Review of Lobby Day - Sacramento

[KTMrad 512]

From Kieth on the District 37 AMA Forum....

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Lobby-dobby-yabba-dabba-doooooo-days!

I just got back from lobby days. Paul Flanders, Bob Sacket, Jim Woods and family, Don Nay and family, Randy L. and Cameron Camp plus 120 other folks went up to Sacramento for this years event. We had a larger turnout than expected. We filled the meeting rooms to standing room only capacity.

I think a couple clubs sent some of these folks up. If the rest of you clubs have the money, send a couple reps next year.

Sunday afternoon started out with a primer for first timers and a refresher for us old salts.

We found out we didn't have any bills to push this year, but we do have a bill we're following regarding the Commish and green sticker program. We'll see how the language develops in the coming weeks, then decide if we can get behind it.

Sunday night 20 of us went to dinner and Woods tried to put 60 bucks worth of salads on the Cal 4x4 club bill but we got caught at the last second, it was worth a try.

We hit the hay around 11 and got an early start Monday.

After breakfast we had a slate of speakers come in and pump us up for walking the halls.

The Legislators were very receptive this year. I was in a small group of 3 and we had warm receptions in all but one office we visited. We visited 8. Even the cooler office was courteous enough to listen to our pitch. The staffer meeting us actually wrote notes for the first 3 minutes then she stopped and just nodded. Believe me, this is progress when in the past, this Assemblyman said "just leave the material".

We finished up the hall walking around 4 and we retreated to our war room to write up our evaluations and debriefings. Finally, it was time to retreat to the Sutter Club. This is the jacket and tie required club where the business of business gets busy. Plush high back leather chairs, high ceilings with chandeliers, wool floor coverings, neat artwork, and lots of pictures on the walls of past club presidents dating back to 1889. The crappers in the bathroom are like a walk in closet with a leather chair in 'em. Now that's livin'! I was a lil disappointed there wasn't a magazine rack though.

The finger food spread was great and the mingling was super. We had some high placed VIP's come in and CORVA bestowed a few awards on some very helpfull lawmakers.

We headed to the airport around 7ish and got on the plane for the long flight home. There was a very unruly group that kept the whole plane awake. Rumor has it the ring leaders were from Simi Valley.

Randy Lazar has hit Dualsport like a Tsunami the past couple years. He's jumped in with both his feet and those of his club. It was great to have him up there spreading his enthusiasm in the halls of Sacramento. I think this was Naykid's(Don Nay) first trip also. It was encouraging to have new faces.

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Kieth

LA-Barstow-Vegas Dualsport Coordinator

[Ride-Orange 2]

Great work Rad! Thanks to you and Uncle Cameron for taking your personal time to go lobby on our behalf. Great to see that District 37 recognized that you are representing us and working on our behalf to keep our trails open.

Thanks agan,

Rob

[Mescalero 0]

Nice!!!!

Good to hear a biy of what its like up there.

[sandiegoland 0]

...Randy Lazar has hit Dualsport like a Tsunami the past couple years. He's jumped in with both his feet and those of his club. It was great to have him up there spreading his enthusiasm in the halls of Sacramento...

Kieth

LA-Barstow-Vegas Dualsport Coordinator

Sometimes breaking a foot in the process...

Glad you just got caught spreading your enthusiasm... don't want any more paternity suits from these trips. Seriously, good to see the mention. This sounds like it was a good trip to check out since it was prior to any where you had specific legislation to address. Now you know how to get around there and some of the mechanics...

[Crawdaddy 96]

Thanks guys, we all appreciate you putting in the time and effort....

[unclecameron 0]

sorta new to the whole lobby (snore...or so I thought) thing, had NEWBIE written all over my face, but a couple packs of aero-snacks later here I am riding with folks who forgot more than I claim to know. Couple hours into it shaking hands with folks that have the title Senator...and no, I don't think you can back-slap these aged bearers of perplexing amounts of power (though I bet I could beat them armwrestling...does that mean anything...), so you act like your mother told you mostly and try to look like you were born in a tie, even if it means tying one on, so to speak, for our moderately fearless leader, KTMRad, the guy didn't pay attention in charm school on tie day, so hey, I tied one for him and he slipped it on and with the help of last minute clerks at Men's Wearhouse and late night hemming, VOILA! off-roader turned savvy politician as far as anyone knows, right?

So where's the fight? Turns out most of the folks we visited up north really don't mind what we're doing...most perplexing, because certain change's progress can be measured locally in archaeological terms. Sooo, what's the problem, we paid you money, we wanna ride, right?

Enter bureauca...bureaurocra...politics. So you don't have the time to sit up there and continually muddle through the muck of the minutia, it turns out they have guys you can hire to take your point of view for a fee, pretty much feels like a hired bulldog, I don't know if they are all regular church attenders, but they do know the zigs and zags of getting your plea for justice to the right people and irritating them until they do so...hopefully. My take on it: if I gotta throw a couple bucks their way and it works, hey, sign me up, then let me go riding while they do...whatever they do. Common thought has it that's the way you're supposed to get things done up there, and I'm told it works better than me just standing there trying to sound intelligent.

So we wander the halls trying to convince the appropriate powers that the lobbyists are backed by red-blooded real people, normalish people, this convinces them that if they do something good we will cheer, and if they do something totally perplexing or devilish, we will don our "pissed off off-roader" garb and line the streets with vehicles that are dirt-clad, love racing fuel and will make for an irritating commute for "business as usual" roads surrounding the Capital.

Good to go if you get a chance, they are friendlier to "normal" people showing up than I guessed, and the food's pretty good (the real reason ), and I think if the threat of angry normal people stays put, we'll get more action toward our point of view and not keep the gate and fence folks in business putting us out of business. My fingers ache, I need dirt, I'm outta here, but might be something to think about next time if you get a chance, especially if the foods good