Welcome to another edition of FastDemocracy’s monthly newsletter. We recently rolled out two features that will make our customers’ lives easier and open up even more tracking at the local level. Read all about it below.
We also held a very popular webinar reflecting on our time at NCSL in Chicago this year. It was awesome meeting FastDemocracy users (and future FastDemocracy users!) from every state. Our friends Mike Smith and Cindy DiFranco joined us to recap the summit. Some of the highlights will not surprise you (AI was a huge topic), but some of them might.
As always, let us know what you would like to see more or less of in this monthly newsletter.
— Conner Kerrigan, VP of Marketing
New features: Expanded staff directories and local tracking
FastDemocracy has expanded its directory offerings. Included with a Professional subscription, you will now find contact information at the state, federal and agency level for members and staff.
Contact information for staff and members is kept up to date and confirmed through a series of checks, from reviews of 600,000 links to social media profiles, official biographies and other professional pages, to direct research from a dedicated staff.
Municipal-level tracking is now also available in the following cities and territories:
- All US territories
- Fulton County, GA
- Seattle, WA
- Huntsville, AL
- Kansas City, MO
- San Francisco, CA
Legislation, hearings and votes at the local level are all in the same place you track state legislation, at no additional cost, available now with a Professional account.
Webinar: What we learned at NCSL
Our team (Anatolij Gelimson, Sara Baker, Grant Campbell, Conner Kerrigan, Nicole Rollins and Raymond Ludwig) spent three days at the NCSL Legislative Summit in Chicago, meeting with legislators and staff from all 50 states, and heard a lot about where state government is headed next session.
On August 12, Conner, Sara and Anatolij were joined by Mike Smith (Rome Smith Kowalski) and Cindy DiFranco (Principle Advantage) for a live recap webinar. 102 people joined us live, and another 148 registrants have since caught the replay. A few of the biggest takeaways:
AI was the defining topic at NCSL
AI-related legislation is accelerating at the state level. The tools government affairs professionals use are shifting from optional to essential, and the profession’s future lies in using AI for efficiency while doubling down on the human relationships technology cannot replace.
Affordability is a top legislative priority heading into next session
Younger legislators are bringing these issues to the forefront, and we expect both parties to pursue very different approaches to the same underlying pressure.
Data center legislation is one of the fastest-moving issues in state and local government
Localities are increasingly acting on their own when state legislatures move too slowly, making local government tracking more important than ever.
Next webinar: AI in state government
Our next webinar is a deep dive into how state legislatures and government relations professionals are using AI, and what the regulatory landscape around AI looks like going into 2027. Watch it here: Webinar: How State Governments Are Using AI.
