straight talk | IN THE FIRST TERM
Straight WHAT WAS ONE THING ABOUT SERVING IN THE LEGISLATURE THAT SURPRISED YOU THE MOST?
RITA SM AR T
Representative, Kentucky
Senator, Arizona
Former County Extension Agent
Elected in 2010
Member of Agriculture and Small nt, Business, Education, Local Governme ic Publ and rs Affai ary Milit , rans Vete Safety committees
THE VAST NUMBER OF ISSUES
CAPITOL IDEAS
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different issues. I had “For me, it was the vast number of … we had revenue and served on the city commission In state government, rs. othe issues and just three or four along with that, go To gs. you have all these many thin rmation. … In the info this all you’re just bombarded with top issues—the the ut abo r media, most people will hea r firsthand in your hea You ons. budget, retirement, correcti not in a committee, then committee meetings. But if you’re mittee meetings or com of you’ve got to read the minutes on issues that date to up you ask fellow legislators to get are going on.”
DON SHOOTER
Elected in 2010
Farmer Chair, Senate Appropriations Committe e; vice chair, Water, Land Use and Rura l Development Committee; member of Natural Resources and Transportatio n, and Water, Land Use and Rural Development committees
THINGS ARE AS THEY SEEM “The thing that surprised me the mos t is that things are as they seem. Pretty much the situation is wha t you would think it would be and people behave as you would think they would behave. … A lot of it didn’t surprise me. There are people who are doing it for the right reason. Ther e are people up here doing it for the wrong reason. … . I thought there would be a lot of Machiavellian stuff and this and that. Mostly, it’s just people up here trying to do what they think is right.”
