We got it done!! S.88 passes and awaits governor's action.

Peg and I were there when it happened. We were the only two. We stayed until the end. Up until about 6:30 that night there was immense doubt that it would even be allowed to get onto the floor. At about 5:00 or we heard that it was going to get squashed and not allowed up onto the floor. Peg, Cassandra (VPIRG lobbyist), and I scrambled to figure out what to do. We felt helpless. Then, the senate and house leadership went into a huddle. Because of free samples reporting amendment, the whole bill was in doubt. We had a powerful coalition against the bill and, up until the last vote was counted, we never knew what was coming down.

Then, at about 6:30, Senator Racine appeared out of the huddle. He looked at me and crossed his fingers. Senator Shumlin flew past shortly afterwards, on the phone.

"We're going to knock your bill out tonight," he said as he streaked by.

The vote came up at about 8:15. Senator Racine spoke for a few minutes. Then the first name was called. "yes," the second followed with a "yes." About three votes in we got the first "no," vote, from Randy Brock. That was expected. Then we got more yesses, from senators that had been previously been against us, and I nearly shot up through the second floor galley. I knew then that we had it. A few more "no,'s" sounded but by then they were harmless. All those long and hard years of work were vindicated by that 25-4 vote in favor of S.88. I was pretty choked up.

The achievement is remarkable. We were up against all the big pharma and insurance company lobbyists. Every day of this session we sat in meetings with them -- they in all their finely pressed office suits and us in our sweatshirts and jeans -- and every day we vied with them to catch and hold this or that senator or representative to our cause. They were handsomely paid professionals; we were learning on the job. It was incredible.

We did it. No one ever thought that we could, but we did. We did it. We beat them.