Daily Archives: May 9, 2008

Obama Campaign to Kick Off National “Vote for Change”


Voter Registration Drive in Delaware TOMORROW

Wilmington, DE – The Obama campaign announced today that grassroots volunteers will hold a Vote for Change kickoff event on Saturday, May 10th in Wilmington. Vote for Change is a 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive aimed at getting millions more Americans registered to vote and involved in the democratic process ahead of the November election.

Go to my.barackobama.com/voteforchange to find out more about the 101 Vote for Change kickoff events that will be held nationwide on May 10th.

WHO: Obama volunteers

WHAT: Vote for Change Kickoff Event

WHERE: Rodney Square
902 N. Market St
Wilmington, DE

WHEN: Saturday, May 10, 2008
10:00AM-1:00PM

###

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2008
Contact: Obama Press Office 312-819-2423

I love the Obama campaign.

“Senator Tom Carper To Endorse Barack Obama Watch” – Day 2.5

5/9/08 20:06 UPDATE: I left two messages for Carper’s Legislative Dirtector, Bill Ghent who is a buddy of mine from my San Francisco bath house days (long story) – but I guess he is busy so he had the très joli  Bette Phelan reply via email. Her email stated that Carper “remains an uncommitted superdelegate” which I take to mean “is still hoping for a Clinton miracle.”  Zut alors!

Oh well. Plus 9 (NINE!) supers for Obama today alone. Let the floodgates open.

5/9/08 UPDATE: I placed another call to Bill Ghent this morning and hope to hear from him today.

A Tom Carper endorsement of Obama would be a punch in the gut to fellow DLC’er Hillary Clinton, but I first heard on Tuesday night that Tom Carper would be endorsing Barack Obama sooner rather than later. Continue reading →

Comment Rescue: A Great Recap

The tapestry that is McDowell/Copeland effort to kill the off shore wind project has many threads. This comment from an anon reader does a great job winding those threads together.

Sounds like Senator Copeland has all the sudden realized this could be problematic running for governor – I mean Lt. Governor – being part of an illegal group trying to kill the wind farm and set up a huge, multi-million dollar enterprise and make lots of money for themselves with cake jobs.

I mean, did he just realize this “enterprise” had expired? What planet is the guy on? And being against the wind farm should do Mr. Copeland wonders in his race for the governor’s mansion. Maybe he could talk about creating jobs for the state in his campaign, or skyrocketing energy prices, a clean environment, national security, health care costs. LOL.

Pretty good except I happen to think that Copeland has already won the job that he was going after; “Savior of the DE GOP”

Copeland Vows to Stop Attending SEU Meetings

I must have hit a nerve with my post earlier. Charlie Copeland dropped me an email to fill me in on his stance after he spoke to Tyler Nixon.

I was unaware of the expiration of the SEU oversight board. I spoke with Tyler Nixon about it earlier today, and I will no longer attend oversight board meetings. If you check the debate on the Senate floor for SB 228 (which should be available from the Secretary of the Senate), I stated that the SEU should operate under FOIA and that I, as a member of the Oversight Board, would not vote on selecting the “winner” of the RFP being issued by the Energy Office. Obviously, this on-the-record comment was made before I was aware that the board had expired, but emphasizes the point that I have been consistently trying to get the SEU up and running on its own without inappropriate legislator influence.

I plan to contact the Secretary of the Senate next week to confirm Charlie’s assertion, but this is progress. I wonder if the SEU will ever make quorum again.

SEU Oversight Board Authority Expired

There was some question around here last week about whether or not the SEU was acting within the law that created them. There was an allegation that their term had expired per statute. Here is the pertinent part of the law:

There is hereby created the SEU Oversight Board which shall, from passage of this Act until January 31, 2008, consist of all members of the Sustainable Energy Utility Task Force (“Task Force”) appointed pursuant to Senate Concurrent Resolution 45 from the 143rd General Assembly and Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 from the 144th General Assembly. By December 31, 2007 the Task Force shall recommend to the General Assembly the composition of the Board to serve after January 31, 2008.

So according to this, their term expired on January 31st, three and a half months ago. I spoke to an assistant to Senator McDowell and confirmed that, indeed, the authority was not renewed. On the recommendation of counsel, they have continued to operate as if they were still a legal entity. This may explain why they were unable to answer whether of not they were a public body in their last meeting. According to my source, they are continuing to meet in order to solicit input on how to structure the permanent SEU oversight board.

I contacted Tyler Nixon for comment (note to self, never ask a lawyer for a comment without specifying a maximum number of words). Mr. Nixon’s full comment is below the fold.

Senator Harris McDowell, and any other person knowingly and/or wilfully disregarding Del C. 29 Sec. 8059(e)(1), is unlawfully operating a rogue quasi-agency by purporting to hold meetings and make decisions dispositive of the Sustainable Energy Utility’s future, months after the former SEU Oversight Board’s authority expired. Continue reading →

HCR50 Comment Rescue

kavips said…

This (HCR50 which recommends that the Public Service deny any request by Delmarva Power to recover from or pass-through to its ratepayers the costs it has incurred opposing the Power Purchase Agreement negotiated between Delmarva Power and Bluewater Wind) was tabled. Who has the vote count?

John Kowalko responds:

Kavips,

I had no choice but to table the Resolution since it wouldn’t have gotten the votes out of committee.

There was a critical absentee and some language changes suggested and ( most importantly, I feel) failure to invite the Public Service Commission.

I agree wholeheartedly with the PSC being present next time so that they might shed some light on the fact that the Delmarva lobbyist (Farley) expressed total confidence in their (the PSC’s) decisions and ability to fairly determine qualifying expenditures yet his client continues to wage and abet a campaign which contradicts that thought.

Farley (at the hearing) and Delmarva and its agents have consistently resisted the fact that the PSC has responsibly and “honestly” met its responsibilities in crafting an RFP process as mandated by HB 6 resulting in the December 18, 2007 Power Purchase Agreement. Since then, Delmarva (Farley and other “agents”) have objected to, worked against, and misrepresented to the ratepayers (at the ratepayers expense) the reality and truth of cost comparisons which clearly favor the BWW project. Mr.Farley, at Representative Thornburgs behest, testified at the hearing and soon strayed off point (of the resolution) and tried to debate the Delmarva/BWW proposal from his biased point of view while referring to me as the “gentleman from Newark, who is obviously a BWW supporter”. I quickly asked the chair to correct this obviously hostile witness and refer to me as “the Repesentative from Newark” with all due respect. The point being that Mr. Farley was never enjoined (by the chair) from straying significantly off-topic with a Delmarva promo while Tom Noyes (my invitee) was interrupted and told by the chair that he should “wrap it up”. Mr. Noyes stayed on point and concluded but the bias was exposed. Representatives Hocker, Thornburg and Booth were the most vocal participants of the committee and Representative Schwartzkopf (co-sponsor of the resolution) was eloquent in his attempt to keep the discussion in perspective. I offered the table and will be back with some changes and, hopefully, a PSC rep. next time and an open-mindedness for an objective discussion specific to the resolution.

John Kowalko