State Legislators who Became President" about how 22 of 43 (51 percent) presidents are former state or colonial legislators but that there have been only five since 1900.

This reminded me that in 1994 I had proposed a fundamental change in American government that would have had the sure-fire effect of producing presidents who had backgrounds in state government: requiring that all candidates for federal office have previous state legislative experience.  The piece was entitled "Reinventing Federalism" and was based on a hypothetical question that U.S. District Court Judge William L. Dwyer had asked both sides in a constitutional challenge to Washington state's limit on the terms of members of Congress: If states can make experience a disqualification for federal office (i.e. term limits), then could they impose an experience requirement as a qualification for office? 

I pounced on this idea and, tongue-mostly-in-cheek, urged that "State legislatures across the nation should immediately initiate state constitutional amendments requiring six years of state legislative service for anyone who runs for the U.S. House of Represenatives, Senate or president."  I spun this fantasy out into a number of variations that would strengthen American federalism by repairing damage done by the establishment of direct election of senators in the 17th Amendment. I concluded with the idea that the combination of term limits for members of Congress and experience requirements for federal office would mean that: "The best and the brightest state legislators would have someplace to go at the end of their terms, and Congress and the presidency would be replenished with experienced and committed practitioners of federalism."

Had the states taken me up on my proposal, then neither John McCain nor Hillary Clinton would have been eligible for the 2008 nomination for president.  That's not a knock on them; it's only a daydream of a state legislative junkie.

LaFleur is Flourishing

by Meagan Dorsch, Pam Greenberg, Janna Goodwin

A big congrats to Robbie LaFleur, Director of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, who has been named recipient of the 2008 Peter S. Popovich Award.

In case you are not familiar with this award, it is given each year by the Minnesota Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to “the person or organization that exemplifies the fight for First Amendment Rights.” SPJ will present the award to LaFleur on Thursday, June 12 in St. Paul.

A little bit of Minnesota background for everyone...this award is named for the late Peter S. Popovich. He is described as a champion of open government during his years in the Minnesota House of Representatives, as the chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and as the chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The Minnesota Coalition on Government Information nominated LaFleur because “for nearly a decade Robbie has been Director of the Legislative Reference Library, the special library that serves members and staff of the Minnesota State Legislature. Though her primary clientele is the Legislature, Robbie has distinguished herself by always bearing in mind and addressing the needs of the public, including investigative journalists who are steady customers at the LRL.”

LaFleur also served as the committee chair of The National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section from 2002 - 2003. In 2005, LaFleur also served as an at-large member on NCSL's Online Democracy Award Committee.

Congrats Robbie LaFleur!

Legislative Junkie in Morocco

by Karl Kurtz

As this photo of me in front of the Moroccan Parliament with Elarbi Imad, director of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education, will attest, I visited my 82nd national or subnational parliament in Rabat last week.

At the Parliament, I met with two members of the staff who are responsible for training programs for Moroccan parliamentarians and staff to discuss possible collaboration and exchanges between American state legislatures and their parliament.  They were very interested in the idea.

Unfortunately, though, there was an international conference of African parliamentarians on immigration going on in the Parliament that day, so I was not able to visit the chambers or meet with any parliamentarians or senior staff.  So I'm stretching my tally of "parliaments visited" to include having been in the parliament building and meeting with a couple of staff without actually seeing the chambers.

I was in Morocco for the 12th World Congress on Civic Education, which I will report on in a later posting.