PHOENIX – Opening up a legislative affairs briefing with jokes about sniffling and conspiracy theories might seem strange — but in this year’s political season, it seemed totally normal. SMACNA called its annual politics and policy discussion “The Roller Coaster Ride of 2016,” and few would argue.
The Sheet Metal and Air-Conditioning Contractors’ National Association brought in Dana Thompson, its political affairs director, and Stan Kolbe, the association’s legislative director, for a discussion Wednesday on the state of Washington, D.C., three weeks before Election Day. Thompson admitted that her predictions on the election a year earlier at the association’s 2015 conference in Colorado were not even close.