The Thicket at State Legislatures

Legislator Teamwork in the Classroom

by Bruce Feustel

Sheridan, Wyo. state legislators in the classroom

Many legislators meet regularly with students, but the legislators from Sheridan and Johnson counties, Wyoming have a special twist on this practice: they hold a series of discussions with local high school students as a group, just as they do with their constituents. I recently had a chance to participate in three of these discussions with the Sheridan area state legislators as part of a Kettering Foundation-funded project on improving the bond between legislators and citizens.

The key partner for the legislators in the high school civics/government class discussions was the teacher, Tyson Emborg. An enthusiastic instructor, he appreciates the opportunity to get the legislative delegation in front of his students. This year, the delegation visited on the last day of classes, which seemed like a recipe for disaster. But Mr. Emborg prepped the students in advance and the discussion was lively from bell to bell.

Senator John Schiffer and Representatives Jon Botten, Rosie Berger and John Patton introduced themselves at the beginning of the class, and the teacher called on students for their questions. Many of the students focused on the merit-based Wyoming Hathaway scholarship program, which provides significant funding for Wyoming students to go to in-state schools. The questions related to curriculum requirements, in-state school and other eligibility criteria, and funding associated with this recently-established program. Some students wanted more flexibility in the program to obtain award based on expertise in marketable areas like photography or welding. The legislators would periodically focus the students by asking "what do you think?". At one point, Sen. Schiffer and one of the students brainstormed ways to open the requirements while still maintaining standards of proficiency.

The discussion benefitted from the lack of filters--questions ranged from legislators' personal opinions on gay marriage, balancing energy and environmental concerns, and shooting wolves. Why does legislation need to pass through two houses of the legislature, they wanted to know. What issues does Representative Botten face in his dual roles of legislator and a municipal judge? How does the death penalty apply in a particular fact situation?

The team approach allowed the legislators to answer the questions they felt most knowledgeable about, and showed the students the wide variety of backgrounds of citizen legislators. This delegation included a rancher, an attorney and two business operators. It gave the students a sense of the variety of personalities and approaches that lawmakers bring to the state capital. It also helped to create a link with the school as a whole as they toured the building during a break and talked with principal Dirleen Wheeler over lunch. Finally, the legislator team approach allowed the delegation to reflect together on what the students were saying and thinking and what that meant for next year's session in Cheyenne.

Silence is Golden

by Karl Kurtz

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

This amusing anecdote comes from a Christopher Kimball editorial in Cook's Illustrated magazine. A dedicated Vermont farmer as well as magazine editor, television host and chef, Kimball writes entertaining pieces about Vermont life in the editorials of each issue of the magazine. This was the first item in his "Vermont Creed II" about the famously laconic president from Vermont in the March/April 2012 issue:

Silence Is Golden: Verbal proliferation will only lead to trouble, as any horse trader will tell you. Calvin Coolidge once told Governor Canning Cox of Massachusetts, who was complaining about having to speak with so many constituents, “Canning, the trouble is, you talk back.”

There's an old adage that elected officials can often satisfy their consituents just by listening to their concerns. To this, "Silent Cal" would add: ...and it takes less of your time.

Immigration Bills Down, But Expected To Climb After Supreme Court Ruling

by Alex Fitzsimmons

Over the last few years, immigration has been one of the hottest topics in state legislatures across the country. But a new report from NCSL’s Immigrant Policy Project reveals a 44 percent decrease in the number of immigration related bills introduced from this time last year.

There are several explanations for the drop-off. First, five states that had legislative sessions in 2011 did not go into session this year, accounting for approximately one-third of the decrease.  Other reasons for the decrease include states’ focus on closing budget gaps and redistricting, and the fact that some states had sufficiently dealt with immigration issues in 2011. States are also anxiously awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Arizona v. United States for guidance on how to proceed.

“There has been a drop-off from the peak we’ve seen over the last four years, but there is still significant interest in the states” said Ann Morse, Program Director of NCSL’s Immigrant Policy Project. “I anticipate states will re-enter the field and respond after the Supreme Court ruling.”

According to the report, 865 bills and resolutions relating to immigrants and refugees were introduced in 45 state legislatures and the District of Columbia in the first quarter of 2012. This number represents a 44 percent decrease from this point last year, when 1,538 bills were introduced. Bill enactments also dropped 30 percent, with 98 total bills and resolutions being adopted in the first quarter of 2012.

Although the report found that law enforcement (125) and employment (119) were the top areas of interest for the first quarter of 2012, states had proposed 267 of the former and 279 of the latter by this time last year. That’s a drop of 55 and 57 percent, respectively.

Examples of enacted legislation include a bill in Indiana (SB 262) that makes it illegal to knowingly transport or harbor an illegal alien, making it a Class D felony if more than nine people are involved. In Utah, HB 97 adds human trafficking, human smuggling and aggravated human trafficking to the list of offenses that can constitute racketeering, provided the offenses are conducted as a pattern of unlawful activity.

This report examines state legislation introduced in 2012 and provides examples of enacted laws and adopted resolutions. In August, NCSL will release another report summarizing in detail all enacted legislation from January through June. The December year-end report summarizes all laws and resolutions enacted, and highlights examples of new laws and trends.

Can Children Conceived After A Parent’s Death Collect Social Security? States May Decide

By Lisa Soronen

As summer approaches, U.S. Supreme Court decisions trickle out. One of the latest cases concerned the rights of children to inherit Social Security benefits after the death of a parent. The decision could spur statehouses across the country to respond.

In Astrue v. Capato, the court unanimously held that children conceived after their parent’s death may only receive Social Security survivor benefits if they qualify to inherit from their deceased parent under state law.

Karen Capato’s twins were born 18 months after her husband died of cancer with the help of in vitro fertilization using her husband’s frozen sperm.

Capato argued the Social Security Act’s initial definition of “child,” “child of an [insured] individual,” applies to her children. She said a later section of the Social Security Act entitled “determination of family status,” which allows biological children to receive benefits only if they qualify for inheritance from their deceased parent under state law, does not apply to “the biological child of a married couple” because such a child’s family status does not need to be determined.

The court rejected this argument, noting that Capato’s children might not be “the biological child[ren] of a married couple” because in Florida a marriage ends with a death of a spouse. The court also noted the aim of the Social Security Act is to provide benefits to those dependent on a wage earner’s support. If a child is eligible to inherit from a parent under state law, he or she is likely dependent on that parent.

The court pointed out that some states--California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana and North Dakota--grant inheritance rights to children conceived posthumously while a number of states-- New York, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, South Carolina, and South Dakota—along with Florida, do not.  Proposed state legislation responding to this case is possible.

Lisa Soronen is the executive director of the State & Local Legal Center.

A Majority of State Legislators May Have Two Years or Less of Experience in 2013

by Karl Kurtz and Tim Storey

The combination of unusually high turnover in the membership of state legislatures after the 2010 election and anticipated high rates of churn after the redistricting election of 2012 makes it likely that approximately half of all state legislators will have served for two years or less at the start of 2013 legislaitve sessions. The 2010-12 cycle almost certainly will result in the highest rate of turnover in state legislatures over two elections in the last 50 years.

How do we arrive at this conclusion? The 2010 nationwide surge of Republican gains in state legislatures resulted in a high water mark of 29 percent for membership turnover in a non-redistricting year. For the upcoming 2012 election, the average rate of turnover in legislatures in years ending in "2" in the last three redistricting cycles is 30 percent. We have no reason to believe that 2012 will be any different.

Combining these two election results, it seems likely that about half of all legislators will be freshman or sophomore members in their chambers. Unfortunately, though, we can't simply add together the numbers from the two elections to produce a more definite number and avoid weasel words like "may" or "seems likely." There are four reasons for this:

1. The 2012 election could turn out to be different from previous post-redistricting elections. Predicting any kind of election results is notoriously difficult.
2. Many of the seats that will turn over in 2012 also had new members after the 2010 election. The result in each of these districts will be a legislator elected with no previous experience, but if we add 2010 and 2012 turnover together, we would be counting that seat twice in our tally of inexperienced members in 2013.
3. Some new members elected to one chamber in a state will have had experience serving in the other chamber, so we must be careful not to exaggerate the inexperience levels.  For example, 29 of 38 members (76 percent) of the Michigan Senate were new to that body after the 2010 election. But 14 of them had previous experience in the House, so the real rate of legislative inexperience in the Senate was 39 percent (15 of 38 members). 
4. In a relatively small number of cases, legislators with previous experience who have been out of the legislature may return to run again. This is especially likely in the nine states with term limits based on consecutive service (not lifetime limits). For example, despite eight year (consecutive) term limits for the Ohio House, Speaker William Batchelder is now in his 37th year of legislative service because he sat out for a while and then returned to the General Assembly. Our turnover data would have counted him as a new member in the year that he returned.

Despite these caveats, we are confident in our conclusion that very close to half or more of all state legislators will have less than two years of experience after the 2012 election. Of course, not every state will have high levels of inexperience, but it is a warning to leaders and legislative staff (and NCSL and other national organizations) that there is a need to expand training and professional development opportunities for the influx of freshman and sophomore legislators.

Coincidentally, over at Governing magazine Lou Jacobson posted a column on the same subject today. It's a good piece that goes into more depth about anticipated turnover in specific states and the consequences of inexperience. We take a somewhat different view of the causes of this unusual two-election turnover cycle, though. We suggest that it is more due to the Republican sweep of 2010 and redistricting in 2012 than it is term limits and redistricting. Term limits have of course increased turnover, but the waves of turnover come in different years in different states and cannot by itself account for the anticipated 2010-12 turnover phenomenon.

State Hard Pressed to Address Drugged Driving

by Alex Fitzsimmons

Everyone knows the dangers of drunk driving and every state in the country sets blood alcohol level limits. But state lawmakers have recently turned their attention to another deadly behavior:  drugged driving.

Colorado became the latest state to debate drugged driving, as the House voted last week on whether to set a limit of 5 nanograms of THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) per millimeter of blood. The bill fell one vote short of advancing in the Senate, failing on a 17-17 tie.

More than 30 million people drove drunk and more than 10 million drove drugged in 2009, according to government data. While there is a nationwide standard of .08 g/ml blood alcohol concentration, states like Colorado are finding that regulating drugged driving is a much trickier endeavor.

Determining the point at which a driver is sufficiently impaired so as to pose a risk to society is no easy task not only for states, but also for the scientific community. States have taken a variety of approaches to address impairment levels. More than 30 bills related to drugged driving have been introduced in state legislatures this year, according to NCSL’s Drugged Driving LegisBrief. At NCSL’s 2011 Legislative Summit, state lawmakers explored the challenges of crafting drugged driving legislation.

Seventeen states have passed “per se” laws that make it illegal for drivers to have any prohibited drug in their systems while driving. In these states, the mere presence of drugs in the body is illegal. But not all of these blanket bans are created equal:  Minnesota, for example, exempts marijuana.

Other states address impairment levels with laws that set a blood content threshold. Ohio and Nevada established a threshold of 2 nanograms of illegal substances, while Pennsylvania’s administrative rule sets the level at 5 nanograms.

At the federal level, Congress is considering legislation to fund research on new driving technologies and training for police officers to identify drugged drivers.

What Role will Independent PACs Play in State Legislative Races?

by Karl Kurtz

During a television interview on a California public affairs program recently, I was asked a question I was not prepared for and had not thought much about: How will the Citizens United Supreme Court decision affect state legislative races? This was a reference to the so-called super Political Action Committees (PACs), not tied to candidates and not subject to fundraising or expenditure limits, that are receiving so much attention in the presidential race and other federal elections.

Instead of saying I didn't know, which is what I should have done, I ventured that I thought that state legislative races are so far down the ballot that the likelihood was small that independent PACs would pay attention to them--with the possible exception of highly targeted races in California, the home of the most expensive state legislative campaigns.

Some Internet research provides some support for my guess but mostly shows that we don't really know at this stage of the campaign. The Columbia Journalism Review has an interesting article, "Super PACs at the State Legislative Level: A Different Story," that is based on a report earlier this year by the National Institute for Money in Politics. That report shows the potential for substantial independent PAC involvement in state races by documenting the fact that donors who gave $25,000 or more to Super PACs in 2011 also donated $36.8 million to state campaigns during the 2008-2010 elections.

The report cautions, though, that "the role Super PACs play in state elections cannot be known until nearer the 2012 elections." Part of the problem is state reporting requirements, the Institute's Edwin Bender told CJR:

2012 State Legislative Election Preview and Other Tidbits from State Net

by Karl Kurtz

State Net's ever-useful Capitol Journal last week carried an update by Lou Cannon of potential party-switching legislative chambers in this fall's elections--based at least partially on his conversations with NCSL's Tim Storey--and a couple of other interesting items.

Cannon's list of vulnerable chambers under Republican control includes the Colorado House, the Maine House and Senate, the New Hampshire House ("an outside chance"), the New York Senate and the Wisconsin Senate. In the case of the Wisconsin Senate, the chamber is currently tied with one vacancy. The tie will be resolved on June 5 when four Republican senators face recall elections, and the one vacancy will be filled. Although Cannon doesn't say this, it's possible that the Democrats could take control on June 5 only to lose it in November when senators have to run in newly drawn districts.

The chambers that could switch from D to R include the Arkansas House and Senate, the New Mexico House (erroneously identified as the Senate in the article) and the Iowa and Nevada senates. Tim and I would add the Oregon Senate and the Minnesota House--and possibly the Senate--to that list.

Also missing from Capitol Journal's list of chambers that could switch are two tied chambers: the Alaska Senate and the Oregon House.

The same issue of Capitol Journal reports on primary defeats of two incumbents in Oregon. Republican Sen. Chris Telford was defeated by a former House member, Tim Knopp. In the House, challenger Jeff Reardon defeated Democratic Rep. Mike Schaufler. In both races at least a few incumbent legislators supported the challengers over their colleagues from the same party.

Finally, Capitol Journal calls attention to an op ed article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal last week in which two Republican members of Congress' Joint Economic Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas) and Sen. Jim DeMint (South Carolina), likened the financial management of the states of California, Illinois and Michigan to that of Greece and praised New Jersey, Rhode Island, Utah and Wisconsin for pursuing Germany's "model of fiscal prudence."

"States that have followed Europe's economic policy model of unbridled spending are getting Europe's economic results: low growth and looming fiscal catastrophe," the two Republicans wrote. "Congress must — in word and if necessary in law — make plain that the taxpayers will not protect these states from the consequences of their policies."

They did not suggest, however, that any states would have to leave the dollar zone and switch to the drachma.

The American Democracy Game

by Jan Goehring

Students can now step into the shoes of a lawmaker through NCSL's new online learning tool called The American Democracy Game. This interactive game, just released in 2012, teaches young people in middle school about the legislative process. The game allows the player to become a legislator and participate in the lawmaking process, learning basic lessons about how people disagree on issues and how those disagreements are resolved through debate, negotiation and compromise. Each of the three levels is designed to be played by an individual or in a classroom period. Issues include a community dog park, mandatory after-school exercise and the voting age. Supporting discussion guides and features that allow teachers to track student progress and provide NCSL feedback complement it.

The game is a product of NCSL's Trust for Representative Democracy and d'Vinci Interactive.

Play it today and test your skills.

It’s the Message that Matters Most

Telling your state legislator how you feel about a bill might be more effective than filling out a form. 

by Meagan Dorsch

Growing up, my mother used to say, “Just tell me how you feel.” This usually allowed us to explain why we were frustrated, angry, concerned or excited. She might have been onto something.

A recent story in the Florida Current shows that lawmakers and staff respond more to personal stories about how a law will affect constituents, rather than form letters or blanket emails.

Kevin Cate, a governmental public relations and campaign adviser in Florida, surveyed 52 House and Senate aides at the Florida Legislature and asked what “influences their bosses the most.” Cate noted face-to-face visits were cited by more than 99 percent of the staffers, followed by personal letters and personalized emails. It is also interesting to note that phone calls and visits by interest groups both ranked higher in Cate’s study than “visits by lobbyists.”

Four out of five staffers indicated that a personal story about how a bill would affect constituents was the most effective, followed by stories regarding the effect of legislation on a legislator's district.

NCSL has found more than 575 state legislators on Twitter, and Cate noted the power of social and new media. About two-thirds of the legislative staff surveyed in Florida noted that “comments on social media sites” were important, and that lawmakers used Facebook to gauge the public’s opinion online. They also use these sites to gather information. More than half of Florida's legislative staff rated Facebook and Twitter as either "effective" or "very effective."

Cate makes an important note in his study: The message you send is more important than the medium. But does this apply only to Florida's Legislature? The poll below contains some of the top advocacy strategies from Cate's study. Let us know what works best in your state.

What is the best way to communicate with state legislators?

In person

Individual Letter

Comment on Social Media

Email

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