The Thicket at State Legislatures

New Evaluation of Election Law Reform

by Wendy Underhill

At the beginning of this century the U.S. all of a sudden got excited about voting reform; everyone probably remembers why. One outcome of this sudden focus on elections (formerly a sleepy corner of public administration), was the passage of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002.

HAVA did a whole bunch of things, including offering federal funds to the states for elections-related upgrades and creating a federal agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (U.S. EAC). The bulk of the law, however, established standards for states to meet on a host of elections-related issues. Funny thing: the same issues that were of concern in 2002 are still of concern in 2011.

We know this from looking at a newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service, HAVA and Election Reform: Overview and Issues (January 13, 2011).

From a states perspective, the good news is that the report says, right there in paragraph #1, "However, the law did not supplant state and local control over election administration." It is local jurisdictions, under the guidance of state policy makers and elections officials, that run elections by registering voters, printing ballots, organizing and supervising polling places, counting ballots and reporting results.

So what were those issues that HAVA addressed?

Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

By Meagan Dorsch

Violence in relationships knows no age, race or gender. Physical aggression occurs in 1-in-3 teen dating relationships, according to the American Psychological Association.

State legislators have been working to bring attention to this issue not only in the public, but on the floors of statehouses across the country.

Their concerns are illustrated in statistics from the “Journal of the American Medical Association” that show one out of every five high-school age girls in the United States has been physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. And during the time of abuse, 40 percent of girls reported that another person or a group of people was present.

Congress has designated the month of February as “Teen Violence Awareness Month,” and Hollie Hendrickson at the National Conference of State Legislatures has been tracking policy and legislation regarding this issue in America’s statehouses.

Hollie sits down with us in this podcast to discuss what actions lawmakers are taking to address this issue, what policy has been put into place, and how young teens can benefit from addressing this issue.

Listen to this podcast (3:09), and visit NCSL’s website for additional information on teen dating violence initiatives.
 

GOP Wins Control of 26th Legislature

by Tim Storey

On Saturday, voters in the Acadiana region of Louisiana elected Republican State Representative Jonathan Perry to fill an open state senate seat giving the GOP a 20-19 majority in the Senate. When Rep. Perry is sworn in to the Senate, it will be the first GOP majority in that body since the 1870 election when there were 29 Republican senators and only 7 Democrats. Democrats won back the majority in 1876 and held it ever since.

Even when Rep. Perry resigns from the Louisiana House to take his new Senate seat, Republicans will maintain a 51-49 advantage in that body with 4 independents and one vacancy. Louisiana becomes the ninth state in the south where Republicans control the legislature. Prior to the 1992 election, Democrats controlled every legislative chamber in the south. Now, Republicans hold 20 chambers compared to only eight held by Democrats.

Moving the Louisiana Senate to the GOP column also increases the GOP advantage in legislatures across the country. The scorecard for legislative control is now: Republicans-26, Democrats-16 and seven are divided. This is the most state legislatures in the GOP column since 1952 when they also held 26.

For a complete rundown of partisan control in legsilatures (not updated to reflect the LA Senate change), go here on the NCSL website.

Camping out on the O.K. Plateau

by Brian Weberg

In your professional career (or in your hobby or avocation), when did you stop getting better at what you do?  I mean really better...not just the marginal improvement that comes with being at the job each day.  In a recent post on the Thicket I reported the ideas of author Dan Pink and his assertion that mastery of job skills is one of three important non-monetary workplace motivators.  According to Pink, employers who help their people achieve mastery go a long way toward motivating and retaining great employees. 

An article in Sunday's New York Times Magazine made me think a bit more about Pink's ideas and how the motivation of mastery might hit a few roadblocks for legislative employees-- even in the best intentioned staff agencies--and especially in workplaces with lots of baby boomers.  In his article Secrets of a Mindgamer, Joshua Foer describes his attempt to become a master of memorization. A standard game in this field is memorizing the order of playing cards in a deck.  In his efforts to master the playing card game, Foer made rapid early progress.  But at a certain point his improvement leveled off and he could not continue on his learning curve. "No matter how much I practiced, I couldn’t memorize playing cards any faster than 1 every 10 seconds. I was stuck in a rut, and I couldn’t figure out why. 'My card times have hit a plateau,' I lamented."  Foer calls this rut the "O.K. plateau"...a place identified by psychologists where "we’re as good as we need to be at the task and we basically run on autopilot."  Sounded like a familiar place to me.

The O.K. plateau idea makes me wonder about the many career legislative staff out there who have been toiling at essentially the same tasks year in and year out, some for decades.  Is the mastery motivator inapplicable to them?  Have many arrived at the O.K. plateau, destined to cruise on autopilot for the reminder of their careers, finding themselves "as good as they need to be?"  Foer says not necessarily, and tells how he moved on from the plateau by following lessons learned from great athletes and musicians. 

Legislative Walkouts are Nothing New

by Karl Kurtz

Inspired by the current walkout of Wisconsin Senate Democrats to deny a quorum required by the state constitution for the passage of budget bills, we checked our archives to find out about other legislative boycotts from the past. The history of walkouts by aggrieved parties in state legislatures goes back at least to Abraham Lincoln and the Whig minority in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1839. Rich Miller of the Illinois CapitalFax blog tells this great story, reproduced in ArchPundit in 2003:

Back in 1839, the Illinois House was meeting in special session and hatched a plan to vote on a Democratic bill to require the state’s central bank to make payments in gold or silver, rather than paper money. The Whig Party strongly opposed the idea, and, led by Rep. Abraham Lincoln, decided on the spot that the best way to kill the proposal was to deny the majority Democrats a quorum. So, they left the building, the Second Presbyterian Church in Springfield. But two members were required under law back then to demand that a quorum call be made. Lincoln and another House Whig, Joseph Gillespie, walked into the chambers and made the motion. No quorum was present and a vote couldn’t be taken. The next day, though, Lincoln and the Whigs made the same attempt, but the House Speaker ordered the doors locked behind them and summoned some members who had previously been too ill to attend the session. A quorum was now present.

Lincoln realized the problem and he and the other Whigs jumped out of a window to try to halt the vote, but the quorum was already certified and the Whigs lost. According to Lincoln friend William Herndon, the window jumping had no effect "other than to provide the Democrats with capital material for ridicule."

The most famous recent walkout was by Texas House Democrats in 2003 when they successfully derailed a Republican-sponsored redistricting bill by fleeing to Oklahoma and denying the presence of a quorum in the House. This boycott drew national press in part because of the involvement of then-U.S. House majority leader Tom Delay both in writing the plan and using the federal Department of Homeland Security to find the missing Democrats. A few months later, Senate Democrats made a similar move, fleeing to New Mexico and staying there for more than a month before returning to Austin.

Here are a few other walkouts during the last twenty years from a 2003 survey of the American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries by my colleague, Brenda Erickson:

Where, Oh Where is my State Capital?

by Karl Kurtz

Once you get started on state capital trivia, it's hard to stop. There's one city of more than 50,000 population that is closer to the state capitals of five other states than it is to its own state capital. What's the city (pictured at right)?

If that's too hard (the city is not famous), what region of what state do you think it's in? (Hint: Think about states that have borders with lots of other states.)

Answer below the jump.

Lawmakers are Loving Hearts

By Meagan Dorsch

Many of us celebrate Valentine’s Day with dinner out or a box of chocolates. But it might also be a good time to think about our own health and heart. 

February is American Heart Month and it has become an opportunity to highlight both heart disease and stroke prevention. The newest edition of the Centers for Disease Control’s, Vital Signs,focuses on high blood pressure and cholesterol in the United States. The report indicated high blood pressure and high (LDL) bad cholesterol are out of control in our country.

Many Americans suffer from high blood pressure and high cholesterol. This can be attributed to our lifestyles and also genetics. One in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and more than half of those with high blood pressure and two-thirds of those with high cholesterol do not have the conditions under control.

In this edition of the Buzz, Ashley DePaulis from the National Conference of State Legislatures joins us to talk about heart health. Ashley explains what high blood pressure and cholesterol mean to state lawmakers.

In this podcast (3:18), we discuss with Ashley recent action by state legislators that can improve health care access and treatment options for health care providers, policymakers and individuals.

Excellence in Democracy Education Award

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is sponsoring the new Kevin B.  Harrington Memorial Award for Excellence in Democracy Education. This annual award recognizes an individual or organization that best informs students and the general public of the value and strength of our form of government.  Individual legislators, legislative staff, legislative chambers or entire legislatures are among eligible recipients. Nominations may include other individuals or organizations that effectively promote representative democracy. 

Kevin B. Harrington of Salem, Mass. was the founding president of NCSL in 1975. He was an educator by profession, president of the Massachusetts Senate (1971 - 1978), and a leading advocate of civic education. 

NCSL’s Trust for Representative Democracy is now seeking nominations for this award. Anyone may submit a nomination, including self-nominations. Nomination forms, available online, are due by March 1, 2011.  

The first Kevin B. Harrington Award will be presented at the NCSL Executive Committee meeting in Boston on May 7, 2011. We hope you will consider nominating a worthy recipient.

New York Waives Revolving Door Law for Laid-off Employees

by Peggy Kerns

With New York state employees facing layoffs and terminations, the New York State Commission on Public Integrity has made it easier for them to look for a job.

The Commission waived a 2006 advisory opinion that required employees to wait 30 days before pursuing employment with someone who has business pending before his or her agency.  The Commission responded to a request from the State Department of Environmental Conservation to provide waivers to employees who have been targeted for layoffs. 

The primary concern expressed in the advisory opinion was that the 30-day rule would not provide enough time for employees to search for outside employment until they were close to leaving their public jobs.  The Commission left in place guidelines to prevent conflicts of interest.

This seems like a compassionate thing to do in hard economic times. The trick will be how well New York can maintain the balance between giving a break to laid-off employees and yet preventing the conflicts of interest that revolving door laws are intended to guard against. We were unable to find any other state revolving door laws that exempt layoffs.

More Capital City Trivia

by Karl Kurtz

A U.S. geography quiz in today's Christian Science Monitor feeds The Thicket's appetite for state capital trivia. The quiz includes one of our favorites, Which state capital has the smallest population?, as well as some classics like the state capitals that begin with the letter "S" or the letter "C" or the ones that are named after presidents.

There are 25 questions in the CSM quiz. I got 23 right, missing the one on the state that has two panhandles and suffering from my frequent confusion of which state has the smaller land area, Delaware or Rhode Island.

Here are some more state capital trivia questions:

1. What are the five state capitals that begin with "A"? (Hint: Four of them are east of the Mississippi R.)
2. What is the highest elevation state capital? (Hint: It's not Denver.) The lowest?
3. What are the four state capitals that begin with the same letter as their states?
4. What three state capitals border another state or country?
5. What six (maybe seven) state capitals lie on salt water?

Answers below the jump.