The Thicket at State Legislatures

Legislative Staff Achievement Awards 2008

by Karl Kurtz

NCSL's Legislative Staff Achievement Awards to 19 legislative staff or offices that were given out at the Legislative Summit in New Orleans last week were published on Government Technology magazine's web site.  Examples of accomplishments recognized by the Legislative Staff Achievement Award include:

• Helping to improve the effectiveness of the legislative institution
• Supporting the legislative process and the mission of the legislature
• Exhibiting a high degree of professionalism, competence and integrity in serving the legislature and the public
• Contributing to the work of the National Conference of State Legislatures
• Demonstrating expertise in a particular field
• Contributing to existing knowledge.

We have now posted the complete citations for each of these awards on our web site.  Congratulations to the 19 honorees!

Pogo (or You or Anyone Else) for President in the News

by Karl Kurtz

Here's a clever, fun prank that's making the rounds of viral marketing.  "What began as a colorful Internet fluke has blossomed into a full-fledged political movement - one that Republicans and Democrats alike are reluctantly having to acknowledge," is the lead on this news report on a presidential campaign.  When it first came to me from a friend, the news story used my name (it was the first time that a woman had ever tattooed my name on her back), but in sharing it with you in The Thicket I have chosen to promote my favorite presidential candidate of all time, Pogo.

[Pogo cartoon from Walt Kelly's original press release announcing Pogo's campaign in 1956]

Kansas Political Race: The Web vs. Shoe Leather

by Karl Kurtz

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal has an interesting story about a race for a Kansas House seat.  The Journal dubs Sean Tevis, the Democratic challenger in the race, "the most unlikely fund-raising success story of this campaign season."

Running to represent a mostly lower-middle-class district with just 11,000 registered voters, Mr. Tevis has raised more than $95,000. The astounding sum hasn't come from his neighbors, but from kindred spirits nationwide. Systems analysts, programmers and Web designers have showered him with donations in appreciation of his offbeat online fund-raising plea, which consists of a stick-figure comic strip "Running for Office: It's Like a Flamewar With a Forum Troll, but With an Eventual Winner." (Translation: Campaigning feels a lot like trading online insults with a guy who enjoys picking fights.)...

Using a secret come-on buried in his Web programming code, Mr. Tevis has enticed strangers from as far away as Pittsburgh and Madison, Wis., to open their checkbooks -- or click over to the online payment system PayPal -- to support his campaign for Kansas House District 15, representing the city of Olathe.

His opponent is incumbent Republican Rep. Arlen Siegfreid:

Mr. Siegfreid, 61, raises money the old-fashioned way, from lobbyists and corporations. Voters from his district pitch in, too, but their donations are small, accounting for perhaps $3,000 of the $35,000 he expects to raise. Mr. Siegfreid intends to make his rival's fund raising an issue in the race. "I will ask them if they want to have a campaign in their district financed by people from all over the United States," he said....

"When it comes to a song-and-dance routine and putting out blogs, I can't compare," Mr. Siegfreid said. "On the other hand, when it comes to tax policy or energy policy...I think I'm well-qualified."

Though he knows he won't be able to match Mr. Tevis's war chest, the veteran Republican says he has his own secret weapon for the campaign: shoe leather.

After reading the WSJ story, I discovered that the Los Angeles Times (from which the photo of Tevis comes) and numerous blogs have also written about this race.

Back from New Orleans--With Some Belated Arkansas Primary News

by Karl Kurtz

The Thicket is back from a steamy (as in humidity), successful Legislative Summit in New Orleans.  If you're interested in sampling some of the hundreds of session at the Summit, go to our multi-media page, which already has lots of videos, audios, photos and press releases about the meeting.  We'll be adding more--and blogging about some of them--in the next week or two, so check back often.

We started out the state legislative primary season by trying to cover incumbent defeats and significant trends in all of them, but soon fell behind and gave up.  Sitting at breakfast on the last day of the Legislative Summit I learned about one primary election result that we should have known about.  My neighbor at the table introduced herself as Joyce Elliott (photo right), currently working for the College Board and formerly a member of the Arkansas House.  She said that she had recently won a primary election in May for the Arkansas Senate and, since she has no general election opposition, will become a senator next year.  When I asked her about her primary race, I was surprised to learn that she had defeated Sen. Irma Hunter Brown (photo left), a long-time NCSL stalwart who served two separate terms on NCSL's Executive Committee.

We will miss Sen. Brown but welcome back Joyce Elliott, who was also active in NCSL when she served in the House.

The Thicket in New Orleans

Don't expect to see many new postings in The Thicket for the next week.  We're off for New Orleans for NCSL's Legislative Summit.  We'll try to post some things from that event, but it's hard given our hectic schedules.  Indeed, The Thicket has been through a relatively dry spell so far in July as we have prepared for the Legislative Summit.

Imagine if in Baseball the Home Team Could Write the Rules for Each Game

by Karl Kurtz

At a professional development leadership seminar for social studies teachers last week, Donald Ritchie and Fred Beuttler, deputy historians respectively for the U.S. Senate and House, presented interesting contrasts between the House and the Senate.  For veteran Congress-watchers or scholars it may have been old hat, but for those less immersed in the ways of Congress it was a useful primer presented in interesting and engaging fashion. 

Ritchie emphasized how the Senate is not a majoritarian body in a variety of ways.  He pointed out that the 10 largest states are home to over half the population of the country, but they have only 20 of 100 votes in the Senate.  He said that the requirement for 60 votes to shut off debate means that any controversial issue requires votes from both political parties in order to pass.  This has become more difficult as the parties have polarized and there is greater unity within party caucuses.  Partly because of the super-majority requirement, the Senate does the bulk of its business by unanimous consent.  This results in giving both individual members (who can block unanimous consent) and the minority party (who can block the closure of debate) significant power in the Senate.

By contrast, Beuttler said that the majority party in the House has enormous power.  If you have 218 votes in the House, you can do anything you want to.  As an example, he pointed out that the Constitution does not define the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that constitute an impeachable offense.  In effect high crimes and misdemeanors become whatever 218 members of the House determine them to be.  The gatekeeper for the House in controlling its agenda and the rules of debate on any bill is the Rules Committee, an instrument of the speaker and the majority party.  Virtually all votes in the Rules Committee are along party lines.  He suggested that if you could imagine what would happen in baseball game if the home team could write its own rules for each game, then you could understand the power of the Rules Committee and the majority party.

More Legislative Staff Retirements and Hires

by Karl Kurtz

Here are more retirements and hires of legislative staff agency directors in the last three months:

• Tori Hunthausen has been named Montana's Legislative Auditor replacing Scott Seacat who retired.  Tori was previously chief deputy auditor.
• Emily Bergquist succeeds Bill Russell as Legislative Counsel and director of the Legislative Council for the Vermont General Assembly.  Emily previously served on the Legislative Council staff.
• Dennis Prouty, the director of the Iowa Legislative Services Agency (before that, longtime director of Fiscal Services), has retired.  Tim C. Faller is the interim director.
• Kirk Mlinek, director of the Colorado Legislative Council, is retiring at the end of July.  Michael Mauer, currently the chief legislative economist, has been named to succeed him effective August 1.
• Kory Goldsmith is serving as interim director of the research division of the North Carolina General Assembly following Terry Sullivan's retirement.

Why no photos of any of these folks?  They're the behind-the-scenes staff who make the institutions work but don't like to get their pictures in the paper or post them on a web site.

Charting the History of the Washington Legislature

by Karl Kurtz

The Washington Legislature's House and Senate websites have some marvelous historical graphs on the numbers of Republicans, Democrats and women serving in the two chambers from 1889 to the present and the numbers of bills introduced, passed and vetoed, 1983-2007.  The graphs, which were done by Frank de Libero of DTI, Inc., are creative in their design and presentation.

The most striking thing about the charts of the partisan makeup of the Legislature is how closely divided it has been over the past 30 years.  Democrats have controlled the Senate in 19 of the years since 1979 and Republicans in 11, but rarely has either party held more than 60 percent of the seats.  The House has been tied during five sessions since 1979, Democrats have controlled the chamber in 19 years and Republicans six.

Are there other state legislatures that have similar historical information about the institution on their web sites?  If so, add a comment below and let us know where to look for them.

Tennessee and New York Senates Have Most Stable Leadership

by Karl Kurtz

The trivia question of the day is, what legislative chamber has had the least turnover in its top leadership position since 1965?

When New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (left in photo) announced a couple of weeks ago that he was stepping down as leader and was succeeded by Sen. Dean Skelos (right), it struck us that the New York Senate has had remarkable stability in its top leadership position. This has been made possible in part because the Republican party has controlled the chamber since 1965.  Outside the South, that's one of the longest spans of party control in any legislative chamber.

In the 43 year period from 1965 to 2008, the New York Senate has had only four majority leaders: Earl Brydges (1965-72), Warren Anderson (1973-88), Ralph Marino (1989-94) and Joseph Bruno (1994-2008).  So this inspired a question in our office as to whether any other legislative chamber can top this record.

The only other chamber we can think of that has had only four top leaders since 1965 is the Tennessee Senate where John Wilder served as lieutenant governor (by virtue of being elected speaker of the Senate, not statewide) for 36 of those years (1971-2007).  None of the three other Tennessee lieutenant governors during this--Jared Maddox (1965-67), Frank Gorrell (1967-71), and Ron Ramsey (2007-)--served more than four years, but Wilder's longevity enables them to match New York.

Of course, now that Sen. Skelos is the majority leader, New York has had five majority leaders since 1965, leaving Tennessee in the lead in this category of greatest stability in top leadership positions.  There are some other chambers that have had only five top leaders since 1965--the Georgia House and the Maryland Senate--but we can't come up with any others with only four or less.

This is not exhaustive, authority research--only what the old guys at NCSL can remember.  If any readers can refute our obscure factoid that the Tennessee and New York Senates lead the pack in this category, please let us know.

Photo credit: http://www.senatordeanskelos.org/9/MediaCenter.aspx

Oops!

by Karl Kurtz

Regular readers of The Thicket may have noticed that the list of blogs written by state legislators has disappeared from the right column of the page.  My editor (me), in a fit of idiocy, accidentally deleted it.  We will try to rebuild it over time, but it will take a while.  You can help!  If you are a legislator who blogs or someone who knows of legislators who blog, drop us a note by clicking on "Contact us" in the right column, and we will add you back to the list.

July 10 update: My plea for help from readers brought an immediate response.  Two readers, Kevin Leeson of Ohio and North Carolina Bill Drafting Director Gerry Cohen, went searching on the Web and found cached versions of The Thicket from before the date that I deleted the list of legislator blogs.  I didn't know anything about this kind of resource, much less how to access it. 

A rose from The Thicket to Kevin and Gerry!  We will begin restoring the list of legislator blogs as soon as possible. 

To read how Gerry found this information and his recommendation for an online graduate school course on “Database and Web Research: Strategies for Finding Information Online,” read below the jump.