Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 14, 2020

When Season One of our 2-session soap opera concluded, the cliff-dwellers  had left us with the following cliffhangers:

Will Dave McBride and Nicole Poore really get away with breaking their public promise to the people of Delaware to bring gun control bills to the Senate floor?

Will Dave McBride really prevent consideration of minimum wage legislation?

Will Our PAL Val Longhurst find a funding source to go with her unfunded water cleanup bill?

Will Trey Paradee restore whatever luster remains of his family name by seeking to undo the history of his having passed legislation that directly benefits his brother’s clients?

Will Darius Brown give back his campaign contributions from The Aviary of Evil That Is The Byrd Group, and instead defend his constituents against a super landfill in (soon-to-be) Stinkuadale?

Will John Carney be found to have a pulse?

We will begin to get answers, starting today. Courtesy of your defective detective, El Somnambulo.

Just like that, I’ve discovered a clue.  If you look at the ‘Recently Introduced’ legislative record, you will find SB 198 (Paradee). The bill rescinds the special interest legislation that Paradee sponsored that created a Kent County lodging tax and specified that the proceeds of the tax go directly to DE Turf, a regional sports complex represented by his brother John, an attorney.  You may also recall that Trey’s sister is one of Gov. Carney’s attorneys, and that the administration has refused to say whether she had any role in reviewing the bill. You may also recall that the ethically-bankrupt Nancy Cook tried to sneak funding for this private entity into the Bond Bill, but surprisingly, was rebuffed. Let’s uh, stop there for a second.

For those of you who are new to the blog, you need to know just who Nancy Cook was, and is.  She was a State Senator from the Dover area from 1974 until Dave Lawson defeated her in 2010. Her husband, Allen, had held the office for 16 years before his death and Nancy’s ascension. In other words the Senate seat was all in the family for 52 years.  This 2010 article from Doug Dennison should fill in some blanks. During her time in Dover, she was the single-most powerful official when it came to the budget.  To quote from Dennison’s piece:

Cook was known in Legislative Hall for her almost monarchical status as longtime co-chair of the budget-drafting Joint Finance Committee. As far as many were concerned, little got put into the state’s annual budget, or taken out, without Cook’s say-so.

In other words, every legislator was expected to grovel before her to get stuff in the budget. But that was then. What I want to know is: She’s been out of office for ten years now. How is it that she still has the run of the building and unfettered access to the Controller General’s office? And what was she doing sticking her nose into generating gobs of taxpayers’ money for a private, for-profit, firm? Hey, at least Colin Bonini has sort-of an excuse in funneling state dollars to the failing and flailing Wesley College. He’s still an elected public official and presumably accountable to the voters.  Nancy Cook is accountable to nobody and ten years past her legislative expiration date. It is long past time for the General Assembly to relegate her participation to that of any other private citizen.

BTW, if you buy it, ‘Trey’ has excused himself from blame by claiming that (a) he had no idea that his brother was involved in this; (b) he was doing Colin Bonini a favor since DE Turf is in Bonini’s district (even though it doesn’t appear that Bonini asked for the favor); (c) the media blew it all out of proportion anyway; and (d) he will never do it again.

Because this bill so blatantly exposed the ethical bankruptcy of the Delaware Way, Democratic leaders in both houses have gone on the bill as sponsors. As if we can’t see through their motives. BTW, you know who has escaped the approbation heaped on Paradee in all of this? Representative and co-sponsor Bill Bush, who doubles as Mark Brainard’s fixer in Leg. Hall.

Look for this bill to make it through the General Assembly by the end of the month, and for the Governor to sign it w/o comment.  Presumably, Trey’s sister will be kept away from the bill review process this time. Presumably.

In fact, the bill is scheduled for a committee hearing tomorrow. Vote on Thursday? It’s possible.

We may have yet a clue on another of our questions. In this case, though, the clue raises more questions. And suspicions.  HB 212(Cooke) will be considered in the Senate Executive Committee Wednesday.  This is the bill that would have capped the Minquadale landfill at 130 feet.  The bill passed the House on June 25.  It was then not assigned to a committee until December 19. And, inexplicably, it’s been assigned to the Senate Executive Committee instead of, say, the Natural Resources/Environmental Services Committee, which was the House Committee that considered it.  Let’s watch this one closely, folks. It is no secret that Byrd And Associates, who represent Waste Management, have been aggressively hit up for contributions by Dave McBride, and that they have come through. Big time. If this bill gets held up in the Executive Committee, we will all know why. Because, on the face of it, this bill has no business being in the Executive Committee, save for the fact that the President Pro-Tem has the authority to assign any bill to any committee he wants.

Are we having fun yet?  I know that I am. Seeya tomorrow. Same snark time, same snark channel.