Legislators Play Video Games In Open Session

Like many legislators, Bill Heckroth, a freshman Democratic state senator from Waverly, Iowa, is up in arms over video games. However, he doesn’t want to ban a Rockstar title, or blame games for a school shooting. He wants his fellow legislators to stop playing games during legislative sessions. “That just doesn’t look real professional,” says Heckroth. ‘”The whole gallery was full of kids. I could hear them chitchatting. …They’re talking about everybody playing games on their computers. I looked down and there were a lot of people, clerks as well as senators, with solitaire, stuff like that.” All the senators and clerks use state-issued laptops to track legislation and communicate with constituents. Apparently, they also use them to pass the time with Solitaire and Bejeweled during slow discussions on the floor. Senate Minority Leader Mary Lundby, R-Marion, a 21-year Statehouse veteran and occasional video gamer says, “Freshmen are always shocked by what goes on. Next year he won’t even mention it. He’ll probably be playing games.” How ironic is it that some legislators want to ban videogames on one hand, and on the other they’re playing away on their laptops?