We’ve been seeing articles for a month or so that Tony DeLuca’s leadership position was in jeopardy. People were privately and publicly griping about his role in the Delaware State University scholarship defeat. However, when Democrats had their caucus meeting, DeLuca was selected as the leader so I thought that was the end of it. Apparently it wasn’t. Senator Katz is challenging DeLuca for the Senate pro-tem position.
The stage is set for a bruising political battle Tuesday when Sen. Michael Katz will seek to topple Senate President Pro Tem Anthony DeLuca from his leadership position.
It’s a battle that pits Democrat against Democrat for the top Senate job, dividing the Senate’s majority party and placing the minority Republicans in the unaccustomed role of potential kingmaker.
If Katz can muster 11 votes — perhaps four votes from dissident Democrats and all seven Senate Republicans — DeLuca will lose his corner office, prime parking space and institutional power to a freshman senator elected just two years ago on a platform that included battling cronyism and special interests.
After the caucus vote that DeLuca won several other stories came out. One was about how DeLuca used funds to remodel Legislative Hall to remodel and expand his own office and to make it harder for people to talk to him. Then it was revealed that he had hired defeated Senator Nancy Cook.
So, a more progressive Senate leader could be put in place with the help of Republicans. Oh my beating political junkie heart! What’s in it for Republicans with this change? Katz says he wants to change the way the Senate is managed, which is probably appealing to Republicans in the minority party. Katz says this:
“Overall, I have a different philosophy in the approach, the vision and how the Senate should be managed,” Katz said, adding that “everyone should be empowered regardless of party.”
“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you represent Republicans, Democrats and independents and other parties and everybody’s a Delawarean. I’m relatively a nonpartisan individual,” he said.
This description of the difference between Katz and DeLuca really gets at the heart of what I think is important in politics right now. People are mad about the closed-door behind-the-scenes ways of doing politics. So many bills die in sessions and we never hear about it. It would be nice to have more transparency, if that is indeed what Katz intends. It’s also said that Katz is more of negotiator (which is bad now I keep hearing). So it really is a battle of old school vs. new school politicians. It should be very interesting. Politicians are not the most bold people, so a leadership challenge in the open like this is really rare.
What do you think? Will Katz succeed? Who do you think are the likely vote flippers. With Katz and Peterson, 2 more Democrats are needed. Who would it be?