Hecate:
Thank you for the updates and advice last week. We are sooooooooooooo organized for the House budget debate. We got at least 10 calls into every single Rep over school break. We've organized rotating teams of 3 people up at the statehouse for all of this week. Our contracted lobbyist is going to help us keep track of the 90 co-sponsors of our amendment and the schedule of caucuses. We have 2 folks back at the office keeping up our network informed via email and phone. We think we've covered all the bases and are feeling very powerful. Thanks so much.
Hecate says:
Can I offer you a little piece of humble pie? As Margaret Thatcher, the great lady Prime Minister of England told me, "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you're not."
It does sound like you have covered all the bases, done all your homework, left no stone unturned, and I can't think of any more metaphors for doing all you can do in the House except watch and wait. And keep lists of everyone in the House who follows through with you.
However there is a lot you can do in the Senate during the long waits during the week of the House debate. Get your teams over to your Senate supporters, let them know all you have done and how hard you have worked. The minute you win or lose (sorry - it might happen you know) your amendment, get over to the Senate and debrief them on the particulars. Who helped you, who hurt you, who didn't follow through, who did.
Remember that first rule of Lobbying? " Elected and appointed officials make different decisions when watched by the affected constituents."
If you win your amendment in the House, it will be easier for the Senate to include it. If you lose your amendment in the House, after all your hard work, you can pitch it as a Hero Opportunity for the Senate.
Who is Hecate?
Hecate is a Greek Goddess who served as a guide and coach at the crossroads of Hades, where after crossing the River Styx, Greek souls found themselves facing three choices: the Elysian Fields, abode of the great and heroic; the Fields of Asphodel, for all who had led a blameless but ordinary life; or to Tartarus, a sunless land of punishment for criminals.
Hecate's best known role in Greek mythology was guiding Persephone, the goddess of spring, on her annual journeys between Hades and Earth. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate is portrayed as a nurturing and protective guide for Persephone on those annual journeys.
