The Thicket at State Legislatures

Oregon Capitol Turns 75

By Larry Morandi

The Oregon State Capitol celebrates its 75th birthday on Tuesday. Born out of two fires—the first destroyed the original statehouse in 1855, the second consumed a structure modeled after the U.S. Capitol in 1935—the Capitol is four stories high and topped by a 23-foot bronze and gold leaf statue of the Oregon Pioneer (affectionately known as the “Gold Man” by the building’s inhabitants).

Truly national in its composition, the Modern Greek architecture includes marble from Missouri, Montana and Vermont.

Not content to be a graciously aging dowager, the Capitol added two wings in 1977 to expand housing for legislative offices, committee hearing rooms and underground parking.  A nuts-and-bolts restoration project occurred in 2007-2008.  In addition to the Legislature, the Capitol hosts offices for the Governor, Secretary of State and State Treasurer.

 The birthday celebration is not confined to a single day.  Educational events ranging from tours, oral histories and scavenger hunts began on Sept. 18, with supersized candles lighting up the dome on Sept. 28. “Cutting the cake” and other events will take place on Tuesday, including the official launch of the Legislature’s new website.  The festivities wrap up on October 5.

  The complete calendar of events is available online through the Oregon State Capitol Foundation.   

 

 

 

 

 

Veterans’ Transportation: NCSL Webinar Oct. 2 to Highlight State Activity

By Alice Wheet

With wars winding down, more and more Americans are returning home. About 23 million veterans live in the United States today, many of whom need help reintegrating into civilian life. We talk commonly about how important it is for veterans to access jobs, school, medical and mental health care, and social events such as visits with family and friends. But what makes all these activities possible? Transportation.

Without dependable and affordable transportation, veterans may find it difficult to access military benefits or to meet the new challenges of returning home.  For many veterans, though, everyday travel can be a hardship because of disabilities, age, medical conditions or financial constraints. In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) estimates that four in 10 veterans live in rural areas where community services and transportation options are limited.

A common misconception is that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and volunteer programs can meet all veterans’ transportation needs.  As NCSL discovered in our survey research in 2012 (published January 2013 as “A Mission to Serve: State Activities to Help Veterans Access Transportation”), while such programs provide vital, quality transportation for some groups of veterans to make medical trips, they are more limited in their ability to help veterans get around for other reasons.

The good news is that states have a rich variety of programs and approaches that help veterans have a dignified and dedicated means of transportation regardless of geographic location, physical ability, financial constraints, or other circumstances.  An upcoming webinar on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 3 p.m. ET/ 2 p.m. CT/1 p.m. MT/ Noon PT will highlight some of these critical ways that states are helping veterans get where they need to go.

Two states—North Dakota and Oregon—will be featured on the webinar as states that have made big strides in facilitating transportation mobility for veterans. North Dakota has its own state transportation service for veterans, offering van rides to the VA hospital in Fargo, and Oregon’s unique approach stems from the work of a legislatively mandated task force on veterans’ transportation.

Both states have worked for years to build relationships across agencies and improve transportation options for veterans. Kim Adair, transit section program manager at the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) and Dinah Vanderhyde from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Public Transit Division will present on their states’ efforts.

Other speakers will include Rik Opstelten from the United We Ride program at the Federal Transit Administration, which sponsors the Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative (VTCLI) federal grant program.  Jaime Rall and Alice Wheet, co-authors of the NCSL report, will also review major highlights and themes in state veterans’ transportation activities from across the nation.

The webinar is free for legislators and legislative staff, but you must register in advance at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/356308606.

NCSL's Jan Goehring Receives Special Recognition

By Karl Kurtz

In addition to announcing the 2013 award to Massachusetts' Anne Ziaja, the Kevin Harrington Award selection committee gave special recognition to Janet B. Goehring, the longtime leader of NCSL's America's Legislators Back to School program who died prematurely this past spring. Here's a video honoring Jan presented by Massachusetts Senate President Pro Tem Richard Moore, a past president of NCSL, at the Legislative Summit in Atlanta last month:

In addition to this celebration of Jan's life, I also recently received a letter from Olga Batishcheva, an alumna of the 2009 international Legislative Fellows Program who worked with Jan and me at NCSL and is now director of the Center for Democratic Leadership in Ukraine. Olga enclosed a book of articles and papers from a conference on civic education that the Center had sponsored. Olga says,

At the end of the book there is a short essay compiled from some postings by Jan Goehring in The Thicket that I translated into Ukrainian. At the end of the 2012-13 adcademic year, we also organized a competition among students on the best student research paper devoted to issues in civic education. This year we named the competition in honor of Jan.... This is my small tribute to Jan's memory.

Thank you for this touching memorial, Olga. Jan's reach in democracy education was truly global.

Massachusetts' Anne Ziaja Wins 2013 Harrington Award

By Karl Kurtz

Anne Ziaja, director of the Massachusetts Senate legislative education office, received the Kevin B. Harrington Award for Excellence in Democracy Education at NCSL's 2013 Summit last month in Atlanta. Anne has worked in this office for 35 years and has done an outstanding job of providing civic education for countless young people, high school and college interns and adults. She has consistently achieved 100 percent participation by Massachusetts senators in NCSL’s America’s Legislators Back to School program.

Sponsored by NCSL’s Trust for Representative Democracy, the national award recognizes an individual or organization for advancing the public’s understanding of state and local representative democracy.

Harrington, the founding president of NCSL, was dedicated to improving citizens’ understanding of American democracy. Anne received the honor bearing his name for exemplifying the same passionate commitment to excellence in democracy education.

Here is a video of the award presentation to Anne by NCSL past president Sen. Richard Moore, Massachusetts:

After receiving the award, Ziaja said,“To receive the Harrington Award and be honored on a national level is a highlight of my career. Advancing the understanding of representative democracy, and the rights and responsibilities we enjoy, assures that we will have an informed citizenry. I have been fortunate to work with many senators, representatives and legislative staff to educate Massachusetts residents about our state legislature, and give them the tools they need to engage.”

For more information about Anne Ziaja's excellent work as a civic educator, see this release. Congratulations to Anne Ziaja!

House Mouse, Senate Mouse, Candy Mouse, Wired Mouse

By Karl Kurtz

Anybody remember the book, "House Mouse, Senate Mouse," by Peter W. Barnes and Cheryl Shaw Barnes in which children learn about how Congress makes laws when the Squeaker of the House and the Senate Mouse-jority leader must pass a bill to establish a national cheese? Turns out that in Massachusetts, there really are Senate mice, as reported in this AP story in the Washington Post:

BOSTON — Massachusetts senators are being urged to end their practice of keeping candy in their desks after mice searching for the treats also chewed the senators’ microphone wires.

Senate President Therese Murray made the plea Thursday during a formal session.

The discovery was made during an upgrade of the camera system in the Senate to allow for better webcasting. Workers found that some of the senators’ microphone wires had been chewed by mice....

The Statehouse, built more than 200 years ago, has long been home to mice, and the animals can occasionally be seen scampering about, including in the press gallery.

Maybe the Massachusetts Senate mice were doing research before voting on a measure to create a state candy.

Food Waste: NCSL's Natural Resources Webinars Continue Sept. 20

By Melanie Condon

The second in a three-part series of free NCSL webinars dealing with natural resources is scheduled from 3-4 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 20.

The webinar, which will examine the benefits of reducing food waste, is  sponsored by NCSL’s Natural Resources and Infrastructure (NRI) committee. The webinar series is a way to further interact with NCSL members outside of the Summit and Forums. Many of the webinars, which launched in June, explore cross-jurisdictional issues and are coordinated with other NCSL standing committees.

The Sept. 20 webinar examining food waste, will feature Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer of General Mills, who will share his point of view on the economic and social benefits of reducing waste, and Sara Eckhouse of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who will discuss the department’s recent partnerships with the private sector to reduce waste. Registration is open.

The final webinar, devoted to the process of rebuilding after a natural disaster, is scheduled from 3-4 p.m. Eastern time, Sept. 27. Both 2012 and 2013 were marked by significant natural disaster and weather related events. From the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma to Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene, our communities have needed serious rebuilding. Attendees will hear from a panel of experts on how legislators can engage in resilient reform efforts, including through new flood zone maps, disaster insurance programs, and other rebuilding initiatives. Registration is open.

A trio of experts on the technology of turning municipal solid waste into energy participated in the series’ initial webinar Sept. 13. Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency the Center for American Progress and the German federal environmental agency, provided a fascinating look at the technology from both a domestic and international perspective. A recording of this webinar will soon be available at NCSL.org.

Part I of the two-part series took place in June and included three one-hour webinars on a wide-range of issues.

2013 Farm Bill

This webinar, co-hosted with the Health and Human Services Committee and the NCSL Hunger Partnership, took an in-depth look at the future of the 2013 Farm bill. Attendees heard from three expert panelists on an array of Farm Bill issues including, conservation, crop insurance and nutrition assistance programs.

Alternative Fuel Vehicles

The NRI Committee’s second webinar in the series on June 21 drove home the issue of alternative fuel vehicles and the infrastructure necessary to sustain the growing industry.  A representative from UPS provided insight on the growing use of alternative fuel vehicles in private industry, and an expert from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory helped attendees understand the infrastructure needs in the states for such technology.

RESTORE Act

On June 27 the NRI Committee wrapped up Part I with a webinar examining the timely issue of efforts underway to clean up the Gulf Coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and how the Gulf States will use funds directed from the RESTORE Act to maintain the health of their ecosystems.   Panelists from the Department of Interior and The Nature Conservancy provided useful observations of what funding streams will be available to the states, how they will be able to use such funds, and what states are already doing to protect their shores.  

Archived recordings of all the webinars, as well as registration details for the remaining two webinars are available here.  

Melanie Condon is a policy associate for the Agriculture, Energy, Environment and Transportation Committee in NCSL’s Washington, D.C. office.

Eagleton Institute of Politics Celebrates Alan Rosenthal

By Karl Kurtz

This coming Sunday, September 22, the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University will celebrate the life and work of Alan Rosenthal, its former director, long-time faculty member and preeminent scholar of state legislatures who passed away in July. All are invited to this event at the Nicholas Music Center on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Ruth Mandel, the current director of the Eagleton Institute, has written a moving tribute to Alan for the Council of State Governments' Capital Ideas, which complements our NCSL celebration of our long-time friend, collaborator and guru in State Legislatures magazine.

Recalling a Little History

By Karen Shanton

Last night's episode of The Rachel Maddow Show included a segment on the history – and possible political future – of state legislative recall elections (segment starts at 2:00).

The segment was interesting but there are a couple of points in it that call out for clarification. Early on in the piece, Maddow suggests that recalls used to be deployed primarily against officials who were convicted of crimes and refused to leave office. But that's not really the case. As I mentioned in a previous post, the vast majority of legislative recalls are politically motivated. And that's been true almost since the beginning. Following California Senator Marshall Black's recall for embezzlement in 1913, there wasn't another misconduct recall until the mid-1980s. The intervening recalls were all political.

Maddow also suggests that recall elections tend to favor Republicans. Whether or not that's borne out in the future, it hasn't been the case historically. Republicans have faced significantly more recall elections than Democrats and survived a smaller percentage of the recalls they've faced. Of the 38 total legislative recall elections, 14 were against Democrats while 24 were against Republicans. Democrats survived eight of their recalls to the Republicans' nine, for respective win-loss records of 57-43 percent and 38-63 percent.

And the proportion of Republican recalls has actually increased in the past couple of years. Before the wave of recall elections in 2011, 12 recalls were aimed at Republicans while nine targeted Democrats. Since then, Republicans have fielded 12 recalls to the Democrats' five. That puts the pre-2011 D-R split at 43-57 percent and the 2011-2013 split at 29-71 percent.

Most recall elections are politically motivated

By Karen Shanton

Both of the Colorado state lawmakers facing recall lost their seats on Tuesday. As followers of this story are aware, the recall efforts were politically motivated. Senate President John Morse and Senator Angela Giron, both Democrats, were targeted over their votes for gun contro

Though some states reserve recall power for reining in incompetent or unethical officials, few recalls are actually launched over misconduct – at least not at the state legislative level. Rather, like the Colorado recalls, most are political. Thirty-eight state lawmakers have faced recall elections since the first states, Michigan and Oregon, adopted the recall in 1908. Of those 38 recall efforts, 35 were politically motivated.

(An interesting exception to the general trend of political recalls is recall pioneer, Oregon, where two of the state’s three legislative recalls were over misconduct.)

Politically-motivated recall efforts face an obstacle that misconduct-driven recalls don’t: the (often-not-insignificant) segment of the population that opposes using recalls for political purposes.

This is not a trivial obstacle. It may have been a factor in the wave of state senate recalls in Wisconsin in 2011 and 2012. Exit polling from the 2012 elections, which also included attempts to unseat the governor and lieutenant governor, suggested that 60% of recall election voters opposed deploying recalls for anything other than misconduct. And a correspondingly high proportion of the targeted senators – nine of 13 – survived their recalls.

But it’s also clearly not insurmountable. Counting the Colorado elections, political recalls have succeeded on 18 out of 35 tries. That may not be the perfect three-for-three that misconduct recalls have notched but it’s still (slightly) north of 50-50.

Karen Shanton is a legislative studies specialist at NCSL and a public fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies.

 

Mt. Rushmore Trivia

Speaking at NCSL's Legislative Summit last month, David Gergen had a trivia question that's right up The Thicket's alley: What do the four men enshrined on Mt. Rushmore have in common besides having been president of the United States?

Answer below the jump.