The Thicket at State Legislatures

William Raggio, Longtime Leader of the Nevada Senate

by Karl Kurtz

I was sad to learn of the death last week of former Nevada Senator Bill Raggio, one of the longest serving legislative leaders ever in the nation, in the Las Vegas Sun:

Former state Sen. Bill Raggio was being remembered Friday as an icon in Nevada history, a respected gentleman statesman who embraced political compromise, championed education, and put the best interests of his state ahead of partisan politics.

The prominent Reno Republican, the longest-serving state senator in Nevada history when he retired in January 2011, died Thursday. He was 85.

Raggio was first elected in 1972 and served in the senate for 38 years, including 28 as Republican caucus leader. Because of recent term limits, his record in the Senate will likely stand.

"If there was a Mount Rushmore of Nevada politics, Bill Raggio's image would forever be carved there," Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a statement. "One of the great lights in the world of Nevada politics has gone out."

Sen. Raggio was active in NCSL and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation and served a term as national chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council. I fondly remember participating with Sen. Raggio on an NCSL study tour to Egypt and Israel with his wife, Dottie, in the early 1980s. He was a true gentleman with a wonderful, quiet sense of humor.

Photo credit: Daily Sparks Tribune

New Organization Works to Make Civility a Top Priority in American Politics

NCSL Participates in Messaging Workshop.

By Jon Kuhl

Last Friday, I attended a workshop held by the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The workshop’s goal was to help develop the institute’s message as it begins a national effort to improve the level of civility in American politics.

The workshop was attended by about 40 representatives and leaders from a slew of bipartisan organizations and academic institutions, including the Council of State Governments, the National League of Cities and the League of Women Voters.

Everyone was in agreement that our nation—in state capitols and Washington—is in need of greater civility. Examples of politicians denigrating their political opponents and crossing the line from honest disagreement to character attacks are plentiful. With an ever-growing list of problems to be solved, the need for public officials to work together and demonstrate mutual respect could not be more urgent.

Oldest Legislative Staffer Dies

 

It's always dangerous to try to say who the most senior legislative staff person in terms of service is, because as soon as you identify one, there's likely to be another pop up someplace else. But it is hard to imagine that that there is (or has been) an older legislative staff person than former Nebraska assistant sergeant-at-arms Sally Gordon, who retired last year at 102 and passed away last week. From an AP story in Newsday:

A Nebraska woman once honored for being one of the nation's oldest working Americans died Tuesday, less than a year after she left her job in the Legislature and a career that included politicians, movie stars and profound moments in state history.

Family members said Sally Gordon died shortly after midnight at a Lincoln hospital, where she was staying after she fell in her home a few weeks ago. She was 102.

Gordon left her job last year as assistant sergeant-at-arms at the Nebraska Legislature, where she had worked since 1984, starting at age 75.

Every day that weather allowed, she walked seven blocks to the Capitol from her Lincoln home. She was honored as America's Outstanding Oldest Worker for 2010, given by Experience Works, the nation's largest nonprofit training center for older workers.

"Sally was a great Nebraskan, and we will miss her," said Gov. Dave Heineman.

Her resume included stints as a court reporter, a model, an employee at an engraving company and a secretary to three Nebraska governors. She hobnobbed with Shirley MacLaine and Gene Kelly, and once chatted with Lyndon B. Johnson on the steps of Air Force One. To regulars at the Nebraska State Capitol, she was the warm and welcoming presence who shuttled notes to lawmakers and helped prepare for legislative floor debate each morning.

A rose from The Thicket to Jeff Wice.

 

NCSL Scores a Win for the States on Emergency Response Capability

Payroll Tax Cut Extension Includes Agreement to Build Nationwide Public Safety Wireless Network

by Alex Fitzsimmons

While news of the payroll tax cut extension captured most of the national headlines last week, the media largely ignored an agreement embedded in the legislation to build a high-speed wireless network that will improve public safety and save lives.

Approved by Congress on Feb. 17, H.R. 3630 allocated the coveted D-Block of wireless spectrum and authorized more than $7 billion to create a nationwide, interoperable emergency communications network. The bill also authorized $115 million for Next Generation 9-1-1, a system that will allow the public to send text messages to emergency operators.

In April 2010, NCSL sent a letter urging Congress to set aside the D-Block for public safety, enabling the creation of a high-speed wireless network for first responders, firefighters, and police officers to share information in real time. As part of the Big Seven coalition of state and local organizations, NCSL said allocating the D-Block directly to public safety was the only way to ensure a modern and reliable emergency communications network.

Disappearing and Bolting Quorums

by Karl Kurtz

Last year, when Wisconsin and Indiana legislators fled their states to prevent their respective legislatures from conducting business, I recounted the story of Abraham Lincoln breaking a quorum in the Illinois House of Representatives by climbing out the window. Now, University of Missouri political science Prof. Peverill Squire, in a remarkable piece of historical research, reveals that the Lincoln episode was far from the earliest case of a "bolting quorum" in an American legislature. In "Quorum Rules in Historical Perspective: Their Use and Abuse," he reports on quorum rules in colonial legislatures:

The first quorum standard in the Americas was established in the 1629 Massachusetts Bay Colony Charter. That document held that 7 of the 18 assistants along with the governor or deputy governor was a sufficient number for the “dispatching of all such buysinesses”. This quorum rule is notable because it was put in place 11 years before the English House of Commons first established one.

Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia, the sometime home of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania

Many colonial legislatures had fairly loose quorum requirements--often less than a majority of the members and, in a few cases, no quorum requirement at all--and they often changed them to meet the needs and practices of the times. The strictest quorum standard of two-thirds of the members was established in Pennsylvania in 1683, leading to this story [footnotes deleted from original]:

...[T]he strategic opportunities offered by quorum rules were well understood by politicians of the time. Perhaps the earliest episode of quorum exploitation occurred in Pennsylvania, not long after the two-thirds standard was established. In 1689, at the behest of Penn’s deputy governor, a sufficient number of Assembly members were persuaded to leave the chamber to break the quorum in order to prevent the passage of a list of grievances against the proprietor. In response, the bolters’ remaining colleagues voted to denounce “that abominable Treachery and Practice of the said absent Members, in wilfully neglecting to appear at the Time, when they understood that this House were going about to call the Violators of the Liberties of the Freemen of this Government to Account.” They went on to seek retribution by stating “That the said absent Members ought not to receive any Salary for the Service this Assembly; and are not worthy to be chose again, or be intrusted as Delegates.”

This sounds remarkably like the Indiana House of Representatives in 2012 or any other recent legislative walkout, right down to the effort to deny the absent members their pay.

A View of the 2012 Elections from 9 Months Out

Writing in State Net Capitol Journal, venerable political reporter Lou Cannon has a good preview of the 2012 elections for president, Congress, governorships and state legislatures. Here's his summary of state legislative battlegrounds, much of it derived from a conversation with NCSL's Tim Storey:

In 2010, Republicans won more state legislative seats (and chambers) than at any time since 1928, the heady year before the stock market crash signaled the Great Depression. Going into this year's elections, Republicans control 59 legislative chambers, Democrats 36, with three ties. Unicameral Nebraska, nominally non-partisan, is Republican in practice. Compilations by Tim Storey of the National Conference of State Legislatures show there are currently 3,979 GOP state legislators, compared to 3,317 Democrats. (At the Republican high-water mark in 1928, GOP legislators numbered 4,00l) For the most part, GOP-controlled legislatures in 2011 proceeded cautiously on legislative redistricting, protecting marginal incumbents instead of trying to expand their majorities. But Republicans may have overreached with redistrictings in North Carolina, Florida and especially Texas, where the new congressional and legislative district boundaries have been challenged under the Voting Rights Act.
 

"The Architecture of Representative Government"

by Karl Kurtz

I love the subtitle of the book, Fifty State Capitols: The Architecture of Representative Government, published last year by a former Oregon legislative staffer, Jim Stembridge. In an interview in USA Today about the book, Stembridge says:

...[S]tatehouses are bona-fide tourist attractions — working museums of regional art and history. "They don't have water slides or video games, but they are great...."

In the interview, Stembridge includes the capitols of Utah, Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Virginia and Oregon among his favorites, with capsule descriptions as to why he likes each of them.

Those are certainly some great state capitols. But, as an NCSL staff person who has been to all 51 U.S. capitols, I long ago learned that the best answer to "Which is your favorite capitol?" is the one you are standing in when asked the question. Everyone loves their own capitol and thinks it's the best.

Stembridge's book joins a fairly long list of celebrations of the history and architecture of America's state capitols. Here are the ones we have copies of in our office (in order of publication date):

Henry-Russell Hitchcock and William Seale, Temples of Democracy: The State Capitols of the U.S.A, 1976

Eric Oxendorf and William Seale, Domes of America, 1994 (see also "More on Statehouse Domes")

Charles T. Goodsell, The American Statehouse: Interpreting Democracy's Temples, 2000

Francis Pio Ruggiero, State Capitols: Temples of Sovereignty, 2002

Susan W. Thrane and Tom Patterson, State Houses: America's 50 State Capitol Buildings, 2005.

A rose from The Thicket to Bruce Feustel

 

Cameras in the Courtroom Go Viral

Cameras are already allowed in many state courtrooms, now an effort is underway in the U.S. Senate to broadcast Supreme Court hearings

By Alex Fitzsimmons

The U.S. Supreme Court enforces a strict policy on camera use during oral arguments: They’re not allowed, period.

States, on the other hand, have adopted more nuanced approaches. High courts in every state allow some form of camera use during court proceedings, and states are steadily moving in a pro-camera direction. Several states, including Connecticut, Minnesota, and South Dakota, have made changes within the last year.

Superior Court judges in Connecticut approved significant changes to the coverage of criminal cases. Approved electronic media outlets are now permitted to record any criminal proceeding that are open to the public and on the record. Exceptions include jury selection and proceedings for sexual assault. These changes took effect Jan. 1, 2012.

In Minnesota, the state Supreme Court created a two-year pilot program authorizing cameras in the courtroom for civil cases. Only the judge can allow or prohibit the cameras. The pilot program, which took effect July 1, 2011, excludes criminal cases.

New Alaska iPhone App

by Morgan Cullen

On my recent visit to Juneau, Curtis Clothier, Alaska's legislative information services manager, showed me a new iPhone app designed to help members and staff of the Alaska Legislature and the public stay connected to the legislative process.

I downloaded the app onto my phone and am amazed at how convenient and user friendly it is. The app provides information on committee schedules, bill status, the house and senate calendars, and contact information of every legislator in both chambers. It also allows the user to stream committee hearings directly from your phone and watch the proceedings in real time.

The new app was released at the beginning of session in January 2012 and has already received over 1,000 downloads from users around the globe. When I asked Curtis how he was able to roll this product out so quickly, he credited his staff for the success. "Staffers Heidi Gosho, Shay Wilson and Eric Reiter volunteered for the project even though they had no Mac programming experience and worked tirelessly over a 4 month period."

He was also quick to point out that this was just the beginning of many new improvements to come. "Another significant update for the App will be coming out in the next few weeks. This update will provide the first true 'iPad App' on the Apple App Store and will include the capability to download and modify PDF documents, and a new 'documents today' feature to allow easy access to current committee documents." They are also hoping to release a version of the Alaska Legislature app for Android devices before the end of the 2012 legislative session in April.

Besides the obvious convenience that the new app provides, it also helps the Legislature reduce the amount of paper required in the legislative process, thereby saving the environment and reducing costs.

Alaska modeled its legislative app on one developed by the New York Senate. According to Pam Greenberg, NCSL's expert on information technology, Alaska is one of at least four states that have developed mobile applications for iPhones, iPads or Android devices. More information is available at NCSL's "State Legislatures Mobile Websites."

Staffers Heidi Gosho, Shay Wilson and Eric Reiter show off their iPhone app.

State Legislative Photo of the Day

From the Spokesman Review's Eye on Boise:

The story:

At a joint hearing of the [Idaho] House and Senate Resources committees this afternoon on state-federal oversight and the sage grouse, there was lots of concern that efforts to improve habitat for the unique fowl in order to avoid endangered species listing might be as onerous for ranchers and others as listing itself. As the various presenters spoke, a member of the audience dressed as a big, fuzzy bear nodded thoughtfully.

A rose from The Thicket to Gary Moncrief.