From The President’s Desk
Asm. Ken Cooley (CA), NCOIL President
Welcome to my first quarterly newsletter column as NCOIL President.
No conversation on the strengths of NCOIL in 2022 is possible unless it begins with a loud and grateful shout-out to my predecessor, Indiana Majority Leader Matt Lehman.
Thank you, Matt, for your steady, guiding hand across an unprecedented two terms as NCOIL President. Thanks to Matt’s leadership, NCOIL starts 2022 stronger than ever. It is a great honor, Matt, to receive the baton from you and take over the reins and lead the organization onto its next chapter. It is also a great honor to serve alongside our outstanding team of fellow 2022 Officers: Vice President Kevin Cahill (Asm., NY), Treasurer Dr. Tom Oliverson (Rep. TX), Secretary Dr. Deborah Ferguson (Rep. AR) and Immediate Past Presidents Matt Lehman and Jason Rapert (Sen. AR).
To launch my term as NCOIL President, this column offers a chance to shed some light on my interest in all thing’s governance. And to start that narrative, I have to admit that a budding interest in government stirred me, at age 8, to write President John F. Kennedy c/o the White House. Writing a US President at age 8 is serious business; I used my full name and still have the Kennedy White House reply – Mercury spacecraft stamp on its cover – addressed to Kenneth William Cooley. More precocious geekiness followed as at 11 and 17 I arranged to meet and learn more about government from public officials. After getting my degree in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley, I began working in the California State Assembly.
From 1977 to 1985, I ran the Capitol office of Assemblymember (and independent insurance agent) Louis J. Papan who was a very active NCOIL member. From 1985 to 1988, after passing the California Bar Exam (McGeorge School of law, 1984) I was legal counsel to California’s Title Insurers. That role ended in 1988 when the State Assembly tapped me as its Chief Counsel for the Standing Committee on Finance and Insurance. During 1989 and 1990, I attended NCOIL Meetings with my Chair and other Members in Atlanta and D.C. So I have known of NCOIL and its effectiveness across my 45-year career in insurance law and legislation. I learned early how important and impactful NCOIL was for legislators, and my love of the organization has only grown since then.
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