Last week, lawmakers from across the country gathered in Philadelphia for the annual National Conference of State Legislators.

Apparently some legislators left the event unhappy:

Several dozen Utah legislators attended the NCSL convention in Philadelphia last week and were enraged at the "liberal" positions adopted by the body [...]

Utah wasn't the only conservative delegation upset with the direction of the NCSL, legislative sources say. Oklahoma and Texas, and a number of delegates from Virginia, showed open hostility toward the liberal tendencies of the organization.

One source said the NCSL always has leaned toward the left, but this year revealed a more blatant liberal agenda than past years.

What 'liberal' positions so frustrated these poor GOP lawmakers?

Legislators at the conference voted to endorse health care reform and climate change legislation -- positions that currently enjoy widespread public support.

While it is fairly hilarious to see conservative legislators become enraged by a show of support for these kinds of mainstream policies, it is should come as no surprise that GOP lawmakers are feeling a little lonely at national gatherings like NCSL.

Democrats have picked up seats in every election since 2003. Just last year, we added more than 100 legislators to our column across the country, and after the 2008 election, we now control more than 55 percent of the nation's partisan legislative seats.

Republicans have trouble finding ideological allies among the ranks of state legislators because the public hasn't been supporting their candidates at the polls.

It doesn’t look good for Republican Delegate Phil Hamilton of Newport News:

Two years ago, a powerful Virginia lawmaker was instrumental in getting state funding for a teacher training center at Old Dominion University.

The day the money began flowing, the center put him on its payroll.

(…)During the 2007 General Assembly session, Hamilton sponsored an amendment to the state budget that provided startup funding for the Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership at ODU.

Since then, the center has received $500,000 a year in state money. The center, in turn, has been paying Hamilton $40,000 a year as an independent contractor.

Overall, Hamilton helped steer nearly $19 million to the organization that now pays him a 5-figure salary. Hamilton claims he never discussed the job prior to securing the funding, but now that he’s on the center’s payroll, Hamilton still refuses to recuse himself from General Assembly votes involving the center or its affiliates – a clear conflict of interest violation.

Even more suspicious, university officials Hamilton claimed to be working closely with had no idea he was involved with the center at all. This raises serious questions: if the earmarks and the new job are all above-board, then why don’t Hamilton’s colleagues at the center know about it? And if no one even knows that Hamilton works there, then what could he possibly be doing to earn $40,000 a year?

Hamilton’s Democratic opponent, Newport News attorney Robin Abbott, has heard enough:

"In my judgment, a member of the Appropriations Committee drawing salary from funding he initiated using taxpayer dollars denotes a clear impropriety and an obvious conflict of interests," Abbott said in a statement. "This is another example that the people of the 93rd District deserve a new delegate focused on the needs of the people."

Abbott, of course, is right -– with the recession still weighing on the state economy, Virginia families can’t afford politicians like Hamilton who look to put themselves first.

To learn more about Abbott’s campaign, you can visit her website at robinabbott.com.

Vermont is well into the third year of an experiment with preventive medicine and electronic medical records – two of many health care reform proposals currently being debated in Washington. Similar to the “medical home” reforms we’ve highlighted previously, the Vermont pilot program puts a wealth of individual health data at doctors’ fingertips as a way improve both the speed and quality of care, and the results so far have been positive:

The medications history project in Rutland, which allows doctors to see prescriptions filled over six months, hasn't shown cost savings. [Dr. Kirk] Dufty is convinced there will be long-term savings because of fewer tests and faster treatment.

The list "gives us a much truer picture" of what's behind the illness or injury that has brought the patient to the emergency room, Dufty says. The data come from insurers, so doctors can get information only on patients who are covered and agree to the computer search. Dufty says 98% of the 35,000 patients his ER serves each year agree.

In addition to these encouraging results, a parallel initiative of the Vermont plan is bringing health care back into the community – again with very positive results for patients and the state:

Paid for by private insurers, Medicaid and the state, the program provides community care teams that work with primary care doctors. The teams include nutritionists, mental health counselors and social workers.

"We're seeing people make major life changes," says Pam Smart, coordinator for the St. Johnsbury team.

(…)Overall, visits to emergency rooms — a major drain on the health care system nationwide — are down 30% in Vermont.

Jim Hester, director of the Vermont Legislature Commission on Health Care Reform, says the state won't have data on cost savings for a year, "but the early readings we find encouraging."

Though still early in the program, Vermont’s success so far has already drawn the attention of federal lawmakers, who sat down for a briefing on the project from Vermont’s governor -- at the request of President Obama. Hopefully, the most successful elements of the Vermont program will make their way into a national health care reform bill.

What began as a sad tale of marital infidelity has ended with the resignation of Republican State Senator Paul Stanley of Tennessee:

State Sen. Paul Stanley said he will resign from the Tennessee General Assembly after his affair with a 22-year-old legislative intern was revealed by an alleged extortion plot.

(…)In his resignation letter, the Germantown Republican said, "Due to recent events, I have decided to focus my full attention on my family and resign my Senate seat effective August 10."

Stanley later said he had planned to serve out the remainder of his term, but a growing wave of side-stories in the local media (including affairs with other lobbyists and interns, lewd public conduct, the existence of nude photographs used in the extortion plot, and an altercation with another Republican senator) clearly became too painful for him and his family to bear.

Senate Democrats responded to the news with class, showing great empathy for their Republican colleague. A statement from Democratic Caucus leaders Jim Kyle and Lowe Finney read in part:

"We have learned that Paul Stanley has tendered his resignation as the Senator from the 31st District. We hope this puts an end to this terrible situation. We hate that it has happened to this family with young children, who continue to be in our prayers.

"The Tennessee State Senate is an honorable institution, and the people of this state must know that it is their struggles that are most important to us as public servants.

Stanley’s suburban Memphis district, which favored John McCain by a margin of about 12 percent, will be filled by special election at a later date. Several Republican state representatives have expressed interest in the seat, and if one of them wins it, the resulting vacancy in the State House could tip that chamber back into Democratic control.

Here at the DLCC, we’ll obviously be watching the situation closely.

We recently took a closer look at how state-level health care reforms are providing valuable models for federal reform. Massachusetts’ comprehensive reform package is still fairly recent (it was passed in 2006), so many long-term impacts of the plan are not yet clear. However, other states have generated decades’ worth of data on specific reform proposals that were passed in isolation, rather than as parts of a comprehensive reform.

Hawaii, for example, has mandated employer health coverage for full-time workers for the last 35 years, a policy which has had very positive effects on the state’s healthcare system. In addition to dramatically reducing the percentage of uninsured Hawaiians;

Supporters of the employer-paid insurance program credit it for making Hawaii the “Health State.” Hawaii has the nation's lowest death rate, longest life expectancy, lowest frequency of emergency room visits and second-fewest heart-disease deaths, according to Kaiser Foundation data.-

While not immune to skyrocketing health costs, Hawaii residents have the nation's most affordable health insurance, with average family coverage costing $9,426 annually for employer-based health insurance in 2006. Nationwide, the average was $11,381.

At the national level, some policymakers fear that strict employer mandates would place an unreasonable burden on businesses and hurt the broader economy. But as Hawaii proves, that’s not necessarily the case. Despite 35 years of employer mandates, Hawaii still boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. The law’s other impacts on the economy have been interesting, certainly, but nowhere near as catastrophic as some would suggest:

Because Hawaii's law covers only those who work more than 20 hours per week, some companies have changed hiring practices to save money.

“Naturally, everybody tries to keep their workers as part-time,” said Jack Schneider, president of J.S. Services, which handles human resources and mandated benefits for about 200 Hawaii companies. “If you create a law, people find ways to get around it.”

But the [University of Hawaii] study also shows Hawaii ranks in the middle in percentage of employees working 19 hours or fewer weekly, which negates the idea that businesses have significantly switched to part-timers to dodge health insurance costs, said economics professor Gerard Russo, the report's researcher and co-author.

Hawaii’s experience is just another example of why progressive policymaking at the state-level is so important. Not only do the states act as “laboratories of democracy,” where new ideas are first tested, but state-level success often leads to more progressive policies nationally.

From August 13-16, a team from the DLCC will head to Pittsburgh for Netroots Nation.

There, we will join thousands of Democrats and progressives from across the country to discuss politics, policy, and strategy. The DLCC is helping to organize two panels at this year's conference.

In the first, we will discuss the 2010 election, reapportionment, and the importance of redistricting for the Democratic movement.

In the second, we will discuss how local campaigns are using technology to change the way that races are run in this country.

We hope you can join us in Pittsburgh, and as a supporter of the DLCC, we can offer you a special registration discount.

When you sign up to attend at http://regonline.com/nn09, use the promo code SPONSOR, and you will get $50 off your registration.

Florida Democrats face a steep climb in the State House, where Republicans hold a convincing margin heading into 2010, but the wind is clearly at the Democrats’ backs as next year’s legislative races take shape.

Since 2006, Democrats have gained nine seats in the lower chamber, and conditions on the ground have produced a wealth of new targets for Democratic takeover:

Stemming chiefly from term limits, there are 25 House seats now held by Republicans where no incumbent is running, while Democrats have only three such openings. The disparity, helped along by voter trends, gives Democrats a chance to pick up – perhaps – 18 seats, [Democratic Rep. Ron] Saunders said.

Key to Saunders’ math, is even more calculus. In particular, it’s rooted in the performance of Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink in Republican-held districts during her 2006 race against then-Senate President Tom Lee, a Republican.

Across 18 districts, mostly narrowly GOP-leaning and concentrated in Central Florida, Sink gained at least 48 percent of the vote against Lee. Among them, are districts held by Reps. Pat Patterson, R-Eland, Alan Hayes, R-Umatilla, Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, Ralph Poppell, R-Port Orange, Sandy Adams, R-Oviedo, Ed Homan, R-Tampa, and Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton.

In addition to the Republicans’ 25 open seats, Democrats are also buoyed by the Obama campaign’s massive voter registration effort in the state, which left the party with a 750,000-voter advantage in statewide registrations.

Even if Democrats fail to win back a majority next year, they’ll be working hard to gain as much ground as possible before 2011 redistricting.

Months after Proposition 8 eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in California, Democratic lawmakers in that state have introduced SB 54, which would allow the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed outside California.

Conservative activists were quick to denounce the bill as a violation of Proposition 8, but Democratic supporters believe the State Supreme Court’s decision upholding Proposition 8 also provides space for the Legislature to consider out-of-state marriages:

The court's decision upheld the right of voters to bar gay couples from the label "marriage," acknowledged SB 54's author, Sen. Mark Leno, an openly gay Democrat from San Francisco.

But the court, Leno noted, also upheld an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California before the gay-marriage ban was approved. Those marriages took place after the justices ruled in May 2008, in a separate decision, that California's constitution at that time did not prevent same-sex marriage.

The high court did not address how to treat out-of-state marriages, explaining in a footnote that none of the parties involved in lawsuits represented such interests.

In that vacuum, Leno is arguing the Legislature's role should be to clarify the rights of same-sex couples who live in California but wed elsewhere, or couples who might move or travel here in the future.

Short of a full repeal of Proposition 8, SB 54 could be the equality movement’s best short-term hope for recapturing some of the ground lost when California voters approved Proposition 8 this past November. And, it would help extend the nationwide momentum gained during the 2009 legislative session as multiple states established domestic partnership laws, anti-discrimination measures, and full marriage equality.

As the clash over health care reform in Washington intensifies, 13 states this year have expanded coverage for nearly 250,000 children, all from low-income families. Despite the fact that state governments are facing a combined budget deficit of $142.6 billion, more children in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia will now have access to health care.

Despite the tough economic times, there is still resolve to insure and protect the health of the nation’s children, and families who face mounting debt due to medical costs will feel a financial ease with these extended programs.

Alabama State Senator Roger H. Bedford Jr., a Democrat, told reporters, “Our economy is tough here. But our decision was to fund the health care needs of our children because a healthy child learns better and they don’t show up at the emergency room needing acute care.”

While most legislators enjoyed support from their governors, Democratic lawmakers in Connecticut were forced to take a dramatic step in establishing the framework for universal coverage. Overriding Republican Gov. Jodi Rell’s veto of substantial reform legislation, the Democratic controlled General Assembly made it clear that expanded coverage is immediately necessary. Governor Rell warned about the potential high costs of the new program as she and the legislature continue to battle for a balanced budget for FY 2010.

But State Senator Joe Crisco responded to Governor Rell’s comments, focusing on the need for reform:

The disproportionate cost of health care as a function of our budget demands decisive action to identify efficiencies, pool resources, and bring down the overall burden. The urgency for this is self-evident: spiraling costs will only be compounded by our steadily aging population. We simply must have in place a system to accommodate the specific needs of everyone.

Earlier this year Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina also took steps to reform their state health programs, setting the foundation for possible changes to be implemented by Congress. No easy solution exists for any one state, or for the nation at large, but these innovations and reforms may provide the springboard for federal action.

Brian Peterson is a Klindt/Dye Intern for the 2009 Summer Semester.

As New Jersey’s November 3rd elections rapidly approach, Democrats recently received encouraging news about their prospects of maintaining the 48-32 majority they currently enjoy in the General Assembly.

• The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee possesses a three-to-one fundraising lead over its Republican counterpart, Assembly Republican Victory, according to campaign finance reports released last week. The Democratic committee currently has $989,244 at its disposal compared with just $334,429 for the Republican group.

• Democrats widened the gap with a strong performance in the last fiscal quarter, when they raised nearly $400,000 and the Republicans well under $200,000.

This decisive financial advantage deflates Republican hopes of narrowing or potentially erasing the Democrats’ comfortable majority. With all 80 of the Assembly’s seats up for grabs in November, the monetary disparity will hamper the Republican effort to remove Democrats from office in an array of districts across the state, including those in Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Middlesex, Mercer, Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland, Camden and Gloucester counties.

Conversely, the Democrats intend to focus primarily on protecting the seats that they already control while supporting qualified challengers. This goal makes these latest financial reports especially promising for Democratic Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam in the state’s hotly contested 1st Legislative District. Both parties plan to pump significant amounts of money into these Cape May County races, where Democrats expect to translate their substantial fundraising advantage into a boost at the polls for both incumbent candidates.

Democrats hope to receive a similar boost in districts throughout the state and see the wide fiscal margin as a promising, albeit still somewhat early, sign of electoral success come November.

Max Selver is a Klindt/Dye Intern for the 2009 Summer Semester.

Wednesday morning, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine ordered the general assembly to convene in special session August 19th to address legislative changes required by a recent Supreme Court ruling:

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution requires prosecutors to make forensic examiners available for defense cross-examination about lab reports on drugs, ballistics and other trial evidence. Virginia defense attorneys already are citing the ruling, and prosecutors have suspended some drug and drunken-driving cases.

Virginia law puts the onus on defendants to subpoena the scientists if they want to challenge lab reports. According to the Supreme Court, the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment places the burden on the prosecution to make the forensic examiners available.

The ruling has prompted worries that Virginia Department of Forensic Science workers would be unable to keep up with their lab work if they are constantly being summoned to court. The department, with about 160 employees conducting casework statewide, handled nearly 60,000 cases last year.

Since the ruling, legislators like Democratic Delegate Steve Shannon have proposed several solutions to bring state laws into line with constitutional requirements while lessening the burden on state forensic scientists:

"We got handed a thorny, complicated problem by the Supreme Court decision," Shannon said Wednesday, adding that it eventually became clear that a comprehensive solution requires both legislative and long-term administrative changes. One possible administrative remedy, he said, is allowing scientists to testify by videoconference.

The most-watched legislative special election of 2009 might be in Michigan’s 19th Senate District, centered in Jackson and Calhoun Counties. We’ve mentioned our interest in the race from time to time, and there are many good reasons why this race has taken on such prominence in a year with dozens of state House and Senate special elections:

• The Stakes: With 30 open seats and only 4 incumbent Republicans running in 2010, there might never be a better opportunity to win a Senate majority and guarantee control over 2011 redistricting. If Democrats hold SD-19, we only need 4 more seats to accomplish this. If Republicans win it, they earn some extra breathing room for 2010.
  
  

• The Candidates: The leading Democratic and Republican candidates are well-respected State Representatives (one currently serving, the other forced out by term limits last year) who both represented districts inhospitable to their respective parties. Few special elections this year have featured this much talent on both sides.
  
  

• The Timeline: District 19 has been vacant since Mark Schauer won his US House seat, but the special general election won’t be held until this November 3rd. By then, the parties and candidates will have had nearly a year to campaign and fundraise.
  
  

• The District: Obama won this district by about 7% - similar to his national margin but also significantly under-performing his statewide margin of 16%. That makes this one of the truest “swing districts” to come up for special election this year.

This combination of high stakes, prominent candidates, months of hard campaigning, and an expected close finish make this Michigan special election one to watch. On that last point, the geographical features of the district, we highly recommend a newly-posted introduction to SD-19 over at SwingStateProject – complete with interactive maps, election histories, and anything else you’d want to know about the 19th Senate District.

We feel very good about our chances in this race, and we know state and local Democrats in Michigan are leaving nothing to chance. They’re working hard to win this election and put themselves in the best possible position to win back the Senate in time for 2011 redistricting.

Texas’ Republican House Speaker Joe Strause is one nervous politician these days. It’s bad enough he allowed a partisan voter-suppression bill to come to the floor, which turned into an embarrassing fiasco for the state GOP. Now the legislature won’t meet again until after the 2010 elections, and by then Speaker Strause might be out of a job:

Joe Straus has his work cut out for him. The Republican who in January ousted fellow Republican Tom Craddick as speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, with the help of most of the chamber’s 74 Democrats and a handful of Republicans, enjoys the job enough that he hopes to keep it.

Straus has listed 123 of the chamber’s 150 members that have signed pledge cards to back him for another term. They included 62 Republicans and 61 Democrats.

That probably will hold if the Republicans meet their goal to keep or increase their 76-74 margin over the Democrats in the 2010 elections. But if the Democrats gain two or more seats, most Democrats would be nervous about supporting a Republican when Democrats are in the majority.

The fact that we’ve pulled ourselves back to this point in the wake of a brutal Republican gerrymander in 2001 is a great testament to the will and determination of Texas Democrats, and in 2010 we have a great shot at retaking the House as part of a broader push for control of the state’s redistricting process:

The Senate’s 19-12 edge for Republicans over Democrats means Democrats can block the two-thirds vote usually needed to bring a bill to the Senate floor. So the Senate probably won’t pass redistricting bills either party thinks hurts them -- unless its presiding officer, Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, again bypasses Senate tradition and circumvents the two-thirds rule.

If the legislature fails to redistrict the House or Senate, or both, during the 2011 regular legislative session, the chore shifts to the Legislative Redistricting Board (LRB).

Its five members are the House speaker, lieutenant governor, attorney general, land commissioner and comptroller. All those jobs are currently held by Republicans.

All five seats on the Legislative Redistricting Board will be up for grabs in 2010. With a pickup of just 2 House seats, we can elect a Democratic House Speaker; the rest will be up to the statewide Democratic candidates, who can put the LRB under Democratic control by winning two of those four key races down ballot.

The average Virginia driver pays an extra $1000 per year because of poorly maintained roads and congested highways, more than twice the national average according to research by the non-partisan TRIP foundation. The Virginia figure was calculated back in 2006, and Virginia Republicans’ constant obstruction of transportation funding (along with the state’s rapid growth) means today’s number is probably much higher.

Overall, this represents nearly $5 billion wasted each year in Virginia because of additional maintenance, fuel, and other costs (including lost productivity from spending hours stuck in traffic every day). This huge amount of lost economic activity is sorely missed during today’s recession, especially now that Virginia's unemployment rate has more than doubled.

Even Virginia’s business community – which enjoys the commonwealth’s generally low taxes and consistently stellar ratings for business climate – understands the cost of doing business and luring new companies to a state with sub-standard transportation infrastructure, as Virginia Business explained in a recent editorial:

Wonder what type of impression would have been made if some corporate executive, looking to locate a company in Virginia, had gotten stuck in the massive traffic jam outside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel on July 2? Apparently, a 52-year-old, eight-inch water pipe ruptured, allowing water to pool inside the tunnel, forcing its closure right before the July 4th holiday rush. State officials also closed Interstate 64 for eight hours, delaying thousands of motorists who no doubt put Virginia on their Top 10 list of “States to Avoid.”

Throughout his nearly four-year term, Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has tried to make headway in finding new revenue for transportation, only to be met with legislative gridlock, particularly among the Republican-dominated House of Delegates. Lawmakers haven’t increased the dedicated funding for transportation since 1986, when they last raised the gasoline tax.

Democratic legislators and candidates are determined to finally make headway on transportation improvements in the commonwealth, something motorists, taxpayers, and the business community all seem to support. Republican Delegates have so far refused to get with the program or get out of the way. This November, Virginia voters should send them packing.

Libby Mitchell first ran for the Maine Legislature in 1974. Eventually, she became Speaker of the House. She ultimately served nine terms in the lower chamber before moving to the Senate, and in December, she became Senate President.

Sen. Mitchell is the first woman in the history of the United States to have held both positions.

She recently gave a long interview with Maine Insight, where she talked about her career in politics and her policy goals for the state:

Libby is a woman of many talents, having been a teacher, the director of Maine State Housing, holding a law degree and blazing the trail for women in Maine. Her tremendous sense of humor has defused situations, helping bipartisan cooperation, and her steadfast focus on education continues to motivate her.

For her entire career as an elected official, Sen. Mitchell has been focused on improving education -- in particular working to expand scholarship opportunities.

In the short term, she is working to fill Maine's $140 million budget shortfall.

Back when GOP Delegate candidate Catherine Crabill won the Republican nomination in the 99th house district, we noted that she was still campaigning on her the accusation that Bill Clinton orchestrated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Since then, Crabill had been fairly quiet … until this week, when a video surfaced in which Crabill appeared to call for armed insurrection against the federal government:

(H/T Washington Independent)

In fairness to Ms. Crabill, the “war is inevitable” line was a quote from Patrick Henry, but everything after that point was her own words. Still, sensing that her speech had not been well-received outside of its intended audience of hard-core Republicans, Crabill gave an interview to the Washington Post intending to tone down her remarks.

She failed:

Crabill, a real estate agent and home-schooling mother of four, said yesterday that she would not back down from her defense of the right to use bullets to address government grievances, saying that if fiery words were good enough for Henry, they're good enough for her.

"Those are my convictions," Crabill, 52, said in a telephone interview. "I am a full-blooded, freedom-loving American, and what we're seeing in Washington is domestic terrorism at its worst."

There will always be people with extreme views -– that’s a fact of life in a country of 300 million people. But it defies belief that the Republican Party continues to cheer on Catherine Crabill and other extremists no matter how ugly their words become. Is this really how they want to cling to power in Virginia? Or is it really true what her fellow Republicans said about her at the 99th District nominating convention, that “she believes what we all believe?”

Virginia can’t afford to find out.

When we discuss redistricting here, we put a lot of focus on legislative control -– and with good reason. But beyond the numbers game, redistricting is often a little more complicated in certain states, and Illinois has one of the more interesting cartographical processes. Chicago Public Radio recently explained how it works:

Every ten years - 2011 is the next time - the feds deliver census data to Illinois, and state lawmakers get first crack at drawing a map. But if it's not approved by a June deadline, a commission is put together with four Democrats and four Republicans. If that group can't reach a consensus, Lawrence explains, things go a bit nuts.

LAWRENCE: What happens is the lottery actually determines whether a Democrat or Republican will be appointed to an eight-member commission to become the ninth member and therefore tilt the commission one way or another.

That's right - a lottery. And in 1981, 1991 and - yes - 2001, Illinois' districts were ultimately determined not by consensus, but by the secretary of state pulling a name out of a hat, box or whatever.

With Democrats holding wide leads in both Illinois legislative chambers, there’s no real danger of Republicans winning control in 2010. But with this lottery system looming, we’ll be working to stretch that lead as wide as possible next year to give legislative leaders the best opportunity to avoid the lottery. Otherwise, a flip of the coin might leave the most Democratic state in the Midwest with a Republican gerrymander until 2021.

Improving broadband internet access is one of the best ways to encourage economic growth in rural areas, and the Massachusetts legislature is working hard to make broadband part of the state’s solution to the economic crisis.

Hot on the heals of a $40 million rural broadband initiative passed in last year’s legislative session, lawmakers on Tuesday passed new legislation to unlock Massachusetts’ share of federal stimulus money targeted at broadband expansion -- totaling $7.2 billion nationwide. Democratic legislators quickly praised the measure:

The funding is particularly important to efforts to expand broadband in the many underserved areas in Western Mass., according to information provided by Rep. Denis E. Guyer, D-Dalton, and Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield.

(…)Downing, a major proponent of 2008 legislation that established the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, helped to shepherd this stimulus-related proposal through the Senate on Tuesday. The federal funding could double the amount the institute has to work with.

"Passage of this legislation puts Massachusetts in a solid position to gain access to federal funds that will assist MBI with its mission," he said. "Today, reliable broadband service is not considered a luxury — it is a necessity for continued economic development, engaging educational opportunities, higher property values and advanced public safety initiatives.

"Pairing available federal funds with state bond monies will further our efforts to ensure all currently unserved and underserved communities will soon be plugged-in to a reliable high speed Internet connection."

The bill itself contains mostly technical and logistical changes (e.g. allowing communications cables to be placed underneath Interstate 91 in Western Massachusetts), many of which were necessary to fully access the stimulus money.

Elections in Nevada are more than a year away, but that hasn't stopped many in their preparations for 2010.

Lawmakers in the state are limited to 12 years of service by a constitutional amendment passed by referendum in 1996. That means that 17 legislative seats will be left open across the state next year.

Complicating matters further is a new law that pushes primaries in the state from August to June. To run in the primary, candidates must file paperwork with the state by the end of May mid-March, and that has many would-be candidates laying the ground work for a run now.

These early preparations are giving us a picture of the themes that might emerge in next year's contests, and for the GOP, 2010 might shape up to be a battle for the soul of their party:

A tug-of-war within the Republican Party will likely pit moderate candidates against those with a more rigid conservative ideology. Political observers see a stronger potential that conservative Republicans could replace more moderate legislators in the Senate, tilting the GOP there to the right.

After a series of losses -- including control of the state senate -- it is somewhat surprising that Republicans would continue down the road of narrowing their appeal with most voters.

But to be honest, that's a decision we at the DLCC can't complain about.

Virginia State Senator John Miller (D-Newport News), as a current and former board member of numerous youth-focused community organizations, is no stranger to the challenges facing many Virginia children –- particularly those navigating the commonwealth’s adoption and foster care networks.

Maybe that’s why, in a political season featuring a heated budget debate, a dispute over federal stimulus funding, and the 2009 elections, Senator Miller’s proudest accomplishment this year was his sponsorship of SB 1011, giving children and parents greater flexibility in adoption arrangements:

Under existing law, teenagers about to be adopted are faced with a difficult decision. Under Virginia law, children 14 years old and older are legally entitled to stop the termination of parental rights by withholding their consent. This means they are forced to choose between cutting off all ties to their birth family or giving up a life with a new, permanent family.

My legislation allows foster children to have another choice. Under the new law, the child can be adopted and still have contact with his or her birth parents provided all the parties — the court, birth parents, child and adoptive parents — agree to a cooperative adoption. They must all agree to the type and amount of contact the child has with the birth parents.

With this change in the law, children can continue to have a relationship with their birth family while living with their adoptive family. This common-sense legislation will lead to the adoption of many more children across the commonwealth.

This may seem like a small step, but it will have a lasting impact on the lives of thousands of Virginia children. In part because of an unwillingness to sever ties with their birth parents, 20% of Virginia children in foster care leave the system “without a permanent connection to a caring adult.” 20% of those children who leave the system will typically be homeless within a year, according to a non-profit study.

Senator Miller’s new law has the real potential to alleviate this problem by facilitating adoptions in Virginia. And because of the minimal costs involved (indeed, the state likely saves money for every child adopted out of foster care), if just one more child is able to leave foster care with loving, adopted parents, this legislation will be a victory Senator Miller and his constituents can be proud of.

In New Hampshire, a state known for embracing moderate politicians, Republican advocacy groups are uniting behind a bold plan to regain power in 2010: get rid of all the moderates.

No one said it was good plan…

"A lot of Republicans get a bad rap because we're not inclusive," said Rep. Fran Wendelboe, R-New Hampton. "I think it's because we don't want to be devoured and become moderate."

For her, the core of Republicanism is the various conservative groups in the state, most of which she said are about "80 percent aligned with the Republican Party platform. I believe the moderates are the fringe."

Of course, it’s no surprise that today’s Republican Party views moderates as something to fear – as “fringe” elements that will “devour” the true believers if they’re allowed to have their say. That attitude is a big reason why New Hampshire Republicans took a shellacking at the polls in 2006 and 2008, and it’s a big reason why one of the party’s prominent elder statesmen switched parties recently to become a Democrat.

The fact is, the Democratic Party in New Hampshire and across the country welcomes individuals with differing views. The Republican Party does not. As a party, we’ve accepted that honest and open debate is a good thing, even if that debate is sometimes contentious and doesn’t always leave everyone happy with the outcome.

To the Republicans, anyone who isn’t completely on board with the party line is a traitor, a RINO, or worse. And the longer they hold that view, the more extreme and out of touch their party becomes.

Last month, when a prominent Alabama blog published election race rankings for every state legislative seat in the state, we noted that other state-wide rankings might be in the works. On Thursday, a Swing State Project contributor published rankings and summaries for every Michigan State Senate Race.

The cycle is still early in Michigan (primaries are August 3rd, 2010, with a May 11th filing deadline), but the senate landscape is slowly starting to take shape. One interesting pattern is that there will be almost no incumbents on the ballot for Michigan Senate races in 2010. Because of term limits, and barring any unexpected retirements, voters will fill 30 open seats while only 8 incumbents run for reelection (including the winner of an upcoming special election in District 19).

This year's special election is one we at the DLCC will watch very closely. Democrat Marty Griffin -- a former House member -- has announced his intention to run for the open seat.

Also, these rankings include presidential election results by district, and it’s pretty shocking to see how badly the Republican gerrymander broke down in Michigan last fall. Some of the most Republican senate districts in the state, even some ranked “likely Republican” by the author, were won by Obama. Between those results and the huge number of open seats, Michigan Democrats have to feel optimistic about gaining the 4 seats they need to take a majority.

Congress is facing a lot of questions right now as it builds a national health care reform plan: Should there be a robust public option? Is a strong employer mandate necessary? What additional protections should private insurance clients enjoy? What often gets overlooked is that many state-level reforms have already addressed some of these questions, providing important clues about what a national reform plan should look like.

Massachusetts’ experience with employer mandates -- designed to prevent businesses from “dumping” health coverage for employees -- is a case in point:

The Bay State’s 2006 landmark healthcare law, often seen as a model around the country, allowed businesses who chose not to cover their employees to get by with just a minimal fee. Yet even without the threat of a serious penalty, employee dumping has not been a problem, said architects of the Massachusetts plan.

Three years after the state passed its requirements, Massachusetts businesses have not canceled insurance plans at all. In fact,150,000 more residents are privately insured through their employers.

By proving that dumping can be prevented without a strong employer mandate, Massachusetts’ experience introduces flexibility for federal lawmakers. Of course, dumping is still a serious concern -- one the Massachusetts plan ultimately solved by limiting who can use the public option:

Workers whose employers helped them pay for decent insurance were disqualified from purchasing government-subsidized plans. And for low-income people who qualify but earn twice the poverty level or more, the government-subsidized insurance costs roughly the same as a typical worker’s share of an employer-subsidized private plan, providing little financial incentive for employees to seek a change.

Many would argue that such limits defeat the purpose of a public option, setting up an important choice for public option advocates to consider: should a public option be universally available, or are some restrictions acceptable in order to protect the larger economy and preserve employer-sponsored health plans?

These are not easy issues, but whatever the outcome, any federal healthcare reform bill will almost certainly be a better piece of legislation because Massachusetts and other states have led the way with groundbreaking reforms.

With the huge impact the US Census will have on legislative and congressional redistricting, reapportionment, and the distribution of hundreds of billions in federal tax revenue, we’ve been watching the Census Bureau’s early preparations with great interest. In particular, we’re excited about state and local efforts in New York, Colorado, and elsewhere to help ensure an accurate count in 2010.

Recently, a “partnership specialist” from the Census Bureau gave a detailed presentation to the Lincoln County Commission in Hamlin, WV, about what sort of groups the Bureau is partnering with all over the country and what sort of activities these groups are doing help maximize Census participation.

The Lincoln Journal recorded the presentation and helpfully posted it online. Some of those details – like Census reminders sent out with utility bills and employee newsletters – are extremely interesting:

Lincoln County Commission ~ Regular Session ~ July 2, 2009

Thanks to the Lincoln Journal for posting the video. And if you’re part of the leadership of any sort of community organization (political groups, businesses, religious organizations, volunteer firehouses – just about anything), you can learn how to become a 2010 Census partner by visiting the US Census Bureau’s website.

Through the course of the last decade, the nationwide rate of job growth in renewable energy companies outstripped overall job growth by more than 2-1, according to the Pew Center on the States. As America continues to struggle in hard economic times, it has never been clearer that clean energy will be an important engine of recovery.

State lawmakers recognize the importance of energy innovation. Hundreds of state-level energy bills have been filed this year, and some of the most dramatic successes have occurred in the areas of wind and solar power promotion.

• In the past year, legislators in Iowa, Maine, and Kansas have passed significant bills designed to boost the development of local wind energy. Each bill was signed into law by the governor of the state.

• Lawmakers in New Jersey, West Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington all proposed and passed legislation to boost the solar energy industry. Each bill was signed into law by the governor of the state.

The success of these bills and the willingness of policymakers to invest in renewable energy—even during a recession—show just how far the energy debate has come.

It is no accident, however, that most of the clean energy success in 2009 has occurred in Democratically-controlled legislatures. While individual roll calls show Republicans slowly abandoning their opposition to clean energy promotion, this issue is historically a Democratic priority, and Democratic leaders are those taking initiative in this area.

To read the full report, click here.

A few weeks ago, Arizona Republican Senator Sylvia Allen commented on a proposed uranium mine near the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and she left more than a few spectators scratching their heads. You see, some residents and environmental advocates oppose the mine because it might have adverse health effects:

Kaibab Paiute Indian tribal administrator Tony Phillippe said members who live downwind from former nuclear testing sites have suffered enough from the exposure to nuclear dust. The reservation lies outside of Fredonia off State Route 89A where the ore would be trucked.

"I will not tolerate that type of invasion of the health of this community," he said.

Taylor McKinnon, the public-lands program director for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, said mining also could harm species in the area, including the endangered California condor and fish in the Colorado River. He said environmental analyses on the mines that were completed in the 1980s should be redone.

Environmentalists also have said that the mining would cause harm and that vertical columns below the ground would allow water from mining to flow downward, contaminating the water table below with uranium.

Both the mining company and Sen. Allen dispute those claims, but while the company offered its own scientific evidence, Allen offered… something else:

This Earth's been hear 6,000 years -- and I know I'm going on and on and I'll shut up -- it's been here 6,000 years, long before anybody had environmental laws, and somehow it hasn't been done away with.

Now I’m no theological expert, but I have read my Bible, and I can’t recall too many mentions of uranium in Genesis. Maybe that's because uranium wasn't identified as an element until 1789. So even if you grant Allen’s belief that Earth is only 6,000 years old, it’s not at all clear how that “proves” the safety of industrial-scale uranium mining to local residents. Nor, as Allen seems to imply, is it a reason to repeal all environmental regulations.

All it really proves is that Arizonans should be terrified that Republicans like Allen are making decisions about families’ health and safety. You can watch her remarks below:

Last year, Oklahoma Republican State Rep. Sally Kern said that homosexuality was “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism."

Last month, Kern introduced a resolution in the legislature that attempted to blame gays and “debauchery” for the national recession.

Democrats in the state have had enough.

Just before Independence Day, Rep. Ryan Kiesel spoke at a rally at the capitol where he responded to Rep. Kern's resolution and denounced it as a cheap stunt:

In a couple of days we will celebrate our nation’s independence. It is especially troubling that a few zealots would use this day of unity to play the very divisive game of allowing the government to ordain from on high what is and is not good and holy. This is the very division our founders saw as a threat to the future of the then-fledgling democracy.

Today I am proud to stand with these many individuals and organizations and with our Founders in saying we reject this divisive political stunt and instead celebrate the miracle of the human mind and its ability to believe in a manner each sees fit, the ability to love whom one wants, and the ability to elect a government who will not concern itself with who you love or where you go to church; rather focusing itself on building a strong economy, a world class education for our next generation of leaders and a health care system for all Oklahomans.

It's great to see that kind of courage and outspokenness. You can follow Rep. Kiesel on Twitter @capitolkiesel.

UPDATE: Movement against Rep. Kern is building. Oklahoma City's business paper, The Journal Record has a long editorial asking the Republican legislator to rescind her proclamation because of the damage it could do to the state's economic image.

As expected, the race for control of the Virginia House of Delegates is quickly turning into one of the marquee contests of 2009. Now that the party primaries are over, local media and political observers are predicting a close finish in November, in part because of an intense Democratic bid to reclaim the House:

Democrats have made gains in recent years, and House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry, said that fact, along with President Obama's winning the state last November, has helped spur candidate recruitment.

This year the Democrats have 70 House candidates, he said, the most in his 18 years in office.

"It's not just quantity, I think this year recruiting was easier," Armstrong said. "People wanted to run as a Democrat."

(…) He hopes to keep the Republicans playing defense.

"It's going to be tough for them to spend money playing offense when they've got so many seats they've got to defend," Armstrong said.

As the campaign continues, the DLCC will be doing our part to help win the six seats we need to take the House of Delegates. Many Democratic candidates are already taking advantage of low-cost online resources provided through the DLCC, and several Democratic Caucus officials attended our May caucus staff training here in Washington. These are just the beginning of our efforts, and we plan to offer much more support to our candidates between now and Election Day.

And as always, if you live in Virginia, you can join the fight too by volunteering with your local Democratic candidates or the statewide coordinated campaign.

As Census officials prepare for 2010’s constitutionally-mandated count of every person in America, a coalition of Colorado local governments and non-profits is preparing its own strategy to minimize undercounting in the state:

Community stakeholders are implementing several strategies they hope will produce a more accurate numerical representation of Denver. For one, the city has set a goal to have 80-percent of Denverites mail in their census form by April 1. Doing so ensures people won’t have anyone come to their door to collect the data.

Mi Familia Vota and CPC [Colorado Progressive Coalition] are in the midst of getting people, many of them bilingual, from minority and low-income groups to become census counters. The groups hope the counters and messengers will be able to emphasize to people that any information in the census will remain confidential.

We highlighted a similar outreach effort in New York back in May. Like in New York, Colorado’s effort could have significant consequences for the state over the next ten years, and it comes on the heels of severe undercounting of minorities and inner-city areas during the 2000 Census:

In the 2000 census, approximately 3 percent of the nation’s Latino community was undercounted, according to Jessie Ulibarri of Mi Familia Vota. Because the census information is used to distribute congressional seats to states, make decisions about what community services are provided and as the basis for the distribution of around $300 billion in federal funds, the undercount count resulted in fewer resources for communities that needed them, according to Ulibarri.

“When we’re undercounted, it’s something that hurts all of us,” he said.

Carlos Valverde of Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC) said underrepresented communities are often undercounted in the census, which then leads to more under-representation. Valverde pointed to the fact that Latinos make up around 25 percent of Colorado but only 3 percent of the state Legislature as evidence that change is needed.

By encouraging Census participation, Colorado and other states can help secure their fair share of federal funding and make sure their residents receive fair representation. With its rapid growth and demographic changes, this Census will likely reveal a very different Colorado than we saw in 2000; hopefully, with the help of grassroots efforts, the coming Census snapshot of Colorado will be more accurate than it was in 2000.

Below, I've pasted my copy of the remarks I gave at last week's Personal Democracy Forum. Our goal was to strike a discussion on the future of online campaigns at the local level, how using data effectively is key to winning, and how organizing tools are changing to reflect the new realities.

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I work for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, I'm guessing a lot of people here have an idea what that means. For the most part, you're right -- our mission is just like that of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. We work to elect state legislators, just like they work to elect folks to Congress or the Senate.

But our job is fundamentally different.

In a good year, the DSCC might target a dozen senators. The DCCC might work on 100 congressional seats. Staff at each of the committees knows and works closely with every candidate on each of the target lists.

There are 7,382 partisan legislative seats in this country. There are 400 seats in the New Hampshire House, alone. We obviously put more resources into some states than others. But even when accounting for our priorities, our job is more complicated by an order of magnitude.

The sheer scale of the challenge requires us to approach our jobs from a different angle.

We’ll probably always offer targeted support, of course. And most of that will be the kind of stuff you expect from a campaign committee.

But more and more, we're trying to change the way we think.

Cory Doctorow is a writer I admire a lot. I recently read a column where he argued that artists online ought to think like dandelions. He argued that, as mammals, we get stuck on the notion that every iteration of our brand ought to be nurtured and perfect. Dandelions don't work that way. Dandelions spread a thousand little seeds into the wind, and many of them never take root. But we see dandelions all the time -- they're everywhere, even rooted concrete sidewalks.

At the DLCC, we're trying to think more like dandelions.

A year ago, we partnered with Wired for Change to develop an Internet tool set for all of our candidates. We wanted to make online politics simple and affordable. The result of this effort is DLCCWeb.

This service provides candidates with a web site, online fundraising capabilities, unlimited blast e-mailing, and a range of additional advocacy tools. To make DLCCWeb affordable, we negotiated an economy of scale price and our candidates pay just $40 a month for access to everything.

In its first year, DLCCWeb was an unquestionable success.

We had more than 350 campaigns in more than 30 states sign up to the use the service. Of the active campaigns this cycle, most were challengers and more than half won their races.

Websites run by DLCCWeb candidates generated 13,903,917 total hits in 2008;

Candidates using the service sent 2,798,496 emails to their supporters;

DLCCWeb candidates raised $444,098.89 through online fundraising using the service.

As we head into the final set of elections before the next round of redistricting, this is our strategy moving forward. We will empower campaigns from the ground up and give individual candidates the cutting edge tools so that they can develop innovative strategies to win.

And with DLCCWeb, we’ll make gains that surprise even us. There will be more Democrats winning races by tapping into local energy in places like Kansas, Alaska, and Utah.

But given that we're at a conference like Personal Democracy Forum, I think it's important to talk about what the significance of this movement is. Aside from just winning races, we are seeing more and more candidates who aren't staffing these responsibilities out. They're writing the blog posts, they're publishing the videos, they're sending out the emails. That means we have actual elected officials and office seekers using technology to engage their constituents on a one to one basis. That's something new in our democracy. It's a degree of participation that's unlike what we're used to.

As we move into the question and answer portion of this discussion, that's something in particular I'd really like to discuss.

If you turn your head just a bit, you'll notice a shiny new box on the right column of our website, featuring badges from three social networks.

If you want to stay connected to the DLCC, we hope you'll subscribe to our YouTube channel, become a fan of the DLCC on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

There's no better way to keep up with our work and show your support for Democratic lawmakers online.

It'll be worth of your time.

I promise.

One issue we’ve been following closely is how the recession is affecting individual states’ economies and budgets. This morning, the Wall Street Journal took a closer look at how some states are using traditional energy production to try and repair some of that damage, and they found wide variation in each state’s approach:

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania and California have proposed what are known as severance taxes on oil and natural gas produced in their states. A tax increase took effect in Arkansas at the beginning of the year, and Alaska last year raised its oil-production tax.

Some lawmakers in Louisiana want to take the opposite tack, in a bid to attract more drilling. The state House of Representatives recently approved a package of tax cuts targeted at certain high-cost forms of oil and gas production.

Severence taxes are an attractive option for policymakers because unlike sales taxes (e.g. on gasoline), energy severance taxes are not always felt directly by consumers. Industry groups are pushing back hard against such plans by arguing that higher taxes would drive production to other states. However, evidence suggests that oil and gas severance taxes may not introduce the same elasticity as other forms of corporate taxes:

But advocates for increased taxes argue that taxes play a smaller role in companies' drilling decisions than factors such as how much oil is present or how difficult it is to produce. A study released last fall by Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based nonprofit, found that Montana and Wyoming, despite widely differing effective tax rates, haven't seen much difference in drilling activity.

"It doesn't seem to be affecting where companies drill," said Mark Haggerty, one of the study's authors.

Mr. Haggerty said that if states want to encourage drilling and maximize revenue, they should have relatively high severance taxes but encourage companies to look for new oil fields. That is the approach taken by Alaska, which has the country's highest severance tax rate, at 25% of net income per well, but also offers subsidies for companies to invest in the state.

As noted above, Alaska -- generally considered one of the most industry-friendly states in the country when it comes to oil and gas -- actually raised its highest-in-the-nation severance taxes this year. With some states following that lead and others taking a different approach, we likely won’t know for some time which strategy is most cost-effective. Still, it’s an issue we plan to watch very closely, even as we follow ongoing developments in clean energy.

Oklahoma Republican State Rep. Sally Kern, last seen spouting a paranoid, delusional tirade declaring the GLBT community “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism,” is at it again. Kern, in a successful effort to prove that she’s gone completely off the deep end, has introduced a resolution blaming gays, troubled families, and general “debauchery” for the nation’s financial crisis.

The resolution itself contains several amazing charges:

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

It obviously never occurred to Kern that maybe, possibly, our economic woes are actually a consequence of Republican politicians who spent decades trying to control people’s personal lives while letting the economy spin out of control.

Next month, Democratic State Senator Gerald Malloy of South Carolina will be named one of “Katie’s Heroes” for his tireless advocacy of a state DNA registry for violent felons, which passed in 2008, and for his work as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Criminal Justice System Task Force:

John Walsh, host of America’s Most Wanted, will be presenting the award at a luncheon hosted by the family of Katie Sepich, a young woman who was brutally raped and murdered in Aug of 2003, and whose family has established a nonprofit organization called DNA Saves.

(…)DNA Saves feels that Senator Malloy’s contributions to enacting DNA arrestee legislation in South Carolina deserves recognition and appreciation for a law that will benefit many in the succeeding years. In presenting him this award, Katie’s family wants to let Senator Malloy’s constituents know that he is a hero to them as well as to the many victims of violent crime.

“This will be a vital tool for law enforcement and it is essential that we provide our law enforcement with the best tools to keep our citizens safe. This methodology is already used by the Federal Government and should be a logical extension to our State,” said Senator Malloy.

The ceremony will be held on July 22nd as part of the National Conference of State Legislatures conference in Philadelphia. We applaud Senator Malloy for this award and for his ongoing fight to keep South Carolina’s families and children safe.

On Monday, in a case involving New York State’s investigation into predatory mortgage lending practices, the US Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling broadening the ability of states to enforce consumer protection laws against banks.

Major banks have long argued that only federal bank regulators can compel them to comply with rules meant to protect consumers from potentially unfair lending practices or pursue cases of potential discrimination against minorities.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, disagreed, concluding that state attorneys general can go after national banks on such matters. The court found, however, that states cannot unilaterally require banks to turn over information or change their behavior, the way a regulator can. Rather, they must take the banks to court.

"States were precluded from going forward to enforce consumer-protection laws against banks," said John Cooney, a partner in the law firm Venable and a specialist in regulatory law. "Now they have the green light to move forward in consumer protection and a lot of other areas."

Pennsylvania was the first state to take advantage of the new ruling when Governor Ed Rendell (also on Monday) signed a bipartisan package of state laws designed to protect state residents from unfair mortgage lending practices. The laws had a mix of Democratic and Republican sponsors, and they both passed unanimously in the Democratically-controlled House and the Republican Senate:

The laws will ensure that homeowners get more information about their mortgage terms and protect mortgage company employees who report illegal activity.

Rendell said the laws will help consumers shopping for a mortgage or refinancing their homes.

The new laws are also an important step in preventing the foreclosure crisis from repeating itself in Pennsylvania. Lawmakers believe that consumers who have more accurate information will make wiser financial decisions when seeking a mortgage.

These are not the first state laws aimed at stemming the foreclosure crisis. Back in April, we highlighted a new Illinois law giving a 90-day grace period for homeowners facing foreclosure – time to find a new job, seek debt counseling, or find other ways to get their finances in order. Other states are pursuing similar legislation around the country.

Between this new state-level push to limit foreclosures and yesterday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling, states are poised to play a much bigger role in financial regulation than perhaps ever before.