Storks Welcome The End Of The Session

Naturally, lobbyists would like to control as much of the legislative process as possible for their clients.

They want to be a part of every meeting. They want to speak with every legislator they can, as many times as they can. And they try to ensure that the wording of every bill, press release and news report will be exactly to their clients’ liking.

But when it comes to balancing family life with professional life, lobbyists have all the same difficulties managing time home with their children with their hours at work. Right?

Well, mostly. As hard-working as lobbyists are, they certainly have trouble scheduling teacher meetings and trips to the park around committee meetings and public hearings.

Working from home is hardly an option when one needs to look a committee chair in the eye and explain why a bill desperately needs to be rewritten.

But the political process is a seasonal one, with the bulk of the work in late spring and early summer. So it should be no surprise that top female lobbyists do their best to plan their pregnancies around their work.

Pregnant Pauses
One of the best pregnancy planners may be Kate Robinson, lobbyist for Betty Gallo & Co., a firm largely serving nonprofits.

Robinson has impeccable timing. Her first child, 5, was born just two days before the end of the 2002 session. Her second, 2, was born a month after the 2005 session closed.

“As much as people can’t control for their pregnancies, they try to,” Robinson said.

Otherwise, she points out, months of work could be put at risk. Even the two days she missed in 2002 caused her to miss the vote on a package of same-sex rights legislation that she had spent the year working on. Now, when there are public hearings to be signed up for on early mornings (before Robinson’s daycare opens) her 5-year-old happily comes along to tour the Capitol.

“I think there is some purposeful planning that goes on. But sometimes life is inconvenient, and you make do,” she said.

Another excellent planner would be Irene A. Rodrigues, of the law firm Robinson and Cole, who has twice been one of the pregnant ladies working up at the State Capitol, once as a staffer and once as a lobbyist, as her 6-year-old was born in September and her 2-year-old came in August.

“You’ll see, if go into the cafeteria in the legislative office building later in the session, that there are a lot of pregnant women,” Rodrigues explained.

Not only were her children both born shortly after sessions ended, but both came in campaign years, which helped get Rodrigues out of campaigning when she worked for the Senate Democrats.

“It got me a buyout,” she says happily.

Summer Babies
There has been more timely success this year – though it can be difficult getting in touch with the mothers. Try calling lobbyists Louise DiCocco-Beauton of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, or Christine Cappiello of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and it’s voicemail only. They are on maternity leave. Perfect timing.

But ultimately, Mother Nature makes these decisions, even for über-planned lobbyist moms, and not everyone can be so lucky.

“We just got what we got. They came when they came,” says Janemarie W. Murphy of Murtha Cullina.

Murphy refers to her 18-month-old twins, born in the winter of 2005, causing her to miss the entire legislative session that year.

Murphy said her firm was tremendously supportive and that after explaining the situation to each of her clients, they understood completely. It wasn’t ideal, maybe, but not everything can be planned. But that doesn’t mean anyone is about to stop trying.

“I don’t know a lot of colleagues who try to have a baby during the middle of the session,” Murphy said.

“It’s not often you see a baby born in March.”