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How Maine's Freshmen Lawmakers Are Learning The Ropes

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There are 186 members of the Maine legislature, and nearly a third have never served before.

There are 186 members of the Maine Legislature, and nearly a third have never served before. For them, the current session is as much about learning as it will be about legislating, and there’s a lot to learn.

Morning Edition host Irwin Gratz talked with some of the State House rookies about how the session is going so far, and with some of the veterans who are willing to offer guidance.

Apart from the hearing rooms and the House and Senate chambers, newcomers to the State House discover that a lot of business gets done at the the Cross Café. The cafe is on the basement level of the Cross Office Building, a short walk, through the tunnel, from the State House itself. It's where legislators drop in - for food, to chat with colleagues, with each other, or, on a couple of days recently, to sit down with a reporter.

One of the legislators is former teacher Abigail Griffin, now a student in a freshman class of legislators.

"I've read the little blue book that they gave us, the handbook," she says. “I'm one of those people that sit back and just try to take it all in, mull it over, ponder it, and just kind of watch for a while. That's how I learn."

Credit Irwin Gratz / Maine Public
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Maine Public
"In the first session you got elected to, you figure out where all the bathrooms are." says Ralph Tucker

"In the first session you got elected to, you figure out where all the bathrooms are," says Ralph Tucker, an attorney from Brunswick who also served as a District Court judge before being elected to his first term in Augusta in 2015. He says his professional experience did not fully prepare him for this job.

“It's one thing to have been around politics and the law all your life,” he says. “It's quite another to be right in the middle, to be actually in a legislative position."

Tucker says that even after several terms, he's still learning how to balance the different roles of a legislator, and come to terms with important questions.

"Am I just supposed to do whatever I think my constituents want, as if they did an invisible plebiscite every day? Or, should I represent what's in their best interests, which might be different from what people want, and should I be concerned about short-term interest versus long-term interest?" he says.

For first-time lawmakers, like Holly Stover of Boothbay, the questions can be somewhat more rudimentary.

"I know that we're really just putting our toes in the water, and as we get into this deeper, the areas that we'll have to concede or mediate, or develop some consensus around, the process of that still has questions for me on how that unfolds and how that gets resolved and what actually goes forward," she says.

That’s a common theme for newcomers: they want to know how the sausage gets made, how a bill gets negotiated and passed.

On that front, Tucker offers a sports analogy.

"It's kind of like rugby...in the rugby game, you have a whole team that's pushing things one way or the other down the field, and you have to have a team working that way," Tucker says.

Credit Flickr
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Flickr
The Cross Office Building is home to the Cross Cafe, a hub for some Maine lawmakers

And as the scrum takes shape, other veterans advise, be sure to take your strategic cues from those who have played the game before, those with experience and knowledge.

But, warns one second-term Democrat: "With term limits, we're kind of in the unfortunate situation of, a lot of times the most knowledgeable person in the room is going to be a lobbyist,” says Rep. Tina Riley from Jay.

“Lobbyists are very good at being very helpful and very much in front of your face,” she says. “And it's very important for a new legislator to make sure that we find the balancing information from other sources."

Credit Irwin Gratz / Maine Public
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Maine Public
"With term limits, we're kind of in the unfortunate situation of, a lot of times the most knowledgeable person in the room is going to be a lobbyist," says Rep. Tina Riley.

Riley offers another piece of advice when it comes to crafting compromises, which sounds almost parental.

"We need very much to build coalitions, and that means really listening,” she says. “Truly, you need to really put your feelings aside and listen to what other people say, even if it's uncomfortable, even if you don't agree with them."

Rep. Dick Pickett of Dixfield echoed this sentiment.

"You only get compromise when you talk and listen," he says.

Pickett retired from a 40-year career in law enforcement and won his House seat back in 2014.

"If you talk and don't listen, there's no compromise. If you listen and don't talk, there's no compromise,” he says.

This all sounds so reasonable, though it is still the early days of the session, months before the heated late night budget brawls.

Democratic rookie House Member Stover exudes optimism.

"It has been very exciting,” she says. “I have to say that I'm enthusiastic and hopeful. There's a lot of energy, a lot of positive energy and a lot of willingness to get work done from all perspectives."

Republican State House veteran Pickett, who has witnessed his share of partisan politics in action, is also bullish on the prospects of the new session, and he says he loves his job.

Credit Irwin Gratz / Maine Public
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Maine Public
Pickett, who has witnessed his share of partisan politics in action, says he loves his job.

“I come down here, I'm excited to get here,” he says. “I talk with everybody. It doesn't make a difference what side of the aisle they're on. I don't go in there and consider them my enemy, the other side of the aisle my enemy. But I consider us all colleagues, all working for the same goal, just looking for a different way to get there."

Democratic new comer Lori Gramlich of Old Orchard Beach, who once worked on staff for Senate leadership, says that there is a common bond among all of the people who come here to represent the interests of those back home.

"I guarantee you that every single person, both in the Legislature's House and Senate, all have one thing in common: we all love Maine. And that's something we can build on," Gramlich says.

Come spring, we’ll head back to the Cross Cafe to see how some of these same first time legislators fared, and find out what they learned.

Originally posted 5:51 p.m. Feb. 28, 2019