(By Gina Ironside, April 07)
Three groups of RocklandCANers set off at 7 a.m. for Albany in three different cars.
First we met the other 500 plus lobbyists at a church for a light breakfast, and organized into teams to strategize our lobbying effort .
We paraded to the rally in the park in front of the capitol. It was inspiring and fun. We chanted a lot and listened to inspiring speakers. The weather cooperated!
There were three lobbying groups. Assemblyman Zebrowski’s constituents went to visit him at 1 p.m., as did Assemblyman Skoufis’, and both legislators met with us in the hall after stepping out of the ongoing budget negotiations. The rest of us went to visit Senator Carlucci in his office. The meetings lasted about 30 minutes and ample notes were taken by each group’s note-taker.
It was a very productive and well-organized lobbying day. We obtained serious and useful information from the elected officials we visited. We will definitely follow up with both Assemblymen and the Senator back here in Rockland.