This is my first week in the Capitol and things have been a little hairy to say the least. I come to you this morning from the Senate Chamber on Day 3 of the 2008 Legislative Session. Here’s a little recap of what has happened so far…

Day 1 there were fireworks for the first time in 34 some-odd years. The House overrode 12 of the Governor’s vetoes from last session and the Senate has refused to take the issue up. Hopefully, we can see at least some action on those today. Among the overrides is HB 559, a bill put forth last session that would allow charter school teachers access to the state benefits plan, just like all other public school teachers — because remember, charter schools are public school! To the Senate, if you want to show you are not the Governor’s lapdog and override the veto with the House for one bill, do it on HB 559.

Day 2 saw HB 881 move out of the House Charter Schools subcommittee into the full Education Committee. The full committee will vote on the measure in the coming weeks, most likely after budget hearings next week. This is step one of many for this very good bill that would give a better shot to charter school petitioners whose applications are victims of political posturing by local school boards.

Day 3 begins today with a Senate session at 10:30am and the House reconvening at 1pm, followed by the Governor’s State of the State address to a Joint Session at 2pm. It will be a busy day with plenty of opinion and information out there all to digest.

Tomorrow, Day 4, will see a gutted gun bill come to the Senate floor for an up-or-down vote. This issue pitted the 2nd Amendment v. private property rights and it will interesting to see NRA response, as well as response in general, especially if the measure fails.

Overall though, the first session in the Capitol has been most interesting. It is quite a place and I get all warm-hearted seeing representative government at work. I’m sure there will be frustrating times ahead, but that’s all part of the territory I suppose. Win or lose though, what an experience, I’m so lucky to be here!