YMCA Youth and Government (YaG), also known as Youth In Government, or Model Legislature and Court, is a program of the YMCA of the USA that allows high school students to serve in model governments at the local, state, national, and international levels.
The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legislature convene at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The California state legislature is one of just ten full-time state legislatures in the United States.
The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when the colonial assembly, in addition to making laws, sat as a judicial court of appeals. Before the adoption of the state constitution in 1780, it was called the Great and General Court, but the official title was shortened by John Adams, author of the state constitution. It is a bicameral body. The upper house is the Massachusetts Senate which is composed of 40 members. The lower body, the Massachusetts House of Representatives, has 160 members. It meets in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill in Boston.
The Florida Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Constitution, adopted in 1968, defines the role of the legislature and how it is to be constituted. The legislature is composed of 160 state legislators. The primary purpose of the legislature is to enact new laws and amend or repeal existing laws. It meets in the Florida State Capitol building in Tallahassee.
The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted in 1968, defines the role of the Legislature and how it is to be constituted. The House is composed of 120 members, each elected from a single-member district with a population of approximately 157,000 residents. Legislative districts are drawn on the basis of population figures, provided by the federal decennial census. Representatives' terms begin immediately upon their election.
The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted in 1968, defines the role of the Legislature and how it is to be constituted. The Senate is composed of 40 members, each elected from a single-member district with a population of approximately 540,000 residents. Legislative districts are drawn on the basis of population figures, provided by the federal decennial census. Senators' terms begin immediately upon their election. The Senate Chamber is located in the State Capitol building.
The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both chambers serve four-year terms and in which all are elected in the same cycle. The most recent election was on November 6, 2018. The new legislature assumes office immediately following the certification of the election results by the Alabama Secretary of State which occurs within a few days following the election.
Norma Chávez served seven terms as a Democratic member in the Texas House of Representatives representing District 76 which includes part of El Paso County. She was defeated for re-election by Naomi Gonzalez in the Democratic primary runoff held on April 13, 2010 and left office in January 2011.
Bill Wayne Clayton, sometimes known as Billy Clayton, was an American politician from West Texas who served as a state legislator for twenty years and was Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1975 to 1983, a tenure twice as long as that of any other presiding officer of the house elected before him. A Conservative Democrat from a rural area of the Texas South Plains, Clayton attained the speakership by successfully forging a broad-based House coalition. He was considered one of the most influential legislators - and, after he left the chamber, lobbyists - in modern Texas history.
The government of Texas operates under the Constitution of Texas and consists of a unitary democratic state government operating under a presidential system that uses the Dillon Rule, as well as governments at the county and municipal levels.
Lobbying in the United States describes paid activity in which special interest groups hire well-connected professional advocates, often lawyers, to argue for specific legislation in decision-making bodies such as the United States Congress. It is a highly controversial phenomenon, often seen in a negative light by journalists and the American public, with some critics describing it as a legal form of bribery, influence peddling, and/or extortion. While lobbying is subject to extensive and often complex rules which, if not followed, can lead to penalties including jail, the activity of lobbying has been interpreted by court rulings as constitutionally protected free speech and a way to petition the government for the redress of grievances, two of the freedoms protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Since the 1970s, lobbying activity has grown immensely in the United States in terms of the numbers of lobbyists and the size of lobbying budgets, and has become the focus of much criticism of American governance.
The Alaska political corruption probe refers to a 2003 to 2010 widespread investigation by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service into political corruption of nine then-current or former Alaskan state lawmakers, as well as Republican US Representative Don Young and then-US Senator, Republican Ted Stevens. Sometimes referred to as "The Corrupt Bastards Club" or the "Operation Polar Pen", the investigation focused on the oil industry, fisheries and for-profit prison industries.
The Unicameral Youth Legislature, formerly the Unicameral Youth Conference is a four-day legislative simulation in Nebraska, US in which high school students take on the role of lawmakers. Student senators sponsor bills, conduct committee hearings, debate legislation, and discover the unique process of the United States' only unicameral state legislature.
On February 21, 2008, in the midst of John McCain's campaign in the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries, both The New York Times and the Washington Post published articles detailing rumors of an improper relationship between John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman.
The 13th Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly was a session of the Arizona Territorial Legislature which began on January 12, 1885, in Prescott, Arizona. The session's accomplishments included allocation of a variety of territorial institutions including a university, normal school, prison, and insane asylum. Nicknames bestowed to the session include the "bloody thirteenth" due to fights in the halls of government and nearby saloons, and the "thieving thirteenth" due to the very large appropriations approved by this legislature.
Stephen Richard Wojdak was an American politician who was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and a prominent lobbyist in Pennsylvania, where he was the President and CEO of S. R. Wojdak & Associates.
David M. Gowan Sr. is an American politician who currently serves in the Arizona Senate from January 14, 2019, and previously as Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives for the 2015–2017 legislative session and a Representative for Legislative District 14 from January 14, 2013, to January 9, 2017. Gowan served consecutively from January 2009 until January 14, 2013 in the District 30 seat which redistricted into District 14 in 2012. In 2013, he was elected Majority Leader of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. In 2015, Gowan was elected to serve as Speaker of the House. On October 5, 2015, Gowan announced his candidacy for Arizona's 1st congressional district, but withdrew before the Republican primary.
Roger Edward Martin is an American businessman, state legislator, and lobbyist from Oregon. He was an electric equipment sales executive with Martin Electric and served six terms in the Oregon House of Representatives. In 1978, Martin ran for governor of Oregon, but lost to Victor Atiyeh in the Republican primary. Following the 1978 election, Martin became a lobbyist at the Oregon State Capitol.
Daniel G. Huberty is an American businessman, who has been a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 127 in Harris County since 2011.
Taxpayer-funded lobbying is the practice of using funds that come directly or indirectly from taxpayers for political lobbying purposes. Taxpayer-funded lobbying is one government lobbying another. Essentially taxpayer-funded lobbying is when tax dollars are used to pay lobbyists to go to state or federal legislatures to ask for more tax dollars. "In other words, it's one arm of government trying to influence another arm of government, usually in a publicly funded quest for more money or power."
