PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

As legislators begin to gather in Salem for a five or six-month run at the Capitol, it is a good time to review just a few details about such a session.

First, legislators are in Salem to consider additions or deletions to Oregon law and that means they will consider what called “bills” – or, in more formal legislative parlance, a “bill for an act.”

In all, nearly 3,000 individual pieces of legislation will see the light of day in Salem – and the “light of day” is an intentional phrase because all bills are available for public review (if anyone wants to spend their time in that kind of exercise).

Rather than focus on major issues this session (the major one as I wrote in a previous blog will focus on balancing the State of Oregon budget for 2017-19, with its funding for K-12 schools, higher education, cops and prisons, and social services, including health care), this blog will focus on process.

Based on my many years as a lobbyist at the Capitol, here is a summary of tactics to pass or kill a bill – and there is broad agreement that it is much harder to pass a bill than to kill one.

To pass a bill:

1. Have a good idea for a bill (based on your own experience in a subject area or a study of a perceived deficit in Oregon law…the point is that ideas still matter)

2. Consider the design of a bill in a way that is aimed at garnering additional support

3. Find a champion or champions who are well-situated in the legislature to wield a gavel or close to it (in other words, they must hold important positions on committees relevant to the subject of the bill because the Oregon Legislature, at its base, is driven by committees)

4. Identify grassroots resources that could advocate for passage. Identify persons who live in the districts of key legislators and encourage them to communicate directly with legislators via phone calls, texts, e-mails and individual letters, the latter of which are always better if they are written by hand, are short and are personal

5. Do the hard work of counting to 31, 16 and 1 (the House, the Senate and, don’t forget, the Governor’s Office), the number of votes that are necessary to achieve passage

6. If all is lost or you are tired, employ a “tinker bell” strategy – hope your bill will pass or fail
   

To kill a bill:

1. In testimony and conversations, raise general questions about the bill, both in terms of policy and the specific language

2. Ask whether passing legislation is necessary at all

3. Don’t fill gaps…just let the bill’s advocates make the case, if there is one, in favor of the bill

4. Emphasize other more important issues for legislators to consider

5. Generate “grassroots” comments in opposition using the ideas in #4 above

Then, if you achieve the objective – passing or killing a bill – be prepared to share credit with all those who have helped because a truism in the legislative process is that results are the product of a collaboration effort, not individualism.