The Thicket at State Legislatures

A State Legislative Internship "Don't"

In follow-up to our posting last week about the political activities of state legislative interns, note this story from 9News:

The college student who threw glitter at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Denver on Tuesday night was fired from an internship at the Colorado legislature Thursday.

Twenty-year-old Peter Lucas Smith talked with 9NEWS about the glitter-bombing, which he says was intended to show solidarity with gay rights advocates.

Smith is a University of Colorado Denver student and had an unpaid internship working in the press office of the state Senate Democrats.

The Colorado Pols blog posting about this event, which includes video of the glitter incident, is entitled, "Things to Not Do While Interning for the Senate Majority."

Chutzpah Defined

by Karl Kurtz

An information request the other day about policies regarding state legislative interns running for office while they are working for the legislature uncovered an old story that I had not read before. In Minnesota in 2002 a legislative intern attempted to run for the legislature--against the legislator for whom he worked.

The story, as told by Jack Penchoff in State Government News (go to p. 7), is that an old friend of ours, Rep. Phyllis Kahn, took her intern, University of Minnesota student Jason Samuels, to lunch to thank him for his service to her during the legislative session. After she told him that she would be glad to write a recommendation for him, he handed her a press release announcing that he was running against her!

After Rep. Kahn challenged him on his ethics and made it clear that she was planning to run again, he initially backed down from running and apologized for the timing of his announcement--without admitting to any ethical transgressions. He later reneged, though, and filed to run against her on the Green party ticket, only to have his name eventually bounced from the ballot by the state Supreme Court because he did not live in the district. From State Government News:

Echoes from North of the Border

by Karl Kurtz

Rob Walsh, the retiring nonpartisan chief legal counsel to  the Canadian Parliament, laments the condition of Canada's representative democracy in an article in the Ottawa Citizen:

Walsh retired last week with worries about the fate of a Parliament where many of the players have lost all respect for the traditions, conventions and rules of the game that made Canada’s democracy work. They’ve been flouted, battered and worn down by partisan gamesmanship that all parties have put ahead of the public interest.

“The political game has become so driven by the desire for partisan gain and victories that the institution is forgotten. The traditions of an institution that emerged over the centuries . . . are just by the bye and now, it’s whatever works, and that disturbs me,” said Walsh in an interview. “We don’t have parliamentarians who value the House as an institution and will accept limitations on what they would otherwise do for the sake of the institution.”

In the cut and thrust of partisan politics, Walsh had the unenviable job of walking the neutral line of dispensing legal advice without alienating any side or stumbling into the political debate....

“The House of Commons comes with a panoply of rules and traditions that are supposed to govern how the parties and members conduct themselves . . . and too often in recent times these values have been, if not forgotten, subordinated to short- and midterm political objectives and that’s regrettable and yes, it concerns me.”

He worries how democracy can work when time limits are imposed on legislative debates, more and more committee business is done behind closed doors, free debate is squelched by scripts and prepared texts, omnibus bills are crammed with massive legislative changes, and rude and raucous question periods are dominated by “sham questions and sham answers.”

Walsh's concerns about Parliament echo the complaints of many diehard institutionalists about the condition of Congress and some state legislatures. The story also provides intriguing details about the dilemmas that legislative attorneys sometimes face in balancing their nonpartisan role with their obligation to protect parliamentary rights and privileges.

A rose from The Thicket to Kevin Deveaux.

Photo credit: Ottawa Citizen

 

Prohibition Era Laws Falling by the Wayside

by Alex Fitzsimmons

Although state alcohol laws vary widely, lawmakers are steadily coalescing around the notion that selling alcohol on Sundays might not be such a bad idea.

Thirteen states restrict Sunday sales, but only Connecticut and Indiana ban selling all alcohol, including beer and wine, on Sundays. But if lawmakers in Connecticut have their way, the so-called blue law policy, a relic of the Prohibition era, could soon be no more.

Lawmakers from the Nutmeg State hope repealing the ban on Sunday sales will help kick start their state’s economy. Governor Dan Malloy claims that Connecticut wine and liquor retailers could be losing $570 million in sales each year to neighboring states.

But some small liquor retailers oppose the bill as a threat to their very existence. They claim that labor and electricity costs associated with opening on Sundays would outweigh potential sales. Small retailers also see HB 6264 as a slippery slope to allowing supermarket sales, which they argue would compromise customer service.

Since 2002, fifteen states have repealed bans on Sunday sales: Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington. Georgia is the most recent state to loosen its alcohol laws, passing local control just last year.

Time will tell if Connecticut follows suit.

Alex Fitzsimmons is an intern for the public affairs division in NCSL's Washington, D.C. office.

The photo of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson from HBO's Boardwalk Empire, set at the dawn of prohibition, is courtsey of What Culture

 

California Legislators Turn in Keys to their Cars

by Karl Kurtz

For as long as I can remember, the California Legislature was the only legislature in the nation that provided cars to all of its members. In recent years the policy has been to cover leasing costs of up to $285 per month plus the cost of insurance, gas and maintenance.

But last year, the California Citizens Compensation Commission, which now determines salaries for elected officials in the state, eliminated the car perquisite. Instead, they substituted a provision that legislators could be paid $300 per month to cover the cost of driving to and from Sacramento and around their districts. The commission calculated that this would halve the costs to the public of compensating members of the Legislature.

Trouble is, the state comptroller, relying on an opinion from the state attorney general, has told the Legislature that the compensation commission had no authority to create a new type of compensation. But legislators are entitled to claim $.55 per mile for travel on government business, just as any other state employee is. According to the Sacramento Bee, the result could be this irony:

Driving as few as 540 miles a month for meetings, constituent events and trips to and from the Capitol could result in a legislator pocketing more than the $300 proposed allowance in mileage reimbursement.

"My educated guess, since that's what it would be at this point, is that it would probably cost the Assembly more than the current program we have. But we will do what we can to keep that down," Assembly administrator Jon Waldie said.

The Assembly and Senate are now in the process of disposing of the members' cars. It's no surprise to anyone who has ever driven a new car off of a lot and seen its value drop precipitously that the Legislature is selling them at a loss. Here's the Sacramento Bee's graphic on the sell-off.

Past NCSL President Fred Anderson

by Karl Kurtz

Fred Anderson, 83, a member of the Colorado Senate from 1966 to 1982 and president of the National Conference of State Legislatures in 1977-78, passed away just before Christmas. He served as president of the Colorado Senate for eight years.

He was well known in Loveland and in Colorado for his activism, for his even-handed representation in the Senate and for his impact on state water law.

"He was really passionate about the work he did," said his wife, Anne. "He cared very much about his family and Colorado. It's a wonderful legacy in growth."

Fred, often "Freddy," was the fourth president of NCSL. The first three presidents had been leaders of each of the three organizations that were merged to form NCSL and were slotted into office as part of the merger agreement. Fred was the first to be elected on his own.

He first became active in NCSL immediately after the merger in 1974 when the organization was making a decision as to where to locate its headquarters. Fred was a strong and effective advocate on behalf of Denver, leading the group of legislators and staff that made the pitch to the NCSL executive committee for the city that became NCSL's home. He also led the host committee for NCSL's fourth annual meeting in Denver in 1978 during his presidency.

Fred was a friendly and talkative fellow, often sporting a western bolo tie and cowboy boots. Morgan Smith, a member of the Colorado House of Representatives while Fred was in the Senate, tells an amusing story in a remembrance:

I was so terrified I couldn’t speak. My throat was literally frozen shut. Freddy Anderson, however, was just chatting away as if nothing were wrong.

We were deep underground in the Idarado Mine, somewhere between Ouray where we had started and Telluride where we would end up. This was the summer of 1976, we were members of the Interim Committee on Mineral Taxation and our job was to learn about the mining industry and draft a severance tax bill....

A mine tour...was always part of these meetings and that is what Freddy and I were doing deep underground. We had been shown one level of the mine and were to descend to a lower level. The only way to do this was to stuff ourselves in this tube called a “stope” as I remember it and pressed tight together, descend in the pitch darkness. I was embarrassed at how paralyzed with fear I was and astonished at Freddy’s bravery.

Several weeks later we had our next Denver meeting. Just as we were about to get started, Freddy interrupted and said that he wanted to make a statement. “That Morgan Smith” he said, pointing to me. “He’s the bravest man I know. We were going down in this stope thing and I was so scared I couldn’t stop talking. But he just stood there perfectly calm and quiet.”

I have many fond memories of Fred Anderson and his leadership of NCSL. Condolences and best wishes to his wife, Anne (another great friend of NCSL), and his family.

Photo credit: denverpost.com

Legendary Florida Reporter Profiled

NPR's Noah Adams yesterday filed an interesting story on Tampa Bay Times reporter Lucy Morgan, who is covering her 46th session of the Florida Legislature. Morgan, a Pulitzer Prize winner for coverage of local government before she became a statehouse reporter, has covered NCSL meetings and spoken about legislator/media relations a number of times. Here are a few tidbits.

On how her colleagues honored her on her semi-retirement:

ADAMS: ...Morgan is an investigative reporter. She's semi-retired, working half time. Her newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times, was until recently called the St. Petersburg Times. For 20 years, she was the capitol bureau chief - she was the boss. And when she left that job they had a party and gave her a quilted wall hanging - looks like newsprint – with words sewn in. And this is how her colleagues described Lucy Morgan. Now every day she can look up from her desk and usually laugh.

MORGAN: Well, let's see: muckraker, ball-buster, force of nature, cat lover, red-wine-please, bitch. Unfortunately most of it's true.

On how she became a reporter while living in a small town in Florida raising three children:

ADAMS: And like any good life story, this one has a knock on the door. April 1965, an editor with the Ocala Star-Banner was standing there. She'd come to ask Lucy if she wanted to be a local correspondent.

MORGAN: And I said, well, I've never written anything. Why would you come to me? And she said, well, the local librarian had told her that I read more books than anybody else in town and, since I read so much, maybe I could write.

On the Florida Society of News Editors web site, Morgan shares her tips on statehouse reporting.

Photo credit: Tampa Bay Times

Homeland Security Secretary Touches on Immigration and State/Federal Partnerships

by Jon Kuhl

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited the National Press Club on Monday to give her second annual address on the state of America's homeland security. Throughout the speech, the secretary touched on a number of issues critical to state and local governments.

"Homeland security begins with hometown security," she said. "And as part of our commitment to hometown security, we have worked to get resources out of Washington and into the hands of state and local officials and first responders."

As part of this effort, Napolitano mentioned the 72 domestic fusion centers throughout the country. Fusion centers are intelligence epicenters, where state, local, and federal officials, along with private sector partners, work together to collect, share and analyze information.

Napolitano also touched on immigration. Highlighting areas of achievement, she pointed to a 53 percent drop in illegal immigration attempts along the Southwest border, along with an increase in seizures of drugs, currency and weapons. The number of Border Patrol agents has also increased, climbing to more than 21,000, which is more than double the number of agents in 2004.

And on the northern border, Napolitano mentioned the approximately $400 million in Recovery Act funds that have been used to modernize older facilities.

During the question and answer period, the secretary was asked about the nation's federal immigration laws. Summing up her assessment, she categorized the laws as "sorely outdated and in need of revision." The secretary also expressed support for the DREAM Act, saying, "If you have to take just one element out of the whole universe of immigration that needs to be fixed, should be fixed, and came very close to being fixed by the Congress … it would be that."

Napolitano was also asked about expected cuts to the department's budget. While prefacing her answer by saying that DHS could always use more money, the secretary acknowledged the department has the money it needs to do its job.