Sen. Patti Blevins: 1 NRA Lobbyist: 0.
That’s the result of one of the more unusual confrontations in recent Delaware legislative history. Unusual because it’s so not ‘Delaware Way’. And unusual because someone called out the NRA for lying. Also unusual because both Blevins and the lobbyist in question, Rich Armitage, do not generally court controversy. And most unusual in that the President Pro-Tem stated that Armitage “could have faced felony charges for his allegedly false testimony about closed door negotiations involving the gun rights group and the Attorney General’s office over language regarding the marketing of firearm safety programs.”
Here’s what happened. In typical NRA fashion, Armitage tried and succeeded in bullying (and misleading) legislators into exempting “the marketing of weapons and ammunition” from a bill designed to protect children from online predatory marketing practices. The amendment squeaked through with an 11 Y, 9 N vote. According to Jon Offredo’s story (linked above) Armitage contended that the bill would make it impossible for the NRA to offer gun safety courses. Blevins maintained that what Armitage said was directly contradictory to what the AG’s office said the bill would do, and that Armitage knew this when he allegedly testified before the Senate. Here’s what AG Matt Denn said:
After the hearing, Denn said the bill doesn’t prohibit the marketing of firearm training programs. “That’s not what the bill does and it’s not what the bill is intended to do,” Denn said.
Nevertheless, Blevins was (rightly) furious. Armitage was a party to the negotiations (as was Blevins), and knew damn right well that the bill did not threaten safety programs. Blevins tabled the bill, and brought it back after ‘several hours’. This time with an amendment that struck the amendment that Armitage had pushed through. The senators who had supported the NRA amendment who now switched to support Blevins’ amendment were: Ennis and McBride. Sen. Bethany Hall Long, who was absent for the first vote, also supported the Blevins amendment, which passed.
At which point, the bill itself passed by a 15-4 vote.
Rich (John) Armitage has been around for a long time. He was one of the top lobbyists for the University of Delaware for many years. He’s an inside player as opposed to his predecessor and maimed pigeon killer, John Sigler. His current clients are the NRA and the City of Newark. Stuff like this doesn’t happen often. I think it should happen more often. Lobbyists mislead all the time. And the line between ‘misleading’ and ‘lying’ is usually blurred, if not non-existent. Armitage crossed that line, Blevins called him on it, and got what appears to be a good piece of legislation passed. Good for her.
Pot decriminalization is now the law in Delaware. Surrounded by members of the Marley family, Gov. Markell donned some dreds and signed HB 39 into law, just minutes after the bill passed the Senate, then led the crowd in a sing-along, which he dedicated to, of all people, Jeff Christopher. Some of the preceding sentence is true.
A real good right to privacy bill passed the Senate unanimously, and returns to the House for a final vote. It already passed the House previously, but will be reconsidered b/c a Senate amendment was added to the bill. No problem. It’ll be on the Governor’s desk shortly. Here’s what it does:
Under current Delaware law there is no recognized right to privacy in an employee or applicant’s social networking site passwords and account information. This Bill makes it unlawful for employers, subject to certain exceptions, (i) to mandate that an employee or applicant disclose password or account information that would grant the employer access the employee or applicant’s personal social networking profile or account, or (ii) to require or request that employees or applicants log onto their respective social networking site profiles or accounts to provide the employer direct access.
The House passed SB 122(Henry), which gives ‘ the State Board of Education the authority to change school district boundaries in New Castle County in a manner consistent with the final report of the Wilmington Education Advisory Group’. The bill heads to the Governor for his signature. Mike M, Pandora, KO, et al, what should happen next?
Here’s the complete session activity report for Thursday.
Let’s look at the Senate Ag…Stop the e-presses! Kiddies, I want you to scroll down to the final item on that Agenda. Now, I want you to click on this link to SB 137(McDowell). For those lacking the capacity to click, here’s the synopsis:
Delaware’s Community College System plays a critical role in the State’s economy by providing workforce development and transfer education that connects Delawareans with good paying jobs within the State and region. This Act gives the College’s Board of Trustees the authority to issue bonds to finance the cost of major and minor capital improvements, deferred maintenance, and the acquisition of related equipment and educational technology associated therewith and establishes the Community College Infrastructure Fund to pay the principal and interest on such bonds. This Act adopts the county vo-tech structure to finance the Fund by authorizing the College’s Board of Trustees to collect a local property tax subject to a cap.
Anyone questioning why Lonnie George chose Mark Brainard as his preferred successor can stop asking. Now, kids, I want you to try to wrap your heads around this: The same General Assembly that can’t/won’t find revenues on its own to pay for an adequate infrastructure program for our roads HAS NO PROBLEM granting to the unelected (h/t to Chipman Flowers) Board of Trustees of Del-Tech the right to impose a tax on all homeowners?? W/O referendum or any say-so on our part? Oh, and the bill’s on the Agenda even though it’s still in committee? Oh, and no notice has been posted of a committee hearing? I guess there’s only one more question to ask: Did Mark Brainard scrawl ‘Make it happen’ on the legislative drafts he circulated to the Honorables? Del-Tech, for all the good the institution does, is a cesspool of inbreeding, nepotism, political cronyism and easy corruption. I am dismayed that so many of my favorite legislators are on this bill as sponsors. Which leads me to a Reader Challenge: Anyone with information about legislator tie-ins to Del-Tech, please send us that tip on our tip line. We will track down each and every one, and post them, once confirmed. Maybe the ‘Honorables’ can be shamed into not doing the wrong thing.
Sen. Townsend’s SB 59, which provides a ‘means for an undocumented immigrant to apply for and obtain valid driving privileges in the State of Delaware’, is also on the lengthy agenda.
Today’s House Agenda features the gray fox bill and the opt-out bill, both back from the Senate with amendments attached. The gray fox bill will pass, the opt-out bill will pass unless the prime sponsor doesn’t allow it to be considered. I hope he does run the bill. Passage of the bill reflects an institutional repudiation of Markell’s approach to public education. Who even cares if he vetoes it? The repudiation still stands. That’s why it should be passed.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a look at the final full schedule of committee meetings for the session. And I’ll be on the Al Show today at 10 am to discuss this and lots more.