Outside Looking In co-editor Nick Lovrich will speak at the 2022 LWVWA Council in June.

Nick Lovrich, co-editor of the book Outside Looking In: Lobbyists’ Views on Civil Discourse in U.S. State Legislatures, is scheduled to speak at the LWV of Washington 2022 Council in June. Lovrich, who will speak on Saturday, June 11 during the lunch break, will present results and observations from Outside Looking In, published in 2021 by Washington State University Press. Focused on state legislative politics, the book is based on a 2018-2019 national survey of state legislative lobbyists and public agency legislative officers regarding their views about how their various state legislatures operate. More than 1,100 state legislative lobbyists (from all 50 states) were questioned about the weakening of civility norms, the breakdown of bipartisan problem-solving, and the recent shrinkage of the nonpartisan space in the U.S. Congress—problems that have also affected how state legislatures operate. His talk will focus on the findings from the research done in Washington state.

A research team of over a dozen scholars from 10 U.S. universities (University of Kansas, University of Arkansas, University of Utah, Washington State University, Oregon State University, Bradley University, Boise State University, Duke University, Kent State University, and Clark University) collaborated on collecting and analyzing the survey data. The research team also worked on the systematic coding of the extended comments collected, many offered by one-time state legislators now working as lobbyists or as public agency legislative liaison officers.

A box lunch will be available to order prior to the event; information to come.