Matt Bittle of the Delaware State News recently did a story on the “Mostly True Blue State of Delaware,” that partly focused on the the legislative ideological rankings of the various party legislators, as judged by the Delaware Chapter of the American Democratic Association (ADA) and the American Conservative Union (ACU). The ADA picked 10 pieces of legislation which they deemed important pieces of progressive legislation. All of them are included in my list of legislation below. The ACU also picked several pieces of the same legislation, though their favored position was opposition.
In reading that Matt Bittle story, I felt inspired to compile our own Delaware Liberal Rankings of all of our lawmakers in Dover. From John Kowalko to Timothy Dukes. From Bryan Townsend to Colin Bonini.
I have primarily used the Delaware ADA’s list of priority progressive legislation from the past two legislative sessions (148th and 147th, covering the years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016) in order to judge each lawmaker’s actions regarding such legislation. Here is a list of the priority progressive legislation:
148th:
★ Senate Bill 39: Increase the Minimum Wage
★ Senate Bill 40: Repeal the Death Penalty
★ Senate Bill 59: Allow Driving Privilege Cards for Undocumented Immigrants
★ Senate Bill 83: Expand Definition of Domestic Violence to Include Dating Partnerships and Reduce Abusers’ Access to Guns
★ Senate Bill 111: Implement Same Day Voter Registration
★ Senate Bill 134: Strengthen Homelessness Discrimination Protections
★ House Bill 5: E-Cig Indoor Ban
★ House Bill 39: Decriminalize Marijuana
★ House Bill 42: Subject University of Delaware and Delaware State University to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
★ House Bill 50: Permit Opt Out of Certain Standardized Tests
★ House Bill 56: Wilmington Charter School Moratorium
★ House Bill 105: No Excuse Absentee Voting
★ House Bill 181: Add Tax Brackets for Those Earning $125,000 and $250,00 a Year
147th:
★ Senate Bill 6: Increase the Minimum Wage
★ Senate Bill 19: Repeal the Death Penalty
★ Senate Bill 33: Require Justification to Increase Rent of Manufactured Homes Above Inflation
★ Senate Bill 48: Create an Independent Redistricting Commission Subject to Public Meeting Laws
★ Senate Bill 97: Expand Non-Discrimination and Hate Crimes Laws to Include Gender Identity & Expression
★ House Bill 10: Restore Voting Rights to Delawareans Convicted of a Felony Who Have Completed Their Sentence
★ House Bill 20: Enable the Legislature to enact no-excuse absentee voting
★ House Bill 35: Expand the Background Check requirement to include firearms
not purchased from licensed dealers
★ House Bill 58: Ban large capacity magazines
★ House Bill 75: Extend civil marriage to same-sex couples
★ House Bill 105: Same Day Voter Registration
★ House Bill 167: Ban the Box / Fair Public Employee Criminal Record Screening
Standards
★ House Bill 371: Decriminalize Marijuana
Here is how we determine each lawmaker’s score on the progressive legislation. If they are the primary sponsor of a bill, they get 5 points. If they are an additional sponsor, they get 4 points. If they are a co-sponsor, they get 3 points. If they vote yes on a piece of legislation, they get 2 points. If they are absent or not voting during the vote, they get -1 points. And if they vote no, they get -2 points. The reason sponsorships are heavily rewarded because we want progressive legislators to be leaders in the Assembly and in their caucus, and we want them sponsoring and moving progressive legislation. And so if you do that, we want to reward that.
A couple of notes:
★ Kim Williams’ vote on SB 40 (Repeal Death Penalty) was a no vote, but that was a procedural vote so that the bill could be brought back later this session. Therefore, we are counting that vote as a yes vote for ranking purposes.
★ If a bill bounces back and forth between the House and Senate, only the final votes in each chamber will be counted.
★ A veto override vote will count, however. This applies to HB 50, the Opt Out Bill. The progressive vote was to pass the bill. And the progressive vote in the override vote was to override the veto.
★ If you vote no on a progressive bill just because you don’t think it is progressive enough, or because an amendment you wanted passed did not pass, it does not matter. A no vote on progressive priority legislation is a no vote, and it will be counted even if you are in favor of the policy. Voting against progressive policy because it is not progressive enough is not a progressive action. It is a purist action, and it hurts the cause, and thus it will be counted as any other no vote that hurts the cause. If you oppose this thinking, too bad. Don’t be a purist. Be a progressive that advances progressive policy, even if that advancement is incremental.
★ Some may complain about being docked a point for absences and “not voting.” The point here is to punish legislators who duck tough votes by not voting or being absent during a vote. And yes, having a conflict between a vote and another appointment is not a legitimate reason to skip the vote. There are those who are sincerely absent due to legitimate reasons, such as illness, as with Reps. Peterman and Bennett. But we cannot offer that excuse with no consequences because they everyone will say they are absent due to illness. Hey, life is sometimes unfair, what can I say.
Alright, enough of all that. In both the 147th and 148th sessions of the General Assembly, there were seven progressive bills that received votes from each chamber, meaning that a bare minimum score a progressive could get in each session is 14 (2 points for every yes vote, so 2*7=14). The higher your score, the more progressive you are. The lower, the more conservative.
So, a couple of thoughts:
★ The Progressive stars of the General Assembly are John Kowalko, Paul Baumbach, Margaret Rose Henry, Bryan Townsend and Helene Keeley. David Sokola and Karen Peterson were stars in the 147th, but they have fallen off in 148th. Perhaps when we revisit these rankings at the end of the session in July, they will have rejoined the others.
★ The vast majority of the Democratic Caucus have respective progressive numbers, which I consider to be scores between 15 and 45. As you can see, that is where 31 of the 62 members of the General Assembly are. Exactly half.
★ Another 7 members are in what I call the “Meh Zone,” or between 0 and 14. Here is where you find your moderate Republicans like Cathy Cloutier, Joe Miro and Mike Ramone and conservative Democrats like Ennis and Carson.
