"The challenge for me with the agencies which impact my district was to get them to think in different ways. We do right by [voters] by thinking about ways about the ways we could solve problems," he says.

Voters, too, should consider fresh approaches, he says.

"It's my job to help them think in different ways. What I've learned most in my first year is it's trying to use my skills as an advocate to bring me and my peoples into the conversation," he says.

The Magazine Beach park victory was one accomplishment that had little to do with legislature but a lot to do with people skills.

"It had nothing to do with legislature," he says. "It was using the offices of bully pulpit to advance the issues that matter to me."

He often has to think broadly about his job like in this instance, he says, in order to serve his constituents rightly.

A state legislator isn't only a representative, he says.

"A state legislator is also an advocate. If it benefits my constituents to spend time over at the MDC instead of in my office at the State House, then yes, I'm going to spend my time doing that," he says.