The General Assembly is in recess until April 16. But since our last Vote Tracker update on March 22, there has been some action on our bills of interest. Namely, the Hazel Plant Felon Vote Restoration Act has made it out of the Senate Executive Committee and will likely be voted on by the Senate after the recess. The three Revenue bills (HB 50, 51, and 52) that made permanent the tax raises from 2009 passed along party lines in the House and Senate and were signed by Governor Markell on March 28. SB 19, the Death Penalty Repeal, passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 11-10. Check out who voted yes and no on the chart below, it is quite surprising.
On April 3, HB 58, the Large Magazine Ban component of the Gun Control package, was tabled in the House Administration Committee for further review. Meanwhile, Senator Marshall didn’t do his homework and had a first draft of SB 37 filed without proofing it. It seems it had a provision in there that could be read to establish a gun registration by requiring owners of assault weapons purchased before the effective date of the legislation to provide proof of ownership to the Delaware State Police within 120 days of the effective date of the act. The bill was immediately stricken before the NRA outrage machine could be brought to bear. Here is the thing about banning assault weapons. When you ban them, you ban them. You don’t let people keep them through a grandfather clause. So if you want to ban these assault weapons because no one should own them, then no one should own them. Make it a crime to possess them.
If you do that, you don’t get in trouble with clauses that might or might not establish a gun registration.
Some notes on the chart:
Keep in mind that this chart does not follow all the legislation that has been filed. We don’t report on perfunctory bills like the ones about the charter of Georgetown or ticket scalping. Nor do we follow the progress of judicial nominations, executive nominations, or Concurrent or Joint Resolution unless they are a matter of controversy. So the legislation that is listed is a matter of concern and priority for those of us on the liberal / progressive side of the aisle.
A few notes as to the logos and colors on the chart. If you see a PDD logo, that legislation is a priority to the Progressive Democrats for Delaware. And if the legislator’s names are colored blue, they are Democrats. If they are colored red, they are Republicans. At the bottom of the chart, you will see a list of PDD-endorsed legislators, so you follow how they voted. Also, if you want to download this Vote Tracker chart, at the very bottom you will see a black bar with a Microsoft Excel logo on the right. Click on it and you will be able to download the chart into the Excel format.
