Alfonso Lopez: What Happens Once You Win Election to the General Assembly?
So you got elected Delegate... now what? Alfonso Lopez explains the nitty gritty of being a new legislator, what to expect, and how to set yourself up for success.
But first, critics of the Department of Corrections want an ombudsman to provide oversight over the conditions in Virginia jails. Also, the Division of Legislative Automated Systems has been crippled by ransomware right before the session, when lawyers and legislators scramble to make their final requests and revisions.
The team also responds to listener tweets about their interviews with Clark Mercer and Tom Garrett.
See more at: https://linktr.ee/JacklegMedia.
Michael Pope
I'm Michael Pope.
Thomas Bowman
And I'm Thomas Bowman.
Michael Pope
And this is Transition Virginia, the podcast that examines the ongoing transition of power in Virginia politics.
Thomas Bowman
Later in the show, if you ever thought about running for the House of Delegates, Delegate, Alfonso Lopez joined us to reveal what it's like to be a newly elected member of the House. What do you need to know and what are some of the tricks of the trade?
Michael Pope
You know, Alfonso Lopez is a super fan of the show, Thomas. He was one of our earliest listeners, I remember after we recorded like our second episode or something, he came up to me on the House floor and talked about how much he loved the podcast, and how much he wanted to be on it. And then, you know, later in the day, actually, I was up in his office, with Marcus Simon, recording an episode. So shout out to to one of our original listeners, and super fan, Alfonso Lopez, who will be joining us later in the show and laying out some really interesting details about, sort of, what it's like to be an incoming freshman, and all the things you need to learn to make your first session happen.
Thomas Bowman
And he gets into some of the unwritten rules of the House. And can we tease this a little bit, Michael?
Michael Pope
Let's go for it.
Thomas Bowman
Is there something that you were surprised about?
Michael Pope
I was surprised that the- I just never heard this process, where they were they it, with all the freshmen put their names in a bowl, and then they pick out the number for the seniority...Which makes sense, because if you had this group of people that are coming in all at the same time, they can't all have the same seniority, you have to order them. And so yeah, I never heard this process, where they drew names out of the bowl to get their seniority order. And then I was also kind of surprised that that might even have long lasting effects as to you know, that that random event, where you draw a number out of a bowl, might, one day, determine whether or not you become like a chairman of a subcommittee, or even chairman of a committee. I thought that was kind of interesting.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, it's an enormously consequential moment. And before anybody really knows what's going on or anything about you, it sets up your entire career by luck of the draw.
Michael Pope
Okay, let's get to the news. Virginia is one of the few states in the country that does not have independent oversight over its prisons. Now critics say that's why Virginia prisons are hit with so many lawsuits about mistreatment and shoddy medical care. Lawmakers are about to consider creating a new ombudsman to provide accountability and transparency. Vishal Agraharker, is Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Virginia.
Vishal Agraharker
It would have the power to inspect its facilities, the ability to hear directly and confidentially from incarcerated people or correctional officers who have concerns about the conditions inside the facilities, and then investigate those concerns. And the responsibility to help resolve those concerns, recommend improvements, and provide transparency about the state of our prisons.
Michael Pope
And the Department of Corrections says, "[it] already has oversight from the American Correctional Association, and the Office of Inspector General." But advocates for this bill say that none of that is independent oversight. David Smith is Chairman of the Virginia Coalition on Solitary Confinement.
David Smith
There's no actual official agency, or official person, looking to make sure that what's happening behind these closed doors, what's happening behind these walls, is actually what they say is happening.
Michael Pope
So setting up a new office will cost money and staffing it will be a recurring cost. But advocates for this bill say it'll probably end up saving money in the end, by preventing settlements in cases that cost taxpayers like 10s of millions of dollars. So Thomas, this question of the money is really interesting, because last year, when this was considered- this is a bill introduced by Delegate Patrick Hope of Arlington, and the Department of Corrections, estimated that the cost of this thing would be outrageously high, like $11 million, I think, is what the the estimate was. And so Delegate Hope said, "Well, that doesn't sound right to me." And so he ended up getting a hold of an independent consultant to look at all this stuff, and sort of figure out what the actual cost would be. So the consultant ended up saying it would be $3.4 million for the first year, which includes like a $1.8 million, one time, startup cost. So there's like a huge difference between an $11 million price tag, and a $3 million price tag. So now, this consultant's study will be, sort of, folded into the discussion of this bill in 2022. And it might actually get some more support on this. Thomas, I'm sure you've read all of the many lawsuits that have been involved in Virginia prisons over the years, there was one in 2014, out in Fluvanna, where there was alleged substandard medical care. There's a 2019 case where a judge ruled that the Department of Corrections was failing to uphold a settlement. And so, you know, critics of the Department of Corrections say, "Look, there's nobody watching the store here. There's no oversight of the department and the prisons." And so Delegate Hope and people that support the bill, they want some transparency and oversight. Do you think that's going to happen next year?
Thomas Bowman
I don't, Michael, and Delegate Patrick Hope used to be my delegate when I lived in Ballston in Arlington. And this is a really interesting idea. I fully agree that the Department of Corrections needs independent oversight. I'm really not convinced that this bill, or this approach, is going to get it done. This is like paying the watchmen to watch the watchmen. And as long as it's controlled by the executive agencies, there's not an incentive to truly have independent oversight, because it isn't actually independent. You would need a higher power outside of the purview of the state government doing this. Maybe a division within the Attorney General's Office could potentially take on something like this, but really legislative oversight, which our current legislature does not have oversight authority over anything. So you would need to really restructure how we do government, in order for Virginia to get the outcome that Delegate Hope wants. And there's no way to know how this would go, in theory. The reality though, is, I don't think it's going to happen. And maybe I'll be surprised. But I think that with the Department itself, not wanting it, with the incoming Republican administration, and the things that there will be, there will be too many budget items to fight over. The reality is that these new things are probably going to get cut.
Michael Pope
Well you say the Department might be against it. So the Department actually has a neutral stance on this. They're not for it, they're also not against it, although they did put that huge price tag on it. The effort does have lots of supporters, the Police Benevolent Association, the Humanization Project, the NAACP, Justice Forward Virginia, so there is a coalition in favor of this, and the Department is not, technically, against it, although Delegate Hope does frankly, say that, you know, he senses they are against it, even though they don't take that official stance.
Thomas Bowman
Well, that price tag kind of gives away the game, Michael. The executive agencies will often, publicly, say they're neutral about something, but they will work behind the scenes to either to tell the governor, or to do things like putting a really high price tag on something. So they can officially say they're neutral, but still get the outcome that they truly want, which is for something to not happen.
Michael Pope
But now Delegate Hope has this consultant study that says the actual cost is really more like three and a half million dollars, as opposed to the $11 million price tag the Department put on it. And in addition to that, in the long run, you might end up saving money because you won't have all these lawsuits about mistreatment and shoddy medical care.
Thomas Bowman
Sure, maybe, but this is what's going to happen, is they're going to go to the brand new Governor Youngkin, and they're gonna say, "Hey, we don't want this at all. It's bad," And they're going to use whatever talking points behind the scenes that they're going to use. And I do not see a new governor shaking up an entire agency in this way, for frankly, something the NAACP supports, because they don't have juice in Richmond when Republicans are in charge. It just is what it is. Also in the news, Virginia's legislature is being held hostage to ransomware, specifically, the Division of Legislative Services, and so none of the legislature can patron their bills, or have their bills moved forward, within the system right now. That's really gonna mess up plans for session, and any potential bills that were in the works that are not being done on paper.
So there are some bills that have been posted to LIS. So should we be seeing more, and like, we're seeing a limited number because of the attack?
Yeah, if it wasn't already finished, they cannot finish it now, because they can't access their system.
Michael Pope
I could see how that might gum up the system for the session.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah. And so I was talking to a couple people, it's apparently way worse than any of the news outlets are reporting. And it makes sense that the agency is keeping this close to the vest. But here's the reality. What they found, is that Virginia's government is a very soft target. Now that it's happened to one organization, we can expect it to happen to other organizations. And so you're already seeing DBHDS' payroll system, that's people who managed Medicaid services, they got held hostage to so taken down with malware, cyber attacks. And so this is a situation that is rapidly degenerating for Virginia's state government. They do not have an eta of when it will get back up and running. The ransom note came in, but it did not have a date or a price tag associated with what they want. So the Department of Homeland Security is involved. And there is not much as far as the government to do. But this is a huge problem for the, assuming a new clerk, the Republicans have said that they want the former clerk, Paul Nardo back, and you've got an outgoing speaker, and outgoing clerk on the Democratic side of the aisle, who aren't able to fix the problem, and are like, I see this as you know, I hate to frame it like this, but just kind of throwing up your hands and say, "Okay, it's your problem now," when the Republicans take over, you know? Like, this is gonna be a giant mess for who knows how long?
Michael Pope
Well, I saw that the Division of Legislative Automated Systems told The Associated Press that the goal is to have the General Assembly session, operational quote, "To the greatest extent possible," unquote, which is not really solid language. It's like, we're gonna have this working as best as we possibly can. Which is an indication that they don't really possibly even know the contours of the problem.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, and I mean, we know what the solution is, generally speaking, but this is not a perfect solution. So, of course, the legislature used to do everything through paper, and the one advantage to having Paul Nardo back as Clerk, even though he was a former Republican Chief of Staff to Speaker Howell, the advantage there is he is the guy that digitized all these systems in the first place. And so he does, in theory, remember how to conduct business on paper. We're going to hear from Alfonso Lopez, the process for a bill to become law. And that involves plugging your idea into a computer system. Well, anything that was just done that way and doesn't have an email record on another site, or they didn't have drafted language in another file, that is lost, potentially forever. And so I was talking to somebody at Fairfax County in their Government Affairs Division and they are breathing a sigh of relief that all of their bills are okay, because they have so many of them, that they already conduct their business on paper, because it's just easier.
Michael Pope
Let's hear it for the era of the landline telephone, the typewriter, and probably even the candle light- candlelit sessions, I guess, that's what we're looking forward to.
Thomas Bowman
Well, there's a fun irony in this, Michael. If you are worried about potentially bad bills coming up, well, nobody's putting in bad bills right now.
Michael Pope
It's all the pre filed bills, right? Okay, let's get on to some listener mail. Friend of the show, Thomas Jordan Miles of Buckingham County says he loved our podcast at the Executive Mansion with the Governor's Chief of Staff Clark Mercer. Although he says, "[he] wishes we would have addressed the parole board matter." Thomas was that on your list of questions to ask Clark?
Thomas Bowman
You know, it wasn't, and that's our mistake, because I think it would have been really nice to hear from Clark directly on that. Having said that, I'll say though, that Clark talked for a long time, and I don't think we would have even had time to bring it up. And so the the reality is, that even if it were on the list, I can't say that we would have even gotten to it.
Michael Pope
Yeah, you know, who did talk a lot about the parole board was Glenn Youngkin. He's going to ditch the parole board members, and bring in new parole board members. Also Senator Suetterlein has a bill to make the votes of the parole board public. You know, for whatever reason, the parole board actually, the votes are not part of the public record. And so he wants to make that public. That was a bill that got out of the Senate last year, but then the House Democrats killed it. So Senator Suetterlein seems to think that the the incoming House Republicans will give it a better hearing. And so that actually might get to the Governor's desk. And so I think we probably are going to see some parole board reforms next year. And it would be- it would have been interesting to hear Clark's take on the problems that happened during his time at the Executive Mansion, but it also would have probably been like a five hour podcast. So I guess there's that.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah. So we can't do it all. We did what we could, I thought it was pretty ballsy to be able to ask him, directly, about some very controversial subjects like the Blackface Scandal.
Michael Pope
Yeah, we had a great time at the Executive Mansion in the Nook. And so you know, maybe one day we'll be back, right? Maybe Governor Youngkin will invite us and we'll hang out there.
Thomas Bowman
That would be wonderful.
Michael Pope
So listener, Tammy Purcell, hit us up on Twitter about our segment with former Republican Congressman Tom Garrett. She says, quote, "Imagine doing a pod that focuses on Virginia politics, just as the Virginia political landscape hits peak turmoil, you drop a pod to raise money for Tom Garrett's documentary." And then @EHartman1975 added on Twitter, quote, "I've lost all respect for Transition Virginia." Thomas, what's your reaction to that?
Thomas Bowman
I mean, you can't please everybody. Tom Garrett is not an elected official anymore. And we have really been able to lay the groundwork to have him back, and talk about all the fun things that Michael and I have been wanting to talk about before. And, Michael, how did this interview even come around, because you're the one who set this up, right?
Michael Pope
Congressman Garrett sent me a text and outlined the project that he was working on and sent me the link to the YouTube trailer. And I watched it and I thought it was a great project. And then when I talked to him on the phone, he outlined what he wanted to do. And it sounds like an amazing project that has no partisan tinge to it at all. It's just about sort of exposing wrongdoing across the globe, in terms of persecution of political minorities, and ethnic minorities, and LGBT people across the globe. And I have a lot of admiration for Congressman Garrett, you know, like he wears all of his emotions on his sleeve. And he talks quite openly about his struggles with alcohol. And, you know, he's doing this project because he wants his life to have meaning. So like, it doesn't get any better than that. Right? So I wish him all the best with this project. And I hope he does lots of episodes exposing persecution across the globe.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah. And if you were hoping for more Virginia politics from Tom Garrett, well guess what, I've got good news for you. He will absolutely come back on the show in the future to talk Virginia politics.
Michael Pope
Alright, so now we're going to go on to our roving correspondent Mert Meadowmuffin, who brings us interesting stories from across the Commonwealth. Now, Mert, I understand you're at some sort of cook off? What's going on out there?
Steve Artley
That's right, Mike, I'm talking to you from the wild. So we're in Virginia, for the very first annual Planet Mama's Natural Country Cookoff. Standing next to me is Naturalist Chef Harry Armanpits, with his entry of hemp and fungus curd cakes. Now I understand Harry, these are not cooked or baked. Is that correct? That's exactly right. Yeah. Okay. Why don't you tell us, to fill us in on all that, while I sample the wares? Sure. I'd be happy to. That's right. It's like ruins the natural flavor. You know? It's like it. Yes. It's an unusual flavor. It's...do I detect a hint of-gee I'm just not sure how to describe it like like fermented grain or yeasty kind of flavor. Like dank well water. Is that perhaps it how you washed the ingredients? No, no, no, no, no, no ingredients are never washed, never. There's no rinse. There's no no water at all. It's all just straight from our mother planet Earth. I only use fresh fungus, growing in free range pasture manure, and wild hemp herbs from my very own natural cesspool run off. All ingredients are still dripping in natural earth juices when they get gingerly shredded, and blending and formed into patties. They're cured with loving care between my own butt cheeks overnight, then. Oh...
Michael Pope
Oh, sounds like we've lost our connection there with Mert Meadowmuffin. We'll have to check in with him later and make sure that he's okay. All right, well, now let's take a break. When we come back, we'll be joined by Delegate Alfonso Lopez, who will tell us what it's like to be a freshman delegate walking into the chamber for the first time. Be right back.
And we're back on Transition Virginia, and we're joined by one of our earliest listeners. He's the whip for the House Democrats and he's always willing to let us know what he thinks about the episodes, Delegate Alfonso Lopez of Arlington. Thanks for joining us.
Alfonso Lopez
Hey guys, how you doing?
Thomas Bowman
Good. Thanks for being on.
Alfonso Lopez
Also, I've been on a few times in one of the some of the earliest programs as well. So always love being on. You guys do amazing job.
Thomas Bowman
Oh, thank you, Alfonso. Alright, Alfonso, you're on today because we want to know what happens once you get elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. What can you expect? Let's say you're from Louisa County, you just get elected, you're doe eyed, bushy tailed. Now what?
Alfonso Lopez
Well, if you're a Democrat, you have been working very closely with the House Democratic Caucus. And, you know, you will have been working hand in glove with us, and we would have been on the phone with you, election night on, and you might have done a couple events with the Caucus down in Richmond. But once your election is certified by the state electoral board, you will receive a certificate of election, which is an amazing document to receive, officially saying that you're a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and then you will get reached out to by the Clerk's office. And they will invite you to a couple days of orientation in Richmond at the Capitol. And then at the end of this two day process, you have the famous moment where you line up and one by one, you pick a number out of a bowl, a famous porcelain bowls, and you get your number of seniority, which it has a big- it's a it's a sort of innocuous small thing. But that number of seniority, if it's a very large class, can have long term implications for your seating assignments on the floor, or your room assignments or your-
Michael Pope
Or your parking space, right?
Alfonso Lopez
Not not really a parking space, but more importantly ,for the likelihood that you will be in line to be a committee chair, or have a subcommittee, or a full committee before your colleagues. And so for instance, when I got elected to the House of Delegates, there were 16 freshmen who got elected in 2011 and 2012 and got sworn in in 2012. And there were 15 Republicans, and I was the only Democrat. And but interestingly, when we pulled out our numbers of seniority, I got number two in seniority. So I was number 86, I believe, for my class, and Peter Ferrell was just the person ahead of me. And just 10 years, I've gone from, you know, brand new member of the House of Delegates to, this year, I'll be, I believe, number 27 in seniority. And if you think about the way it was in the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s, it would take you decades to get up to 27 in seniority. But there's been so much changeover in the General Assembly in the Virginia House of Delegates, in the last 10 years, it's only taken 10 years to get there for me, several of my colleagues.
Michael Pope
I'm glad you brought up your own, sort of, early days. What tripped you up, in terms of things that you weren't expecting, or things that you were surprised to learn about what is actually involved in being a member of the House of Delegates?
Alfonso Lopez
For me, I was struck by one, the history of the place, and I knew about it, from an intellectual perspective, of the nature of being the longest serving legislative body in the New World, 403 years so far, and that how much history is there in the building. How much about who we are as a country, not just as a Commonwealth, as a country, was created out of the precursors of the General Assembly, but also in that building itself, it's arguably, it is, I think, I think, PBS said this thing in the American Masters Theater program about how the Virginia State Capitol is the most important historical building in the United States because of everything that happened within that structure. But the way also we're still making history every year in the General Assembly, not just in the policy issues, we advocate for the things that happened. But Mark Keam was the first Asian American Asian American immigrants, we elected the House of Delegates, and that was 15 years ago. Kathy Tran first Asian Asian American woman, Sam Rasoul, first Muslim American man. We're still making history in Virginia.
Thomas Bowman
Alfonso, another way that you can make history in Virginia is through legislation. So, let's say I was running as a candidate on a platform to do something like have Virginia recognize a decentralized autonomous organization, DAO, as an official, legitimate form of business, that's actually a bill that Wyoming just did. And how do I take that idea, and enroll it as a bill to eventually become a law, hopefully?
Alfonso Lopez
Well, that's one of the wonderful things about Virginia is that we have something called legislative information service and, and DLS, the Department of Legislative Services, which is basically amazing experts on on the perdue state code attorneys and policy experts. And what you, what you do is you you submit, as detailed or as not detailed information as you can provide into the system. And your idea will be assigned to a lead attorney, who will then draft up legislation, and maybe ask several questions about what you want to do, and how the process should work, and what you want to see come out of legislation, and then provide you with draft legislation. So there'll be a pre filing period, that will begin fairly soon after the elections in November, and then it'll end or after like, I think three or four weeks. And then whether that means that is you have a guarantee that you will be able to have your legislation in by a certain time before session starts. And then you can always put in more bills, I think up to five bills on the House side, after that, but it doesn't get the full time and attention that the pre -filed bills do.
Michael Pope
Now, at some point, this bill that Thomas wants to introduce, is going to get a price tag slapped on to it, right, this is a part that often trips up new lawmakers. Explain this fiscal impact statement part of this?
Alfonso Lopez
Right, and so what happens sometimes, also, is that a bill will get flagged for needing a fiscal impact statement. And so sometimes this can be politicized, sometimes it's not so politicized, it's just sort of the fact that this bill will cost money when trying to figure out how much it will cost. And that can be used as a cudgel or as a as an entree to moving forward in the process. Say I had an idea a couple years ago to pass legislation to make community college free in the three community colleges in Southside, Southwest Virginia. And the fiscal impact statement came back and fairly significant. And over time, we've been able to figure out ways to make that far less. But by having that first fiscal impact statement, it was made clear to me that that was not going to move forward through the appropriations process, because there was no desire to spend that kind of money.
Michael Pope
One thing that I've noticed with the fiscal impact statements, that I think is worth thinking about, is if you want to make a reform to the Department of so and so, but the Department of so and so doesn't like your idea, doesn't want the reform, is much happier to do things the way they've always been done. Thank you very much. They'll slap an $11 million fiscal impact statement on it. Is that...how does that work?
Alfonso Lopez
I really can't speak to that. And I kind of hypothetical, I will say that I have personally dealt with instances, say in the environmental arena, where maybe we're trying to deal with making it easier to address lead pipes for drinking water issues. And that's something that we all want to deal with, and something that even the President of the United States and the infrastructure bill is passed at the federal level addresses, they want to get rid of all the lead pipes in the country when it comes to drinking water, because of the significant impact it has on immunosuppressed, and elderly, and and infants, and children who have the drink water above the 15 parts per billion standard for lead and copper. You can have significant health problems. And you have a number of communities that, mostly in poor, older, rural areas of Virginia, where they are well past 15 parts per billion, it's 250 parts per billion, it's 400 parts per billion. And so you don't want to be drinking out of the tap water in some of these areas. And thankfully now with the infrastructure bill, we've been able to address this. What happens a lot of the time, is that you'll be saying it's just it cost too much money. We're talking about $20,000 per house to pull out all the pipes and do do something. And so what happens a lot of the time is because we are a PAYGO state, because we have to have a balanced budget, you can run into that situation. I don't know if it's as common as you might assume it is, but I, have seen that happen in the past.
Thomas Bowman
Another way that legislators can have their bills tripped up is when they don't actually do what they thought their bill would do. This actually happened to me one time as a staff member, the member I was working for, who shall go nameless, on record, put in a bill, they were trying to get a stop sign put in, or do the law on a certain intersection, or when the intersection met certain requirements. But the way they wrote that bill, or structured that bill, it would force the Department of Transportation to put stop signs in every intersection in Virginia, which was certainly not the intent, but you mentioned one of those attorneys. Well, I had Frank Munion calling me at about 9am on a Friday morning, angry, about what that bill did. So what happens when you've put in a bill, and you realize that bill does not do, actually, what you hoped it would do, and so it needs an amendment? So then what happened?
Alfonso Lopez
Well, usually what you want to do is you want to have give yourself as much lead time as possible that you massage, you've worked your bill, where all of those problems are addressed long before you actually introduce the bill. So you want to talk to outside groups, associations, advocates, you want to have as many people looking at the legislation to find out what the consequences are, what the unintended consequences might be, so that you're not creating another minefield by fixing a minefield, if you know what I mean. And so yeah, like, you know, that's that doesn't happen that often, I think.
Michael Pope
I also want to ask you about the written rules versus the unwritten rules. So the the playbook at the General Assembly is a document written by Thomas Jefferson. Explain this Jefferson Manual and how it guides things at the General Assembly?
Alfonso Lopez
The Jefferson Manual is based on the Mason Manual. And it's sort of how the rules work for the General Assembly. And in fact, the Jefferson Manual is the foundation for, I think, more than 25 states use the Jefferson Manual as a foundation for the rules. And basically, what it means is that the majority has all the power, it's a very strong speaker driven environment, unlike Congress, where the the minority will assign individuals to committees, just like the majority will sign their members to committees. In a Jefferson Manual state, the Speaker, whoever of the majority party is, makes the committee assignments for both the majority and the minority. And so it's an incredibly powerful, Speaker driven legislative organization. And so that is what we run our, our rules by. And so it says, as minor things as every conversation goes through the Chair of the Committee or through the Speaker. So if you want to ask a question, say, "Mr. Speaker, I rise to report require with the with the Speaker with the Delegate from Arlington, please yield for a question." And then you don't actually say that to be the other delegate, you say to the Speaker, then the speaker says, "Will the -will the delegate yield?" And then the delegate will say, "Yes, I will yield to the delegate." And then you ask the question, not to the individual, but to the Speaker.
Michael Pope
Which is unnatural, right? I mean, that's a very unnatural way of doing things you have learn...
Alfonso Lopez
It has to be learned, it has to be learned mostly through osmosis. It does not feel normal. And so what the House Democratic Caucus does, then, is we will not only have, on top of the orientation trainings done by the Clerk's office, we will also do an additional couple days of trainings where one day is specifically set aside, just for sort of practicing through a mock debate format, committee debate, and floor debate, so that you're learning the Caucus procedure, you're learning the procedures, you're learning the rules, and you're you're it's becoming second nature, because you can really only learn this by doing it. And then another day of trainings, which will simply be about you've been elected, now what. All right? Here and then we try to give as many best practices as we can on everything from setting up your office, setting up constituent services, hiring staff, what you need to know about hiring staff, and who the kind of person is you should be hiring.
Michael Pope
Well, let me turn that into a question, Alfonso Lopez. What should they be looking for in terms of staff?
Alfonso Lopez
Well, I would hire a Tom Bowman.
Thomas Bowman
Oh, thank you. Your check is in the mail, Alfonso.
Alfonso Lopez
No, seriously. What you want is you want you want a legislative aide or Chief of Staff, who it's really the most important decision you're going to make in the early going, is who you're going to hire. And that person should not only be someone you trust, someone who understands legislative process in Richmond, hopefully someone who has been around for a while, but someone's who is also a strong writer, who knows how to write for different audiences. Someone who cares about public policy in the same way that you do. It'd be very difficult to say you are a very mainstream conservative business Democrat, and you hired a member of the DSA to be your chief of staff. But someone who is a fast and accurate researcher, someone who, you know, I always throw this in, someone who's smart, but more importantly, kind. You want an individual who cares about their community, who cares about Virginia, who cares about getting good policy passed, and someone who's, who's smart, you're gonna need someone who's that good writer, good researcher, who cares about constituent service. Because the vast majority of what you're doing, outside of the short session we have, its constituent service, and we pride our, I mean, my office does, and I know all the Democrats do, we pride ourselves on being very responsive constituents service organization. But then most importantly, I guess it's two things, someone who's capable of representing you when you are not able to be there, which will be often during session. So you want someone who's going to represent you and your office well. The most important thing is someone you trust. I mean, I said at the very beginning, but it's got to be someone you trust implicitly. I mean, for me, I've had two Chiefs of Staff in 11 years. And both of them, you know, you know, I, I officiated the wedding of one of them, who's still one of my best buddies. And the other one, you know, like, my current Chief of Staff, who's amazing, they're the kind of people I they have the key to my house. All right? That's the kind of trust you have with them. You have to have this very easy, fluid, open, trusting relationship with them. So in our, in many ways, it's the most important decision you make. And we try to make it clear to folks how vitally important it is to to hire a Tom Bowman.
Thomas Bowman
You've left me speechless. I'm and I'm blushing, you can't see, but I'm, I am all red, Alfonso. Alright, so you mentioned trust, that is actually your trade, and your currency, as far as your reputation goes in Richmond, and they- that plays into, very often, how successful your career will be, as an elected official. And that is done by following some of the unwritten rules. Alfonso, can you explain what some of these unwritten rules are that will determine how successful you might be?
Alfonso Lopez
You know, I'm not only giving away the farm here, some of the unwritten rules are, I think the most important thing is coming back to trust. I mean, you are only as good as your work. You're only as if you tell someone, you're gonna vote some way, and then you don't, your reputation suffers. And we're a legislative body, we're not a bunch of autocrats. Everybody has to agree, and you have to, you have to be able to advocate for your, with your colleagues about when you say you're going to do something, you're going to do it. And so don't lie, I can't like an unwritten rule is don't lie. Another unwritten rule is, you know, it's important to follow the rules of the body. And what I mean by that is, don't assume that the rules don't apply to you.
Michael Pope
Okay. So, Alfonso, you mentioned a minute ago about, "Don't lie to people," that's in the abstract, of course, that makes a lot of sense. Can you give us an example, I know, you don't want to talk about individuals, I don't want you to talk about individuals. But like a scenario, or, you know, like how this, operationally, how this might look, in terms of having people be surprised by actions?
Alfonso Lopez
In the General Assembly, you're only as good as your word. And if you say to somebody that you're on a close vote, that you're gonna vote one way, and then, you not only vote the other way, but then you also give a speech about how bad the bill is, despite the fact that just a few days earlier, you had said how great the bill was to the individual who approached you who was pushing the bill, you're gonna get a reputation pretty fast for not being trustworthy. And the key to the realm and legislative body, where you're doing legislative transaction work, is being trustworthy. And so that's an example, I think, of it is it's where you....if it's affecting your ability to even do the job of being a delegate, because you are not telling the truth, and people are knowing you're not telling truth, especially when it comes to very close legislation, then you're going to get a rep pretty fast.
Thomas Bowman
Okay, so don't surprise people and tell the truth makes sense. I'm also wondering about other types of strategies, like don't throw your colleague under the bus, or brag about your accomplishments. Why are those two important unwritten rules to follow, Alfonso?
Alfonso Lopez
You don't want to use words like, "I," you always want to use, "We." Voters understand it takes more than one person to pass a law. And I joke about this, we're not 100 autocrats who can sort of like demand things to be exactly the way they be, we have to compromise, we have to figure out how far we can get without compromising our ideals, our vision, our values. But we want, if you're trying to get something accomplished, you have to be willing to compromise, to get something done. What I can't stand are the folks who, you know, when there is nothing on an issue, and I get through working as a group, and the people in general assembly, we get 70% of the way there, and eventually get that extra 30% in a couple of years. But then because you didn't get 100% of what exactly somebody wanted, you're a horrible person, because you only got 70% of it when before there was nothing there? Makes me want to pull my hair out half the time.
Thomas Bowman
Depends on the activist organization you're talking to.
Alfonso Lopez
Yeah, but the idea is that voters understand, it takes more than one person to pass a law. So it's about approach. It's about, you know, you don't want to over commit, you don't over promise, make sure you have infrastructure in place to handle something. You want to not use partisan driven statements a lot, you want to use..You don't want to use, you don't want to use rhetoric, particularly anything that can be construed as self congratulatory.
Michael Pope
Wait a second, politicians are supposed to be self congratulatory? Like that's the whole reason for being, right?
Alfonso Lopez
Yeah, I yeah, that's that...you said that.
Thomas Bowman
I think you're saying there's an art form to it?
Alfonso Lopez
Well, honestly, you know, I don't want to get into too many of the weeds and I don't want to bore you with, sort of, like the rules and the unwritten rules, whoever, they can read the rules. The unwritten rules are the things that are valuable.
Michael Pope
Let me ask about one more unwritten rule, which is more about like what happens in the Caucus, which of course, you can't talk about. But I'm often curious about this dynamic. I'm guessing that usually there's some kind of plan, when you take up some bill that you know lots of people want to speak on, that you, that the Caucus determines, "Okay, is delegate so and so is going to speak to this issue, and delegate so and so is going to speak to that issue." And there's like a plan when you go in. But there's also- isn't there a possibility that your own members might go rogue and decide to start speaking on things that wasn't part of the plan? And what happens then?
Alfonso Lopez
Yes, that has happened in the past, especially like 10 years ago, when I first got in the House of Delegates. What will happen is the the Speaker will, sort of, maybe designate in their head that there's, and this is maybe when Bill Howell was the Speaker, when they're like 15 minutes or 20 minutes of debate on this, and we'll have an equal amount of time between Republicans and Democrats. And we'll be completely prepared with what our message should be, who the three people are going to get up and press the button, so that he can only call on those three people. And then someone will go rogue, and start talking about a completely different issue, and use up the entire 10 minutes. And then they'll call the question. That is exactly what we don't want to have happen. We want to be as coordinated as possible. We want to be on message as much as possible, we want to be able to make sure that we, as a Caucus, are pulling the oars in the same direction, and being as effective as we possibly can be. And so yes, we try to strategize that, and we want the tactics and the strategy to be all in line.
Thomas Bowman
Well, Alfonso, you've given us a very good 101, about what happens when you become a member of the House of Delegates, and I'm wondering, before we leave, is there anything else that our friend listening needs to know about being a delegate?
Alfonso Lopez
Once you take it for granted, you shouldn't be there. Every moment is incredibly valuable and precious. And the honor of being in the House of Delegates is so overwhelming, that if you're not in awe of going into that building, every single time you go into it, you shouldn't be there anymore. That people who've sat in those chairs, are presidents, governors, U.S. senators, people who have, you know, developed how we do legislative work in the United States. I mean, the foundation of what we know as a legislative democracy, came from Virginia in the House of Burgesses, which is what we've been doing in Virginia 403 years. We've got national leaders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, Bobby Scott, Edmund Randolph, the entire Randolph family crew, including the crazy ones, all served in the House of Delegates, and now you are part of that proud history too. For me personally, it is, besides marrying my wife and birth of my kids, the most amazing thing that has ever happened, being in the House of Delegates. And it's something that you know, you never get over.
Thomas Bowman
Well, that's as good of a place to leave it as any. Thanks again for being on Transition Virginia.
Alfonso Lopez
Thank you guys. Thank you, keep it up, and you guys do amazing work.
Thomas Bowman
So that's all for this episode. Hit us up on social media or get in touch at transitionvirginia.com. There you can check the transcript for this episode and find links to support the show on Patreon. Special thanks to Emily Cottrell who transcribes every one of these so they're accessible to everyone.
Michael Pope
Thanks for listening to Transition Virginia. If you like what you heard, give us a five star review. It helps other people find the show. We'll be back next week, so subscribe to the show so you don't miss a single episode.
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