Week 1 of virtual lobbying... lessons learned
As the maiden voyage of the Connecticut legislature comes to a close, we experienced the reality of working under the new virtual joint rules and a legitimate regular session of the House and Senate to tackle the reappointments of several judges.
My favorite new statement came from the House Clerk - Staff and guests please clear the well, legislators please return to the chamber or your virtual portals, the House is about to take a vote! It made me chuckle, as did when Deputy Speaker Bob Godfrey announced - Members prepare yourself and your mouses to cast your vote!
All week long it really didn’t seem as if we were lobbying, even though we covered 18 formal legislative committee meetings and juggled dozens of “lobbying” related zoom calls. The virtual committee meetings were more like power point presentations – statement, slide, statement - or a Q&A session rather than the normal back and forth discussions and debates about topics and positions as well as those humorous moments when the public attendees interject something out of order. Then there was the missing “before and after meeting quality time” where we have the opportunity to set up a client’s one on one meeting, catch up with a legislator to provide feedback, follow up on something they inquired about during a meeting or in the halls of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) or just a simple opportunity to pick their brains for a possible language change. It’s going to be hard to replicate those moments this session - at least for now.
On the bright side, the committee leaders and ranking members carried forward their caucus leader’s words of respect, understanding and a greater sense of working together - listening to the pros and cons and reaching a decision. As I mentioned last week, the tone for the CT Legislature was set on Opening Day and it’s great to see it carried through at the committee levels - though the heavy lifting and controversy of a public hearing or a committee vote on bills to pass out of committee hasn’t happened yet.
A few observations from the first week of session - the Sullivan & LeShane old stand-by committee members view books have been replaced with a visual authentication voting process; and then there is the new experience where we get a glimpse into committee members’ lives as they attend meetings from home. We get a glimpse of family photos, home decor, furry friends, young children and even some selected back drops which give us an insight into their likes, passions and regular lives! An interesting and up front and personal chance to learn a bit more about who represents us in Hartford!
There certainly were moments of how is this going to work now or what do we do next? Dozens of legislators scratched their heads and wondered how do I vote in Judiciary on the nominated judges while attending the Environment / Government and Administration committee meeting to approve a list of proposed bills when I have only one computer at my disposal?
Then there was the matter of keeping the votes open while the committee went into recess only to have the next up committee call dibs on the virtual committee room... oops! And several times to the public it looked like the committee started with the usual casual banter before the clerk had the public participation portion opened up and we found ourselves joining at the sound of the gavel, missing the color commentary and potential discussions about the day’s agenda. All instances have the leaders scrambling to get committees to implement the current committee protocols routinely with possible changes in the coming weeks.
One consistent protocol mentioned that legislators, lobbyists, staffers, the public and even clients will need to acknowledge and work through is that the process will be slower and we all need to be patient! For some of us that’s a hard one for sure!
And while that gets worked out, for someone like me who is a people person and love, love, love the interactions with people, I’ll have to work that out in another way and find opportunities to get to know the freshmen class of legislators, reacquaint with the sophomore class and play catch up with old familiar friends in order to find a “work around” to this virtual thing!
As some say, it’s all good - at least for this week!