News-Record.com

You know, if the Senate does manage to pass a lottery this week, I don't know what else folks down here are going to talk about. It's not like there's much else going on...oh wait! Yes there is!

One of my favorite quotes about the lottery came from Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Democrat and lottery opponent. I approached him one day as his sat rifling through papers at his desk on the floor of the Senate. When I asked him about the lottery, he sighed, looked right at me and said: "You know, you people spend way too much time on that." When I asked him to elaborate, he said, "There's a lot more than the lottery going on down here."

And Clodfelter was absolutely right. In the next couple days, the Senate and House are going to push to finish their business for the year. Once they're done, they'll adjourn until next spring, probably May.

They're scheduled to make a formal decision on the State Superintendent of Public Instruction race, are still messing around with a bill that would strengthen the state's lobbying laws and have to finish up their big methamphetamine crack-down bill. The House calendar for today has dozens of items on it.

And for as much ink as will be spent on the lottery, Senators may never hear the measure. The Senate leadership, comprised of lottery supporters, isn't going to risk a vote on a state game this week unless they're sure it will pass.

And since the House passed it earlier this session, the lottery bill remains alive through 2006. The honorables could pack up shop, head home for nine months, and it would still be awaiting them when they returned in the spring. For all the people saying "a lot can happen over a week" of the latest effort to wrangle the needed support, imagine what can happen over nine months.

If you're planning on tuning in via the net (or dropping by in person) the session times are a bit funky for a Monday: The House is scheduled to go in at 5 p.m.; the Senate is scheduled to convene at 7:30 p.m.