One adventure down, another to go.
That’s the attitude Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, is taking now that her term in the state senate is up. She served 12 years in the Legislature.
In a conversation with Boyd, she said she believes that she spent the majority of her time in the government working for those without voices, including those who may not pay much attention to what the government does.
“At the end of the session, those who are leaving get kind of roasted, and one person said something I thought was pretty accurate,” she said. “They said that the vast majority of people most affected by my legislation won’t even know about it.”
Originally from Connecticut, Boyd and her family moved to Lakewood in 1974. She became interested in politics and policy through her membership in a local chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
“What made the AAUW so good was it was a generation of young women, many with young children, the majority of whom were unemployed. And it was a place where we could be stimulated,” Boyd said. “Between the two organizations, I had a lot of opportunities for organizational leadership.”
In 1998, at the urging of Michael Feeley, she ran for a position in the House and lost by just 365 votes.
She ran again in 2000 and won, then was reelected twice. In 2006 Boyd was elected to fill the vacancy in the Senate District 21 seat. She ran again and won in 2008.
She is proud of many accomplishments during her time in the Legislature, she said. She served on the health and human services committee, and chaired the committee in both houses.
“I didn’t have the same kind of background in healthcare as I did in human services, so I had a pretty steep learning curve in that area,” she said. “I had to grow with the legislation.”
In the healthcare area, she helped get legislation started to established a medical home for kids, which has spawned a lot of other pilot programs.
She has also has worked on the new health-insurance exchange program that she hopes will be set up in the next few years.
Looking back on the changes she’s witnessed, she said, she has noticed a certain rise in partisanship and a lack of civility.
“I think part of the problem is the term limits. People don’t have enough chance to really get in the system and learn,” she said.
Another problem Boys saw was the passage of Amendment 41 in 2006, which put serious restrictions on “gifts” from lobbyists, including gatherings they hosted.
Boyd said lobbyists’ events provided opportunities for both parties to get together in one place and make friendships.
Since these don’t happen anymore, she said, it’s hard for the parties to meet on friendly terms.
“My advice for people coming is to be true to yourself and your values,” she said.
Boyd said she is going to miss policy work the most, and the feeling of making a difference in people’s lives, but she wants to find another way to keep doing that kind of work.
“I’m coming away from this with an ongoing respect for public officials. Even the legislators I disagree with, I think are there for the right reasons, even if we disagree on how to get there,” she said. “I fully believe government can be a vehicle for good.”