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From Concord Monitor:

House and Senate lawmakers have reached an agreement on wide-ranging reforms to the state retirement system set to be voted on by both chambers tomorrow.

The pension reform bill, which affects public employees at the state and local level, has been a high priority of the Republican majority. Special committees in the House and Senate crafted separate plans before hashing out a compromise over the course of nine meetings in the past month.

Rep. Ken Hawkins, a Bedford Republican who chaired the House’s pension reform committee, was part of a team of legislators in 2008 that took an earlier stab at making the retirement system more sustainable.

“I think, after eight, nine years of working this, that we finally got some comprehensive reform,” Hawkins said yesterday.

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From Tulsa World:

Oklahoma is the second state to sign up for a conservative alternative to the federal health initiative – the Health Care Compact.

Proponents say it is a more responsive, less bureaucratic alternative to President Barack Obama’s health care initiatives.

Opponents say it’s a pipe dream that seeks to tinker with the nation’s health care funding mechanism for political reasons.

Last month Gov. Mary Fallin signed legislation to join the compact. So far, Georgia is the only other state to join. Several states are considering membership, including Texas and Missouri.

If approved by Congress, the plan would turn most federal health care funding into block grants to states, which would be free to set their policies on how that money would be spent.

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From Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Legislators return to Richmond for one day Thursday to discuss congressional redistricting, but not much is expected to happen until next month.

Legislators from both parties say the House of Delegates and the state Senate will do little more Thursday than reject each other’s redistricting bills and send the bills to a committee of conference.

That will allow six legislators — three from each body — to hash out the considerable differences over the bills.

Del. S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, a key legislator in the redistricting process, said he hopes the negotiators can come up with a plan that both bodies could approve by mid-July.

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RSLC President Chris Jankowski was recently interviewed about the redistricting process underway across the country. Check out ABC News for the story:

“They tend to blend political and legal when it suits them,” said Christopher Jankowski, president and chief executive of the Republican State Leadership Committee. “Yes, Republicans will do what they can politically to help themselves but to the extent that it’s legal. “To me, it’s intriguing that Democrats are so aggressive in Illinois and doing the same thing that they’re complaining about in Texas. What they’re doing in Illinois … they forfeited their higher ground.”

Republican were initially considered to have a strong upper hand over Democrats in the redistricting process, which takes place every decade, after the Census numbers are released. Republicans took over at least 19 Democratically controlled state legislatures in November and gained more than 650 seats, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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From CBSNews:

Six states have finished congressional redistricting to date, and it’s becoming clear that redistricting, as expected, is going to have an impact on House competitiveness next year and have set up a few interesting battlegrounds, as well as some surprises.

Looking first at the states finalizing the process in the last month, Indiana generated the most substantial impact to the complexion of the next Congress. Indiana (awarded nine congressional districts) and Missouri (with eight, having lost one seat) are the largest states to finalize the construction of new districts.

Controlled by a Republican governor and legislature, Indiana’s new map bolstered Republican prospects. For starters, Democrat Joe Donnelly, who narrowly avoided defeat in 2010, gained solidly Republican voters from Elkhart while losing democratic strongholds in Lapodte County. Overall, it is estimated the new 2nd district is five percent more favorable for Republicans. Perhaps consequently, Donnelly decided to run for the Senate, where Republican Richard Lugar faces a serious primary challenge. As for the 2nd district, Republican Jackie Walorski would be favored to win the seat next November.

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From the Washington Post:

The Republican State Leadership Committee, which played a key role in delivering the GOP nearly unprecedented control over the current round of redistricting, is taking on an increased role as an advisory arm for GOP state legislators who are drawing the new congressional lines in key states.

The RSLC’s decision to step forward is growing evidence of the committee’s prominence on the political landscape, as it will take on much of the redistricting role traditionally filled by the Republican National Committee.

The RSLC’s assistance will be available to all states, but will be focused on the 18 states that are adding or losing congressional seats. Only a handful of states have completed their new legislative district maps so far, with plenty of important states who have just started the process or will do so in the months ahead.

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From Governing Magazine:

Who are the players to watch in the nation’s state legislatures? No list will ever be complete, but we’re giving it our best shot in a two-part series: first the Republicans and next week, the Democrats.

We assembled the lists by seeking nominations from our network of sources in the states, as well as national experts on state legislatures. From the pool of nominees, we chose to spotlight more than a dozen legislators from each party.

In seeking nominations, we assumed that ambition was a given. We wanted to feature politicians with a long future, particularly with the possibility of winning higher office at the state or federal level.

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