Four decades strong: the 1970s.

• Author: Kurtz, Karl
• Position: 40 YEARS - The National Conference of State Legislatures and American political scene in the 1970s

The powerful, poignant scene of Richard Nixon waving his famous V sign boarding a helicopter to depart the White House after his resignation as president was the backdrop--literally--to the creation of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

It was 1974, and staff from the National Legislative Conference, the National Conference of State Legislative Leaders and the National Society of State Legislators had gathered in Albuquerque, N.M., to formalize the decision to merge. I was there representing the National Legislative Conference and remember interrupting our staff meeting to watch the memorable scene.

The year before, those three organizations had contracted with Professor Alan Rosenthal at Rutgers' Eagleton Institute of Politics to survey legislators and staff about the benefits of a single national organization and to make recommendations about its structure. Rosenthal's study became the blueprint when we formed the unified National Conference of State Legislatures.

At the 1974 meeting in Albuquerque, the prominent conservative columnist James J. Kilpatrick was the featured speaker at a state dinner. In his remarks he drew analogies between Richard Nixon and Shakespeare's tragic heroes, including Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth.

As he compared Nixon to King Lear, a tall Montana rancher, dressed in tux, Stetson and cowboy boots--the husband of a state senator on the executive committee and a rock-ribbed conservative--had had enough. He rose from his seat at the head table, threw his glass of red wine at the white-dinner-jacketed Kilpatrick, and shouted, "Nonsense! It was the press that did Nixon in!" and stormed out of the hall. Kilpatrick paused a moment, wiped his face and jacket with a napkin, and said simply, "Horse manure," and continued with his speech.

And that's when NCSL, the bipartisan voice of the states, was bona.

Takin' Care of Business

The National Conference of State Legislatures opened in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 1, 1975, and in Denver in April. The NCSL executive committee members selected the Mile High City as headquarters, based on their desire to he located away from Washington, D.C., and in a state capital. Denver won out for its central location, well-served airport, the presence of other state government associations and its attractiveness for recruiting staff.

Massachusetts Senate President Kevin Harrington (D) was president, Tennessee House Minority Leader Tom Jensen (R) was president-elect and Minnesota...