Week of the Primary Election

I really thought the week of the primary election would be more exciting. The state was buzzing about who would fill each party's nominee position for various offices. But from the primary turnout numbers, it looked like not that many in the state really cared all that much, those working in government just happen to be surrounded with it and are more in tune with what is going on. The capitol building remained quiet Monday and Tuesday and even most of Wednesday, despite the fact that the House was in Session. There was some talk of the election on Wednesday but not as much as I had expected (There was much more discussion later in the week about the Democratic nomineee for Lt. Governor as the press was uncovering more about him. Due to his questionable past and pressure from the press and members of the Democratic party, he has now stepped down as the party's candidate.)

The House reconvened on Wednesday afternoon, which I was looking forward to. The Capitol building has been extrememly quiet between the State of the State address (when the General Assembly was last in session) and the election, so I was looking forward to having the place buzzing again. However, session on Wednesday lasted only about 30 minutes and no bills were called. There were several committee hearings scheduled for Wednesday evening but many were cancelled so our office ended up not having to go to any.

I thought Thursday would be slighly more exciting than Wednesday, but was a little disappointed. I came into the office early on Thursday to attend a committee hearing, only to get into the hearing and see only one Representative present and hear that no bills were going to be called. I ended up going to three committees that day and only one actually called any bills. Oh well. In session not much was done as well. I think the thought process of having the House come back for session was to get the Representatives back in "legislature mode" instead of "election mode".

This coming week (the week of February 8th) looks to be more exciting, as both the House and Senate are back in Session and there are a bunch of committee hearings scheduled. Deadlines for introducing bills are also this week so many people are scrambling to get any last bills together for introduction.