The Thicket at State Legislatures

Samuel K. Gove, Advocate of Legislative Strengthening in Illinois

by Karl Kurtz

One of the heroes of the legislative strengthening movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Samuel K. Gove, died last week at age 87. The Illinois Constitution was rewritten in 1970 at a time when the national movement for legislative strengthening was at its height. Sam Gove, in his role as director of the Institute for Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) at the University of Illinois, advised the Constitutional Convention and strongly advocated the ideas and recommendations contained in "The Sometime Governments." Thanks to Sam and the timing of the constitutional revision, the national legislative strengthening movement had one of its greatest impacts in Illinois.

In my occasional interactions with Sam over the years, I held him in considerable awe for his knowledge of Illinois politics, his commitment to the legislative institution and his ability to bridge the gap between academics and practical politics. Here are a few excerpts from his obituary on the IGPA web site:

Gove was active behind the scenes in Illinois state government for years. He directed the legislative staff intern program from 1962-73, was a member of several commissions and advisory boards and served on the Illinois Board of Higher Education. He also was a member of the transition teams for Governors Dan Walker and Jim Edgar.

“Sam was one of my mentors,” Edgar said. “If it hadn’t been for Sam Gove, there may not have been a legislative intern program and that was my entry (into public service).”

Gove founded Illinois Issues with Paul Simon and Samuel Witwer in 1975. He was founding chairman and served on the magazine's advisory board for 28 years.

“He was the embodiment of Illinois government,” said former Illinois legislator and comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch, a longtime friend. “He understood how all these pieces fit together (politically) but then always was involved in how it should work. He knew how to suggest things that would help to make it work better.”

States that were Never Territories

by Karl Kurtz

Here's today's American state history quiz. The Union today consists of:

1. The 13 original states (at right)
2. 31 states that were initially territories
3. Another 6 states that were never territories.

What are the 6 states that were never territories? Answer below the jump.

How Many Women Governors? v3 2011

by Karl Kurtz

Updating The Thicket's ever-popular biennial series on women governors, the total number of women governors after the 2010 election declined to six from eight after each of the four preceding elections. But the four Republican female governors elected last fall--Jan Brewer in Arizona, Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Mary Fallin in Oklahoma and Nikki Haley in South Carolina--are an all-time high for that party. The two Democratic holdovers are Gov. Christine Gregoire in Washington and Beverly Perdue of North Carolina.

Here's a chart showing the number of women governors since 1975 (before Connecticut's Ella Grasso in 1975 there were only three women governors, the first two starting in 1925):

Why the decline in the number of women governors? Politics and term limits: Among the eight who were in office in January 2009, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas resigned when she joined the Obama administration, Alaska's Sarah Palin resigned to pursue other options after her vice presidential campaign, and Linda Lingle (Hawaii), Jennifer Granholm (Michigan) and Jodi Rell (Connecticut) were term-limited. Only Gregoire, Brewer and Perdue continue from the 2009 class.

Former State Legislators in 2012 Presidential Sweepstakes

by Karl Kurtz

Larry Sabato's most recent Crystal Ball has an early run-down on 19 (!) Republican presidential possibilities for 2012. He provides nutshell descriptions of the key advantages and disadvantages of each potential candidate, but his analysis leaves out the qualification that The Thicket cares about the most: Did any of these folks ever serve in a state legislature?

I confess that I had never heard of one of the possibles (Herman Cain?), had to think twice about who one or two of the others were, and shuddered at the thought of another of them (who shall remain nameless for fear that someone will tell me, "You're fired!") becoming president. So I had to do some googling in order to find out which of them had served as a state legislator.

Turns out there are only three former state lawmakers on the list. In the order that they appear on Sabato's list, they are: former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (member of the Minnesota House, 1993-2002, including four years as majority leader), Sen. Marco Rubio (member of the Florida House, 2001-2008, including two years as speaker) and Rep. Michelle Bachman (member of the Minnesota Senate, 2001-06).

Four years ago, almost to the day, The Thicket wrote a similar story about the state legislative pedigrees of the same number (19) of possible candidates, including both Republicans and Democrats. There were six former legislators on that list. And, oh yes, one of them, a former member of the Illinois Senate, made it to the top office.

As it happens, all three of the potential 2012 Republican candidates and the almost certain Democratic nominee were serving in their state's legislature in the 2001-02 biennium. So, if you're in a state capitol today, look around the chamber and see if there is anyone who might be on the long list of presidential candidates for, say, the 2020 election.

For some daydreaming about what would happen if there were a qualification for all candidates for federal office to have first served in a state legislature, see "Fixing a Deficit in State Legislative Experience in the Presidency."

 

Court Supports Montana Legislature Against Governor

NCSL's liaisons to the Montana Legislature, Sara Shelton and Mary Fairchild, returned from a visit to Helena with this story of a separation of powers court decision at the end of 2010:

In September 2010, Governor Schweitzer sued the Legislature and members of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Claims committees. The lawsuit asks the judge to declare unconstitutional House Bill 676, the major companion bill to HB 2, claiming that it violates the state constitution’s single subject provision, which stipulates that only the general appropriations bill, HB 2, may contain multiple subjects. Schweitzer let HB 676 become law without his signature in May 2009.

On Wednesday, December 29, 2010, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley granted a motion by attorneys for the Montana Legislature to dismiss the lawsuit. In its ruling, the District Court said,

While (the governor) alleges that the Legislature’s actions in passing HB 676 (in 2009) ‘limited’ his veto power, and his brief in opposition to the motion to dismiss asserts that his ‘constitutional veto power was essentially nullified’ and ‘effectively invalidated’ by the Legislature’s actions, the fact is that his veto power was never in jeopardy. Instead, he chose not to exercise it and not to sign the bill, both of which were legitimate options.

(Almost) Final 2011 List of Top Legislative Leaders

by Karl Kurtz

With the reelection of incumbent Speaker Calvin Say in Hawaii yesterday, nearly all of the top leadership positions in state legislatures for 2011 have been decided.

Like fellow incumbent Speaker Ben Lujan in New Mexico, potential opponents to Say, Hawaii's longest-serving speaker, made a lot of news before opening day of the legislature but withdrew from consideration before the actual vote was held. In both states, the potential challengers within the Democratic caucus were unable to attract the votes of Republicans that might have allowed them to unseat the incumbents.

In Texas, incumbent Speaker Joe Straus III also had a challenge from fellow Republicans on the right, which he beat back on a straw vote of 70-30 in the party's caucus a week ago. See "Texas Republicans Savoring Power" for an overview of current politics in the House.

The one leadership race that remains muddy is in the West Virginia Senate, where Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin is temporarily acting as governor after the former governor, Joe Manchin, was elected to the U.S. Senate. Out of concern for the separation of powers, the West Virginia Senate elected Sen. Jeff Kessler to serve as "acting president." But some senators say that nothing in the state's constitution authorizes the Senate to elect such a position and may take the issue to court.

OpenGovernment.org: A Legislative Data and Social Media Mashup

by Pam Greenberg

Yesterday marked the launch of OpenGovernment, a new "free for everyone, open-source, open standards, not-for-profit, and non-partisan" resource with legislative information for five states—California, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas and Wisconsin. This site brings together bill information with blog posts, news stories, social media and public participation tools, and campaign contribution data.

OpenGovernment.org is based on OpenCongress.org, and is in beta version at this point (suggestion: it’s easier on the eyes in Firefox than in IE 7).  It’s a joint project of the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation. OpenGovernment hopes to raise funds to cover all 50 states in the next year.

The site's sources include:

• Official state government data from the Open States Project
• News and blog coverage via Google News and Blog Search
• Campaign contribution data from FollowTheMoney.org, via TransparencyData
• Issue group ratings and legislator contact information from Project VoteSmart
• Social media mentions from the Twitter API
• Legislator biographies from Wikipedia
• Video - to be crowdsourced for each state on Miro Community.
• U.S. Congressional data from THOMAS via data partner GovTrack and the OpenCongress API.
• Geographic maps of districts from the U.S. Census Bureau.

An example of some of the features available include tabs that show the “Most Viewed” bills and legislators or those “Most in the News.”  In the Louisiana section of the site, the Senator most in the news, John Smith, was the result because the Twitter feed pulled any mention of a “John Smith” on Twitter (e.g., “The John Smith trail, America's first all-water national and historical trail”).

The creators note that they expect a few kinks, but say that much more data and features are forthcoming and welcome comments.

I am looking forward to seeing the innovative features on the sites develop, but I disagree vehemently with David Moore of the Participatory Politics Foundation, who said that "Government, official government websites for state legislatures, are clunky and not up to technical standards. No one uses them.” The official sites for these states (California, Louisiana, Maryland Texas and Wisconsin) are accessed so often that it's a little bit like Yogi Berra saying, "That place is so crowded nobody goes there any more." Take a look for yourself.

You can read more about the OpenGovernment initiative on the site’s blog.

Out of Your Seat Civics

by Jan Goehring

Six classes from Roberts Elementary School in Tallahassee, Fla., recently experienced some  real-world civics. The program, sponsored by the Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc. (FLREA), took the students "out of their seats" in the classroom and brought them to the state capitol for a day of learning about government. But it was far more than the usual capitol tour.

The students had been studying the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution curriculum. The culminating activity of the program is a simulated hearing during which the students answer questions about the constitution and its history. These young people gave their presentations and defended their constitutional knowledge at the capitol. They answered questions posed by legislative staff members.

To further their understanding of our system of democracy, the students then participated in a mock legislative session where they considered fictional bills. Annette Boyd Pitts, Executive Director of FLREA, guided them through the process. Representative Alan Williams also spoke to the students and provided an inside look at the legislative process.

“It is our hope, that through exciting, interesting, and active programs … we will captivate the attention of young people and inspire them to be active and engaged citizens in our democracy," says Erin Crowe, FLREA program director.

The Close Bonds of Women Legislators

by Karl Kurtz

I was touched by an article in last week's New York Times, "Among Women in Congress, a Bond of Friendship," about the close ties of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. I have often observed how the "sisterhood" of women state legislators crosses party and state, even international, lines and how quickly they make connections with each other. It was this kind of we-feeling that gave rise to the formation of the Women's Legislative Network of NCSL.

Another member of Congress explained it this way in the Times article:

In Congress, party is all, but gender can help. “There is a bond among the women in Congress that goes beyond party,” said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington, who remembers that women from both parties had a shower for her when her son Cole was born three years ago.

“There are experiences and issues that bond us together, and we understand that we are still deep in the minority in terms of being women,” she said. “We often work together on things that are important to women and children and families, and there is a unique opportunity that we have, being women, to work on these issues together. I think we all recognize it’s still challenging to win a race for Congress, period, and as women, we share a goal of getting more women elected.”

Profile of California Legislative Analyst

It's unusual for The New York Times to profile a state legislative staff person. That's why this story on California Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor caught the eye of The Thicket. Here's a short excerpt:

Mr. Taylor — a tall, gray-haired fellow with an amiable smile — is California’s legislative analyst, head of an independent, nonpartisan office that is charged with taking a hard look at what are often soft numbers in the state’s chronically troubled budget.

Every January, armed with a staff of number crunchers, policy wonks and other arithmetic-minded assistants, Mr. Taylor studies the spending plans offered up by the governor and gives a steely assessment of what is realistic, and what is less so.

As such, Mr. Taylor, who has spent more than three decades examining California’s books, is considered one of the more reliable, least political voices in a state in which budgetary gimmickry is a time-honored tradition.

Photo credit: Jim Wilson, The New York Times