Meet Jack Quinn, One of the Best

[00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of The Political Life. Today we come to you, I don't even know where we come to you from. I don't know where Jack Quinn is located. A lot of our listeners

[00:00:25] are going to know Jack Quinn. Jack is a well-respected government relations professional and has had a number of very important and key jobs. He hails from the state of New York, but this is another guest brought to us with the idea from Maggie Mick, the co-host. So Maggie,

[00:00:50] why don't you kick us off? Thanks, Jim, and welcome Jack. Jack is sitting in Baltimore, Maryland today. And it's ironic because Jack and I met at a CSG West or I'm sorry CSG East meeting in Nova Scotia in 2011. And he sits at a CSG East meeting today. So

[00:01:11] you'll have to give us an update on the goings on at that meeting. But Jack and I have worked together for a long time, look forward to diving into his career and his time in public

[00:01:20] office. And so Jack, why don't we just start with where did you get your political start? Maggie, Jim, thanks for the invite first and foremost before I get into it. I really appreciate it. I've listened to the show for a while, the pod for a while. And it's

[00:01:36] fantastic. You have great guests. You know, Kathleen Kelly, as you I listened to her and her mom a couple of months ago or so. And then you were nice enough to kind of connect

[00:01:47] us in New York City. So I made a friend because of the pod and the needs on like her like Kathleen. I mean, I have had a political life that is for sure. I'm a kid who

[00:01:58] grew up outside of Buffalo, New York. The same hometown as Governor Kathy Huckle. I've known the governor for over 20 years, actually. And my father went in. He was a middle school English teacher. And just for a toot, he was asked to run for the

[00:02:15] town council when I was four years old. And the rest is history. He went from being a town council member to being my town's mayor. And then I was a freshman in high school. He was elected to the US Congress served for 12 years in

[00:02:31] the US Congress before retiring. I learned more about politics around my kitchen table than I learned any book that is for sure. You know, we talked about politics every night at the dining table. It was kind of a hobby of mine,

[00:02:47] something I really followed and obviously watching my father who's been my hero most of my life. It was interesting to kind of follow his journey, right? And kind of be along for it. You know, countless pictures of me, Martin

[00:03:00] and Parade's is a little kid up and through kind of middle school and high school and kind of following that. And then, you know, I got the bug. I went to a small liberal arts college, Sienna College outside of Albany, New York

[00:03:13] and then went home to the University of Buffalo for law school. Not my first choice, but it kind of just fell in my lap. And honestly, it is at that point that I got involved in politics and law school and wanted to kind of give back.

[00:03:27] So after I left law school, I was a prosecutor at the Erie County, which is where Buffalo sits, Erie County District Attorney's Office and was there for less than a year and a state assembly, state house seat opened up

[00:03:41] outside of Buffalo and I decided to run for it. Now let's take a break here because it helps just a smidge bit when your father has the same name as you do. And he is a former congressman. Let's admit to that, right?

[00:03:55] Jim and Maggie. So that but that's how I started. Just just a little bit. Now for the people who are not many listeners, exactly. And he's very popular, right? You know, the the only difference is my father is, you know, six foot five to 60 with white hair.

[00:04:13] And I'm about five 11 180 with brown hair. So we look nothing, nothing, nothing alike. But got elected to the state legislature in 20 2004, 20 years ago, I was running for the state legislature. It's hard to believe it has flown by that quickly. But it was great. It was great.

[00:04:34] Loved my time there and happy to talk about that and a bunch of other stuff. But I mean, that's how I started when I grew up in this business. I'm 46, I've been in it for 42 years.

[00:04:47] I sometimes joke you think I'd be better at it after 42 years of rounded. But it is a passion of mine and it is something I truly do love and have grown up with it and love talking about it.

[00:04:58] Well, why don't we dive into your time in the legislature? Well, I mean, I was a I was a Republican in a very democratic seats. I think at the time is probably the most democratically enrolled seat by held by a Republican in the States.

[00:05:16] It was a time when there truly were kind of moderate Republicans, right? And I enjoyed it. I mean, it was great. You know, it's a majority driven system in New York, so I'm not going to lie. I can get a whole lot of legislative victories here and there.

[00:05:32] Serve six years, you know, got to learn kind of the system, got to learn about how state government works, kind of the ins and outs of it. Made a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle to be honest, friends that I've kept till today.

[00:05:46] And I was you mentioned me being at CSG East, you know, saw some former former friends of mine that are still members now when I checked in today, just good to kind of catch up with them and see what they're up to.

[00:05:58] I served six years and then a little history, the Republicans lost control of the state Senate in 2008 in New York and were running to get it back in 2010, convinced me to run for the state Senate in 2010

[00:06:17] and ran, you know, this is my only claim to fame, Jim and Maggie ran what at that time was the most expensive New York legislative race ever. I mean, it was over four million dollars for a state Senate race in New York.

[00:06:32] It was basically congressional at the time. And we were up on TV in the spring and on TV straight through election day. And I lost for this story would be a different story. I'm one of the few Republicans that lost in 2010.

[00:06:45] It was it was the Obama midterm, right? And Republicans are all everywhere in 2010, especially in the state houses, if you remember correctly, that was a wave year for Republicans that way to just not help me in any particular way.

[00:07:01] So after six years and a lot of great memories and making a lot of great friends, I moved on and had a fork in the road. Honestly, this kind of gets to where we are today. I could have gone back. I was practicing criminal defense law

[00:07:16] while I was in the legislature. So I was a criminal defense attorney and a member of the legislature. And when I lost, I thought to myself, look, I'll go back to my firm. You know, it was going to be a partner at that firm,

[00:07:26] the small little firm outside of Buffalo and could have done that. And quite honestly, probably would have run for office again. I still had the bug that state Senate race I lost in New York. There's about 300,000 people in the state Senate seats. I lost by about 1300 votes.

[00:07:43] So I was not, you know, I walked away smarting to say the least in terms of like, hey, I can run again and win. Right. And yeah, I was. I mean, look at that was a long time ago.

[00:07:56] I was I was, you know, in my early 30s this point, right? And I got a call from a guy named John Hawaiac. You may know John Maggie. He's over at the run state now for spark therapeutics

[00:08:12] called me up as I was getting out of play and go to Cabo, Mexico. And he said to me, hey, Jack, I don't know what you're going on. Sorry about your loss, but would you ever want to come lobby for us? And I said, John, give me 10 days

[00:08:25] going to Cabo when I get back, I'll give you an answer. And I thought about it and decided to go with John. And the rest is history, you know, in that time, 15 years, I've worked for seven different companies. Five, I'm a fifth pharmaceutical manufacturer,

[00:08:44] worked for ExxonMobil and I've worked for a regional health plan all over the country. I've lobbied on the ground in over 40 states, you know, hired countless contract lobbyists. And then to too many CSG events to count, I feel like Maggie,

[00:09:02] even though we met Nova Scotia, I sometimes wake up in my hotel room and we can't remember what city I'm in. So we'll leave it at that. I love, you know, let's talk about, you know, that move over to over to state government relations.

[00:09:16] You did promise me that you would share how you reached decisions and how, you know, in those seven moves, and I've been fortunate to work with you through all seven. You know, what goes into that? You have a young family, I believe your wife is a CPA,

[00:09:32] so she's got the stable job, I guess. But, you know, take us through your decision making process. I think it would help a lot of, you know, government affairs professionals in their careers knowing how you've made those moves and how you made those decisions.

[00:09:47] Yeah, I mean, you're right. I think a lot of people would would think some of the moves were a little bit crazy, to be honest with you. I've taken titled emotions and pay cuts along the way. I moved from Saratoga Springs, New York to Chicago

[00:10:04] back to Saratoga Springs, New York, then to Portland, Oregon, now living in Manhattan. I mean, I moved all over the country. I have a six-year-old daughter who I've now dried with me all over the country. She's lived in three different places in six years.

[00:10:18] I think along the way, there were a couple things for me that were always important. And that was don't think in a linear fashion, right? Don't always feel like life or a job is going to be linear, that you're just gonna stay in this role

[00:10:37] or stay with this company and you're gonna move your way up and go to the next job and the next job and the next job. You know, not only did I find that to be unrealistic in terms of like that it was gonna work that way,

[00:10:49] but I also found it to be, in my opinion, just a little bit... Didn't energize me enough, right? It was kind of like, yeah, I could do this and I could stay with this company for the next 10 years or I could do something a little different, right?

[00:11:03] And you know, I think I was at Allergan like I mentioned that I was lobbying in the Northeast and Upper Mid-Atlantic and got an opportunity to go work for Fertex Pharmaceuticals in the Midwest. I'd never lobbied in any of those states, covered the Dakotas through the Upper Midwest

[00:11:23] over to Illinois, Ohio, got to know just different people in different states and work on rare disease issues for the first time, right? And that was just really interesting and to be able to walk in to kind of different states, not knowing anybody and you know,

[00:11:42] Bobby Patrick on your last show said this, right? Like the states are different, but they're not, right? There's always kind of the same type of people in these states. The processes are a little bit different, right? And I think what he said about Ben

[00:11:55] and Bobby's a great guy and a great lobbyist, I mean that call that I think is 100% correct, right? The members... The same member you have in New York, you're gonna find another state. It's the law that averages, right? They're gonna be similar.

[00:12:10] It's that the process to get a bill passed in Massachusetts is so completely different than getting a bill passed in Oregon, right? And I've worked in both of those states. That's the type of stuff that the processes is so different and learning it that is so interesting.

[00:12:26] Being at Vertex was awesome. You know, live it in Chicago. Got a call one day about working for ExxonMobil and they wanted me to do 20 states, all the upper mid west over to Maine down to Virginia, this huge territory for quite honestly

[00:12:43] one of the most powerful companies in the world. Best job I've ever had, part stop. Best job. It was a game changer for me in terms of learning how to do this job, right? The ability to work across the enterprise, right?

[00:13:06] Working with public affairs and if you have patient advocacy for a pharmacy company, communications, the different parts of the business, right? Your ability to work across the enterprise, I believe is the key to this job, right? It is showing your value and moving the ball for the business.

[00:13:26] Politics is not the business. Politics is the tool we use to achieve the business results. But if you cannot work with those other players in the room in your company across the enterprise, you're never going to be successful.

[00:13:38] And I learned that at Exxon because it was so huge, right? And there were so many moving parts and they're so involved with so many different things. Game changer. My career is night and day before Exxon, after Exxon without a doubt.

[00:13:54] And I just, that fell into my lap. I was already living in Chicago. It was a game changer of a job. I loved it. I'd probably still be there. But I had a baby daughter and wanted to get back to New York

[00:14:07] and they didn't want to make me move back to New York or wouldn't let me move back to New York. So I went to Sinovhy Pharmaceuticals. And when I went there, I took a job doing government relations and patient advocacy, which was just different, right?

[00:14:20] So you open pharma to big oil, this huge conglomerate where every time you walked in the door, people knew who you were. I took a huge pay cut to go to Exxon Mobile, by the way, gigantic. You would think that they paid well, they don't.

[00:14:34] They're like, we're Exxon Mobile. We expected to come here and take a pay cut and I took it. But again, it was a game changer. And for every way, went to Sinovhy and did the patient advocacy role with government relations,

[00:14:48] learned how you, those two roles of patient need and the patient voice goes so well with the government piece of it. And that got me back to New York. And then things changed. And then I started running teams. And I think that's where this changed, right?

[00:15:07] So I had an opportunity to go to Alexion Pharmaceuticals and work for a moment, the name of Tamar Thompson. Tamar is one of the most badass women I've ever met. That's the only way to describe her. She's awesome. She's a force of nature. She is the best.

[00:15:27] And she brought me over there to start their state government relations team. They had not had one. That was a huge change, right? So you go from lobbying to no longer lobbying but having to do the ins and outs

[00:15:41] of the management of a team and building a team. During COVID, by the way, I took this job like two weeks before COVID hit, which was crazy. And did it, built a great team of people you know. Maggie Bryant-Shank was on that team.

[00:15:58] Bryant's a great guy out of Texas. Some other folks that I brought over to build that team out. They got acquired by AstraZeneca actually, which is why I left there. They still have a team. They've got a great team, good people over there. Both teams are great.

[00:16:15] Yeah, yeah, they're great. Fantastic. And after that acquisition, I got a call, a tap on the shoulder to say, hey, look at it. Would you ever think about coming out and running a team and building a function for a regional health plan? I mean, I said, sure.

[00:16:36] Here's the catch though. This is where I got lost. This is where I got critical. This is where I got lost. This is where I got lost. He's in the Pacific Northwest working on the insurance side. Like we've officially reached sabbatical. Yes, this is where people who,

[00:16:50] I was an East Coast guy, right? Even though when I lived in Chicago, right? I was still kind of East Coaster. I think people lost track of me for three years when I was out in the Pacific Northwest. People were like, whatever happened to Jack Quinn?

[00:17:01] He left the business. Exactly, he left the business. I heard he's back doing criminal defense. So, yeah. I mean, here was your option. You can live in Seattle. You can live in Portland, Oregon. You can live in Boise, Idaho. You can live in Salt Lake City.

[00:17:20] That was the four states the plan operated in. All of them are great. I knew nothing about any of them. I moved to Portland, Oregon site unseen. Had never been to Portland before and had the best time of my life in the Pacific Northwest.

[00:17:34] I got to tell you, I don't, I know why people go there and never leave. I honestly do. It's like this hidden little thing out there that people don't want to tell you about. No one works past four o'clock. Someone's going to call me about this

[00:17:47] when they hear that, but no one works past four o'clock. You're an hour to the ocean, you know, an hour to the mountains in some of the best Pinot Noir in the world. It is a fantastic place to live, to raise a family and to be.

[00:18:03] And I love every single minute of it. I had a phenomenal boss and even better team and built a health policy center for them. They had they had a the region's health policy center we built when I was out there. And I loved it. It was great.

[00:18:16] I mean, it was a fantastic opportunity. After three years, I would decide to come home. And this is, you know, I guess the point of the pot is to tell my story. So I'll tell you this part. 12 years ago, my dad was Dio Parkinson's

[00:18:32] and it's been a really long 12 years journey for him, for my family, for everyone. So, you know, after 12 years, his health has started to suffer both physically and cognitively. And it was time, I think, just to think about with parents, all parents getting older

[00:18:50] and just kind of my daughter being away from family, be out and being out on the West Coast. It was it was not a, hey, I want to get out, but it was more a, hey, if something comes up, I should think about it.

[00:19:01] And this kind of fell into my lap. The people that were general on my boss, who I've known for a couple years, called me up and said, look it, we've never had a state team here. Would you come out and build it?

[00:19:14] And the time he just worked up, again, I loved, I love the Pacific Northwest, but I'd be aligned to say I'm not a New York guy at heart and the opportunity to go work for the largest drug company in New York

[00:19:27] to work for what is a huge New York employer, a huge just drug manufacturer in the Northeast, hard stop with something I was never going to turn down. So from the, from the mountains of Portland, Oregon to the concrete jungle of Manhattan,

[00:19:44] I have moved and now in running and building the state government relations function at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to defend our West Coast clients and friends. They do get pulled on to a lot of 6am conference calls, 7am. So yeah, they're not,

[00:20:04] they are surfing and doing other fun things after four, but I feel bad a lot of times for our friends on the West Coast because they have very early starts. I totally agree. And I'm telling you, they're going to call me after this

[00:20:17] and they're going to be like, what are you talking about? We don't stop working at four o'clock. But it was a great life. I loved it. It was anybody who's never had a chance and I think, you know, to get back to what you asked originally,

[00:20:28] Maggie, anybody who's never had a chance to go work and live on the West Coast, do it. It's such a cool opportunity to do. So it's a different lifestyle, just so interesting. Just the work-life balance, the people, everything was amazing. But through this, Maggie, it was,

[00:20:45] you know, it was never a straight line. It was like, what, what next is going to fall into my lap? And is it worth it? And there's plenty of things in there, Maggie. I didn't tell you about that. I mean, I probably did another 20 interviews

[00:20:57] that didn't come up. Like they either didn't work out or I said no to it. Right? I mean, it was, you know, I'm always kind of, I love the places I've been. Every single one of them has taught me something different.

[00:21:08] I've met a ton of different people on the way, you know, and have always wanted to find the next role that I was going to grow in, whether or not it paid more or I had a better title or not. 20 years into this, you know,

[00:21:22] I've had a ton of great experiences and I think that's kind of the best part for me is that you and I have known each other for a long time. And, you know, that's part of it. We're meeting people like yourself, Jen meeting someone like you,

[00:21:33] just kind of doing stuff like this that allows you to go out there and have a craft, right? A skill that you love to get up and do every morning, right? But be able to do it in a different way. You just don't mel in it, right?

[00:21:47] Like, you know, try to try to go out there and do something that you love doing and do it well. So your dad, how's he doing? He's doing good. You know, he's doing as well as he can, right? You know, it's his last,

[00:22:01] he calls it his last campaign is to advocate for Parkinson's patients and caregivers. He's a member of the Michael J. Fox board actually. So he advocates as a board member and as a former member of Congress. So it's been interesting

[00:22:18] and it's been really nice to be able to work on some of that stuff with him. You know, the folks at the Michael J. Fox Foundation have had a really good year. They're working on these Parkinson's registries which they passed in many states, including New York.

[00:22:32] And they just had a major vector on the federal level with some Parkinson's legislation this year. So I mean, they, Ted Thompson over there at the Michael J. Fox board has a really, really great job. Ted's a great guy. But that's something as the son,

[00:22:47] as my father's son and someone who has watched him again, he's been my hero for most of my life. It's good to see him get energized by something like that kind of during his final chapter. Just one last question about your dad.

[00:23:01] If you had to point to a trait that he has that you have either politically or personally, what is that shared trait and what do you think he is most proud of in terms of your career? Well, those are great questions.

[00:23:15] I think the one thing is that he taught me is, never stop it. People say give people a second chance. He'd give people 10 chances. I think he just truly believed that people are, they're flawed. They try their best, but people have, we all are demons.

[00:23:35] We all think we don't do well. We don't do right. And I think that's something he taught me that give people a shot. Treat them well. Treat them like you'd like to be treated. I think that type of mentality is probably why he was so successful in politics

[00:23:52] because he treated people, not as votes, but as who they were, as people who had problems with their kids, jobs, health issues, all that type of stuff. That just comes natural to everybody that you can't control or again control stuff. So I think that's probably it.

[00:24:12] And I think the thing that he was probably most proud of me, probably running that Senate race, to be honest with you. I didn't have to run. I really did not. And I could have stayed in my assembly seat forever and been very safe and very comfortable.

[00:24:26] And I think if I look back, I originally said no for about six or eight months. And then one day I just talked to myself, the thing is this, the two things that have been pretty steady in the Quinn family's tradition, or Quinn family's life is

[00:24:46] the Republican Party and the Catholic Church as we like to joke. And the Republican Party has been good to us. Even as modern Republicans, we were Republicans and have been Republicans and we'll stay Republicans. And they asked me to run. So it was time to run. Right?

[00:25:05] Whether win, lose, or draw, they needed to retake the majority and I was willing to kind of go out there and give it my best. And I don't regret it for a minute. And I think he was proud just to be like, he took a shot. Right?

[00:25:16] And I think that mentality kind of taken my shot. Right? Yeah. Is why I'm here now because I wasn't afraid to take it. And the thing is some things work out, some things don't. And so you had, I was just going to ask you said your dad,

[00:25:32] I think you mentioned that he was a teacher prior to when he got tapped for running. What I was just going to ask you, what had he done in his career prior to being an elective office? Yeah.

[00:25:44] I mean, he started off, I mean, taught right out of college. And just like, you know, he was middle school teacher. He coached everything he could just because he needed to make extra money because my parents, my mother, my father's not the only side of this.

[00:25:59] My mother was a nurse for 40 years. So like public helping the public has been something that's very important in my family and something that was instilled in me probably from a very young age, whether it be teacher, nurse, public official, whatever it is.

[00:26:12] That's something that I think you don't even probably realize how much of an impact it has on you until you get older. Right? And he taught and then someone just said, hey, would you ever think about running for office? And I think he was like, probably not,

[00:26:24] but I'll give it a shot. And yeah, the rest is history. He had the look Jack. He did. He really did though. I mean, that is as they say, he has presence to him at six, five, two, 50 with white, white hair. He looks very political.

[00:26:44] Like if he walks in a room, most people will turn around and be like, who's that guy? So I think you're right. He definitely had the look for those people who are going to look it up now after this pot to kind of see what he looks like.

[00:26:56] He did though. Straight out of central casting. Exactly. Well, we had Terry Bissard Williams on the pod a few weeks ago and she is also building out her 50 state operation. First time leading a 50 state team. And she had given some reflections on how to build internal champions.

[00:27:19] I think she called them fairy godmothers. As you are building, you're in your first year of building the team and operation at Regeneron. What kind of thinking have you done and how do you identify priorities to build those relationships internally? Obviously Exxon gave you a great guidebook

[00:27:40] on how to work across the enterprise. But as you piece it together and build that plane, what do you do first? What do you do second? What do you do third? Yeah. And I think everybody would probably have their own thoughts on it.

[00:27:57] But I think the first thing for me in your right, you're doing multiple things at one time. So you are going through and meeting all of your internal partners and finding out from them what keeps them up at night and what are the state legislative

[00:28:14] and political and advocacy and regulatory issues that they're involved with. My current boss oftentimes compares this to picking up a rock and all of a sudden other worms come out from underneath it. When you didn't have a state government relations,

[00:28:28] no one cared, but now that you have it, everyone's got issues. Everyone's got a million different things and they need you to get engaged in. So I think it's being able to figure out with all those issues, how do you prioritize them?

[00:28:43] And remember our issue or our goal, I should say at its core, is to ensure that, at least in the job that I'm in, that patients and caregivers have access to life-changing treatments. So you can have the best products in the world,

[00:29:02] but if patients and caregivers don't have access and the product's not being reimbursed, it doesn't matter. So that's what you're fighting for. You know the goal is to bend the policy curve in a way so that patients and caregivers have access to the treatments that you provide.

[00:29:18] So with that as a goal, as a former political friend of mine from New York used to say, you got to hunt where there's ducks. So while I like Vermont and I someday would like to retire to Vermont, there ain't a lot of people in Vermont

[00:29:33] and there's not a lot of patients for us in Vermont, why I love Vermont. You got to look at where do the patients live, right? Because if it takes you as much energy to Passyville in Connecticut, as it does California, you're better off going to California

[00:29:51] because you have more patients that's going to impact more people, whether they're a patient or a caregiver, more than it will Connecticut. Now that's not to say you forget about the Vermonts and the Nebraska's and you don't, but if you only have X amount of resources,

[00:30:05] you have to start at the top and start where you have the most amount of patients and the most amount of access issues. Right? So it's kind of taking the two of them together, right? And kind of figure out, you know, where do the patients live

[00:30:19] and then where do you have those political issues that need to be fixed as a starting point. That's at least how I've always done it. Again, other people probably have other ways to do it, but I think if that's your goal,

[00:30:30] you kind of work your way back from that. Makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. California is at least 10 times the size of Connecticut. You know I love Connecticut, Jim. Yeah. Well, I think you should always start in Connecticut no matter what.

[00:30:49] Jim, do you have any final questions or thoughts? I know we like to end our interviews with these multi-state government affairs folks with a couple of questions that we'll wrap up with, but yield to you if you've got additional thoughts.

[00:31:05] No, I just love what Jack said about always growing in the job and looking primarily at that and not being too concerned about titles and salary, particularly titles. You know, and people in our business can get hung up on titles and obviously salary is more important than titles,

[00:31:28] but I just like the fact that you look at the growth and the opportunities and I think that is great advice and speaks volumes of you. So yeah. So with that, Maggie, go ahead, fire away. So Jim and I want to start ending with two questions.

[00:31:49] We did it with Bobby last week or the week before, I guess. Where have you been most recently for work? And Baltimore doesn't count. We're going to go free Baltimore since you're sitting there right now. What was your best meal on said trip?

[00:32:06] And then where are you headed to next? So if somebody wants to reach out to you, kind of like you reached out to Kathleen after hearing her on the pod, maybe a new friend can give a meal recommendation or a restaurant recommendation on where you're headed to next.

[00:32:19] So I'm trying to figure that out and I haven't traveled in a very long time actually. How would I do this? How about I give a plug to the Canary in Brooklyn, which is where I met Kathleen for something to eat in a couple of drinks

[00:32:33] a couple weeks ago. That was my meat cube moment with Kathleen. At some random Irish bar in Brooklyn, which was great to connect with her. You did the... So jealous. I know you did the connecting. We had like an hour and a half to two hours

[00:32:48] of just talking politics and growing up in politics. Right? One of us in New York, one of us in Kansas, one Republican, one Democrat, kind of how we got to where we got to. And she's doing great work out there now at Stepable.

[00:33:01] And I think we're going to work together. We have some issues that she's working on a lot of mental health stuff, but a lot of the same stuff that she cares about about patients having access to medications and caregivers and stuff like that. We're also working on.

[00:33:13] So I thank you, Maggie, for that. That was probably... If you're ever in Brooklyn, check out the Canary. It was a great spot. Where am I headed? I'm headed to the Bluegrass State, Maggie Mix Homestate for NCSL with a quick stop-off at the Spear

[00:33:29] to go see Deaden Company in Vegas next weekend. So if you're at the Spear to see Deaden Company look me up on Saturday, I don't know what shape I'll be in on Sunday for NCSL, but I will be there all week long at NCSL.

[00:33:44] And hopefully, Maggie, you and I get to share a mid-joule or something while we're in the Bluegrass State. I look forward to it. Well, thank you, Jeff. Seeing the Dead at the Spear, that's fantastic. Good way to kick off my weekend, right, Jim? Boy, I'll say.

[00:34:02] Yeah, I've heard it's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's great. Well, Jack, thank you very much. Thank you for coming by. And I hope you and Maggie have a great time at NCSL and for everyone else attending NCSL. Enjoy. And with that, we will sign. Yes.

[00:34:25] We'll preview that we will. The pod will be at NCSL. I'll be doing many interviews with many friends and colleagues. And so I look forward to checking in with everyone on the ground in Louisville. And thank you to our friends at NCSL for welcoming the political life podcast

[00:34:41] on the ground in Louisville. Yeah, and go find Maggie on the floor. Find Ryder Booth. And she's going to be doing quick, quick on-the-spot interviews. And check out Multistate. And yeah, that'll be a fun little episode. So with that, everyone have a great week.

[00:35:05] Have a good time at NCSL. And we will see you next Monday.