First it was plagiarism, now it’s extortion. Mike Katz may be a doctor but, judging by the way he throws overheated charges around, he’s sure no lawyer.
And he looks less and less like a progressive all the time. Which, perhaps, is what he wants in his R district, but it’s not something I, for one, need. Nor do progressives.
In fact, he is using his claim of ‘political extortion’ to justify his burial of National Popular Vote legislation in his Senate Elections Committee. Might I point out that Katz sought the office of President Pro Tempore on a promise of not ‘desk-drawering’ legislation, which is exactly what he’s done? HB 55(D. E. Williams) passed the House on June 7, 2011. President Pro-Tem Tony DeLuca assigned the bill to the Senate Administrative Services/Elections Committee, which certainly appears to be the correct committee, on June 8, 2011. It has sat there for almost a year now, even though three committee members, Senators Blevins, Marshall, and Sokola, support its release from committee. Katz has joined two Rethugs, Senators Booth and Lawson, in keeping HB 55 bottled up in committee.
During that year, advocates for the National Popular Vote movement have sought to get Katz to move on the bill with no success. Which led to what Katz considers political extortion, a perceived threat that an ad would be aired criticizing Katz’ intransigence on this bill. And, indeed, an ad has been created. From the ad copy:
In the ad, a man with a deep voice intones: “State Senator Mike Katz campaigned on a promise not to bottle up bills in committees. Now he’s blocking a bill guaranteeing the presidency to the candidate who get the most votes from going to the Senate floor.”
Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the truth? There is no distortion of Katz’ position here, it states it quite accurately. Katz, of course, has taken this as an example of the moneyed special interests in politics:
Katz, a Democrat who has represented the Greenville area since 2009, said he now considers the bill “corrupted” and won’t take any further action on it. He is reporting what he considers corrupt tactics to the Delaware Attorney General’s Office.“I don’t think the public realizes how special interests spend money to intimidate legislators,” said Katz, an anesthesiologist by profession. The popular-vote groups “have a profound misunderstanding of why I’m serving. I’m not going to be intimidated or coerced into doing something I don’t think is right.”
I call bullshit on Katz. You’ve sat on that bill for a year, you now merely have the pretext to do what you’ve been doing all along: nothing. ‘Special interests’? Uh, we’re not talking the Koch Brothers here despite Cris Barrish’s misleading inference of the National Popular Vote movement being formed in 2005 by ‘two millionaire businessmen’. Sure makes it sound sinister, doesn’t it? A little more information, Cris? This is a national popular movement, not something conjured up by those seeking to thwart democracy at every turn, like Turd Blossom and the Koch Brothers. So stop enabling Katz’ false equivalency. And $5000 for the ad? How is someone who has raised something like $200,000 supposed to counteract that?
Oh, and Senator Katz? While you’re stroking your chin and contemplating this “complex and fascinating issue” (your words), states across the country, including electoral behemoths Florida and Pennsylvania, are conjuring up ways to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters. And the only research you need to find that out is to read the papers. Oh, BTW, you claim that this issue “requires more research”. What, exactly, have you been doing for the past year while that bill sat in your committee? Apparently not doing research. You pointedly did not meet with proponents of this bill until the last couple of weeks, and then you turned that into an excuse to go all righteously indignant on its supporters. I don’t agree with their tactics, but I sure as hell can understand their frustration at such an alleged ‘progressive’ stonewalling progress with no reasonable explanation for the stonewalling.
So, please allow me to conclude this piece with an ad of my own. To make you feel at home, Senator, I’ll even plagiarize a portion of it from the ‘Katz Promised’ ad:
“State Senator Mike Katz campaigned on a promise not to bottle up bills in committees. Now he’s blocking a bill guaranteeing the presidency to the candidate who get the most votes from going to the Senate floor.”
“While Katz refuses to allow a vote on the National Popular Vote, states across this country are passing laws to disenfranchise voters and are trying to steal yet another presidential election through the Electoral College.”
“Call Senator Katz at (302) 577-8744, and politely ask him to honor the basic democratic principle of ‘one person, one vote’ by allowing HB 55 to be considered before the Senate.”