Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. Here is where I'll be writing about my senior project through May. In case you didn't know and stumbled onto this blog randomly, seniors at BASIS Scottsdale (which includes me) spend their third trimester of the school year interning and doing research, which culminates to one glorious presentation in May. It's a great opportunity for students (again, read me) to explore different interests and learn something new, as well as a chance to show off our blogging skills and favorite gifs.

For my project, I will be shadowing to the Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita at the Arizona House of Representatives, where I'll be sitting in on committees and meetings and learning more about the legislative process. I will then be using what I learned at my internship to compare with how the state legislature is represented in the mass media. If you want to learn more about my senior project, feel free to read my senior project proposal.

Each week, I'll be updating this blog with what I have learned in that week, and hopefully the Arizonians reading this can learn more about what's happening in their state legislature. Since the legislative session began a couple of weeks ago, I am assembling a series of posts describing what I've been doing under "Week 0", including what I saw on the Opening Day of the legislature, so be sure to stay tuned for that. From what I've seen, a lot of the work goes on outside of what we would consider the typical floor debates, through drafting legislature and consulting constituents and other legislators, so I am very excited to get a look at how ordinary citizens operate to create and pass laws. If you didn't know, committee meetings and floor debates are all broadcasted live on the internet and occasionally on television, so if you want to invest the same 15+ hours a week and follow along with me (and maybe catch a glimpse of me in the audience), be sure to click here to watch.

I hope you enjoy my blog and learn something along the way. Be sure to check out my other group member's blogs (linked on the side), and subscribe so you can get updates every time I post something new. But for now, see you next week!


Thursday, April 13, 2017

"I rise for a point of personal privilege"--4/13/17

Last day! I can't believe that my senior project is already over, I had so much fun watching all of the debate and learning about the state legislature. I started the day on the House floor (physically on it, not up in the gallery), where the Rep. Ugenti-Rita introduced me to the members on the floor (no, I don't know why I look that uncomfortable, I'm sorry I was just trying to stand):


After which, they gave me a certificate signed by the Rep. Ugenti-Rita and the Speaker of the House that I was actually there, so I now have proof!
Now you know that all my blog posts weren't weird fever dreams!

Also, on a sidenote, I discovered today that I am on the homepage of the House Republican website, which was taken on opening day (try to find me):

Where's Waldo?
After which, I had the honor of sitting up on the Speakers desk during COW #3 (aka second reading of bills aka when most of the debate goes down). Whenever they do COW or second reading of bills, they always have someone else besides the Speaker act as the chair to moderate the debate, and since it was Rep. Ugenti-Rita's turn to do so, they let me sit up there with her! It was super cool to see everything going on from that viewpoint, especially considering since a guest has never sat up there during session in history. (Actually. When I went back into the office Rep. Weninger's assistant told me I had made history, and a lobbyist joked that he had been working there for 10 years and I beat him to it.) So here is a photo of me doing that, and if you want to watch snippets of me on the chair you can look here (you'll want to start at around the 25-minute mark if you really want to see some fuzzy footage of my face).

wow famous pt.2
While I was up there, someone passed me this note that had a really cute Arizona pin on it! One thing that I have learned since my time here at the legislature is to take pride in my state, so it seemed fitting that I now have a way to express that:
Co-co-chair!
I'm sorry I'm assaulting you with photos to feed my own ego, but it was so cool! In terms of actual bills, it was also an exciting day. The House talked about petitioners for initiatives and referendums, voucher reform, and ADA compliance (pretty much all of the big issues that have been talked about since day one). There were also two points of order, where legislators accused each other of impunity (and were dismissed, because I don't think anyone would really know what to do if  one actually went through), and Rep. Rubalcava apologized for his comments saying he wanted to punch a Republican sponsor of a certain bill he disliked in the throat. Also, Rep. Lovas had his last day at the House as well, as he is leaving to serve on President Trump's Small Business Administration to provide advice. Overall, it was the best last day I could have had. I am so incredibly grateful that I got this opportunity and have learned so much about politics and Arizona, and for an amazing blogging group that bothers to read and comment on all of the extra blog posts that I make. Thanks to you guys for reading all of my blog posts and definitely reading all of those insightful fact sheets I linked!!!

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

"His name is Pebbles"--4/16/17

Hi everyone! It was a fairly average day at the House. Most of the debate on the floor today was about SB1003, which had a strike-everything amendment about the removal of children by the Department of Child Safety and a substantial amount of debate. If you want, you can watch the whole debate here:



For the quote of the day, I would like to make a correction. As someone who is studying the media, I feel like I need to obey my reporting ethics and confess to an error in an earlier blog post. I attached a picture of a baby duck because I was jealous of Trey's photos on his blog (which you can check out here) of a duck who I mistakenly identified as Puddles. Trey has since corrected me, the duck's name is indeed Pebbles. I apologize sincerely for those of you who were misled, I hope you can forgive. Also, sorry it was a short blog post, if you want to read a lot look at my Monday and Thursday posts since those days were more exciting.

Monday, April 10, 2017

"Get involved!"--4/10/17

Hi everyone! I can't believe that this is my last week, it seems like senior projects have gone by really fast. Today I started on the House floor, where they didn't do much, and then I spent the rest of my day interviewing representatives! It was a really great experience and I am so thankful that Rep. Ugenit-Rita and Mr. Klugman helped set that up, and of course that these people were willing to speak with me at all. I ended up interviewing Rep. Rios, the minority leader, Rep. Weninger, a Republican who represents Chandler, and Rep. Clark, a Democrat who represents parts of Pheonix and Scottsdale. I won't quote any of them because I didn't record the interviews so I have zero guarantees that I will use their exact wording but I will do my best? Everyone gave really insightful and thoughtful responses to my questions, I'll write about each question I wrote and their answers. Also, if you choose to skim through, or if you are going to read any of this,  please read question #6!!! I asked for it specifically for you guys so be grateful.


1) What drove you to become a representative?

Representative Rios said that she was originally a social worker, and for her when a seat opened up in her district it was an opportunity for her to do that work at a macro level. She mentioned that she was frustrated with some of the ways that things were run and thought it was a great opportunity for her to affect greater change.

Representative Weninger told me that for him it seemed like the next step after having served on city council for a few years, and as a way to move onto bigger problems in the state. He did, however, also talk to some of the things he misses about working on the city council, like the instant satisfaction. In other words, as a city councilman, when someone approached him with a particular issue, he could get it solved quickly, whereas as a representative it is a longer and more laborious process to help someone with a particular issue.

Representative Clark said he does it for the money (which is a joke- state legislators only get paid $24,000 a year and have not had a raise in years, and is also why many hold second jobs to supplement that income). His story was actually a bit longer (but I'll tell you a shorter version). He studied in Holland for a while in a military school during the Cold War, where he fell in love with politics. Along with that, he missed Arizona, and so he chose to run here for state representative.


2) How do you as a representative keep in contact with your constituents and stay aware of the needs in your district?

Rep. Rios keeps in touch with her district by newsletters that she publishes on what she has been doing at the Capitol, as well as attending as many events in her district as possible. She also mentioned that reading her local papers and reaching out to other elected officials at the local level were other ways that she learns about what is going on in her district.

Rep. Weninger told me the state legislature was referred to as "the bubble" by legislators because it sometimes becomes difficult to stay aware of what is going on outside the Capitol. But he also said that one of the ways that he keeps in touch with constituents is through social media and facebook community pages. Every now and then he would make videos explaining why he voted a certain way for his constituents, and he reads all his emails, to which he adds to a database of email addresses to ask his constituents about what they think of certain issues. Beyond that, he talks a lot with the people in his restaurants (he owns a few) who like to discuss the legislature with him and their issues in the district.

Rep. Clark is also a big fan of social media, which he uses to keep in touch with constituents; however, he did mention some difficulties with internet trolling. He also tries to host as many events as possible, including attending neighbourhood association meetings, as well as reading emails.

3) Would you consider your consituents as actively engaged in the political process?

Rep. Rios made an interesting point that she felt like her constituents were more aware of her and the state legislature when she represented a more rural district, rather than now that she represents a larger city.

Rep. Weninger mentioned that though he likes to give updates, people who are far more extreme in their political beliefs tend to stay more up to date with the state legislature, whereas the average person not as much. On the flip side, this is why, he said, the communication with his constituents is important, especially since he distrusts the media to accurately portray him and wants to cut through the media to keep them updated. Rep. Weninger also mentioned that this is why he trusts community newspapers more.

Rep. Clark said that his consituents are more active than ever before, but still not enough. He points to recent protests and marches as signs of his consituency caring more and mroe about what is going on at the state level, but that more steps need to be taken for them to affect change.

4) If you had to identify one flaw in the legislative process, what would it be?

Rep. Rios told me that one of the more frustrating things was that the party that is in control has total control of the legislature. She conceded that if Democrats were in power, they would probably do the same thing as Republicans when choosing committees and their chairs; however, in her view, if things were fairly done it would be more on a proportional base. I.e., if Democrats had 40% of the House, they would have 40% on committees and 40% chairing, etc. She said that the partisanship does make it difficult for anyone in the minority to be heard.

Rep. Weninger pointed to the fact that one person out of the 90 legislators can kill a bill. He said that this wasn't so terrible so as that he would abolish it, but he did say it was frustrating when one person, be it a committee chair or the Speaker or the President, can simply choose not to hear the bill and it will die.

Rep. Clark said that bipartisanship was much better than it was in previous years, due to the change in Speaker to J.D. Mesnard. However, he did say that one thing that frustrates him were the stacked committees against Democrats, meaning that each committee will always have a majority that is Republican, making it difficult for the Democrats to stop a bill or push one forward.

5) Do you feel that the way the bills are covered accurately reflect their intent and the consequence they will have? If no, what can be done to fix these issues?

Rep. Rios said that people don't know the legislative process that led to a bill, or the pros/cons of an issue, only the end result. When articles talk about the legislature, they focus on outcomes rather than process. However, she also said that the media can only do so much, that they only really can cover the highlights. Furthermore, it is getting better now, especially with live streaming, and a lot of times, it becomes a matter of interest and whether the people take steps to find out what's going on.

Rep Weninger said that the media does a poor job of covering the state legislature, that their focus is overwhelmingly negative and that they seek out to report on the "bad" things that get passed, rather than the hundreds of bills that get passed every year that help other Arizonans. He pointed to "kids care" as an example, because when it passed out of the House with no fuss, but when it went over to the Senate reporters started writing articles shaming the legislature for what was going on.

Rep. Clark labelled the coverage of the state legislature as accurate, but lacking in details. His example was the voucher program, where it has been reported on at a surface level, but missing many of its nuances like the lack of accountability and so forth. He said that this is because it is difficult for reporters to do so and that the problem is that the media has shrunk, are there are not enough reporters to cover everything like there were before.

6) If you had one thing to tell all of the young Arizonans who are gaining their right to vote this year, what would you tell them about the legislative process?

Rep. Rios said to get involved! (wow quote of the day!) She told us to get involved, have a voice, register! She said not to dismiss the legislature, everything they do impacts us, and youth has the power to change things. She even told me/you to consider running, especially if you are a woman, because the legislature needs that kind of representation.

Rep. Weninger told me/you all to not take everything you believe for granted, and to objectively consider both parties' viewpoints. He said that he is surprised how often people just assume the values of their parents or friends, especially since it would go against the rebellious spirit of nonconformity. He also mentioned that we should be wary, and to look objectively at what the media and everyone is saying.

Rep. Clark said that politics is like television series and that when you're not watching, it can seem intimidating when you don't know the conflicts or the characters, but take the time to start. Because once you know it, it's addicting, And you'll want to watch the next episode.
(I can personally attest to that, I think he just kinda summed up my project in like three seconds)


Anyways! I hope you all enjoyed reading all of these words as I enjoyed listening to them from the legislators. It was a huge privaledge, and I am excited to incorporate it into my project. See you next time!


Thursday, April 6, 2017

"Point of Order"--4/6/17

Hey everyone! Today was an exciting day at the legislature, and I'll walk you through my whole day at the floor. The Senate and the House were hearing exact bills about expanding the state voucher program, and by the time I arrived this morning there were already protests (which is actually pretty common at this point). But anyways, state vouchers were tools used by the state to fund the education of children who are disabled, children of veterans, etc. should they choose to switch from public to charter or private schools (basically covering the difference). This new law originally would have expanded that program so that all student would have been able to receive state money to switch to  whatever school they wanted to go to. Proponents argue that it increases school choice, meaning it provides greater access to all of the schools in Arizona to all of the students in the state, especially for those low-income families who are unable to afford to go to these schools. Opponents argue that the bill is a misuse of tax dollars and will spiral out of control, and will also take a lot of money away from the public schools that already are strapped for cash. Furthermore, the opposition argues that the vouchers won't end up helping the truly low-income families and will only benefit more middle-class families.

Anyways, the floor session began extremely empty, as House Democrats were running in from a meeting (which I assume was about how to stop the bill from passing), and later left to go coordinate with their peers in the Senate who were also trying to figure out the same thing. Eventually Rep. Espinoza (who is a Democrat) called a point of order where the Speaker eventually called upon a rule to require people to be on the floor, forcing the Democrats to come back (which is the quote! I chose it because I still don't understand why the Democrat was the one to call all of his fellow members back, please comment with all of your crazy conspiracy theories). Meanwhile, all the protesters had filed into the gallery (one tried to convince me to join their cause) and were waiting as the House went through all of the noncontroversial bills first, until they got bored and went down to watch the debate in the Senate. All of this was made more crazy by the fact that that same morning a strike-everything amendment was introduced, meaning everything that they had studied about the original bill was somewhat disregarded as the new bill was (while not completely, still somewhat) different. I couldn't find a good summary or fact sheet on it, so to be honest I'm still a little confused about what the amendment was. And apparently, it took the Democrats a while to figure it out too, because you could see the Democratic staff walking around the floor and handing their members questions to ask for their debate to try to slow this down. Meanwhile, in the Senate, someone introduced an amendment to the strike-everything amendment, and the members over there were debating whether to adopt that one or not. Therefore, the House was trying their best to slow everything down, asking millions of questions to Rep. Allen (the sponsor, but really Sen. Lesko wrote the bill) in an attempt to get the Senate to approve that amendment so they could incorporate it into the final bill. Meanwhile, Republican representatives were walking in and out of the floor with the speaker and the whip, as apparently they were trying to secure all of the votes necessary. This is also why the session took the whole day, but I digress.

Anyways, they finally decided to vote on the strike-everything (they still hadn't moved onto the actual bill), and but the Democrats were a few votes short of preventing it from passing(some Republicans actually flipped and voted against it, but not enough) Similarly, the bill moved forward. Although this wasn't the official vote to send it to the governor (second read, not third, remember?), the battle was pretty much over, and it is likely to become law (unless someone finds it unconstitutional, but they run every bill through the House Rules Committee, where a bunch of lawyers talk that one out).

So maybe you didn't find that as wild as I did, so here is a picture of a cute duck for reading all of this because I'm starting to feel the competition from Trey's blog:

is this duck cuter than pebbles? 

(Also sorry for all the parenthesis, I know it's all over the place. I also understand the irony of me saying this in parenthesis, but whatever. See you next week!)

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

"All those opposed..."--4/5/17

Hi everyone! I actually didn't go to the legislature this Monday, so there will only be two blog posts for this week (I know, you all must be devastated). Today I watched the House floor, where they actually went through the bills very quickly, despite some of the bills on the calendar. For example, bills about textbook reviews that received a lot of resistance in committee passed through the House Committee of the Whole without any discussion, despite some votes "nay". Which brings me to my quote of the day! I know, this post is kinda short, but it was a kinda short day (I went home early because the Appropriations committee was cancelled). Whenever they do a vocal vote, whoever chairs asks for all those in favor to say "aye" and those opposed to say "nay", and though often times legislators will be against a bill, they may not choose to discuss it thoroughly on the floor. Really, for these legislators (which are 99% the Democrats), it is more of a pick-your-battles situation, especially when in some circumstances they know that they won't be able to convince anyone to vote against it. For many, the opportunity to discuss and debate is futile, because not often does a legislator walk onto the floor unsure of his/her position on an issue and debating on how he/she will vote. Instead, these discussions are more of an opportunity to (if not slow down) express opposition or to rally public support or as a way to prove the validity of their opposition and to force the other side to listen. Of course, this isn't to say fighting is useless. Debate can always be constructive, and can sometimes illustrate priorities and focus conversation, especially when you need to pick your battles. I know I've been painting a fairly rosy image of government so far in my blog (and maybe because I just have warm fuzzy feelings about the place), so I wanted to begin to show the other side of that in my posts, especially as things begin to wrap up and I am reflecting on my time here at the Arizona House of Representatives.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

"What's the rush?"--3/29/17

Hello everyone! Today I went down to the House floor, where they were talking about lobbyists and abortions, which I will choose not to talk about in depth for reasons you can imagine. But if you want, you can watch the floor debate here, it was very interesting to watch.

Afterwards, I went to the House Appropriations committee, where they were mostly talking about SB1236, which had a strike-everything amendment being offered that would essentially do the same thing as another bill I discussed earlier the initiative process (which banned paying circulators by the signature). Somewhere along the way that earlier bill had died, and so the House was taking another go with this amendment. During this discussion, Rep. Fernandez brought up the quote of the day, which I chose because it gave a different and unexpected perspective on legislating. Even though many people complain that legislators don't do enough, Rep. Fernandez was arguing that more time should be spent on the process. I also felt like the conversation in the committee better explains some of the things that I have been trying to convey to you all with my quotes way better than I have been able to, so I really encourage all of you to watch: