The Thicket at State Legislatures

From the Carpool Lane to the Living Room...

by Jeanne Mejeur

Utah has become the first state to make a four-day, 10-hour work week mandatory for most state employees. Oklahoma and West Virginia are currently looking into the feasibility of requiring a four-day work week for state employees.   

Other states are looking into means of flexible scheduling, such as telecommuting and flex-time.  Many telecommuting policies have been adopted to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality but they have the added benefits of reducing commuting costs for employees and saving energy dollars for the states. 

NCSL has some additional resources on telecommuting and flexible work schedules on our website and in the March edition of State Legislatures Magazine.

Jeanne Mejeur covers telecommuting, labor and employment issues for NCSL.

Death Penalty Ruling will Impact States

by Sarah Hammond

On June 25, 2008, the United States Supreme Court barred imposing the death penalty for individuals convicted of raping a child.

The challenge in Kennedy v. Louisiana came from a Louisiana man who was sentenced to death in 2004 for the brutal rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The 5-4 decision held that executing child rapists violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion.

The ruling will affect Louisiana and five other states, Georgia Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, who in recent years amended their death penalty statutes to make the rape of a child a capital offense. 

Louisiana was the first to do so in 1995, adding death for the rape of a child under the age of 12.  Unlike Louisiana, the other states limited the death penalty to defendants who had previous convictions of sexual assault against a child. 

Sine Die Traditions

by Meagan Dorsch

Each year, our NCSL contributors to the Thicket work hard to post a Sine Die (scroll down if you hit this link) for each legislature as it goes dark.

This morning, I noticed an article posted by Dan Petty at Stateline.org. Dan had a little fun with his Sine Die piece, delving into the traditions state legislatures have for the final day of session. 

Our own Karl Kurtz wrote an article on Sine Die and other Vulgarities, where you can find a great list of legislative localisms (this is also one of the most googled article in the Thicket).

Please enjoy both pieces when you have some time, and let us know of any other (Sine Die) traditions that your state might celebrate!

LaFleur is Flourishing

by Meagan Dorsch, Pam Greenberg, Janna Goodwin

A big congrats to Robbie LaFleur, Director of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, who has been named recipient of the 2008 Peter S. Popovich Award.

In case you are not familiar with this award, it is given each year by the Minnesota Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to “the person or organization that exemplifies the fight for First Amendment Rights.” SPJ will present the award to LaFleur on Thursday, June 12 in St. Paul.

A little bit of Minnesota background for everyone...this award is named for the late Peter S. Popovich. He is described as a champion of open government during his years in the Minnesota House of Representatives, as the chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and as the chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The Minnesota Coalition on Government Information nominated LaFleur because “for nearly a decade Robbie has been Director of the Legislative Reference Library, the special library that serves members and staff of the Minnesota State Legislature. Though her primary clientele is the Legislature, Robbie has distinguished herself by always bearing in mind and addressing the needs of the public, including investigative journalists who are steady customers at the LRL.”

LaFleur also served as the committee chair of The National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section from 2002 - 2003. In 2005, LaFleur also served as an at-large member on NCSL's Online Democracy Award Committee.

Congrats Robbie LaFleur!

Legislative Junkie in Morocco

by Karl Kurtz

As this photo of me in front of the Moroccan Parliament with Elarbi Imad, director of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education, will attest, I visited my 82nd national or subnational parliament in Rabat last week.

At the Parliament, I met with two members of the staff who are responsible for training programs for Moroccan parliamentarians and staff to discuss possible collaboration and exchanges between American state legislatures and their parliament.  They were very interested in the idea.

Unfortunately, though, there was an international conference of African parliamentarians on immigration going on in the Parliament that day, so I was not able to visit the chambers or meet with any parliamentarians or senior staff.  So I'm stretching my tally of "parliaments visited" to include having been in the parliament building and meeting with a couple of staff without actually seeing the chambers.

I was in Morocco for the 12th World Congress on Civic Education, which I will report on in a later posting.

The Case of the Missing 34 Pages

by Brian Weberg

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admits she used some "uncustomarily crude" language last week when she found out the just-passed (1,768 page, $289 billion) farm bill had gone to the President with 34 pages missing. Described by most as a clerical error, the glitch quickly became political fodder for those opposed to the bill and an embarrassment for Congressional leadership.

President Bush had vetoed the measure in spite of the veto-proof majority that had passed it. Both chambers voted to override. Then the mistake came to light. The House decided to bring the entire bill up again and passed it again. The Senate will take it up again when they return from recess, but few believe the bill will pass the Senate again with a similar veto-proof majority. 

Somewhere deep in this story there is a human tale about the House enrollment clerk who inadvertently dropped one of the 15 titles out of the bill. We probably won't hear much about this part of the incident, but one expects that this clerk had a tough time last week.  The Speaker, congressional leaders and their political advisor's were all angry, wringing their hands and working the spin. And this clerk, having made a human error, was probably taking some serious heat for the mistake. 

I can't imagine there is anyone who works in a state legislature who has not been part of, witnessed, or suffered for a clerical error in the legislative process. They are rare, which is testimony to the skill of these professionals. But they do happen and it can be messy. People get angry and embarrassed, and there are a few who try to gain from the situation. But in the end, these problems are almost always worked out. Life goes on, the process survives, and people continue to do their best. This is all we can and should ask. 

The fact is legislatures and the democratic process depend on these clerks and the people who toil in the background through the enactment of 1,768 page bills or who work through the night struggling to keep everything in order in a flurry of legislation. It isn't easy work, but somehow those who do it...love it. I hope the clerk in the U.S. House is OK.  I hope he/she is hearing encouraging words this week, rather than reprimands.

 

Sessions Over in Florida, Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota and Vermont

by Julie Lays

More states have ended their legislative sessions.

• Florida's session was overshadowed by the state's lack of money, according to the Associated Press. Lawmakers did manage, however, to pass a $66.2 billion balanced budget, with more than $4 billion in cuts targeted mostly at school children and Medicaid patients.
• Hawaii lawmakers ended their session by approving a smoking ban in public places, allocating $3 million for schools and requiring solar water heaters in new housing. They also approved a $50-million tax cut. But the session may be remembered more for those bills that got away as for those that passed, according to the Honolulu Advertiser.
• Colorado's 119-day session ended May 6. Legislators passed major changes to education curriculum and school construction, but they couldn't find solutions to transportation issues. Lawmakers passed a ballot question that will go before the voters this fall to change how citizens amend the constitution through the initiative process.
• The Minnesota Legislature adjourned May 18 with a relatively well-received compromise budget between the Democratic Legislature and Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. According to an editorial in In-Forum, "the relatively cordial end to the session is in stark contrast to previous sessions, and that’s probably a good thing in the long run." Lawmakers boosted per student school funding by $51, came to an agreement with the governor to expand public and private health insurance coverage, and passed a property tax relief package and more state aid for cities, counties and townships.
• Saving the state money, the Vermont General Assembly adjourned two weeks early on May 3. In a surprise move, legislative leaders said they won’t bring the legislature back for a day in June to consider whether to override any vetoes. According to WCAX-TV, lawmakers passed a bill to help Vermonters use less heating oil, revamped the state's prison system to save money and passed a balanced budget in tough economic times with no new taxes.

Good Leadership or Good Looking?

by Meagan Dorsch

I love funny emails and I think the funniest one to date arrived yesterday in my in-box.

A blog called Elected Hotties wanted to let me know that I still had time to vote for one of the hottest legislators in the Utah House of Representatives. Don't worry everyone! Voting has just started for both men and women. Next week, Elected Hotties will judge the members of the Utah Senate, and after Utah, Elected Hotties is coming to vote on members of your legislature!

I had to check out this website. The site's tag line alone ("just another way to get to know your elected officials...the hot ones anyway") made me laugh out loud and take 15 minutes out of my day to explore the webpage. My favorite part is the scrolling pictures of the "winners so far." When you log on (because I know you will) put your mouse over a picture. HA!

This website transported me back to 1985 when I was cutting pictures out of Teen Beat and Tiger Beat magazines. I began to wonder if this is the 2008 version of the magazines for legislative junkies? Can we print their pictures and put them up on our office walls?

There is a conversation in the blogosphere about the Elected Hotties website. We want to hear your two cents.

NCSL's Annual Meeting vs. Legislative Summit

by Meagan Dorsch

"I know when your Legislative Summit is this year, but when is your Annual Meeting?"

Recently, someone posed this question to one of our NCSL policy experts. It made me realize that several people might be a little confused about the NCSL term "Legislative Summit."

After 33 years, NCSL decided to take a new marketing approach and change the name from Annual Meeting to Legislative Summit. I will be honest with you, many NCSL staffers have had a hard time calling it "Legislative Summit," but with a little shock therapy, many of us are finally catching on!

NCSL's Legislative Summit will take place July 22-26 in New Orleans. It will be a week packed with intense issue forums, committee meetings and provocative speakers. There will also be three distinct opportunities that will allow you to experience Louisiana and the city of New Orleans on a whole new level as well as to create a lasting impression on the Crescent City.

Does this sound like an Annual Meeting to anyone else?

See you all in New Orleans for NCSL's 34th annual LEGISLATIVE SUMMIT!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Us

by Karl Kurtz

The Thicket turns two today.  As we did last year on our first anniversary, we want to mark the occasion by sharing a few statistics with you.  In the last year we have posted 232 items, an average of 4.5 postings per week or about one every working day.  According to Google Analytics, we have had 35,796 absolutely unique visitors who have made 49,769 visits to the site and viewed 76,448 pages in the course of the year.  In simpler terms, we get an average of more than 4,000 visits a month to The Thicket.

Our Technorati authority score, which measures how often other blogs link to yours, has declined significantly in the last year from a ranking in the top 50,000 of all blogs to #242,623!  We're not entirely sure how to interpret this, but we think it means that the world of blogs continues to explode, while our market niche--by and for legislative junkies--remains relatively small.  Nonetheless, we're proud of what we do, we get lots of positive feedback from fellow legislative junkies, and we're ready to continue our habit for a third year.

Your comments and suggestions about The Thicket are welcome.  Many of our best posts come from the tips that our readers give us or the questions that legislators and legislative staff ask us, so keep them coming!

What Happened at NCSL's Spring Forum?

By Meagan Dorsch and Michelle Blackston

How can states address their educational capacity for training nurses? What effects do immigration raids have on families and how can child welfare agencies be prepared? Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case from North Carolina during its next term that could dramatically change the rules for 2010 redistricting for all states.

These are just some of the sessions held last month at NCSL's Spring Forum in Washington, D.C. This year, more than 600 state legislators and legislative staff were able to attend. 

Listen and enjoy over 12 different sessions highlighting federal and state policy issues ranging from health care and REAL ID to the 2008 Elections.

2008 Exclusive Election Preview

by Gene Rose & Tim Storey

The 2008 presidential election “may mark a shift” in how America chooses its presidents, according to one of the country’s most respected political analysts.

John Harwood, CNBC Chief Washington Correspondent and a political writer for The New York Times, this morning spoke at NCSL’s “Legislative Leadership: The Art, The Politics, The Challenge,” taking place at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C. He is the co-author of  a soon-to-be-released book Profiles in Backroom Power, which shows “how today’s Washington power game really works, through stories of people who are making a difference on Pennsylvania Avenue.”

State legislative leaders got an exclusive preview of Harwood’s book, which he will be promoting over the next few days on Meet the Press, Charlie Rose and the Daily Show.

Harwood pointed out that when Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, there were about 200 U.S. House districts that split their vote between a Republican president and a Democrat running for Congress. By George W. Bush’s run for reelection in 2004, that number was reduced to 50, politically polarizing the country.

“The electoral map is going to change,” he says, since the 2008 election pits a conservative vs. a liberal. “I think we are going to see an election that is going to be fought much more in the middle” than in previous elections. “Either one of these guys can break the gridlock that we have seen.”

Part of that will be seen on the campaign trail, since he does not see either candidate running a “slashing” campaign. Harwood says the general election will be as interesting as the primaries have been.

John McCain, who was considered politically dead at one point in the primaries, will run a much different campaign than Bush did, Harwood says. His reputation as a maverick is going to have appeal to some voters like those in New Hampshire where McCain is polling well. On the other hand, Barack Obama is going to have a greater capacity to compete in states like Colorado and Virginia. However, “The race problem that he will have might be greater than we have anticipated,” he says. McCain will face concerns about his age, he adds.

Republicans face the greater challenge in the fall, he says. “It’s a terrible environment” for the GOP, he says. While Obama will begin the general election with some damage with his fight with Hillary Clinton, Harwood says polling shows the American people feel  “lousy” about the economy and the Iraq war.  Many strategists feel that Republicans need the president to raise his popularity rating from the low thirties into the forties, he says.

Harwood says a choice of a running mate will be an important decision for the candidates. He says potential running mates for McCain include Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence and Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. Possible Obama running mates are Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Delaware Senator Joe Biden and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. “But the name I hear the most” is former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, he says.

Harwood says he was pleased to be speaking to a group of legislative leaders. “I think state legislative sessions are the most fun journalistic event that I know of,” he says. Harwood covered the Florida legislature in Tallahassee in the 1980s. Legislatures are “a place to see democracy in action.”

Is Social Media Right for You? Know your limits!

by Meagan Dorsch

Know your limits: this is the philosophy that I apply to everything I do, whether it’s putting together a media plan or buying a bathing suit.

This is a philosophy I think we in the legislative community should adopt before incorporating social media into our communication plans. Social media is also known as Web 2.0. As I explained to my father, Web 2.0 is not an application you can download onto your laptop. Web 2.0, or social media, are terms referring to several on-line communications tools.

Blogs, podcasts and message boards are some of the hottest social media tools on the market: twittering and tweeting are not far behind! Many companies, including government organizations, are considering whether or not to use these tools as a way to communicate with employees, constituents and the public.

This week, I have been attending the National Association of Government Communications annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several of the sessions being offered have covered social media and have been well attended.

For some government organizations it’s hard to think about using social media to communicate with the public. The CIA probably doesn’t want its employees blogging, but other government agencies have had a lot of success with these tools. Steve Crescenzo of Crescenzo Communications showed us a blog launched by the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) and a podcast produced by the U.S. Census Bureau.

So you may be thinking, “If the TSA has a blog, we should too.” Not the case my friends, know your limits!

Steve Crescenzo warned us you don’t have to use these tools just because they are out there. You should use them if they are:

• Engaging: the purpose of social media is to spark conversation in your on-line community. Be ready to hear feedback from the public both  good and bad.
• Entertaining: blogs started out as on-line diaries. Make sure they are written in the first person and have an element of entertainment. A podcast should sound like an old time radio show.
• And a good fit for your communications plan.

Keeping these three things in mind might help you decide if your organization, business or legislature should incorporate social media or Web 2.0 into your media strategy. If you do, these same three tips will help them be a successful and effective way to communicate with your employees, constituents and the public. And remember, know your limits!

Long Time Legislative Auditor Set to Retire

by Bob Boerner

According to The Associated Press State & Local Wire, the Treasure State is losing the long-serving legislative auditor to retirement.  Montana's legislative auditor since August 1985, Scott Seacat, will retire on June 30, 2008.

Mr. Seacat is the third legislative auditor in Montana history since the office was created in 1967 and is the longest-serving.  He has worked in the Legislative Audit Division for 32 years and headed it for 24 years.  He estimates that audits over the past 32 years have saved Montana taxpayers more than $350 million.  The Montana Legislative Audit Division does independent financial audits and performance audits of state government agencies and programs.

A total of 45 state legislatures, including Montana, have established these specialized evaluation offices to help state legislators meet their critical oversight responsibilities.  There are only three directors who have served longer than Mr. Seacat.  George Schroeder, in the South Carolina Legislative Audit Council, has served as Director since November 1975 and Jim Nobles, in the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, has served as Legislative Auditor since 1983.  And, John W. Turcotte was Executive Director of the Mississippi Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation Expenditure Review (PEER) from 1978 to 1995, Director of the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) from 1996 to 2003 and Director of the North Carolina Program Evaluation Division since June, 2007.

NCSL Leaders Participate in State of the Union

by Karl Kurtz

NCSL’s immediate past president, Senator Leticia Van de Putte of Texas, has the honor of delivering the Spanish language response to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union message today.  It will be broadcast on Spanish language stations across the country.  She will do this in partnership with Kansas Governor Katherine Sebelius, who will make the English language response.

In a nice symbolic display of bipartisanship, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited NCSL president Donna Stone (right in photo), a Republican member of the Delaware House of Representatives, to join Sen. Van de Putte (left) in the speaker’s gallery for the State of the Union message.

Both women are thrilled, and it is an unprecedented recognition of NCSL and the role that it plays in our federal system.  Look for Rep. Stone and Sen. Van de Putte in the crowd shots and tune in on your local Spanish language station after the President’s speech.

Hyperpartisanship, Why "Bickering" is Good, and a Memorable Former Lawmaker

by Karl Kurtz

Many of our writers for The Thicket have been traveling or otherwise occupied this week, which accounts for our relatively low number of postings.  That doesn't mean we have stopped reading, though.  Here are three interesting articles from this week for legislative junkies:

• A New York Times book review of Ronald Brownstein's new book, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America. I must say that I hate the current fad of long descriptive subtitles like this one that are designed to shock and sell, but in this instance it seems to capture the book fairly well.  Michiko Kakutami, the reviewer, praises the book for its historical perspective comparing the "hyperpartisanship" of the Clinton and Bush administrations to the "age of bargaining" of the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson eras.  Not having read the book, I wonder, as I always do on the subject of partisanship, what a longer-term historical perspective on the intense partisanship of the 19th century would tell us about the current period.  Many of today's hallmarks of partisanship--extreme rhetoric, strong party loyalty within the Congress, homogenization within the parties, and partisan media--were present in 19th century politics.  Unfortunately, I'm not a good enough historian of that period to reach any conclusions about this.
• Another of the Center on Congress at Indiana University's commentaries by its director, Lee Hamilton.  This one is on how "Debate is Good for Our System," explaining that the legislative disagreement and deliberation that the public sees as "bickering" is essential to decision-making in a democracy.  As usual, whenever I read one of Lee's commentaries, I wish I had written it myself.
• A New York Times obituary for former Arkansas Rep. Ray Smith, who died last week at age 83.  He served in the Arkansas House from 1955 to 1982, including one term as speaker (in a chamber where the speakership has been rotated every two years for a very long time).  The obituaries all focus on his lone vote against giving Gov. Orval Faubus the power to close any public schools that were forced to integrate.  But I remember him as a principal, on behalf of the Council of State Governments (of which he was the national chair at some point), in the negotiations in the mid-1970s over the merger that created the National Conference of State Legislatures and his subsequent service on the NCSL Executive Committee.  Ray loved to play the role of the southern country lawyer--and was just as sharp as that term implies.  I learned a lot from Ray, often over a class of whiskey.

Hawaii Capitol Ghost Stories and Other Halloween Foolery

by Karl Kurtz

During the Halloween season, the relatively new Hawaii House Blog from the majority office of the House of Representatives is carrying a series of capitol ghost stories that have been collected from members and staff of the Hawaii Legislature. Of the five that have been posted so far, the one I like the best is about the Hawaiian spirit with no feet floating through the air and intruding on the office of a senator who was napping in her office.

Who else has capitol ghost stories?  Add your stories in the comments below or click on "Contact us" in the top right column.

NCSL has its own Halloween tradition.  For the last 12 years we have had a potluck lunch Chili Cookoff and costume contest in which prizes are given for the best red, green and white chili and the best individual and group costumes.  In a blind taste testing by three judges, Sharon Randall and Leann Stelzer, both editors in our communications department, won the white and red categories.  Our executive director, Bill Pound, won the green chili category.  (I swear, it really is a blind test!)  The fact that Bill's was the only green chili entered this year doesn't detract from his win: he has won this category every year in which he has entered.  His chili is that good.  Like a strong incumbent in a legislative election, maybe he has scared off the competition. 

Our health care program won the group costume contest, appearing as drug-resistant staph (staff--get it?).

[Photo by moorz8r courtesy of Flickr.]

Lost in the Thicket of NCSL's Annual Meeting

by Karl Kurtz

We're back!  Last week's highly successful NCSL annual meeting in Boston and the run-up to it have meant that The Thicket has languished for a while.

Here are some notes that I stored up from the meeting but didn't have time to post last week.

• The meeting was a huge success, setting a record with over 9,000 participants.  You can find summaries and videos of some of the major sessions on our annual meeting web page.
• One of the most popular events was the general session at which the historian David McCullough spoke.  His theme was "For the last 25 years we have been raising a generation of young people who are historically illiterate," and he went on to emphasize the importance of history education in preparing young people for citizenship.  Connecticut blogger Aldon Hynes has a nice summary of McCullough's comments in "At home, thinking."
• The lively panel discussion between former presidential advisers David Gergen and Andrew Card, moderated by NPR's Mara Liasson, is summarized in Experts Discuss What Makes a President Great.  Minnesota Senate staffer Peter Wattson, though, wonders (in an email message to me) if Card's inclusion of George Washington on a list of unpopular presidents who were later vindicated by history is proof of David McCullough's assertion about the public's ignorance of history. Peter points out that  Washington twice ran for president unopposed.
• A search on "ncsl" in Technorati reveals a large number of bloggers covered our annual meeting.  My colleague Bill Wyatt will post a more thorough summary of media coverage later in the week.  But in a quick perusal I spotted postings from Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington, as well as various industry or organizational blogs. 
• Arkansas House majority leader Steve Harrelson posted videos of the business meeting debate on rail regulation, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's speech, Secretary Michael Chertoff's remarks and the excellence in legislative leadership award given to North Carolina Speaker Joe Hackney on his blog, Under the Dome (see multiple entries for Wednesday, Aug. 8).  The photo at right of Rep. Harrelson wielding a "YouTube minicam" was posted by Sunfell in Live Blogging NCSL.
• One of the sessions in Boston was an expansion of a program on new ways to communicate with constituents that we had done at our Spring Forum in April.  Aldon Hynes has a good summary of this popular session in his blog, Orient Lodge.
• I enjoyed moderating a session on "State Legislature: A Conversation about the Making of a Documentary" with renowned film maker Frederick Wiseman on his documentary about the Idaho Legislature that we have written about several times in The Thicket and reviewed in State Legislatures Online.  Wiseman was engaging and interesting to talk to, and Idaho Sen. Denton Darrington, added valuable context as one of the participants in the film.  To the main criticism that Alan Rosenthal offers in his review of the film that it doesn't capture much of the strategizing, bargaining and negotiation that occurs "between deliberation and decision," Wiseman said, "I didn't know about those meetings.  I would have tried to film them if I had known about them."

Polling Results: One Year of The Thicket

We were most gratified that 82 percent of the 66 of our readers who responded to our poll rating The Thicket on our one year anniversary said that it is excellent and 11 percent good.  The remaining seven percent said that it is fair or poor.  As always, we welcome suggestions for improvement.

One Year Anniversary of The Thicket

by Karl Kurtz

A moment of shameless self-congratulation: One year ago today, The Thicket went public.  We had had a month or two of dry runs before making the blog public on May 15, 2006.

About the time we started The Thicket I read a statistic, which I'm sure is now out of date, that 75,000 new blogs are started everyday but that half of those blogs go out of business (or just don't post) within three months.  So we think lasting a full year is not an inconsequential accomplishment.

We have posted 341 items in the course of the year--an average if about one for every working day.  We rank somewhere around 50,000 in Technorati's ranking of blogs based on links by other bloggers.  Our readership has grown substantially, so that we now have about 1,500 visits per week and nearly 300 subscibers.  Thanks for sticking with us!  And take a moment to let us know what you think of The Thicket in the poll in the top right column.

Colorado Adjourns After Shortest Session on Record

by Nicole Moore

Colorado's 2007 legislative session, which ended May 4, was set against an interesting backdrop. More freshmen lawmakers served than ever before. The Democrats controlled both chambers and the governor's office for the first time in 45 years. And everyone in the Capitol - legislators and lobbyists alike - operated under the new Amendment 41, which is one of the strictest gift bans in the nation. (The court is in the process of deciding whether it's even constitutional.)

As is usually the case, the majority party is calling it a successful session, while the minority disagrees. But the legislature passed major bills on renewable energy, school finance and prescription drugs.

Legislators passed around 20 bills dealing with new energy sources, the Denver Post reports. One bill that got a lot of press requires large utility companies to get 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources. That's double the current requirement and this proposal had bipartisan support.

North Dakota's Longest Session Ever

by Nicole Moore

North Dakota legislators finished the longest session in the state's history on April 25. What made 2007 a record year? Record revenues, says the Bismarck Tribune.

Between the state's growing oil industry and robust sales tax collections, North Dakota had an unexpected $540 million to budget this session, The Tribune reported. And that posed the "unique problem" of how to spend the money. (This situation may be new for North Dakota, but it's not unique in a national sense this year. A full 42 states are finding themselves with unexpected revenue as they approach the end of the fiscal year, NCSL's latest State Budget Update shows.)

North Dakota lawmakers put a lot of the money away and gave a lot of it back to taxpayers. $350 million went into the rainy day fund. And $118 million will cover property tax relief, the Tribune reported.  That's no surprise to Karmen Hanson, one of NCSL's North Dakota liaisons. She calls it a "fiscally conservative state." 

Advice From National Pollsters

by Nicole Moore

Americans are perfectly comfortable holding two opposing views at the same time, but they resent when someone else points this out to them. So says Celinda Lake, one of two pollsters who spoke on Saturday at the National Conference of State Legislatures' Spring Forum in Washington, D.C.

Lake said immigration, which is the new wedge issue, illustrates this point. Rather than framing this issue as "immigrants are good for you," she said proponents can try this message: "Immigrants are you." Listen to Lake discuss this. (2:00)

Lake is a Democratic pollster who co-wrote What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live with Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway. The women, who disagreed on little during their address, did have different answers to this question: Global warming or gas prices -- which is more important to the American people?

Calling energy policy "the biggest economic opportunity" for states, Lake said Americans are ready to start changing consumption and sources of energy now, so big adjustments would be in place in the next decade. Listen to Lake talk about energy policy. (2:16)

Conway countered that the electorate is more concerned about day-to-day, rather than big picture issues. She used this issue as a springboard into a rant about polling questions and offered advice to lawmakers looking to get good information, rather than high percentages. Listen to Conway's advice. (4:17)

Lake said unmarried voters will be an important category in the 2008 elections, and today, that group is solidly Democrat. So the party faithful might want to refrain from playing matchmaker until 2009.

Conway said both parties would be smart to reach out to two growing groups: small business owners and Asian-Americans. Listen to Conway's reasoning. (2:44)

Iraq is the No. 1 issue for voters now, and on the state level, that means veterans issues are important, Lake said. Conway said the war gives rise to two categories of voters who might feel alienated: pro-war Democrats and anti-war Republicans.

Making Better School Principals

by Nicole Moore

Good principals are the bridge between school improvement efforts and real student learning, education experts said Friday at the National Conference of State Legislatures' Spring Forum in Washington, D.C. State legislators can help create better school leaders by learning about the principal-training programs in their states, enacting policies like standards and licensing to improve those programs, and increasing funding.

President of the Wallace Foundation Christine DeVita talked about why she believes it's important to focus on principals to improve American education. Listen to DeVita (1:33).

Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond presented the results of her new study of effective principal preparation university programs, which outlines what those programs have that others don't. Darling-Hammond said the programs that work recruit participants. They go into schools and invite good teachers to apply. They have high admission standards and robust internships so that principals-to-be get hands-on training from the best role models. They also include continuing education components, among other attributes.

DeVita listed four characteristics of successful school leadership training programs, gleaned from the new Stanford report and other Wallace research and work. Listen to her list (3:46).

Darling-Hammond recommended several "policy levers" state legislators can put in place to help improve the programs in their states. She named Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut and Delaware as having one or more laws that improved their school leadership training. Hear what those policies are (6:07).

Immigration Reform Is Very Complex

by Bill Wyatt

Immigration reform is complex.  Border security, employer enforcement, tuition benefits, health care, education, civic engagement.  These are among the various aspects of immigration reform that states are trying to address and that Congress can't seem to get their arms around.

At NCSL's Spring Forum in Washington, D.C., U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (NY) talked about the complexities of the issue.

Given the federal government's failure to enact a comprehensive immigration reform solution, state legislators have been forced to introduced a record number of bills to address immigration and immigrant-related challenges.  NCSL's president, Texas Senator Leticia Van de Putte, says that states can only do so much.

"It's like we're trying to scale a 12 foot wall with a step stool.  The federal government must fix and fund the problem - now," she said.

According to a new analysis of state immigration legislation, at least 1,169 pieces of legislation designed to address immigration or immigrant-related issues have been introduced in all 50 states which is more than twice the total number of bills considered during 2006.

Erasing the Stigma of Food Stamps

by Nicole Moore

Food Stamps aren't "Food Stamps" in the proposed reauthorization of the Farm Bill, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Mike Johanns told state legislators and legislative staff today at the NCSL Spring Forum in Washington, D.C.

"One of the barriers to increased participation in the Food Stamp program is the stigma associated with the name," Johanns said. "As we modernize the administration of the program, I believe it's time to eliminate the "Food Stamp" program in terms of the name."

Johanns said the administration has goals to increase access in nutrition programs, ensure that taxpayer dollars are used most efficiently and to make Americans healthier. To help achieve these goals, the USDA has proposed renaming Food Stamps the "Food and Nutrition Program." Listen to Johanns discuss this issue and other relevant parts of the Farm Bill reauthorization. (2:46).

Johanns also talked about federal incentives for alternative fuels.

"If someone had told you ten years ago that we'd be growing corn and soybeans to fuel cars, pick ups and trucks, I wonder how much of that we would have believed," he said. "Clean, renewable energy like ethanol and biodeisel allows us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and creates new jobs in rural areas and economic opportunities." Listen to Johanns discuss federal incentives in the Farm Bill. (1:28)

Podcast: The Summer Energy Outlook

by Nicole Moore

This week on the Buzz at State Legislatures, I speak with Guy Caruso, the administrator of the Energy Information Administration, which is the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy.

He gives a preview of the upcoming Summer Energy Outlook Conference that NCSL will host in Denver on Tuesday, April 17.

Hear how high he thinks gas prices will go, what's driving them up and what innovative energy policies states are pushing. Listen to the podcast. (10:02)