Experience counts for partisan staffer.

• Author: Wice, Jeffrey M.
• Position: Letter to the editor

Editor:

I appreciated Karl Kurtz's article in the July/August magazine on legislative staff and the differences between partisan and nonpartisan staff. Now nearing 30 years service as a partisan staff member of the New York State Legislature, it was interesting to learn how the number of partisan staff members gets smaller as the years get longer. Except for New York's Legislative Bill Drafting Commission, staff members here are generally appointed by one of the four partisan conference leaders or members.

As a partisan staff member, I was able to pioneer in two major fields, state-federal relations and redistricting. There was little ongoing expertise in either of these areas prior to the mid-1970s when I opened a Washington, D.C...