The Hour of 9:00 am Having Arrived…

Friday the prosecution called its final witness, former DOJ investigator Dave Collins to the stand. Collins was present for Scott Jensen’s first and only interview with Brian Blanchard in September of 2001. The interview was voluntary and took place at the offices of Jensen’s attorneys. Collins said he took handwritten notes of the interview which were destroyed after he dictated a summary of them for transcription.

The prosecution intended to use this testimony to show that Jensen had not answered their questions truthfully during that meeting. Ironically, Collins set the stage for the defense to illustrate how far apart the worlds of people like Scott Jensen and Brian Blanchard are, though their bases of operation are within walking distance.

In Brian Blanchard’s world, “state time” or business hours are from eight to five and the lunch hour runs from noon to one. Employees punch a clock or complete weekly time sheets, overtime is a four letter word, and meetings with well defined agendas are scheduled days in advance using an electronic scheduling system.

In Scott Jensen’s world, the work day could last from nine in the morning Wednesday until two o’clock Thursday morning. If lunch happens at all, it might just be pizza or sandwiches brought into open Caucus. Meetings with co-workers take place whenever time permits, wherever it’s most convenient and will likely cover a variety of topics that have little or nothing to do with one another. That’s because all of Jensen’s co-workers live in different areas of the state where they have families and quite often other means of employment.

And while Brian Blanchard has to face re-election every two years to keep his job, Scott Jensen not only had to face his own re-election, he had to consider how the choices he helps his caucus make will affect the political well-being of dozens of his colleagues throughout the state - in order to keep his job in leadership.

In Brian Blanchard’s world, fundraising is broadly defined as any discussion or activity related to campaign finances. To Scott Jensen, fundraising is not the same as talking about raising money, but rather it is the active solicitation of funds.

In Brian Blanchard’s world the terms political activity and campaign activity are one in the same. In Scott Jensen’s world, all activity is political, some political activity is campaigning and everything he and his colleagues do has the end goal of getting legislators re-elected.

For Jensen, his colleagues and their employees, state time is the 2000 hours required by the state for full time employment status. Campaign time is time above the 2000 hours for which compensatory or vacation leave time may be taken.

The world Scott Jensen entered in 1992 was already messy and unclear. There’s no question it got messier as time went on. The line between legitimate state business and pure campaign activity went from blurred to non-existent over the course of two decades.
Scott Jensen didn’t erase the line, and though some of his less stellar hires like Jason Kratochwill contributed to its demise, we know from the Assembly and Senate Democratic Caucus investigations that by 2000, the entire system was spiraling out of control.

Scott Jensen worked to reform the system by implementing a formal time reporting system and eliminating the four partisan caucuses. These reforms met strong resistance from his colleagues in both houses and on both sides of the political aisle, but they were eventually adopted in 2001. The following year, Jensen’s efforts were rewarded with three felony counts of misconduct in public office and one misdemeanor count of misuse of his public position.

Now some Republicans find it rather inconvenient that Jensen and former legislative staffer Sherry Schultz have decided to invoke their right to a trial. They bemoan the decision as self-centered, as if they have actual knowledge of the options Jensen and Schultz considered when making their decision.

I don’t know what either one of them was ever offered, but I do know their decisions were not entered into lightly. And I can tell you that this trial is raising questions with far reaching implications, especially in light of a legislative proposal to give new investigatory powers to a bureaucratic agency.

According to Kevin Kennedy’s testimony for example, in his view any discussion of the financing of campaigns in the Capitol is prohibited by state law. I wonder if he’d be willing to change the State Election Board’s hours of operation to accommodate people who have to work during Brian Blanchard’s “state time,” or else deal with the flood of calls each day between noon and one when legislators and staff take Blanchard’s standard lunch hour.

If Brian Blanchard is right, legislators and staff will have to leave the Capitol building just to have a conversation about a campaign. Why not rule out the discussion of sports and religion while you’re at it?

Still some Republicans would rather see Scott Jensen and Sherry Schultz fall on their 50 plus swords and accept whatever prosecutors offer, while their former colleagues hastily pass an ethics reform package and go home to start their re-election campaigns with a clean slate.

I think Brian Blanchard would find Special Orders particularly galling.

When a bill is “Special Ordered” in the legislature, it is scheduled to be taken up at a specific time on that day’s calendar, though it may be taken up at any time that day. Even if a bill scheduled to be taken up at 9:00 a.m is actually taken up at 11:00 pm, the Chief Clerk will artificially change the time of day by saying, “The hour of 9 a.m. having arrived….,” and debate will begin on the bill.

So if it’s 9:00 am at 11:00 pm, what time is lunch?