the legislature established the 1836, about a year before it became a state. they designated detroit as the capital, but they were fearful that detroit could be easily attacked from the lake erie, and that they should move the capital inward, but they couldn't decide where. so, they put in the constitution that the first session of the legislature 1848 should be held in the new capital, which should be inland. decide. 10 years to they waited till they had 10 months left. every little town in that whole state wanted it to be by them because that would mean a great boon for their community. kept voting and voting and nobody could decide. finally the people who were thinking about this area, mill, theyam and a decided they would try to attract the legislature to this area. james turner was one of those who, i would say, had the argument, the persuasion -- it was james seymour, his friend, who made a map, put a dot, this is michigan. we are in the peninsula. what a dock here and said, -- put a dock here -- dot here and said, this is the miles. it passed the legisl

legislatures are where innovation flourishes.pressed in self-governance. i'm here today as the president of the national conference of state legislatures, representing over 7,500 american state legislatures and more than 30,000 legislative staff. it is a tremendous honor to be here. it began as an experiment nearly 45 years ago. our formation was the product of intensive study, debate and compromise. and the members and staff of this organization remain as committed to its founding today as they were then. we were founded on the belief that a powerful cohesive voice representing legislatures is essentially to shaping federal policy. we are founded on the principle that the bonds that united states unit us are strong. and the conviction of legislature service is one of democracies worthiest pursuits. i'm proud to stand here with you today. i'm proud that in 2009 at the age of 36 i was dually elect ed to represent my district in the great state of illinois in a country where my grandparents didn't have a constitutionally protected

a lot of people have mentioned this, national conference in the state legislature, 7383 legislaturesoss the country and they're both democrat and republican. you could have a conversation with somebody for ten minutes and go, are you using or not? as opposed to what we are seeing across the country now where if you tell me you walked across the street, wait for the light work rules and order, if you cross the middle of the street, he might be libertarian, don't tell me what to do. you could look at everything through a partisan lens right now. we have rules and procedures and things put in place that you can't go around. a budget has to be done at a certain time. there are constitutional things that say you must do this at this time. that requires conversation and participation in a way we don't see when it's constant like a rolling counter that never ends. we are all alluding to the personal relationships. a if i've known you and i know how long it takes to get to the capital and i know who just had grandchildren and whose diagnosed with cancer and i know why you ran for office, it'

the legislature has been here since 1979. of the capital is over nine acres of hand-painted desired. -- design. they would quite often take people through and so many people expect of building built in the late 1800s to basically be black and white, but people do not realize how colorful the victorians were in this is a prime example. what you see is as close as we can calm to what the building looked like when it opened in the 1870's. this includes restoring the original chandeliers. each of those chandeliers, by the way our 260 pieces of glass. coats ofng includes arms for each of the 50 state. of entry.n order in the senate, we have wonderful arerait, individuals that important to our nation history and hours eight history. on the left, the rostrum, a portrait of the marquee to lafayette. lafayette was a frenchman, a general during the american revolution. his portrait is actually in three of our state capitals. volumes about the respect americans had for lafayette. to the rights there is a portrait of austin blair, who is

that helps with a democratic controlled legislature.very bill we had to get a democrat sponsor on welfare reform, educational standards and so forth. juvenile justice is a prime example. we had a whole commission on juvenile justice worrying about how they are dangerous and treated like they are stealing hubcaps. so we have this commission to make streets safer and some juveniles are very dangerous. the democrats had another commission that looked at how you could turn kids around. we are ready for a big confrontation. hours versus there's. i said our crew was looking at the dangerous folks. these are looking at the ones that could be turned around. take the best ideas, turn kids around you need some structure and discipline, and it ended up passing like 95 - 2 or something like that. on gerrymandering. computers are great and technology is great that they come up with these districts that what legislators are worrying about, is a primary. they are not worried about the general election. eric cantor getting knocked out, a majority leade

legislatures are charged to deal with this. we deal with so many more things to do than simply pulling together districts that would have worked 20, 30 or 40 years ago. because there is what eric said, self selection. people are moving into places and choosing to live with people they know and are comfortable with, and that they share common ideals and values, history and culture. there is nothing necessarily inherently wrong with that. it is just that it is happening at the same time. that the way we receive our media and information is also self-selecting. we also can stay in our own bubbles, stay in a place and in a zone where we only listen to ideas that reinforce the way we think. i remember being in a town hall and i said, who in here wants me to tell them the truth? every hand shot up, tell it like it is. i said, wait a minute, the minute i say something you don't agree with, you will stop clapping. and that is the difference between campaigning in governing. when i am campaigning, i need smiles, claps, and applause. whe

so, some of my colleagues said that legislature means legislature. it doesn't mean the people.o me it seems quite clear that the state had made the people, the legislature for this purpose they should have referendum do that. they gave the deciding voice to the people and not a partisan members of the legislature and i think that after that case when the other states had their referendum. >> said, the dissent was written by chief justice roberts. and he argued very vigorously that it only means the legislature. now, fast forward to this year, a five to four conservative majority rule essentially the voters have no ability to challenge extreme partisan gerrymandering in court. at the same time, the opinions written by the chief justice seemed to suggest other remedied like independent redistricting provide alternative ways to address the problem of partisanship inip redistrictin so, could you please explain what's going on here? [laughter] have the courts conservatives changed their mind about redistricting, is it just window dressing or what? >> as one lives, you learn. i think

the legislature and the senate have met here since 1879. the capitol sports sport nine as of -- it is a tribute to the period when the building ohm, she victorian period. we take people through and so many people expect a building built in the late 1800s to best clay be black and white. people don't realize how colorful the victorians were. this is a prime example of it. what you see is as close as we can humanly come to what the building looked like shortly after it opened in the late 1870s. that includes restoring the original decorative art, restoring the original chandeliers, each one of them has 1760 pieces of crystal and glass on them. the ceiling contains the coat owes arms for each of the 50 states. even though there technically weren't 50 states in the union when our capitol opened in 1879. they are in order thereof entry. start the left back corner of the ceiling as you roach the rom and then come around the perimeter as the stayed beyond the union inch the senate we have six wonderful portraits of individuals that were important

the legislature, senate has met here since 1879. the capital supports over nine acres of hand-painted designs and it's a real tribute to the time period when the building opened, the victorian period. to be off honest so many people expected a building that was built in the late 1800s to basically be black and white and people don't realize how colorful victorians were. this is a prime example of it . what you see is as close as we can humanly come to what the building looked like shortly after it opened in the late 1870s. that includes restoring the original decorative art, restoring the original chandeliers of above. each of those chandeliers by the way as 1700 50 pieces of crystal and glass on them. this ceiling contains the coats of arms for each of the 50 states, even though their weekly work for the state in the union but our capital opened in 1879. they are in order of entry. they start in the back left corner of the ceiling as you approach the room and come around the perimeter as the states joined the union. in the center w

means only the legislature. now, fast forward to this year, a 5-4 conservative majority ruled, essentially, that the voters have no ability to challenge extreme partisan gerrymandering in court. but at the same time, the opinion -- written, this time majority opinion written by the chief justice -- seemed to suggest that other remedies like independent redistricting commissions provide they were ways to address -- alternative ways to address the problem of partisanship in redistricting. so could you please explain what's going on here? [laughter] have the court's conservatives changed their minds about redistricting? is it just window dressing or what? >> as one lives, one learns. so i think the chief learned that he was wrong in the arizona -- [laughter] [applause] >> so i want you to look at this crowd. they tell me this is 4,000 people, i'm not quite sure. next week you and i are going to another interview in little rock, arkansas, in a venue that holds 18,000 people. and not only are all the tickets gone, th

legislatures were where innovation and experimentation flourish, where people come together to solveexing problems and where the voice of the people is expressed in self governance. i am here today as the president of the national conference of state legislatures, representing over 7,500 american state legislators and more than 30,000 legislative staff. it is a tremendous honor to be here. ncsl also began as an experiment nearly 45 years ago. our formation was the product of intensive study, debate, and compromise. and the members and staff of this organization remain as committed to its founding today as they were then. we were founded on the belief that a powerful, cohesive voice representing legislatures is essential to shaping federal policy. we were founded on the principle that the bonds that unite us are stronger than the differences that divide us. and we were founded in the conviction that legislative service is one of democracy's worthiest pursuits. i am proud. i am proud to stand here with you today. i'm proud that in 2009, at the age of 36, i was duly elected to represent

the sole purpose was to keep the legislature from coming to recession. we both concluded, this is true. if they came in, this would be a food fight. everybody has an interest group in our objective was to keep them out and i would handle it through a process which designates where the budget cuts come from and we were able to do that. i've always thought the president hadn't stepped up, you need the house and senate to agree and he just wouldn't do it. he wanted to be part of the cards and we agreed it wasn't good. >> thank you. what you do in terms of cutting, it's the response and reserve, that historic veto. >> we did not depend tar reserves. in 2009, as you suggested, legislature overwrote my budget veto, i think most would suggest that i was right but it exacerbated the challenges of years going forward including those after i left office. it's not easy, we have a process where a joint fiscal committee, five members of each chamber empowered to improve budget changes when legislature is not in session up to a certain level. we utilize that process.

the language in the constitution says the legislature shall appoint, the legislature, in terms of adoptingr take all has allowed within the party's nominating conventions to do this. another interesting fact is prior to the last election, the last 57 presidential elections there were 22,991 electoral votes cast. of that do you know how many were faithless? 17. this is a problem some people are making it out to be bigger than it is. >> next question over here. >> a very interesting debate but we have to go further into this and it deals more with voters, voter id showing proof of citizenship, proof of residency, proof of what? [applause] >> i am going to let ted take this one. >> as a democrat, as much as i am troubled by republican state and the voter suppression tactics that are happening, surprise surprise. under the national popular vote compact, doesn't change any of that because state elections are still run by the states and that is an important difference between doing national popular vote by constitutional amendment or by interstate compact. a constitutional amendment would requir

voracious readers so moscatello the newsletter about reproductive rights about state and federal legislatures has received a front-page award in planned parenthood media excellence award named the united nation pressed fellow in the condÉ nast traveler and tonight is here as the author of cj nguyen which is the story of women changing american politics and when this catalyzes into wit joining caitlin to discuss the book is amanda littman who has her own book don't just march run for something a guide to fixing the system yourself and also the cofounder and executive director of a group called run for something as a progressive running for office the hard work has paid off last november the washington post has a headline record number of women heading to congress since 2007 working the front lines have elected more than 220 women across the country even tonight they may persuade one of you to run for office i am thrilled to welcome these two brilliant women and also to have the their conversation to be filmed for book tv please welcome them to the strand. [applause] >> thank you for having us

and there are more women in state legislatures now than ever before. and not just women, diverse women. i can't stress that enough. women of color, lgbtq women, women with young kids who are typically, you know, brushed aside when they're running for office, women with different racial backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, religious backgrounds. these are the women who won, and these are the women who energized people and got them to the polls. so it was really frustrating as someone who covered this for two years to see almost immediately after that happened when we knew that kamala harris was going to run for president, we knew gillibrand was going to be in the race. the immediate conversation among white male journalists -- some white male journalists, i should say -- >> not all. >> was bay toe versus bernie versus biden. >> [inaudible] >> it's really not! [laughter] not only do you have to be a white man, but your first or last name has to start with a b. that's the only way we're going to talk about you as our presidential candidate. and it really just

i would take my record of making progress, my legislature spent 60% majority republican and we expandedental health care and medicaid all across the state with controlled costs. we made record investments in public education and we kept it public. we kicked dark money out of the elections. all the while they never want to compromise a woman's right to make her own decisions. [applause] and as a former union labor lawyer, they never compromise workers rights until we bargain. [applause] i guess i'm the only governor left in this race and it appears i may have gotten into late to play the game. last spring instead of chasing donors i was working with republican legislature to save health care for 100,000 people. we got it done. i signed my last bill on the monday and announced on tuesday. i have no doubt that the dnc meets well but if we are really the party of the people, the rush to state of affairs in the national democratic party values campaign donors more than saving people's lives. [applause] that is not how you lead, and that is not how you win an election, and that is not how you

they appoint the legislature.nd the legislature in terms of adopting winner take all has allowed to do this election. and another interesting fact, prior to this last election, the last 57 presidential elections, there were 22,000, 991 elect votes cast. 91, do you know how many were faithless? 17. this is a problem people are making out to be much bigger than it is. moderator: ok, next question. over here. >> ok. this is a very interesting debate, but i think we have to go a little further into this. and it deals more with voters, ok? voter id, showing proof of citizenship, proof of residency, and last but not least, proof of life. [laughter] [applause] i'm going to let ted take this one. actually, as a democrat, as much as i am very troubled by republican states and the voter suppression tactics that are happening -- [booing] ted: surprise, surprise. come on. it doesn't change any of that. it's still run by the state and that is an important difference between doing national popular vote popular amendment or by i

and so there was a revolving in the legislature and 1996 the legislature stopped the programs like the one we are considering. but we think the combination of major investments in transit, which kind of provide an alternative to a lot of employees for driving alone, will be sort of what's necessary to get employers to the table and to provide their own incentives for people to get out of their cars driving alone. and i think some of that will lead to more people taking transit, especially if it's, you know, if it can get them to work and a lot will end up in carpooling and van pooling as well. at the regional scale, many people who carpool to work to take transit, put that in context. but i think we have more work to do there. but this would be a transformational start to put something like this t.d.m. program in place if it makes its way. >> other directors? >> thank you. thank you, all of you for the presentation. it's fascinating. my first thought is i wish we had done this five years ago, ten years ago, i wish we were already well on our way to these solutions that are outlined her

and he was still a young man and elected to the legislature. and he was working with with a one of washington generals who was one of the original pioneers to go out, named ruffus and they were battled to top is this move to disband rule and allow slavery. and the day of the vote cutler was deathly ill in bed in boardinghouse near the legislature building. and putnam came to him he was old enough to have been his father came up to his room said you have to get up out of bed because we're going to -- cast a vote today. and he went said i can't. he said you've got to so he did some people say he was carried in on a stretcher and if i found in proof of that. in any event he got to legislature, he gave it powerful speech. and he voted. and the measure to introduce slavery into whole northwest territory defeated by one vote. [applause] yet nobody had ever heard of his name. and people said to me if you would put this in a novel your answer would say no this would never happen in real life it did happen in real life and we should know about that and

my legislature is more republican than yours in iowa. know that was not a joke. [laughter] but we can expand health care and have health parity and also making record investments in the teacher to one - - teachers can collectively organize we take dark money out of the elections actually by investing and freezing college tuition for students. and try to have common ground we don't have to compromise our values. we took every attack on a woman's right to make her own health care. [applause] >> lee kept public land in public hands stopping back the renewable efforts before i got into all of this montana is still a state where you can argue for better working conditions and wages. [applause] i never forget trying to get medicaid expansion past the first time the heart of the anti- obama care we were in show toll montana everybody knew because of the koch brothers were kind enough to mail everybody the glossy pictures to barack obama saying that you are coming to your healthcare. that i showed up anyway and instead of just telling them what they need i actually liste

when we were in the minority status in the legislature and the house of delegates.fact, i never served in the majority in the house of delegates. we came to parity just before i ran for congress. but you know, listen, david, i mean, you know that the american jewish community is one made largely of, let's just say more recent immigrants in the last century or so, and there is some mentality about where the democratic party, i think, did a lot better job at reaching out to jewish community, it is much more liberal in the spectrum, tend not to be conservative as i am, but i do think now there is, unfortunately, just some solidifying of that and to my dismay. okay. andrew, before we talk, andy, about the issues we're supposed to talk about. you are going to be remembered forever for a scene that has been played over on television from time to time when 9/11 happened, you were with president bush, i think in florida, is that right? >> booker school in sarasota, florida. >> you were the person who went in and whispered in his ear that something had happened in the world

state legislatures -- the idea exemplifies the creativity and dedication. every chamber is providing baselevel orientation. popular topics include the role of the clerk and secretary. roland functions of other legislative staff, the budget enactment,ilt chamber rules and procedures, and the committee process. some states go beyond the initial orientation and provide ongoing skill development and training. wisconsin, idaho, colorado, the hawaii house, the pennsylvania senate and the washington house are examples of legislators that -- legislatures that provide ongoing professional development in at least one topic. colorado provides ongoing parliamentary procedure training for legislators. idaho provides civics education each year. several states have instituted a mentorship program, primarily in the caucuses, as you seem to have. offer? s ncsl services include on boarding packets in-state training, , and leadership programs. state requests for training have skyrocketed recently. leaders across the industry finds this appealing, primarily to help new legisla

legislatures in the state legislature in new hampshire. they get paid $100 a year.y have a hard time finding people to run. every 20 citizens in new hampshire is involved in government somehow. is the most, -- it democratically active state in the union. it prides itself on being the first primary for challengers to go through presidents of the united states. they like to say the road to the white house always goes through new hampshire. if it were not for being such a ,emocratic state, lowercase d candidates would not come to the edge would not come there. the primary -- candidates would not come there. the secretary of state protects it at all costs. he is a democrat. he does not make any difference. he is protecting the right of new hampshire to probe -- to vote first. he will continue to do it. it is a privilege to work there and live there. they do practice their democracy using all of the privileges they are given, especially the right to speak. they are very outspoken in new hampshire. politics is the dominant topic. it is the biggest stage in the world for a

he ran for the senate in 1855, he lost in the legislature. long story. he threw his votes to the anti-slavery democrat. in order to block stephen a douglas's candidate. mary's best friend was trumbull's wife. and she would never speak to her again. because trumbull had become senator and not her husband. so she was fiercely jealous of lincoln's position. even more so than lincoln. >>. [inaudible question] >> there is. >> yes, the novel. >>. [inaudible question] ... >> he says well he's a novelist, he takes poetic -- >> when you write, how do you and this unknowns from the book. do you create dialogue? do you reach conclusions and then how is it with what really happened? >> i did not create dialogue. i don't make anything up. and, there is no fake news in these. i'm serious, too. i rely on as many sources as i can find, it is a matter at some.when i can't get the exact learn exactly what i need to know, it's more than a little frustrating especially having been a journalist not being able to call somebody up and asked them, but these witnesses are not av

the legislature funded new lanes on highways to alleviate bottlenecks. we can't build our way out of congestion. they also invested in just rotation systems to help traffic flow more efficiently. public transportation, that would allow our regional transit agency to launch its biggest service expansion ever. the legislature recognized that even with all of these investments, they would not be enough to achieve the congestion reduction the public demands. the legislature cannot fund the number of high priority congestion projects. that is what the legislature turned to tolling to address congestion and raise revenue. they directed the oregon transportation commission to implement tolling on i-5 and i 205 hour made north-south corridors that carry the bulk of our freight and face the worst congestion. the commission engaged regional stakeholders and greater public engagement process. they created a stakeholder advisory committee made up of local government officials the forking industry advocates low income communities and others. the commission charged th

is to be passed by the legislature public schooling and you had the proper education. we heard a report today that 30 percent of the population is illiterate. we still have a long long way to go. and we have to fix that. [applause] >> you are doing a good piece of that. in many ways the great american teacher of history and you have brought history i want to know what is the state of history today? do you have an idea quick. >> yes. largely with those teachers and required courses they should not be allowed to major in education but a subject. [applause] the teacher who reached more than anybody was mister rogers sb was taught by a woman who taught at the university of pittsburgh and the admonition to teachers to show them what you love and they will love it too. you can't love something or someone more than you don't nose if you graduate with a degree of education you don't know anything about history or math and you are assigned to teach that course you will not be a very goodod teacher. and then to bring back those retie on - - required courses personal 80 percent o

a sleek southern city in the middle of summer the legislature is usually in recess. it is a time when you drink tea and sit on your porch and this was the center of the political universe in the united states for several weeks in the summer of 1920 because tennessee could be the last day to ratify the 19th amendment then women across the country in every state and every election for the first time have the right to vote so they came down to tennessee and it got wild. >> about 27 million women were of voting age. of course not all would vote and as we know for african-american women and native american women they would not loan - - they would be allowed to votero but but 27 million women were eligible to vote the politicians were worried it was a presidential election the candidates were very worried to be up for reelection to be a political free-for-all. >> before we get into the characters involved in the characters that i write about the participants in this book they write in their memoirs especially for the northern women coming down to participate in this legisl

different time scales, they passed out of the legislature, we have a bill in the legislature, a spot bill, start moving in january with senator bell from san jose, the chair of the senate transportation committee is authoring, and so i think we are going to sustain sort of close discussions with them and with the author of ab-1487 to see whether down the road it makes sense to kind of put these two things together. and certainly i think even if they don't go together, formally on the ballot, makes more sense, i think a lot, you have heard a lot of to just sort of have the policies kind of work together, so they are both getting the same sort of, they are both trying to envision a future for the bay area. >> just to follow up on that, nick. can you imagine a scenario where you are trying to get a bill passed in a very compressed period of time, and buying a two-thirds vote because of it. would there be a way for the housing measure to go first in 2020 and then the transportation measure to follow after? >> we are really focussed on the november 2020 ballot, seems the political alignme

increase thet to legitimacy of this legislature. i will make no apology for anyone, anywhere at any time. >> historic unprecedented and quite extraordinary. how else to describe five days of parliament unlike anything in living memory. mps forced through a bill the minister did not want. and a surprise resignation of the common speaker. >> it was not until september that mps got a chance to put him , his government, and his policies to the test. mps the number one priority was to stop the you key -- the u.k. from leaving the eu. they asked the speaker for an emergency debate and vote which would allow them to take over the commons timetable. mps showed they backed the request. government's intention or willingness to lead the country into a no deal exit is a threat to our country. theprime minister is in position of someone standing on one side of a cannon -- canyon shouting to people on the other side that if they do not do what he wishes, he will throw himself into the abyss. that is not a credible negotiating strategy nor is it a

the state legislatures redraw boundaries, if democrats control the legislature in virginia, for example that means they ensure women's -- just for 2022 but the next generation. it's hard to undo it. pick a woman, give me a woman. amanda, amanda chase is like a bigoted, hateful victim blaming -- [laughter] don't like her. her future candidate, jennifer, micro. she's running for reelection. there are dozens of amazing women, trans- public bigots. there are going to be more than 1150 left on the ballot. everyone else which is ultimately important. >> [inaudible question] >> we are giving money to candidates, which is an interesting think that most organizations do. we don't for a couple africans. the amount of money and people would have to go through what ending up costing more than what we give to candidates. when we donate to a candidate and organization, we do a lot of things behind the scenes, it changes your relationship with them. they can't come up with questions for us. so by not giving them money, we are more of an partner than an investor. for now, this is the best we can do. >>

so the compromise of 1850 those were picked by the state legislature from the electoral iollege thatasn't made until september 4th where as the 1850 compromise was done on jul. is that good or bad? i think we need to be careful how to have a process for now we have five elections when the candidate won the electoral college and not the vote and those are very recent we will have more of those in the upcoming future just because our country is so closely divided. imagine what would happen if we want electoral college and had the popular vote but lost the presidency? it would be an unfortunate situation. so every vote in every station account in every election. >> people on the left have been saying that and jfk was the big defender. 's if we ever have an election likee this and 2000 and rolls around so this rebuttal only a couple things mattered. in any election would have gone differently. and as every state matters in every m election but it seems to be more law-abiding. and that reality of a constitution and the checks balances and i often use this analogy so talk about the ecosyst

chasinging instead of donors i was working with republican legislature to save health care for 100,000 people. we got it done. i signed my last bill on the monday and announced on tuesday. i have no doubt that the dnc meets well but if we are really the party of the people, the rush to state of affairs in the national democratic party values campaign donors more than saving people's lives. [applause] that is not how you lead, and that is not how you win an election, and that is not how you make things better for american families. we win this election by making sure everybody has a fair shot and a better life, and you know what? that is only possible if we take on the toxic influence of money in the system. [applause] in this post citizens united world, where money equals speech, where corporations have the same rights as people. until we tackle it, the rules are written for those with the biggest checkbooks, all these promises and plans you've heard today may be just about talk. as democrats, part of the problem is we have talked about this problem for too long. in d.c., talking has b

of course the state legislature especially. but it is also a sorting of people, milwaukee and madison were democratic. plus two seats that used to be swaying more could have been swing outside of green bay. it seems to have slipped away from i the democrats. >> host: the one that is listed as a likely republican in the wake of the resignation of sean duffy. >> there may be a primary, the democrats don't yet have a challenge. there may be other candidates coming in, but that seat is if emthe democrats get it within single digits, they will have done well. it's an important seat for the republican base to turn out. it's important for president bottle on the house while. he campaigned in wausau for the republican u.s. senate candidate who lost heavily against tammy baldwin, the democratic u.s. senator. >> host: as they ar we are talkg wisconsin politics in the battleground states, mark is the first out of new hampshire. good morning. >> caller: wisconsin being a purple state up for grabs, do you think that the challengers would ha

as you all know, the founding fathers really wanted citizen legislatures. and this is the last point i'm going to make. there's a -- on friday politico did a list of, published a list of i think it's 100 or 99 ways to improve our political system. and iue argue for full-time stae legislatures because i think that if you're not getting people who can afford to be in office, we're not going to get the kind of policy we want. and someone argues for paying congress members less because some believe that $175,000 is not -- is too much money to be paying congress members. but what i can tell you quite emphatically is that if we reduce that wage, then you're not going to get the people that we're seeing now coming into office who have to have -- have very realistic concerns about, you know, making a living wage. so this connection between politics and economics, between our democracy and the democratic inequality and structural inequality we're seeing in our economy and democracy are very, very tight. >> okay. but can you go back to moreno and tell us finish. >> y

i served in the legislature so i knew the political process.t is a great training ground to serve in congress. the people that served -- back then, you could see a a lot of the older members. a different attitude and point of view and different ability to work together. there were a lot more friendships. and it was a lot less partisan. where also at a time there were conservative democrats and liberal republicans so you didn't -- you did not have the party divide that you have. it was a different group. it has become since then much more partisan and much more difficult to work together. david: let us talk about that for a moment. the theory behind majority role is that majority role shall prevail but you should protect minority rights and listen to the minority as well. the way the house of representatives now works is the majority does not pay any attention to the minority. democrats in control don't listen to republicans. do you think that is a good system? could it be changed in the near future? >> if you years ago, there was a strategy fro

you mentioned the fact you can work with the state legislature but. >> most states it is more we are the downturn fall in terms to make the cuts with those tax increases and depending on where you are relative to the economic downturn. >> some of the states already passed a budget for the year did not include administrative cost so he didn't have the ability to speak who became the irs commissioner afterwards but with the aid of one.2 when we could create a category of indirect cost so people could use that for administrative purposes. it with those challenges that can exist if you spend money quickly you run into those obstacles that you don't think about when you are writing the budget policy and that is havin having. >> that national organization of street one - - state controllers and auditors what is very helpful because they could see and let folks know what the budget office it was okay to do these things. >> going back on the maintenance of effort, we had a huge fight and but i would say i remember getting that that governors association along with others there were five obje

montana has a citizen legislature.full-time jobs outside of politics. >> hey, man. are you a member of the senate? >> yes. >> so are you in session right now? >> we just finished. >> what is your other job? >> i work doing a leadership development program. >> it's not just the fact montana's legislatures have day jobs that sets them apart. >> i'm a boilermaker by trade. >> i'm a chemist for the state of montana. >> they have also got the lowest individual political contribution limits in the nation. >> i just finished running for re-elections and i raised $47,000. $180 at a time. that's our limit. >> raised less than $7,000. knocking on doors of my neighbors. >> mine was the biggest spender. the two of us were the big spenders. >> what was yours? >> i raised about $45,000. >> how about you? >> $22,000. >> i mean, i think the people that hear us have this conversation say, but, yeah, corporate influence in politics is so big and so strong, it will never make a difference raising $180 at a time. i think here in montana b

we don't believe a 1% sales tax ultimately will win if it can even get through the legislature. a lot of lot of criticism, including by legislators, and the approach should be seattle, three revenue sources, not a single one, on to their measure. we also feel very strongly that the operation support is critical and need to be transformational in terms of the very sources we provide for this. seattle and l.a. put between 20 and 25% of the total resources in operations, not just the new toys that get built, but also the existing services like those that have been critically cut. so we think it's important that the percentages be higher than what is currently in the faster proposal. thank you. >> thank you. michael warden, followed by nia selby, the last two people. >> no worries. >> i appreciate your senior moment. thank you. my name is thea selby, chair of the san francisco transit riders and i believe you are the president now? >> vice chair. >> borden for being at our transit week last week, i think was a huge success and got a lot of supervisors to take public transit and the

the first time i was going to speak to the members of my legislature. it was deeply divided at that time. two-thirds republican. i said yao going to hear different noises from the governor's house. that's the sound of young kids. and we as leaders, we have to recognize that our kids learn from our words and our deeds. what we say and what we do matter. i said our kids are watching. i think that's more true today than ever before. wf to ask ourselves what are we giving the next generation to aspire to and be inspired by. this person might have to answer. certainly not this this time in office, but all of us have to answer. i think we can be better than this. we can bridge some of those divides. we can show people the economy and democracy can work for them. and we can do it without trying to outtrump trump but elevate things. i'm a person that can do that. i so appreciate the most important dinner. it's not that steak fry. so appreciate being invited to story county democrats night. thanks so much. [ applause ] >> the last speaker we have for tonight is