Who's the Boss?

Imagine you applied for a job -- a job that's perfect. Good pay, of course. But the benefits are what you like most. They're putting you in charge of a lot of people, and you can put as much (or as little) effort into it as you want.

There's a catch...

You have to get past a job interview panel. And not just one time, but once every two years ... assuming you want to keep the job, anyway. (You do.) Same panel every time, and the same people. Fortunately, they like you. That's because they know you well, and trust you. They want you to succeed.

In fact, they actually recruited you.

That interview panel hired you to accomplish certain things, but otherwise they give you a free hand. And they'll support you, through thick and thin. In other words, they trust you enough to keep you. As long as you meet their short list of expectations, the job is yours to keep.

Now imagine, as part of your job, you get a lot of people who try to tell you what to do. This comes as unsolicited advise from total strangers. Some say do this and that ... while others say DON'T do this or that. They send you email, call your workplace. Sometimes they even make appointments to come and see you, though this is rare.

The bottom line is that you follow through for the people who hired you. And what about the advice from strangers? Basically, you do what you can to keep them satisfied (or at least pacified) ... as long as it doesn't conflict with what the hiring panel expects.

This is basically the way it works when you're a state legislator.

The interview panel is your campaign team. They're the ones who got you the job in the first place. Whether it's the party bosses or the foot soldiers, you'd hardly stand a chance of winning the election without their help.

And the unsolicited advice from total strangers? That's your constituents talking, asking you to vote yea or nay on bills that come before you. Most of them are passionate about the laws they care about. But for the most part, they won't do anything above and beyond expressing their opinion.

Now lets play out two different scenarios, one on each side of the helmet law. In both situations, you personally don't care one way or the other. You don't ride a motorcycle, for one thing. And helmet laws are not really a big issue, compared to balancing the budget, creating jobs, and all the other chart-topping issues of the day.

It was a close election, by the way. But your campaign team made the critical difference. And now that you won the race, you're the incumbent.

Scenario One...

Nobody on your campaign team rides motorcycles, and helmet laws are never even discussed throughout the campaign season. In fact, nobody says anything about it -- it's a non-issue -- until someone submits a bill to repeal it.

Then you get lots of input, from constituents on both sides of the issue as well as from representatives from the insurance industry, various government agencies, and the medical community. You can see both sides of the issue, but it's your decision to make.

In the end, you vote the party line, since most of your campaign team consists of the party faithful. Friends come first, after all ... and there's really no political benefit to going against them.

Scenario Two...

About a dozen of your campaign volunteers ride motorcycles. And the only reason they helped you get elected was because they approached you about repealing the helmet law.

You told the bikers up front that it wasn't a big issue, and that you didn't see a problem with keeping the helmet law as-is. But they made a good pitch, and you agreed ... as long as age, training, and insurance would be part of the package.

Sure enough, when a repeal bill was submitted, you got all kinds of input from constituents, government agencies, the insurance industry, and the medical community. But out of all the people you heard from, you remember those motorcyclists who helped you win that close election.

It's obvious that the outcome of each of these scenarios is a foregone conclusion. In the first case, motorcyclists made a lot of noise for a week or so, and then faded back into silence. But in the second case, those motorcyclists were there when it counted (for you). And they did more than talk. They busted their butts, and they helped you overcome your opponent at the polls.

This isn't some pie-in-the-sky theory. It's the way the political machine works in the real world. People who understand this, and then put it to good use, are the ones who really get to call the shots.

So if you ride a motorcycle, and you want to repeal the helmet law, click on the red  SUBSCRIBE  tab at the top of the page. When the Call to Action comes your way, you'll know what to do.

Then you'll know that you're the boss.

-RIDE2REPEAL@gmail.com