One of the reasons Oregon is stuck (and I use that word purposefully) with a part-time Legislature is the idea, half-baked as the one that keeps the initiative process alive, that it gives us a citizen legislature. You know: Ordinary folks, average citizens who are not only more in touch with the lives of those they represent but more accessible to their constituents as well. In other words, less susceptible to the power of lobbyists and special interests.

What a crock.

Most Oregon legislators are, in fact, quite accessible. There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to stop anyone from entering the Capital and walking directly into the office of a state Representative or Senator. If, like me, you do some campaigning for them — spend several days during the campaign going door-to-door to help them get elected — you're like to get a warm welcome, even when you're not from their district. If it's your own representative, then you'll even find yourself listened to.

But this has nothing to do with it being a part-time legislature. This has to do with Oregon being a small state of only 3 million people and legislators, especially representatives, being able to meet and get to know those citizens who step forward and introduce themselves. This could happen with a full-time, annual, professional legislature, too. In fact, not having to cram 2 years worth of legislating into the compressed schedule currently required would allow our citizen legislators to take even more time to listen to their fellow citizens.

Not under the current scheme. Much legislation is introduced in October prior to the session. Yes, that's right: before the election. There are deadlines to get bills introduced, to get them out of the House or Senate to the other side, to get them out of committee. The calendar is hugely compressed and the deadlines usually go flying past before the folks back home even realize they are approaching.

But not everyone is ignorant of the calendar and the process. Lobbyists kno these details intimately and use the fact of a short timeline to their advantage. So while citizens are at home, working and living their lives, the lobbyists spend their weeks in Salem working the Leg. While I write one letter to my Rep, which gets tallied and brought at some point to her attention in some manner, any number of lobbyists get to be there in person, dropping a word, scheduling appointments, showing up at committee hearings. In other words, they have a level of access and opportunity that would be mine only if I lost my job.

This is not to decry the lobbyists. Many support the issues I support and are there doing God's work, so to speak. But the idea that Oregon's current legislative system is a good, productive, democratic process is bunk. We live in the 21st Century, and we need a Legislature designed for this century. Not for 1859.