Hope is in the states.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Political Eye

Discouraging as national politics seems at the moment, there is a groundswell of activity at the state level that ought to give progressives some cheer.

Senator Ted Kennedy and other Democrats have tried for years to raise the federal minimum wage without success. But around the country, eighteen state legislatures have now passed laws increasing the minimum wage above the federal $5.15 an hour.

In Maryland, the state legislature recently overrode its Republican governor's veto to force Wal-mart to start paying health insurance costs for its low-wage workforce.

And on other issues, from gay marriage in Massachusetts to auto emissions in California, states are pushing progressive legislation, even while the right keeps a hammerlock on Washington.

That doesn't mean the left has won in the states. Republicans still hold twenty-eight governorships, and the American Legislative Ex-change Council (ALEC) funnels millions of dollars in corporate money to wine and dine legislators, sending them on fancy vacations, and providing them with boilerplate legislation so they can go home and deregulate industry and push a rightwing social agenda.

But there is more room for progressive change at the state level. State legislatures have a more pragmatic and less lockstep bent. Constricted budgets and "unfunded mandates" from Washington, like No Child Left Behind and the Medicare fiasco, make for bipartisan efforts to solve problems rather than simply enrich corporate lobbyists.

And then there is the backlash against the far right "God, guns, and gays" agenda.

"The polling in many states shows that the Republicans have gone too far," says Mark Pocan, a progressive state assembly member in Wisconsin. He points to the unpopularity of recent legislation allowing pharmacists to withhold prescribed birth control from consumers. "Personally,

I think the pendulum has swung too far to the right, and we've heard the thud," Pocan says.

In general, polls show that people trust Democratic legislators more on bread-and-butter issues like education, health care, and the environment. And since national security is not a state issue, the Republicans lose their ability to scare up votes using the fear of terrorism. Tax-cutting is still a big Republican winner. But even here, as services crumble, voters are showing signs of fatigue.

Corruption is also not always as much of a problem at the state level as it is in Washington. In some states, it is still possible for citizens to...