OOGA in Sight when Democrats Capture House?
Progressive Democrats have had as two of their goals over the last four years offshore wind and open government. Could it be that we are approaching victory on both within the span of a year?
From the News Journal
House Democrats say if they gain control in this fall’s election, the story would change at last. A “real FOIA” bill — one without the exemptions and compromises that softened the Republican legislation — would be signed next session if Democrats, who have long controlled the Senate, finally reverse the balance of power in the House.
But Republicans say the opposite will happen. Important legislation will go completely ignored, with bills shoved into desk drawers and kept off agendas, just as the Senate Democrats repeatedly do with open-government bills.
The comfortable majority Republicans long enjoyed in the House has been eroding in the past decade, and there’s no denying that control could swing to the Democratic Party after this election, leaving the party in control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since 1985.
Progressives have really had two enemies in politics in Delaware. The Republicans of course, but also our own establishment conservative/DLC Democrats. Democrats like Harris McDowell and Thurman Adams. So if we win the 2 seats necessary to capture the House in the fall, the battle is no where near won. Indeed, I want to know which House Democrats are saying that if they gain majority this fall they will enact OOGA. I want them on record. For we all saw Margaret Rose Henry say one thing to the PDD and then refuse to sign Sen. Peterson’s petition to bring OOGA to a vote.
But now that these anonymous House Democrats have said OOGA will pass if we gain control, that is a promise that cannot be broken. For if it is, we will primary their asses.
It’s taken thirty years for things to get this bad and we won’t solve it in one or two election cycles. The lesson I’ve learned is that I can never rest assured again, never take our progressive values for granted, and never, ever stop working the grassroots to defeat the corporatists. The only place we can overpower them is at the ballot box and they have tried really hard to take that away from us. Vigilance and stamina are required in a democracy. Thank you progressives for both!
Welcome aboard, Rebecca….some have been aware for many, many years. It ain’t pretty.
I received a letter from Harris McDowell a few days ago in which he addressed the lack of open government in the GA. Specifically, I asked him why he would not co-sponsor SB4 or sign the petition to force it out of Adams’ desk drawer. (I sent the letter in March, but that’s another story.)
The senator said he supported many actions in the 1980s that govern how the GA operates today. He didn’t get specific. He also said he now realizes that many of those rules and laws need updating, but that he had “some concerns” about Sen. Peterson’s bill. “With some modifications,” he could support a bill such as the former SB4. Again, he didn’t list any specific concerns, but I imagine they have something to do with caucuses. I will try to pin him down for more details in the coming weeks.