So, Informed Voter, you've been reading the PVS blog, researching votes, checking out interest group ratings, plowing through campaign finance data, scouring speeches and public statements, and learning biographical backgrounds on all of your elected officials. Think you know your officials? Did you catch these quips?



From Idaho:

Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, said asking state agencies to create standards eliminates market forces. It's a "worthy goal, maybe, but it's pie in the sky, and it just gives us warm, fuzzy legislation," she said. "In old Russia, the state owned children for all intents and purposes" while women dug ditches and the "truly talented people defected."



From North Dakota:

During debate on a bill to affirm the right of a homeowner to use deadly force against an intruder, Rep Al Carlson from Fargo had this to say:



"If you think a normal ND citizen hears a person breaking into his house [and] is going to walk up to that person and say why are you here and do you have a question. I'd tell you what would happen in my house. I'd shoot that person, and enough times I'd know [he would] not do any more danger to me or my family. He'd leak like a watering can."



From Nevada:

During Friday's session of the Nevada Legislature, Assemblyman Bernie Anderson asked to read "I Can Read with My Eyes Closed" by Dr. Seuss on the author's birthday. Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley asked to introduce Anderson and did so with a poem of her own: "We like to hear Bernie rhyme/We like to hear it all the time/We like to hear it on the floor/We like to hear it more and more/And so, without further ado, here's Mr. Anderson to read to you."



From Colorado:

A comment made during the "Make My Day Better" debate: "It's God, guns and granola now," joked Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma.

Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, having a little fun with her license-plate bill to celebrate Italian heritage:



"If you don't vote it, you'll find a horse's head in your bed."

Amendment 41, which limits lawmakers to gifts under $50, would prevent search-and- rescue teams from rescuing lawmakers stranded on the top of a mountain, maintains Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany. "There are a few of my esteemed colleagues I wouldn't mind leaving stuck on a mountain," the Colorado Springs Republican said, with a laugh.

"We're going to have to cut the drinking off earlier in the morning."
- Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Larimer County, after a reporter stumbled in front of his desk

On April Fool's: As for committee hearings, they were canceled because:

• Agriculture: It's planting season.

• Transportation & Energy: Out of gas.

• Health & Human Services: Out sick.

• State, Veterans & Military Affairs: Deployed.



Look for more quirky quips and amazing analogies in posts to come.

Good day from the Key Votes Department.