The Del Legislature isn’t now more liberal, it is simply more in line with the voters (who are now more liberal)

Filed in National by on March 24, 2019

Whatever you do, don’t acknowledge that liberal policies are popular with voters.

DOVER — Bolstered by an election that saw them gain seats in both chambers of the General Assembly and capture every statewide seat for the first time since the 1800s, Delaware Democrats are flexing their muscles.

Democratic lawmakers are making good on campaign promises and pushing a variety of initiatives important to their base. So far this year, legislators have introduced or pledged to introduce bills that would expand voting access, reform the criminal justice system, raise the age to buy tobacco products, create stricter gun control and legalize marijuana.

Predictably, Democrats and Republicans differ on how they view those efforts.

Some see this as a sign of the party’s more liberal wing (also known as the progressive contingent) getting a greater say in the party’s direction and shifting it to the left, while others view it simply as an attempt to pass legislation popular with the majority of Delawareans regardless of political affiliation.

Senate Majority Whip Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, rejected the description of the aforementioned measures as primarily Democratic ones.

“Voters want to see these kinds of policies, these kinds of laws. They want to see solutions,” he said.

“Voters are voting for people — on either side of the aisle — that actually want to use the tools of government to make peoples’ lives better, and that can look very different at different times depending on the issue, but if you have a party of no, a radical party on one side, voters have clearly shown at least in Delaware they don’t have much tolerance for that.”

House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, has a similar stance.

“The bottom line is whenever anybody’s in the majority they always run bills that are important to them, and we try not to go partisan any more than we have to or make anything a partisan vote,” he said.

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Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

Comments (6)

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  1. jason330 says:

    FWIW, I’m not bothered by Townsend’s refusal to be baited into debating the shallow “us v them” controversy Matt Biddle it trying to gin (jin?) up here.

    Why bother engaging in such a dumb, lazy premise? A less dumb, less, lazy premise might have been. “The Delaware electorate has clearly called for more progressive policies – how are the parties reacting?”

  2. jason330 says:

    And if Townsend is right, and party labels don’t matter as voters trend toward “very pragmatic… Let’s develop solutions. Let’s get things done” then John Carney is a dead man walking in a primary because is the biggest pile of “Let’s NOT develop solutions. Let’s NOT get things done” Delaware has ever seen.

  3. Bull crap says:

    I call BS.

    The Ds have more seats at the table, but the mere fact that a D comes after ones name does not imply “liberal”.

    The premise of Bittles argument is simply wrong. There is no leftward shift, but instead candidates now put Ds after their names to get elected, who truly aren’t believers in the party platforms

    As a result, are seeing varying degrees of ideology within the D caucuses – not any shift to the left, but instead a smattering of hard core conservatives masquerading as democrats.

    In the House, for example, you have:

    Bill Carson – not a liberal by any stretch

    William Bush – have you seen his voting record thus far? No to manufactured housing, no to the popular vote, no to gun bills and word is he killed the minimum wage bill. In recent memory, no GA D candidate has so duped the volunteers (and voters) who helped get him elected

    Andrea Bennett – again, not a D

    Newcomers such as Krista Griffin are also straddling that conservative line

    In the Senate:

    William Paradee – anti gay marriage, anti transgender, pro death penalty, pro guns

    Thank god for sturgeon and lockman – perhaps the only real indicators of a leftward shift. But that’s it.

    Remind me again how we are sliding left?

    The GA can’t get minimum wage passed, gun bills passed, reassessment or any other slew of real liberal legislation.

    I call BS

  4. Common sense gun laws says:

    Will Seigfried vote against HB63?

    • That is a good question. As problematic as Bryon Short was as a Chamber lackey, you could always count on him to do the right thing when it came to bills like this.

      I’ve spoken to Ray about this bill, and he seems more influenced by some guy he spoke with at the hardware store than he is by the vast majority of his constituents who support common sense gun reform.

      We’ll just have to see. If he keeps up like this, he’ll likely be a one-termer.