for themselves; as the members themselves cannot be delegates to the convention, in calling for a convention, they are creating a potential new set of politicians campaigning in their same districts and addressing some of the same issues. That occurred to an extent after the 1977 convention, which launched the career, among others, of Memphis attorney Steve Cohen, who was vice president of the convention and later became a prominent progressive Democrat in the Tennessee State Senate, until 2006, when he was elected U.S. Representative from the Ninth District. Recent amendments Beginning in the 1990s, amendments were placed on the ballot without a convention being held, using, for the first time, the provisions that allow the General Assembly to propose amendments directly. In 1998, voters were asked about two amendments. One was the Victims' Rights Amendment, which required prosecutors to stay in touch with crime victims and their families, to explain to them how purported offenses involving them were to be prosecuted, and to notify them when persons who had committed crimes against them were being scheduled for parole or release, among other provisions. The other amendment removed the word "comfortable" from the requirements for minimum standards for prisons. Both of these amendments passed by overwhelming margins in an election marked by a very light turnout. The amendments represented the first changes to the constitution in 20 years. In 2002, the legislature again proposed two amendments. The first proposal passed, repealing a constitutional ban on all lotteries. The ban had been a carryover from the 1835 document and was widely regarded as a tribute not only to religious fundamentalism but also to the influence of Andrew Jackson, a known lottery opponent, who was in no way averse to other forms of gambling, especially that regarding horse racing. The amendment established the current state lottery. The other amendment on the 2002 ballot, pushed for by the Tennessee Municipal League (TML), would have eliminated a constitutional provision that set $50 (a large sum in 1870 when the provision was enacted) as the maximum allowable fine for violation of a municipal ordinance. Instead, it would have allowed the legislature to set limits on the fines that municipalities could enact. However, after putting much effort into getting the legislature to put this amendment onto the ballot, the TML put little effort into winning voter approval, and the proposal was largely overlooked during the public