Sen. John Schickel and Sen. Robin Webb have served in the Kentucky Senate together since 2009. But they’ve been friends much longer. So it wasn’t a shocker when Schickel, a Republican, invited Webb, a Democrat, to the Rotary Club of Florence on Monday to speak about finding common ground in Frankfort and beyond.
“Truly she’s one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met,” Schickel (R-Union) told the Rotary Club about Webb.
“It’s a long friendship, literally decades,” Webb (D-Grayson) said about Schickel in her talk “Developing Relationships in Governance.”
Webb, a northeastern Kentucky attorney who received her juris doctorate at Northern Kentucky University, said her professional relationship with Schickel goes back to when he was Boone County jailer in the late 1980s through the 1990s and U.S. Marshall for the Eastern District in the early 2000s. Although they are members of different parties and from different regions, Webb said they keep their discourse civil.
“Nobody calls me out like John does on the Senate floor,” said Webb, who served in the Kentucky House before being elected to the Senate in 2009. “We agree on most things but we’re a force to reckon with when I get up and agree with him and he gets up and agrees with me. Sometimes we’ll be the only “no” votes on board. Our friendship’s transcended party lines.”
Their secret? Finding common ground and a common purpose. “Once that purpose is identified, it’s a lot easier to build a consensus,” Webb told the club. She acknowledged that’s become a challenge in today’s political climate but believes it’s still possible.
“Get to know each other. Everybody may not think like you but they’ve got a reason for how they think,” she said. “When they say united we stand, divided we fall, that’s the truth.”
Finding ‘commonality’
Not every state lawmaker in Frankfort has the benefit of knowing a colleague before he or she takes office like Schickel and Webb. The Grayson senator said elected officials and others in government may need to dig deeper to get to know one another. Bipartisan caucuses are one way to do that.
One of the largest bipartisan legislative caucuses in Frankfort is the Kentucky Sportsmen’s Caucus, which focuses on issues impacting hunting, fishing, and wildlife conservation. Over half of the Kentucky General Assembly – at least 91 members of both houses, both Republican and Democrat – are members of that caucus today, according to the Legislative Research Commission. Schickel and Webb are two of those members.
Altogether, the Capitol has 22 bipartisan legislative caucuses, each with a different tie that binds.
Looking for “commonality” is important in a state with regions as different as, say, Northern Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky, said Webb. NKY doesn’t have all the same issues as her region. Urban versus rural can be a barrier, Webb explained.
“Kentucky’s diverse. I’m a rural legislator,” said Webb. “You’ve got to educate them and let them educate you. Sometimes compromise isn’t always a bad thing. You look back at the formation of the country – not a bad thing.”
Regarding her friendship with Schickel, Webb said they are an example of common ground that can be found among lawmakers from different parties and backgrounds. Webb and Schickel have worked together to find agreement on constitutional issues, the budget, transportation issues, and more, she said.
“You find commonality with the people you’re working with and the disagreements, push them off to the side,” according to Webb. “Find your commonality.”
