Guess Speaker Pete decided that Sunday afternoon was a good time to release the House Committee assignments. As if we wouldn’t notice. The short story: This is decidedly the handiwork of Pete Schwartzkopf, with his police pals and his hangers-on getting plum assignments.
You can check out the assignments here. Just click on each committee to view the full membership.
We might as well get the most ridiculous assignment out of the way first. Newly assigned to the Agriculture Committee is–Sherry Dorsey Walker, who made the mistake of clobbering Park City Kathy in that LG race two years ago. I understand that most of the agricultural areas are represented by R’s. But he didn’t make this assignment by accident. Pretty much anybody else would have made more sense than Walker for this spot. Leadership is nothing if not vindictive.
Oh, and when it comes to rewarding cronies, the Appropriations Committee is another case in point. I have no problem with either Q. Johnson or Earl Jaques. They, at least, are capable of independent thought. The other two D’s? How about self-dealer Stephanie Bolden and terminally-dumb Lumpy Carson? Keep in mind that this is an important committee. The membership of this committee is also the House membership for the Joint Finance Committee. They write the budget. Thankfully, someone else does the writing, so it’s not in crayon.
The committee that was created specifically to serve as a launching pad for the political fortunes of Bryon Short (insert implosion jokes here) is still there, and is basically a committee that will once again be under the thumb of the Chamber of Commerce. The, wait for it, “Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce” Committee, aka The Business Lapdog Committee, is once again dominated by D’s who have voted against minimum wage increases and for the privatization of handouts to business. We’re talking Quin Johnson and Andria Bennett, Del-Tech’s new ‘rabbi’ Bill Bush, and Ray Seigfried, who made his bones with Christiana Health Care. Not to mention, the jury is still out on Krista Griffith. The best we can hope for? That not many bills find their way into this committee. That is a false hope. There is no excuse to have a House committee with this much authority so subject to the whims of the business interests. At least not while D’s control the House Chamber. This committee should be broken up.
The House Veterans Committee of course remains a joke, with 27 out of 41 reps assigned to the committee. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that every freshman rep is on the committee, all the better to collect political chits for their first reelection campaigns.
It’s not all bad. I like the composition of the House Education Committee, even with Earl Jaques as chair. I was concerned that Ray Seigfried, who has a lot of connections to the charter school network, would be placed on the committee. But he wasn’t, and the committee looks reasonably friendly to the needs of public schools and their students.
I like the Capital Infrastructure (Bond Bill) Committee assignments. Others that I like include Health and Human Development, Housing & Community Affairs, and sorta Judiciary, although I have concerns about both Bill Bush and Franklin Cooke ( yet another ex-cop) on the committee.
I have real concerns about the Corrections Committee. I think Melissa Minor-Brown will be an asset as chair. But, again, we’ve got Ol’ Lump (I know, I know, Vaughn Correctional is in his district, how’s that working out so far?), two ex-cops, and Gerald Brady, who doesn’t exactly add any candlepower to what should be a very pro-active committee.
These are my first takes on the assignments. What do you think?