Ask a freshman legislator in the Texas Capitol how the first several weeks of the session are going, and their answer is usually a variation of this:
"I just feel like I'm drinking from a fire hydrant," said newly elected Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels. "I've got my work cut out for me."
By that, she said, she means learning the issues, navigating the marble halls of the "Pink Dome," meeting hundreds of new people every day and doing it all under the watchful eye of the media inside a frenetic 140-day legislative session that can make or break even the most seasoned lawmaker.
These are the trials of the newly elected, and it is not lost on this unusually large crop of new state legislators that voters replaced more incumbents with fresh blood during the past election cycle in Texas than at any other time in memory.
