Like many people, I get a lot of my news from electronic media these days, but the joy of the "real" newspaper is still that you will happen across interesting little bits of information you probably wouldn't have found online.
The latest such is a little article by Laura Vozzella and Anita Kumar in today's Washington Post about Virginia's "Lobby Day," a day set aside specifically for non-professional lobbyists such as ordinary citizens, small organizations without budget for lobbying, or crackpots -- anyone who has an ax to grind or a weapon to conceal -- to get a chance to have a face-to-face exchange with elected representatives in the Commonwealth's Assembly.
I've lived in Virginia for the past 15 years, and at other times in the past, yet I'd never heard of this practice, which apparently is repeated annually. It's less democratic than it sounds, because I suppose an ordinary person who doesn't represent an organization or cause would have trouble getting anyone to see him. Yet it seems like a good thing. Do other states do this?
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