AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine's newly-elected lawmakers are attending seminars on legislative ethics and on Maine's Freedom of Access Act, which provides the public access to government documents.
House Speaker Mark Eves, of North Berwick, told the 186 soon-to-be lawmakers that they are all in for a busy session.
"We're going to learn a lot from each other and you guys that have been here, the newly-elected, for several days, learning, trying to get a sense of where the bathrooms are, where the offices are, how to submit a bill - it's overwhelming," Eves said.
Sen. Justin Alfond, a Portland Democrat, told a story that he said former House Speaker Glenn Cummings told him six years ago when he was first elected.
"When I first got up here, that first week I was thinking to myself, 'How the hell do I deserve to be here? All these people are so smart, they know everything,' " Alfond said Cummings told him. "And by the second week I was asking myself, 'How the hell are any of these people here?' "
This evening, lawmakers will mingle at a reception and dinner at the Augusta Civic Center. The new Legislature will be sworn in by Republican Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday.
After that, the new Legislature will elect an attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state, as well as a speaker of the House and a Senate president.
