health programs for poor have been cut back, fixing those problems should fall to the state legislature and the governor. but as in washington, sacramento is the uc in a pattern of partisan wrangling, wrangling the public seems eager to see end. sacramento bee political columnist dan walters has been covering the state capitol for 40 years. >> the inability to balance the budget and it reflects people's general unhappiness with the economy and their lives, i guess in california these days. there is a tendency to blame those in political power when that happens. >> the result, walters says is cynicism about what happens at the state capitol. >> too much time bickering and arguing. they don't get anything done. >> you have two sides that are trying to one-upmanship then it things don't get done. >> some fed up with the political paralysis are coming up with their own way to solve problems. a billionaire with family ties to california put up $20 million to fund a bipartisan reform panel called think long. >> california reflects what is happening in washington. you've got two sides that hav

the legislature is in session all year in michigan.ture often doesn't end until the end of the calendar year. what that means is theoretically a law could pass in january and not take effect until march of the following year. 90 days after the end of that year's legislative session. michigan has a really slow process on purpose. they did it that way on purpose. laws taking a long time to take effect allows people affected by that law to have time to adjust. it also gives people who don't like that law a chance to start overturning it by a citizens repeal. michigan designed that process to be a slow one, clearly and on purpose. it's in their constitution that way for a reason. but as practical people they also recognize that sometimes extenuating circumstances you need your loss to take effect faster. something has happened, right? maybe you've been invaded or you've had an outbreak or a flood of a disease. an emergency that needs responding to right now by lawmakers. to account for that in michigan, while most bills do have to wait unt

it's where governors are elected independently of state legislatures, where the legislature might be controlled by a different party than the governor. it is a very interesting question, whether that's the better model. it is the american model. >> there is another dimension of american constitutionalism which seems increasingly relevant, and that is federalism. we have a deeply conflicted feeling about our own federal history, but the fact is that europe is on the verge of failure. the euro zone is going to fall apart, which could have global implications of a disastrous order. and that what they can't do is what's built into our system, a system of burden-sharing and of transfer of payments. we can handle things that the world will need to handle on an increasingly large scale. >> but isn't there another issue there? i heard governor jerry brown of california say the other day that if the legislature won't agree to something, it goes to the people. and the people can't create a referendum and decide that way. it is truly taking the government or the governing of that state to the p

the legislature is controlled by one group, the presidency by a different party. there's a perception that thing don't get done. presidents get frustrated and so then they start to try to just govern by executive decree, unilateralism. this has led in south america torque coups. you would see some possible pathologists even in the united states with divided government, presidents being tempted to do all sorts of things by executive order and so there is a vet interesting question about -- and it's not just true of the u.s. constitution. it's true of 50 state constitutions where governors are elected independently of state legislatures, where the legislature might be controlled by a different party than the governor and it is a very interesting question whether it's the better model. it is the american model. >> there is another dimension of american constitutionalism which seems increasingly relevant, and that is federalism. we have a deeply conflicted feelings about our own federal history, but the fact is that europe is on the verge of failure. the euro zone is

i think over 34 measures were introduced across in state legislatures across the country in 2011. there's at least 32 introduced in 2011 and many of them have passed. it's interesting in states like texas it's passed, wisconsin, south carolina. many of these states are subject to preclearance under the voting rights act because of bad behavior in the past in terms of discrimination. so they're actually subject to preclearance by the u.s. department of justice. guess what? they're not getting it we know that these are racist, sexist laws that are designed to disenfranchise voters. how are they designed to disenfranchise voters? if you're required to get a state issued voter identification like a driver's license, if you're elderly, if you're over 75, most individuals do not have photo identification anymore especially driver's license. if you are a student you won't have the same address as your voter identification as your driver's license because you're constantly, from one year to the next, new dorm, out of state. in addition, if you are a person of color, many places we're seei

so there were serious efforts made in the legislature to disenfranchise women in 1799 and 18 1802. finally, after a particularly contentious election in 1807 the legislature was able to pass a law that disenfranchised both women and free blacks. they did it because there were accusations of fraud. but it's interesting. when there are accusations of fraud, what the legislature did was disenfranchise the most underrepresented and marginalized groups, the women and free blacks. and thus ended in 1807 this brief experiment in women voting. now you might say, did the women rise up in protest? and somewhat surprisingly, they did not. and to understand why not, we have to go back to understanding what voting meant at this time. remember, voting at this time was understood as a privilege of property, not a natural right. it would be the jeffersonians who in the early 19th century would launch a state by state campaign to eliminate property qualifications for voting for white men. and their argument would be that voting is a natural right. now, even jeffersonians acknowledged that women had

no increase in the number of women serving in state legislatures. from about 1994 to now, we've gone from about 22% to 24% in state legislatures. i love this 17%, it's a real reminder, because i think that what happens out there is we see these big, famous names, right? you see nancy pelosi and you see hillary clinton and you see michele bachmann and you see condoleezza rice, and people think it's missioned accomplished, there are women everywhere, there are plenty of them. but the reality is, we're talking about 17% in congress, 24% in state legislatures. of all of the governors in this country, only six women. and that's down from the record. we've been going down in statewide elected office consistently. so, we see this kind of flat-lining, and we all sort of moan, what can we do? and we looked at the year 2012, and we said this is another year of opportunity. and we thought about this at the center and with our partner, mary hughes out in california, a while ago, and we've been working on something called the 2012 project, to take advantage of 2

well are there any legislatures in the house right now? >> this is a follow-up to david's point about the media. could we generation some media of our own? could, for example, in the state of oklahoma this institution find a way to recognize and broadcast the successes that are happening in the classroom? to reward the teachers and the students by that kind of attention partly to educate our other leaders? also to -- up to encourage a sense of the possibilities of things that really are working in the classroom. >> if i understand your question correctly, one of the problems is that in -- this is everywhere, that because of the emphasis on reading and math they have pretty much not just pushed history to the back burner, they put it off the stove. >> yes. >> i think there's a very good solution to that, and that is, fine stress math, fine stress reading, could we please when we think about reading something worthwhile, read the literature of history. read lincoln's second inaugural address, read letters from the birmingham jail. read the g

the legislature. in the new jersey plan, it had an executive by committee so that no single person was responsible, and the members of the committee could blame one another if something went wrong. and after the constitution was formed or framed, a strong executive was opposed by the anti-federalists who represented the republican tradition, the republican genius. now the idea of a strong executive was also new. that was an invention of modern political science traceable to machiavelli. execution as carrying something else, following it out to its end. in that sense executive is doing the will of someone else besides you. so it's a subordinate function. the second sense of execution is still the same in english as well as italian is killing. capital punishment. an independent exercise of will by the executive. to execute a law is not enough to say please. you may meet resistance. you have to overcome this resistance, possibly even execute a resistor. the number one meaning of executive means a weak ex

, state legislature to get the kind of incentives you want. local municipalities don't have the tools to provide the incentives. there are a lot of things they can do, permit, but they can't reduce the property tax on their owns. you can't reduce benefits unless you have a 2/3 vote of the people in the area. i think you need to go to the legislature. i would be remiss to say we keep thinking 22 years ago. we still haven't repaired the bridge yet. the bridge will be ready hopefully next year. so 22, 23 years later. >> i would just like to say it is extremely difficult to get people engaged in advance to do the things that need to be done and then there's a lot of people, as you mentioned, that will be visits or what not -- visiting or what not that would have no clue. so i think probably as a strategy maybe the next level of the certain nert training is to actually think about ways of postdisaster immediate communication and engagement with people so they can be brought up to speed about the fact that this structure does exist and there is a se

this was placed by the florida legislature last year. and what this basically does is public funding is -- it will deny public funding for abortion. we don't know, we're still exploring what this really means. but this also could impact public employees' private insurance, because technically it's paid for by public funds. so it could take away abortion care from private insurance people that are employed by the state. and also, there is a little provision written in. the florida privacy and their constitution is actually stronger than the united states constitution. so they will would like to repeal it to the united states standard. now, what does this mean? because honestly, the first time i looked at it, i was like, what? we stop a lot of things because of the strong privacy laws in florida. so we're -- repealing it would open the door for things that might not necessarily get very far because of the protection in their constitution. so this will be happening in november. and another thing that will be happening in november, in montan

for decades, there are state legislature that has get together and talk about what state legislaturesso in california? >> right. >> it's what you expect and wanted the legislators to do and they are doing it from a conservative point of view. >> in 2010, they took over 675 seats. took over legislatures in alabama and north carolina. i think the left feels that republicans are making too many gains at state level and they threaten the status quo public unions and like. >> paul: then why not attack the ideas. we oppose school choice for the following reasons. why pla playing this game because you support voter i.d. laws and stand your ground legislation which stand your ground is controversial, no question about it. particularly in the wake of trayvon martin but it has passed in 26 or some states with a lot of democratic governors signing the legislation? >> it's also a lot of limited from the media coverage, stand your ground sblan content right for people to blaze away when they feel scared. >> zimmerman has been indicted? >> but beyond his particular case, it's basically whether you

the legislature didn't initiate this process, and trying to get a legislature to change the process, that they give up the power to put in the hands of the commission is a daunting one. i don't know if you can do that in states that don't have valid initiative procedures, but it's worth trying. in the states that do, can you put together an initiative to create a commission like our commission? i think you could. do you want to do it the way california has done it? well, that's a really good question. it's 14, is that the right number? can you represent an entire state among 14 people? , is 14 people too many? can you get work done? we got work done. we did a lot of very good work with that number and was very effective, and for the most part, it's consensus driven throughout the whole process. that might not be the case in every state. is that the right number? is the party balance right? if you're the minority party, you love having the same amount of seats as the majority party. if you're the majority party, maybe you don't like that. how do you divide that? the legislative leader

a bill that was passed by republicans in the state legislature there. governor dayton had to fake veto this bill instead of actually vetoing it because minnesota republicans voted to put this measure on the ballot in november. they're putting it on a ballot as a constitutional amendment. in minnesota, that sort of thing does go through the legislative process, but the governor doesn't have any way to block it. instead it goes right up for a vote by the people in november. even though he could not veto this legislation, governor dayton symbolically vetoed it today calling the measure unwise and unnecessary. this is not the first time that governor dayton has done this sort of thing. also on the ballot in november in minnesota is going to be a measure to doubly tripley extra pinky swear ban gay marriage again in the state. governor dayton fake vetoed that bill last may. to be clear, same-sex marriage is already illegal in minnesota. it's already banned. minnesota republicans having solved all the other pressing problems in their state have decided to go t

they won big majorities in both houses of the state legislature.ly big majorities but did not win quite big enough majorities. thanks to a change in the state constitution back in the 1960s, yes, that mr. romney's dad, george. if you have a two-thirds majority vote, you do thot have to wait for the end of the session for past bills to become law. with a two-thirds vote, a super majority vote, you can have those bills become law immediately. they go into immediate effect. michigan republicans have that two-thirds super majority in the senate, but they don't visit in the house. and even though they don't have that two third super majority in the house, which they would need to put their laws into immediate effect, they have been acting like they do have that majority. here's what that looks like. what you're going to see here is the republican speaker of the house making the decision that two-thirds of the legislature, that 73 people are voting that this law that just passed should go into immediate effect. watch him count to 73. >> speaker recognize

in part, the letter to the massachusetts legislature reads "the undersigned officers of the troops of massachusetts, in our own names and the names of our brethren in the field, declare that we highly respect and approve the new constitution of the commonwealth of massachusetts." it goes on with paragraphs of praise and then it predicts, it says, "we formed the most austicious omens of prosperity." those omens came to. the constitution served as probably the most important model to the federal constitution and today it's the oldest constitution in the western world. and i think in the entire world for that matter. but the letter from these soldiers turned from praise to plea. the soldiers reminded the legislature that they were still at war and the liberties promised in the new constitution of 1780 would be meaningless without support for the troops who were fighting for our freedoms. if only the legislatures of the respective states will vigorously carry into immediate effect the resolutions of congress, the enemy will be deprived of their hope of conquest. it seems clear, the soldie

lament the local council and then run for state legislature. i actually think what happens is we pard those women up because being on the school board feet is the toughest job that there is. you can add to the supermarket because everybody knows you. you're dealing with issues affecting their children, and they are crazy. and so it is a really, really tough job. so let's not -- i mean, if what you want to do is be on the school board then by all means be on the school board, but if what you want to do is run for the state legislature, do it. if just do it. >> last question. >> certified older woman. >> says that you didn't want to ask a question. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i thought you were a mike monitor are something. >> no. as is twist to make sure the other entity added chance. i will try to be brief. this question was tailored to the past panelist, but i think it is applicable to everyone in the room. i hope that anyone who represents an organization, not necessarily sitting on stage with uncomfortable answering it. i said in montgomery cou

the republican-led legislature in oklahoma has so far been undeterred.tate's governor a bill that would require doctors to tell women they can listen to a fetal heartbeat before an abortion. oklahoma, is something of a unique case. remember it was oklahoma that voted to ban sharia law back in 2010. last year the oklahoma legislature passed a bill to make cooking hash punishable by life in prison. hash? yes, hash. the oklahoma legislature passed a birther bill last year. they passed it. it passed by a landslide, 77-13 in the oklahoma house on the same day that president obama released his long form birth certificate. nothing is too radical for the oklahoma republicans in the state legislature, really. nothing except it turns out personhood is too radical for them. the ban to personhood and banning birth control defining a fertilized bill has been kicked around the legislature in oklahoma. it was derailed yesterday. the republican house speaker saying the bill will not get a hearing because the majority of the republican caucus privately voted against hear

he was appointed, well, actually, chosen by the legislature to fill out an unexpired term. and he was about four months shy of his 30th birthday. and they just chose to ignore it. there were a few comments in letters from some of his fellow senators that they thought he was a little below the legal limit. but no one ever raised the issue. >> until later. then later they use it to attack him as a perjurerer for taking the constitutional oath, his political enemies. that was one of the arrows in their quiver that they drew out against him. >> if i look at the record it shows he was just in the senate a very short time in the first two times one from november of '0 6 to march of 1910 to january 1911. he was member of the house and then speaker. how did he get elected speaker and how many times was he elected speaker of the house? >> he was speaker for virtually all of his periods in the house, except for brief periods when he was not. i think he surrendered that post when he briefly during the -- >> when he left briefly in 1820 to sort of recoup his financial situation. >> yea

handing that legislation off to republican state lawmakers to pass and there were specter of state legislatures to corporate profits at the expense of working americans and that's what alec is that's what alec does as the president of common cause said. in a statement quote alec tells the hour i.r.s. and its tax returns that it does no lobbying it exists to pass profit driven legislation in state houses all over the country that benefits its corporate members alec is not entitled to abuse its charitable touch that is to lobby for private corporate interests and stick the bill to the american taxpayer a common cause is calling on the i.r.s. to force alec to pay years of back taxes and penalties but alec is pushing back saying this complaint is nothing more than a tired campaign quote to abuse the legal system distort the facts and tarnish their reputation so alec claims it's not a lobbying organization ok then how do they explain this as it is republican swept into power a year and a half ago a slew of corporate friendly legislation started appearing in state houses across the country wisconsin

but if what you want to do is run for the state legislature, do it. just do it. >> i'll give martha burke, the money editor of "ms" magazine the last question. >> as a certified older woman -- >> no, i thought she didn't want to ask the question -- oh, i'm sorry. i'm sorry. >> go ahead. >> i thought you were mike monitor or something. >> no, no, i just wanted to make sure the other lady had a chance. >> okay, please do it. >> so, i'll try to be brief. this question was actually tailored to the past panel, but i think it's something that's applicable to everybody in the room, especially people of age and younger. and i hope that anybody who represents an organization, not necessarily just sitting up on the stage, will feel comfortable answering it. i attend a montgomery county public high school, which means that i have the privilege of receiving comprehensive sex education in my school-sponsored health class. sadly, in the 21st century, that is still a privilege. on the past panel, there were a myriad of examples of the ways in which women are helping

the oklahoma legislature passed a birther bill last year.y a landslide, 77-13 in the oklahoma house on the same day that president obama release d his long form birth certificate. nothing is too radical for oklahoma legislature. it turns out person hood is too radical for them. the bill to ban all birts control by defining a fertilized bill has been kick around the legislature in oklahoma. it was derailed yesterday. the republican house speaker saying the bill will not get a hearing because the majority of the republican caucus privately voted against hearing it. they voiced a variety of concerns saying it would ban in vitro fertilization and birth control. we know that the whole person hood jd is too radical for mississippi voters. perhaps the most anti-abortion electorate in the country voted down a personhood measure by double digits. too radical for mississippi voters, makes it all the more amazing that personhood is not too radical for the likely republican nominee for president this year. >> would you have supported the constitutional

legislatures turn it into law. corporations get to pay for the result. they get to shield their influence through this third party group in order to achieve some policy goal. it's per spect set up. it was perfect until alec starts getting unwanted attention for pushing stuff like the stand your ground gun laws. laws that make it harder for people to vote as well. sure those things might be good for some corporations bottom line somewhere but how about the affect on the rest of us. alec announced they are disbanded their task force that pushed for things like the relaxed gun law and laws that make it harder to vote. alec is getting out of that part of their game. guess who is taking their place. a group called the national center for public policy research. that jack abramoff middleman organization that helped funnel cash and perks to members of congress, they have announced that they are taking over the voter i.d. stuff. they are launching a new voter identification task force in order to pick up where alec left of

so many more are racing to the legislature. yesterday, democratic women senators in georgia staged a walkout to protest to measures that would limit access to services and contraception. i want to read a couple of headlines. ohio remains on the front lines of the abortion debate. michigan legislature passes a partial birth abortion bans. you talk ok's 72 hour waiting period for abortions. -- utah ok's 72-hour waiting period for abortions. i could spend the entire lunch talking about this. the good news is that women are organizing, and rallies are taking place on a regular basis. a lot of young women are getting involved. we had a caller to date asking, how do i talk to my male students in high school about this? that is the good news. there are a lot of solutions and we are making progress, but it is difficult. i would like to introduce the woman behind to this incredible event. shelly bradford bell -- [applause] she is executive director of global arts and education. please join me in welcoming her. [applause] >> hello, every

kcaucukacaucuses are the small legislatures because they share some interest. caucus. there's a congressional bourbon caucus by members of congress from kentucky. i'd prefer a rye caucus. there's all sorts of caucuses for all sorts of causes. this week we got word that a brand new caucus is forming in the republican controlled house of representatives. it's a republican only women's caucus called the women's policy committee. this is not just caucus for the ladies. it's a caucus for the republican ladies. this doesn't arise right now as a coincidence. there's a yawning gap. republicans appear to be trying to burnish their cred among the ight we mentioned that theg the 5-year-old republican young guns caucus formed by eric cantor, paul ryan have just unveiled a new young guns program for women. it's called yg woman up. they are proposing a slate of female republican candidates along their much larger slate of male candidates. young guns is proposing a vision of gender equality in congress that's slightly worse than the gender imbalance is now. still, they're doi

the republicans in the legislature there want to repeal that rape and incest exemption. that rule was approved by a senate subcommittee this week, so it is officially part of the budget debate in south carolina. in florida, republican governor rick scott line item vetoed 1.5 million dollars set to fund rape crisis centers. the governor spokesperson saying the reason he vetoed the rape crisis center funding because the funding governor scott's office claims, quote, dupe duplicative and nobody was able the make it clear why they needed the funding. it should be noted that the director of the council, the group that was to distribute the money around the state says she gave the governor's office information about the number of new survivors they are dealing with and showed them that the rape crisis centers now have waiting lists. it's kind of hard to imagine rap crisis center waiting list. we'll get back to you. that apparently was not proof enough for rick scott that rape crisis centers needed any funding. in iowa, they passed a measure to repeal the provision that allow m

congress who think they have to do this you know news coming out of vermont today and the state legislature passed a resolution for a constitutional amendment that. not only would overturn citizens united but say that money is property not speech and that corporations are not people vermont is the first state to really go the whole nine yards to say both corporations are not people and that money is property not speech hello to other states and so the corporations are people to quote the vice president how much of a b.f.d. is this i think it's a pretty big deal in this state of new mexico and hawaii have also weighed in as you say vermont's gone further but what's wonderful about vermont and the thing we shouldn't lose sight of is the reason the vermont legislature is going to such a clear position on this issue of money in politics is because people organized at the grassroots more than sixty vermont towns voted in march in favor of resolution saying that citizens united needed to be overturned that created a grassroots movement that fed up through the legislature there's an effort across