Category Archives: politics

A paper due at school, yes.

Bullies, no. Actually I had others to plead my case there. Thank you!

Dad taught me to think for myself and do for myself. I had many mentors throughout life but he was the best.

I would not submit to any discrimination including gender, Title IX, or sexual harassment, way before those laws were passed. I got the city and county agree to make a crosswalk, one they do not re-paint and that no-one stops at. But I got them to agree, a rare thing.

Yes, I can submit an issue to government. But I do not need to submit to them, as a voter. There is something called the 1st Amendment. Cheers! Dee

I wrote a certain Congresswoman to say thanks for what she’s doing and what her bravado and courage meant to me 25 years ago.

She will not accept any mail from outside her district. This is not our country, our US of A, it is mini-fiefdoms. That is what our elected officials have become. Entrenched, enriched, with way better health care and ready to retire comfortably.

Can we say that about us? No job security, sometimes no job. No health insurance that means anything. No retirement and even with a bit in savings I believe our interest is about $6 per year.

Now it’ll get worse. The middle and lower tax brackets will be raised so rich people can get richer. When a representative of Congress refuses to take a thank-you that’s a sign that we have fiefdoms, not a country, I vote for the country in which I was born, the United States of America. Not every state or each congressional district. I was born here, I live here and should be allowed to send a thank-you note. Cheers! Dee

That is what they were called. I considered myself a policy person, so had nothing to do with un-electing folks on the other side of the aisle, only helping those on our side with legislation.

Here are a few stories, simplest first. Our committee was huge, pre-computer, and a grab-bag. Veterans, Native Americans, cable TV, privacy, ethics (!), reapportionment, civil and human rights, discrimination due to actual or perceived sexual orientation, crime victim rights (Son of Sam), displaying the flag, fire and building codes and you name it, I got it.

I’ve always come up with my best solutions around 3:00 a.m. Here are a few.

One “marginal” legislator had a constituent who wanted to sell a plot of land. At the end of Session both parties agreed on land sales, but that didn’t stop the opposition from bogging it down in Committee. I had three rules on this. Call the top lawyer from the department and ask is this land for sale? Do you wish to sell it? And is the surveyor’s report correct. Yea all around, it goes on my agenda.

Come meeting day there was a fight. Don’t worry, I had my Diet Coke in my coffee cup. My chairman was not winning so I asked to step in and said to the opposition that I could explain the surveyor’s report. The chair yielded and I spent about fifteen seconds looking at the bill. Then I declared that it was “four pages.” Everyone laughed, we won on a party line vote. I broke the tiredness (especially mine) and tensions.

Another “marginal” came to me because a 12 year-old wanted to participate in Revolutionary War re-enactments with his father. The legislator was very upset that I could not do this immediately. I researched it thoroughly and the problem is that if the constituent’s son was allowed to spend weekends with dad on the “battlefield” he would be eligible to be conscripted into the National Guard and sent overseas, at war.

There was no way I was going to let this kiddo go to war. It took three weeks to pass this piece of legislation. I was stymied, the legislator was hounding me and complaining to my superiors. At 3:00 in the morning I had an idea. I got up and dressed and walked to the office. I re-wrote an entire section of the Uniform Code for Military Justice, for this boy.

I sat next to the legislator for floor debate. It passed. My office mate and I had gone to the toy store at lunch to get gifts for his kids. I bought a tin soldier and gave it to the legislator after passage of “his” bill.

Now, politics. I helped a “marginal” get elected and he stayed in his post for 30 years. Election night was crazy. Everyone was in the other room socializing and wondering about results. I was in back with the phone and chalk board (yes, the old days) alone.

A call came in for the candidate. His potential boss, and after I kindly asked who was calling I knew his name and title. I sent someone for the candidate and said to come immediately. I asked the caller if he wanted numbers from specific districts while he waited a moment. Instead he asked how I knew him. I said, sir, you don’t know me.

He asked my name and said “Of course, I’d recognize you anywhere, you have your Daddy’s eyes.” That’s a politician. When the newly-elected legislator got on the phone with his boss I shooed out the volunteer, left and shut the door. Five minutes later he addressed the crowd. He won! Dee

After college I took a job in politics. I was hired as a policy wonk but realized I was becoming a politician. Having my little brother and sister do “lit drops” which is a folder on your door, or conducting phone ops evenings and weekends I elected my guy.

I didn’t think I was in politics because I was hip-deep into all kinds of law and policy. I got the call from the Majority Leader (he asked my name and said I had my Dad’s eyes) that said Mr. P won without saying it. I cupped the land line (years ago) and yelled for them to get the newest Assemblyman so his boss, the Majority Leader, could tell him he won. Actually they didn’t know, I didn’t know and just said get him ASAP. I remember afterward looking at a harvest moon and cider,not the hard kind.

This man, P, was the most selfless, studious, runner, committed family man I ever met until I met my husband. Mr. P and his wife and family were the reason I became committed to policy and not politics and had to quit. Early on he had me take him to a “hot” place to dance and drink because we were both from the country. There were few places, this was the lobby of a Hilton. We ordered a club soda and a glass of wine.

They mixed it up. I had the wine. He said, my colleagues drink, gamble and cheat on their wives. I told him of the “pact” where colleagues could even have second families and all talk of it stopped at a certain point on the road.

He did none of those things, ran 12 miles a day, read every bill he was going to vote on (that’s why I was there, to analyze and provide synopses so no Member would ever have to read a bill.)

He stayed many years and retired elsewhere. I’d like to think I did as well. He thinks I helped him get elected. I think his grace and dignity saved me. He gave me my husband, though he couldn’t even run after our old dog! Thank You Mr. P. You and your family saved my life. Dee

ps Now I’m getting crosswalks, no after-hours biker bars and now as an old lady I get to choose my vote, can even walk to the Montessori school that is my polling place. Who could ask for anything more? Not me, D