Damn! I feel like Cathy Cloutier circa 2011. Gotta miss today’s vote. Off the radar screen, although I’ll be checking in from the road. This time, I think that Cathy Cloutier will be in the building, and that she will vote yes. In fact, I predict that both she and Bethany Hall-Long will do the right thing, which means that HB 75 will get 12 votes, and that marriage equality will become reality in Delaware. It should be a great day in Dover. Chamber and the gallery packed. Matt Denn presiding over the Senate in case he might have to cast the deciding vote. A lot of pent-up emotion. Hopefully to be followed by a joyful catharsis.
Sen. Blevins has cleared the decks by scheduling HB 75, and only HB 75, on today’s Senate agenda. You all know that Delaware Liberal is the place to go for continuing coverage of this historic debate. Maybe I’ll even chime in from someplace in Bumf-ck, Indiana, assuming that the internets have reached there. [Delaware Dem note: I will be setting up a Debate and Vote thread this afternoon].
Speaking of Cathy Cloutier, she seems to have embraced the good Cathy that many thought was there all along. Once again, she joined an 11-10 majority in helping to pass SB 16(Henry) last Thursday. SB 16 requires owners of lost or stolen handguns ‘to report such loss or theft within 48 hours seven days of discovery. Owners may report such loss or theft to the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction, or to any State Police Troop’. Of course, there was an amendment that weakens the bill. Not only does it extend the reporting requirement from 48 hours to seven days, it also ‘reduces the penalty for violations to fines for the first and second offenses. However, any third or subsequent offense would remain a class G felony’. So. You have guns ‘stolen’ twice, you fail to report it, and all you get is a fine. Uh, even if it wasn’t ‘stolen’, but was sold. Only when you get to the third failure to report is it considered a felony. So, of course, the bill is watered down, but it’s still a good step forward. And Cloutier was not afraid to cast the eleventh vote. Good for her.
The Senate also unanimously passed SB 51(Sokola), which , according to the bill’s synopsis:
…strengthens teacher preparation by raising the standards for entry into the teaching profession. More specifically, the bill requires all Delaware teacher preparation programs to set high admission and completion requirements, to provide high-quality student teaching experiences and ongoing evaluation of program participants, and to prepare prospective elementary school teachers in age-appropriate literacy and mathematics instruction. Further, the bill requires preparation programs to track and report data on the effectiveness of their programs. Finally, the bill requires new educators to pass both an approved content-readiness exam and performance assessment before receiving an initial license, and requires special education teachers to demonstrate content knowledge if they plan to teach in a secondary subject.
I know that the bill has strong detractors on this blog, and I admit to not being an educational expert (we sent our kids to private school at least in part b/c we were unwilling to wait until the State stopped experimenting with our kids by implementing whatever MBNA thought was best for them), but 21-0 says something. And I don’t think that it’s just that all 21 senators are ignoramuses (ignorami?) on this issue. Just sayin’.
Here’s the entire Session Activity Report from Thursday.
And here’s the House Agenda for today. Of particular interest is HB 13(Kowalko), which would ‘prohibit(s) a former member of the General Assembly from acting as a lobbyist for a period of one year after such person’s term of office ends. Any person who knowingly violates this section shall be guilty of an unclassified misdemeanor’.
Can I just state the obvious here? Anyone who votes against this bill is placing their own potential financial interest against the public interest. We’ll name names once the roll call is taken.
BTW, let’s all welcome Mark Brainard’s son to the House staff. I’m sure that Lonnie George had nothing to do with that. (BTW, I’m not making this up.) When you see how stuff like this is wired, you just despair that the Delaware Way can ever be reformed. Which leads to only one result: Corrupt Mediocrity. Which, not coincidentally, is where Del-Tech is headed.
Me? I’m headed to Indiana, where mediocrity reigns supreme. I should feel right at home.