{"id":2750,"date":"2011-12-12T11:11:26","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T18:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=2750"},"modified":"2012-01-11T12:27:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:27:10","slug":"five-ways-to-participate-in-the-idaho-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/12\/12\/five-ways-to-participate-in-the-idaho-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Ways to Participate in the Idaho Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2789\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The 2012 Idaho Legislative Session kicks off Jan. 9th \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IDStateCapitol_KenHall_Flickr.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2789\" title=\"IDStateCapitol_KenHall_Flickr\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IDStateCapitol_KenHall_Flickr-620x380.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IDStateCapitol_KenHall_Flickr-620x380.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IDStateCapitol_KenHall_Flickr-300x184.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IDStateCapitol_KenHall_Flickr-220x135.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IDStateCapitol_KenHall_Flickr.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ken Hall \/ Flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 2012 Idaho Legislative Session kicks off Jan. 9th<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Write, call or email your lawmaker<\/strong>:\u00a0 If you&#8217;re unable to attend a committee hearing or travel to the Capitol to meet with your legislator, sending a note or leaving a message can be the next best way to participate.\u00a0 The legislature&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/legislature.idaho.gov\/howtocontactlegislators.htm\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a> lists contact information for all 105 lawmakers.\u00a0 If you aren&#8217;t sure who your lawmaker is, the site <a href=\"http:\/\/legislature.idaho.gov\/who%27smylegislator.htm\" target=\"_blank\">can help you with that too<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Testify at a committee hearing<\/strong>:\u00a0 Every piece of legislation starts in a specific <a href=\"http:\/\/legislature.idaho.gov\/legislativecommittees.htm\" target=\"_blank\">committee<\/a>.\u00a0 Committees are bipartisan panels of lawmakers who get the first crack at reading a bill, asking questions about it, and hearing from the people it will most directly affect.\u00a0 It&#8217;s in committee meetings that members of the public can offer testimony and tell their story directly to legislators.\u00a0 The legislature&#8217;s website <a href=\"http:\/\/legislature.idaho.gov\/about\/committeetestimony.htm\" target=\"_blank\">outlines best practices<\/a> for testifying at a committee hearing.<!--more--><\/li>\n<li><strong>Rally or Protest<\/strong>:\u00a0 Special interest groups, or coalitions of people for or against a certain piece of legislation often spend time making their views clear at the Capitol.\u00a0 During the 2011 Legislative Session, students against education reforms <a href=\"http:\/\/www.krem.com\/news\/116618653.html\" target=\"_blank\">rallied<\/a>, so did Idahoans against plans to cut Medicaid funding.\u00a0 Special interest groups typically organize rallies through email lists, social media and other outreach efforts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Money<\/strong>:\u00a0 If you&#8217;re unable to attend a committee hearing or rally for your cause, donating to your cause or candidate of choice is always an option.\n<p><div id=\"attachment_2790\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IVoted_TamelynFeinstein_Getty.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2790\" title=\"IVoted_TamelynFeinstein_Getty\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IVoted_TamelynFeinstein_Getty-300x260.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IVoted_TamelynFeinstein_Getty-300x260.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IVoted_TamelynFeinstein_Getty-220x191.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/IVoted_TamelynFeinstein_Getty.jpg 443w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Tamelyn Feinstein \/ Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<li><strong>Vote<\/strong>:\u00a0 Voting is quite possibly the most powerful way to influence what happens inside the Idaho Statehouse.\u00a0 All 105 Idaho legislators are up for election every two years.\u00a0 The next election year is 2012.\u00a0 Idaho&#8217;s primary is May 15, 2012.\u00a0 The general election is November 6, 2012.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sos.idaho.gov\/elect\/2012cldr.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to see Idaho&#8217;s 2012 election calendar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Write, call or email your lawmaker:\u00a0 If you&#8217;re unable to attend a committee hearing or travel to the Capitol to meet with your legislator, sending a note or leaving a message can be the next best way to participate.\u00a0 The legislature&#8217;s website lists contact information for all 105 lawmakers.\u00a0 If you aren&#8217;t sure who your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":2789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3640,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions\/3640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}