Some Not So Random Political Thoughts
Just because I was sedated and sadistically eviscerated during my stint in Third Person Rehab, I still had time in between fevered dreams to think about what was going on locally and nationally. Here are a couple of observations:
1. The seeds to defeat in Saturday’s 37th RD Special Election were sown by Bob Gilligan in 2002.
2002 was the year that the Delaware General Assembly was reapportioned following the 2000 Census. The final deal looked something like this: In exchange for the R’s carving out a seat especially for Lonnie George’s daughter, the D leadership in effect sold out Dave Brady, Rick DiLiberto, John Schroeder, and Shirley Price.
If those last two names look familiar, they should. They’re both from Sussex County. Both of their districts were gerrymandered to the point where it was virtually impossible for them to get reelected. Gilligan also looked the other way while Wayne Smith carved a series of districts right at the minus 5% population threshold in Western Sussex, thus giving that area disproportionate representation while the more moderate eastern Sussex area got proportionately less.
Here’s how reapportionment works when it comes to population. If you take the entire population (not voters, but population) of the state of Delaware and divide it by 41 (the number of state representative districts), you would get the average population/district. The law permits a deviation of plus or minus 5% from that figure. Skillful manipulation of those numbers enabled the Rethugs to keep control of the House even after the population and popular sentiment turned against them. However, that would not have been possible had Gilligan and the D’s challenged the redistricting in Court, as several districts (Lavelle, Valihura, Schroeder) clearly did not meet the ‘compact and contiguous’ standard for drawing districts. Gilligan, of course, had no interest in doing this since perhaps the most clearly unlawful district (“The Barbell”) was that drawn for–wait for it–Lonnie George’s daughter. Not only had George and Gilligan been in Democratic House leadership together in the early ’80’s, but Gilligan had a real nice job at Del-Tech and Lonnie was his boss. Connect the dots.
So, what had been a reasonable district for Rep. Schroeder now became a monstrosity stretching from Lewes to Georgetown. That is the district that sent the lobbyist to Dover on Saturday.
Democrats should be thankful for a truly-inspired effort by Ron Robinson. Should he choose, he has a real political future. If there is a God, Robinson will be a resident in Bob Venables’ senatorial district. It would be difficult to imagine a greater upgrade for a Senate seat than that.
A word about Melanie George Marshall. My criticism is about the shady process that got her into office, NOT her performance there. She raises the collective IQ of the House by several points, and she is a very detail-oriented legislator who has demonstrated her effectiveness on an array of issues. Hopefully, she’ll have a district that meets minimal legal standards in 2012.
Finally, despite the handwringing from the good government types, the D’s must grab the toro by the horns after the 2010 census, and redistrict in a manner that reflects their numerical advantage. You’ll hear the usual bleating from the Rethugs, the same Rethugs who fixed the game with Gilligan’s help for the past 20 years, but bleep ’em. If the D’s are in power, it’s time to optimize it.
2. It is time for Obama to crack Democratic heads.
Depending on what seats are vacant, the D’s have somewhere around 58 Senators. He’s simply gotta call them all in and tell them, “We’re gonna pass meaningful health care reform with or without you. We’re not gonna count on any Republican support. The American people want this. It’s the right thing to do. And, if you’ve been paying attention, the main reason why the Rethugs are so virulent in their opposition is b/c they’re terrified that this will prove so popular with the American people that they will be rendered politically irrelevant. As will any of you who oppose this. I intend to use the full power of my office to reward my supporters and to punish my enemies. Senators Carper, Baucus, Lieberman and Conrad, do you understand what I’m saying?”
I’m really concerned that wussiness could well be Obama’s fatal flaw. Time to prove me wrong.
Tags: Health Care, Obama, Speaker Gilligan, Special Election
She raises the collective IQ of the House by several points, and she is a very detail-oriented legislator who has demonstrated her effectiveness on an array of issues.
I won’t totally challenge you (I only have one point to present), except to remind you that she did stand up for Vince Meconi at the time of the DHHS hearings and admitted to disclosing one time the location of the hearings held in confidence for those employees who claimed to have been threatened (it was “unintentional”). Not a bragging point in my book.
Smitty: When you’re right, you’re right. Bethany Hall-Long was another one. Meconi almost cost the D’s the majority in 2008. Guess it’s only fitting that he’s back on the public dole.
MGM’s stance on that bothered me, hence why I noted it; but BHL, being a nurse and many of the complaints-in-confidence came from nurses, just came off as the worst pandering to Ruthie’s admin that I may have seen in the whole eight years Ruthie was guv. There is no room of fandom in my conscience for BHL. The only exception is that I applaud her bill about restrictions on minors using tanning booths.
The point about the defense of Meconi is that I could never understand why. By 2008, most people recognized the Minner Administration as a failure, and Vince Meconi as the poster boy for that failure. While there’s little doubt that the Cathcart-led ‘probe’ was politically-inspired and, to some extent, downright unprofessional, there’s absolutely NO doubt that Vince Meconi was largely responsible for the mess at DPC (and largely responsible for several other messes, including his unconscionable refusal to protect nursing home residents). Meconi’s Carper ties notwithstanding, it’s not like he was universally admired in Leg Hall. Someone (I’m guessing Gilligan) made the decision that a political rapid response team was the proper way to deal with this. Needless to say, it wasn’t.
Robinson is in the 19th Senatorial.
OK, here’s the response from someone who’d prefer good government to Democratic-run government: It’s time to take reapportionment out of the partisan political process. The Gilligan sellout cited by ES shows why.
Because Delaware law mandates equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans in the judiciary, the courts are the right place to place responsibility.
If there is a God, Robinson will be a resident in Bob Venables’ senatorial district. It would be difficult to imagine a greater upgrade for a Senate seat than that.
I can imagine a greater upgrade, if a certain someone doesn’t get gerrymandered out of the district by then.
Oh, and Rob Robinson lives in the 19th Senate District, although he is close enough to be gerrymandered into the 21st district in 2012.
BHL did not pander to “Ruthie” in any way, shape or form concerning the DPC investigative hearings. She expressed her concern about the report because she and the other democrats on the panel were not given sufficient time to review the report.
This was an issue discussed earlier this year at delawarepolitics.net about Marshall and Hall-Long. Dave Burris even agreed in an exchange with me that BHL was not a hindrance in the investigation.
Here is a link to the article about her concerns and the recommendations she made after given the opportunity to review it.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS/801150330
Amazing, when I say something about BHL, OO is always there like a good soldier. I’ve got my opinions (more than one), but can prove nothing. Ah, the fun of blogging.
I actually never said that BHL was a hinderance, but her opinion was what I was referring to. MGM was the hinderance. Hey, for my track record on BHL, take the compliment I added to the criticism and run with it.
“By 2008, most people recognized the Minner Administration as a failure”
Really? it took two full terms for you to figure that out?
OK,Now that Ruthie is gone, where is the Democrat leadership on correcting the problems at the State Hospital or in the Prison System?
and why, with our local demostration of the failure of government run healthcare staring you in the face, do you insist on taking this failed experiment national?
anyone want to take bets on Meconi’s next job is the government option passes???
Smitty,
What opinion are you referring to? And I never wrote you said she was a hindrance. That had to do with Mr. Burris several months ago.
My apologies – took your comment as a direct response to her being mentioned here. I know you mentioned Burris, but I thought that was supporting your point for the rebuttal here, not the actual rebuttal itself.
Hey, in the past, you and I have locked up a little (just a little) here-and-there over BHL, so again, my apologies if I jumped too quickly.
No problem smitty. Go Eagles. Go Phillies. Go Flyers. Go Sixers. Oh well, 3 outta 4 ain’t bad.
typo correction:
anyone want to take bets on Meconi’s next job IF the government option passes???