I just returned from appointments with my State Senator and Assemblyman offices. I didn’t get to meet with them but I met with their assistants due to the budget approval going on right now. Albany was buzzing today with all sorts of emotions. They say the animal people can get a little crazy but the budget protestors had all the attention today. There were hundreds of different groups of people protesting various cuts in the budget. News cameras everywhere! It was amazing to see. Now that I’ve had a little taste of lobbying I can definitely see myself doing it for all sorts of things I support.
The morning started with checking in to our meeting room. I was sent an email with some homework to do but I figured the brunt would come from the speakers this morning. I was right on that! Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal gave us tips and I felt much better about what I was about to do. I was a little nervous as I’ve never done any kind of lobbying before. I took notes about the points they wanted us to speak about. It turned out there were two other people with me to see our Senator. We met with his staffer Alison who was very nice. The Senator is on the Agriculture Committee which did vote to pass the legislation on closing the loopholes in Animal Fighting laws. I am following up with her tomorrow as none of us were sure exactly how he voted. The next step is if he voted yes will be to ask him to sponsor the bill. Then eventually to vote yes when the bill comes up for a vote. I was feeling good when Alison asked me a question about the bill and I was able to answer it!
The next stop was my assemblyman and this time I was on my own. He was in Chambers at the vote for the budget so I again met with his staffer whose name escapes me right now. She was very helpful and listened to all my points. She just became involved with animal cruelty law in the last year so we had a very nice chat about these bills. I will also be following up with her to be sure he also sponsors the bill. He is the head of the Agriculture committee so he was also involved in the bill passing the committee last week.
It’s an amazing process but very easy. If there is a piece of legislation that you support, please contact your representatives and ask them to sponsor it. Let them know you will be following up to see if they do. Don’t be threatening, just follow up nicely. They do realize that you vote for them and they can be voted out if they don’t support what their constituents want!!
All in all it was a very productive day so I look forward to doing this again!
