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In many ways, the 2022 legislative session was more stressful than other sessions. But this year I got to take part in something very unique that I'll remember for the rest of my life.
On Thursday, March 10, I joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the West Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates for the first of what we hope will be annual legislative jam sessions.
I don't know who first came up with the idea to bring musicians in the Legislature together, but Del. Todd Longanacre, R-Greenbrier, was the first to announce the event from the floor of the House one week prior to the event. The jam session was moved to the evening of March 10 due to the twice -per-day floor sessions that were going on to get bills out the door.
Participants included myself on bass guitar and Longanacre on drums. Guitarists included state Sen. Mark R. Maynard, R-Wayne; Del. Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell; Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion; and Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha. Del. Guy Ward, R-Marion, was also on bass guitar.
No one really knew how it would go. Heck, I didn't even know if I'd be allowed to participate. Lawmakers were notified, but it mentioned nothing about whether reporters could jam too. Some members of the press look down on this kind of fraternization with folks we also have to cover.
However, I come from the Nate Wooley School of Journalism, where a journalist can just as easily write a critical article in the morning about a government official and break bread with that same official for lunch. Business is business and personal is personal. It doesn't mean I won't come in the next day and write a piece that a lawmaker will probably not like. But I also think we're all humans and we need moments of humanity.
That legislative jam session was truly a moment of humanity, especial that night. It was right after the House of Delegates debated for nearly two hours about Senate Bill 498, the bill dealing with the discussion of topics derived from critical race theory. The rhetoric got heated. Giant printouts of pictures showing controversial images from the nation's complicated past involving race were displayed.
An amendment from House Education Committee Minority Chairman Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, that would have created a commission of higher education officials to help create curriculum to talk about race and history was ruled not germane to the bill. At one point Hornbuckle, one of three black lawmakers in the House, was told to sit down. Other members of the Democratic minority tried to challenge the ruling of the acting chair at that time.
The bill passed, but Democratic lawmakers called for all bills to be read in full instead of being summarized. That's a right all lawmakers have, but it's usually only used as a protest and to slow things down. The move ended up resulting in the majority moving the remaining bills over to the active calendar and adjourning for the day.
The drama caused the jam session to be moved back until after 7 p.m. House members of both parties were stressed, upset, and angry after Thursday's debate. Many went straight home or back to their hotel rooms. It wasn't clear if anyone would still show up for the jam session on the West Virginia Culture Center stage.
When I walked in, bass guitar slung on my back and amp in hand, Longanacre and several lawmakers were sitting and enjoying some refreshments. A few more came in a bit later and we proceeded to take the stage - the same stage used by Mountain Stage. Stage hands got us all hooked into the sound system, we got our instruments tuned, the soundman got our levels set, and we proceeded to play.
I come from a family of oneness Pentecostal musicians. I've always been able to sing, but I'm not a great bass player. I'm not even a good bass player. I played more in my youth and only dabble nowadays. But as long as I know the key, I can usually find the changes. Since none of us had played music together, it was a learning experience but we quickly found our groove on several songs.
Longanacre is probably as far right as Pushkin is far left and I suspect they don't talk much during session. But on stage, Pushkin -- a legit professional musician in Charleston -- became the de facto song leader, while Longanacre kept up a very good beat on the drums. The rest of us were able to follow along, find the key changes, and play.
After Thursday's stress and the overall stress of the session, the jam session was really just what was needed to soothe the savage beast. There were delegates, senators or reporters on the stage. There were no Republicans or Democrats on the stage. We were just people enjoying playing music together.
Longanacre named the band Cheap Purple: cheap because we were all (mostly) amateurs, and purple because red Republicans and blue Democrats were coming together. The joke is that assuming all the elected members on the stage get to return to Charleston next year, we're going to learn three songs during session and perform those songs.
It was truly one of my favorite moments as a statehouse reporter.