Bryan Ginter submits his personal recommendation on just about every bill that comes before the Arizona Legislature — from his computer at home. But he first had to sign up at a “comment kiosk,” like this one in the House lobby.

Bryan Ginter doesn’t visit the Capitol very often. But he has picked out a favorite place among the relics of Arizona’s state government complex.
There’s a spot in the gallery of old House of Representatives where you can look down on the chamber floor with all the old wooden desks. There’s an inscription on one of the doors that Ginter says is more important today than ever before.
The message is long, but it ends this way: “In a democracy, each of us is responsible for the quality of our government.”
Ginter, for one, embodies that statement.
Every Friday, the 51-year-old former Navy officer spends a few hours in front of his computer to get an advance look at all of the bills slated for hearings at the Arizona Legislature. He researches the often-cumbersome text of 50 or 60 measures at a time, and then offers a “yea” or “nay” recommendation to lawmakers on each one.
During the past six years, Ginter has given a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down to thousands of bills. In fact, he says he’s offered his views on nearly every bill that has received a committee hearing since 2003.
For the first couple of years, Ginter was an enigma, an apparition to nearly every lawmaker at the Capitol. Because he used the Legislature’s online “request-to-speak” system from his home office, no one ever saw him. Some lawmakers wondered out loud if he was a real person.
The mystery spurred rumors that Bryan Ginter was a pseudonym used by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano to weigh in on legislation before reaching her desk.
At one point in the 2005 session, then-Rep. Eddie Farnsworth interrupted a hearing of the House Education Committee to ask if anyone had “ever seen Bryan Ginter and Janet Napolitano in the same room at the same time.”
Then, later that year, Ginter made a surprise appearance in the House gallery, which resulted in a standing ovation from House members while senators learning of the visit ran across the lawn to see him for themselves.
He went back underground after his 2005 visit and attained a somewhat legendary status. He continued weighing in on bills from home, but visits to the Capitol were rare. For new lawmakers, he is nothing more than a name. But no one can work at the Capitol for long without hearing about the Legislature’s most dedicated gadfly.
Veteran lawmakers pass down the legend of Ginter to newbies like tips about how to operate the phone system and instructions on where to park their vehicles in the Legislature’s lot.

The request-to-speak system, which Ginter has all but mastered, allows citizens to cast a vote for or against any bill scheduled for a committee hearing. Committee chairs receive a list of everyone who weighed in before every hearing, and the names are usually read aloud while committee members are deliberating a bill.
The system is most commonly used by lobbyists, which is why lawmakers began to take notice after hearing the phrase “Bryan Ginter, representing himself” in every committee they attended.
“After a while, when you see something seven times or so, it starts to really hit,” said Sen. Jim Waring, a Republican from Phoenix. “You start to say ‘wait a minute, didn’t I hear about that guy in my last committee≠’”
Hearing Ginter’s name read into the record has become so commonplace that lawmakers take note when they don’t see his name on the list.
Rep. Sam Crump, a Republican from Anthem, seemed surprised during a House Government Committee hearing earlier this month when Ginter chose not to weigh in on H2019, which would make “The Grand Canyon State” the state’s official nickname.
“I am a little disappointed that Bryan Ginter didn’t weigh in on this bill,” Crump said before the committee voted to approve the measure. “I thought for posterity he would want to.”
The first revelation among lawmakers that Ginter really exists occurred when Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Phoenix, was conducting training for citizen-lobbying. 
During a training session, Sinema referred to the enigmatic Ginter as an example of a good citizen who cares enough about policy to consider and inject an opinion on many of the 1,300 bills filed each session. The speech piqued the attention of one particular trainee, Ginter’s mother Virginia, who introduced herself to Sinema later that night.
“I was like, oh my God, I have to meet Bryan,” Sinema said. “I knew I was going to be the most popular person in the state.”
Sinema hosted Ginter during his first and only official visit to the House on March 29 of that same year.
“It was a huge deal,” Sinema said. “When I introduced him, people started clapping and gave him a standing ovation. Senators even ran over to see him.”

Ginter followed his parents to Arizona in 1975, but his position in the Navy — which he joined in his junior year of high school — kept him away from the state until his military retirement in 1999.
He met his wife of 33 years while stationed on an aircraft carrier off the coast of California. The couple has a 29-year-old-son.
Most of Ginter’s technical training was acquired during his time in the Navy as a computer systems operator.
Ginter used his technical knowledge to land a job at Bank One as a computer systems analyst. His title changed to merger project manager when JP Morgan Chase Co. bought out the company.
“What does a merger project manager do≠ He works himself out of a job,” Ginter said. “When all the projects were done and the merger was complete, there was no more need for me.”
Ginter began collecting unemployment compensation nine months ago after a temporary position with USAA, an insurance company serving members of the military and their families.
Unable to find a job in a failing economy, Ginter is considering returning to college to complete his bachelor’s degree in business.

Over the years, lawmakers have come to realize that Ginter is often watching them, although not in person. Legislative TV and online advancements to create an atmosphere of government openness make it possible to track many of the lawmakers’ actions both in committee and on the House and Senate floors.
In February 2005, Sen. Carolyn Allen, a Republican from Scottsdale, scanned the committee hearing room before asking the question on every lawmaker’s mind.
“Bryan Ginter, are you here≠” she asked.
Ginter was indeed listening, but he was unable to immediately respond from his desktop computer at home. So he sent Allen an e-mail explaining that he spends his Friday nights reading and registering positions on bills slated to be heard in the Senate and House during the upcoming week, a statement that Allen later read on the floor of the Senate.
Two months later, Allen nominated Ginter for the Arizona Golden Rule Citizen Certificate, an award given to public citizens making a difference in the state.
Ginter said he appreciated the award and the attention from lawmakers, but said he wasn’t looking to win awards or be recognized.
“I don’t care about the notoriety,” he said. &ldq
uo;To me, this is just an effective way to let legislators know how I feel they should vote on a particular legislation.”
Instead, Ginter hopes legislators hearing his name in committee meeting after committee meeting will be reminded of who they were elected to serve. 
“I want them to realize that there are people in the public who care what they are doing,” he said.

Good citizenship, apparently, is a characteristic common to the Ginter family. After all, Bryan is simply carrying on a tradition passed down by his father, John Ginter, who died in 2003.
Ginter’s mother said her husband had regularly sent letters to his local representatives to let them know how he felt about their decisions. Before his death, John Ginter spent most of this working life in public service. He worked for the state of Iowa, the Department of Defense in Dallas and the Department of Labor in Phoenix.
“His father would be so proud of him for doing what he is doing now, and so am I,” she said.
Bryan Ginter points to his nearly two decades of military service and influence from politically savvy parents as the sources of his civic participation. His father, he recalls, had a penchant for quoting John F. Kennedy,
“Growing up, I remember my father’s admiration for President John F. Kennedy. As a young boy, he would often recite to me ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,’ from the remarks for JFK’s inaugural address,” Ginter said.
“As a citizen, to take two hours out of a week to do what I do is very meaningful, it is very important,” he added. “It is my duty.”
Ginter said he turned to the request-to-speak system after years of casually sending letters and e-mails to lawmakers and receiving nothing more than canned responses. Still, he doesn’t consider himself to be a gadfly, a word with negative connotations and more accurately describes something that is considered a nuisance.
“I realized this might be an effective way to get my voice heard as a citizen,” he said. “I have the same power this way as a corporate lobbyist who is paid to go down there and stand in front of a podium.”
He rarely explains his positions, opting instead to register only as for or against a bill. The tactic adds to the Ginter’s ambiguity, but it allows him to read and weigh in on an average of 60 bills in less than two hours.
“I tend to be a speed-reader,” Ginter said. “I can pick up on specific comments and words, and I am keenly aware of ideologies. There are little nuances that I can catch.”
His method, however, became somewhat of an annoyance to Senate President Bob Burns, a Republican from Peoria.
Burns spoke up during an Appropriations Committee hearing in 2007 to criticize Ginter for not using the system’s comment option to explain his stances on legislation.   
“He was frustrated with me because that was all I was doing, giving them a yes or no,” Ginter said.
Ginter heard the criticism while listening to the hearing online and responded by sending Burns an e-mail explaining the reason for his methods. 
“I told him that I am very respectful for what they have to do,” he said. “If they do it all, they have a tremendous amount to do. I don’t want to take up any more of their time. For me, the best thing is to give them my position and be done.”
The explanation was enough to appease Burns, Ginter said, but he and the Senate president now have an agreement that Ginter will include a comment explaining the reason for his position on bills he feels particularly strongly about.
Ginter honored his agreement with Burns last week when he submitted a 3,000-word statement to be entered into the record during an informative Senate Government Institutions Committee hearing on the federal stimulus package.

Ginter, who didn’t want to reveal his party affiliation, admits his party ID is far from secretive.  
“If someone really wanted to find out, it wouldn’t be hard,” he said.
It wasn’t. Ginter has served as a precinct committeeman for the Democratic Party in District 6 for nearly a decade.
Also, Ginter leans left on many of the most controversial bills heard by the House and Senate in recent years.
In 2007, Ginter registered his rejection of the employer sanctions bills designed to crack down on illegal immigration. One of the bills, H2779, passed the House with 47 votes.
Ginter has also routinely registered against bills banning gay marriage and repealing the equalization property tax.
Ginter said he sees himself as more of an independent voice and points to bills where he has strayed from party lines. Ginter is a dedicated Catholic, which he said has influenced his strong pro-life stance on abortion.
“I don’t always follow party line, so I think I am seen as independent,” he said. 
Ginter doesn’t just focus on high-profile, controversial bills. He regularly votes on less-publicized bills and measures containing technical corrections and amendments. 
“There are a lot of times when it is just me and the bill’s sponsor who register an opinion,” Ginter said. “I choose to cover all the areas because I think they are important, even the technical bills. I have seen when they change two words in a bill, but if the change could change the way the statute would be understood in a court of law.”
The frequency to which he votes on bills has led some at the Capitol to speculate that Ginter’s voting record often falls in line with the majority opinion.
“I don’t keep track of these things, but that is what I have heard,” Ginter said.
Ginter, who earned the Eagle Scout Award in 1975 and became a member of Mensa in 1991, said he knows not everyone has time to weigh in on as many bills as he does. But the man who has become the poster boy of civic participation for lawmakers at the Capitol still encourages those not as politically savvy to become involved. 
“They don’t have to do what I do,” Ginter said. “I would just ask them to pick an area that interests them and follow it.”
This session, Ginter has picked out a few bills to keep a close eye on.
For instance, H2627 would allow members of the military to present their military ID as proof of citizenship when voting. And H2514 would keep homeowners associations from restricting the installation of ham radio towers. Ginter, a veteran and a ham radio operator, is paying particular attention to both.

Unable to contain his policy ideas to bills alone, Ginter has a list of policy changes he would like to see enacted.
The state’s request-to-speak system “is the best thing since sliced bread,” Ginter said, but he would like to see the system tweaked to better accommodate Arizona’s disabled and rural populations.
Any citizen of the state can register a position on bills slated for committee hearings from home, but only after they have created an account at one of the kiosks located in the House and Senate buildings.
Ginter said the system makes participation difficult for people with disabilities and residents outside of Maricopa County.
“They should be able to register online,” Ginter said. “I can’t see any legal reason why that won’t work.”
Ginter also would like see a change to the rules allowing lawmakers to attach strike-everything amendments to legislation, which are commonly used to insert new legislation into the mix after the bill-filing deadline has passed.
“What is really frustrating for me is when legislators put strike-everything amendments on good legislation,” he said. “I think that is dirty, I r
eally do. If it was that important, why wasn’t it introduced during the start of the session≠”
Finally, Ginter said he would like to see Senate President Burns reconsider his decision to not hear bills until the fiscal 2010 budget has passed.
“I think the speaker of the House (Rep. Kirk Adams) has done it right,” he said. “He is making the committees do their jobs as well as looking into financial matters. They should be getting it all done. Do what you are paid to do.”
Others upset with the way the Legislature is run routinely ask Ginter to run for office himself.
Ginter said he has not ruled out the possibility, but doesn’t feel he will be ready in time for the next election. 
“Between now and 2010 I just don’t see it,” he said. “But we’ll see.”