The Nitty-Gritty

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Today was quite a day.

It’s the first day of the legislative session, and I’m still at something of a loss about how the Senator’s office is going to run.

I finished up going through the boxes. Now I just need to know what to do with all the stuff. The Senator says there should be a couple of file cabinets and her desk from the floor of the House yet to come. I’ve called maintenance, and they’re supposed to get with me tomorrow to figure things out.

Communication is always at issue in the Legislature. The legislators run from pillar to post, making decisions on the fly, and not always letting people know what those decisions are. It makes for a spontaneous atmosphere.

But I feel very much at home in this building. It’s odd to look back over the four years I was here with Senator Betts and see the patterns emerging. It’s time to let the world know that the Senator has openings for pages, to get re-acquainted with the guys in the Mail Room, to try to get the supplies you need from the spare little room off the Senate Chamber where the Sergeants-at-Arms try not to go over budget.

I’m in a different room this year, down on the first floor, not far from the Rotunda, where there is more traffic, more sunlight, more voices echoing. The Rotunda has been blocked off with plaster-board walls sporting a sign that says the renovators are working on the Dome. But it’s still possible to get a tour of the Dome, so it’s hard to know what work they’re doing.

Already, I can see that there will be more visitors to this office than there were to the little cubby-hole Senator Betts had. Perhaps few people came to his office because they saw how small it was. If so, I expect I’ll have more repeaters this year, because this room is more than double the size of the old one.

When I thought about writing this first blog from the Capitol, I thought I’d be waxing philosophical. But we have knotty problems this year. The supporters of the Holcomb coal-fired power plants are going to make another run at it. Education reform must be extended another year. The budget is in terrible shape. And there’s sure to be another abortion bill.

It’s time to get to work.
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