Shea Andersen: At the Roundhouse

Down to the wire

Signs of the coming end of the Legislature:

-Snow: All that springtime sunshine has disappeared behind a freak spring snowstorm that is supposed to hang around all week. The weather nicely reflects the storms brewing in the Capitol.

-Parliamentary wrangling: Over in the House this morning Rep. Larry Larranaga tried three different ways to blast a parental notification bill out of Rep. Gail Beam's House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, to no avail. They even put a call of the House on for a while. That's the sort of thing you don't see until it's getting down to the wire.

-The signs: "No LOBBYISTS." They're now posted at the ends of the chamber hallways in both the House and Senate.

-Irregular press conferences: Rep. Joseph Cervantes, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, set up a press conference in his cramped third-floor office to talk about why the state's pre-K bill isn't moving faster. Outside, Education Secretary Veronica Garcia was tapping her feet, waiting for word from reporters just what was said. In short, "We're working on it," was the message. Possible committee clearance tonight. I don't advise holding your breath.

-Conspiracy theories: Sunday's non-conspiracy conspiracy (second item)by the House Republicans to vacate a committee hearing on election reform still hasn't quite risen to the level of true cloak-and-daggerism. In a nutshell, Republicans love this issue, and leaving a committee without a press conference just doesn't look like something from their playbook. We'll see today if Democrats back off on their assertion that games were being played.

Posted by sandersen at March 14, 2005 12:07 PM