General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 16, 2020

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on January 16, 2020

OK, everybody, take a deep cleansing breath. I’ll take one too. Aaaaaahhhh…

You can turn off the alarms: The 2020 Delaware non-presidential primaries will not be held in April. They can’t be held in April. As required by law, the State Board Of Elections long ago posted the official calendar for elections for this cycle. In fact, I don’t believe that even the 2022 primary elections could be held in April.

The source for all this agita is the appearance of HB 41 (Bolden) on today’s Senate Aganda. The bill would move Delaware’s statewide primaries from September to April.  It’s true that the bill had disappeared below the surface for some time.  I suspect that the push for the bill came from the state parties so that they could save $$’s by combining the state primaries with the presidential primaries. I disagree because I believe that the result of this change will be to discourage insurgent campaigns.  Challengers would have to knock doors during the winter months to have any chance of knocking off a well-heeled opponent. 

It’s unlikely that this change could even take effect in 2022.  Why? Because we have redistricting that will impact every state, county and local district in Delaware. The General Assembly can’t even begin that process until the Census results are received. The goal would generally be to have new maps approved by the end of the 2021 legislative session.  That, however, doesn’t change the process.  Counties and municipalities must then draw their own lines, and generally try to conform them to lines drawn by the General Assembly.  Whenever the process is concluded, which assumes no delays, no lawsuits and the like, I doubt that there would be sufficient time for the Department of Elections to allow for primaries in April of 2022.

Which is why SA1/HB 41 (McBride)  changes the effective date of the legislation to January of 2024.

While it’s impossible to determine whether pressure from our blog and community activists helped accomplish this, legislation capping that Minquadale landfill is on today’s Senate Agenda.  #1 in fact.  It should pass handily. The key was getting it out of McBride’s Executive Committee. While there may be a few stray Rethug defectors, HB 212 should be on its way to the Governor shortly.  Certainly McBride will dare not vote against it. Since the governor has been, at best, a passive supporter of environmental racism, it’s not a done deal until he signs it. We’ll be watching.

Trey Paradee’s ‘Mea Culpa Tour’ moves one step closer to its final performance, as SB 212 undoes the sweetheart deal he engineered between Kent County and one of his brother’s clients, DE Turf, back in June.  His deflection of responsibility reminds me of this lyric that we all know:  “Blame it on Cain, don’t blame it on me.”  One question lingers for me: What did co-sponsor Bill Bush know, and to what extent was he involved in this?  He arrived in the General Assembly as a fully-formed Good Ol’ Boy, so I think he deserves blame right along with the Paradee Bros and Queen Nancy.  You can say what you want about Sussex County, but the Kent County old guard is the absolute worst that the Democratic Party keeps serving up.  Hopefully, Kerri Harris and Sean Lynn are working to remove the rot from the foundation.

Little to spike my interest on today’s House Agenda.  Although…isn’t this bill arriving a little late in the day? We have special license plates for everything, but not this?  Strange.  At least it’ll help alert us as to which motorists we should give a wide berth…

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  1. Alby says:

    A special license plate for WWII vets? Why, to milk a few extra bucks out of a few geezers in their 90s? Disgraceful pandering that will end up costing the state more than it brings in.

    Special brickbats for the sponsor, Sneaky Pete.

  2. BTW, the virtual sole proprietor of the near-moribund site claims that McBride introduced the amendment making the effective date for the primary bill January of 2024 b/c of his ‘panties-in-a-bunch’ panic post.

    Which ignores, as I pointed out, that the bill COULDN’T have taken effect this year. When the bill was first introduced early in 2018, it could maybe have worked. But I had spoken to party officials, and supporters of the bill knew that the effective date would need to be changed.

    Isn’t the anti-Bernie Bro who runs that site a corporate lawyer? Who, BTW, defends the powerful against class action plaintiffs? You’d think he’d know the law.

    • RE Vanella says:

      Oh, I like this content.

    • Delaware Dem says:

      I have better sources in Dover than you do. Mine are alive.

      • Oh. Then how did you get this so wrong, then?

        You didn’t talk to ANYBODY who knew that bill was gonna be amended? I mean, months ago?

        Guess I’ll have to check–maybe my sources have died since then…

        • Delaware Dem says:

          I didn’t. If you are right, then why haven’t they run the bill today? If they always intended to place the amendment with the bill, why wasn’t that amendment introduced at any point between June 30 and literally 11 pm last night? They got caught trying to pull a fast one, and I have it on good authority from multiple sources that the amendment was introduced in response to the article last night. But go ahead, EL Som, the supposed superior pure progressive, defend Dave McBride and Nicole Poore.

          • Because the bill was on the very bottom of the agenda. If you follow the General Assembly, you know that bills on the very bottom of the agenda are the, um, last ones to be worked. If they’re worked at all.

            The bill had a committee hearing yesterday. At that point, it made sense that a bill amending the effective date was gonna be needed. Something that was not yet needed when the House passed the bill eons ago.

            It was literally IMPOSSIBLE that the bill could have been considered unamended, because the Department of Elections had long ago established the Elections calendar for this year. I wrote that last night w/o even knowing about the amendment.

            Oh, and there could well be another reason why the bill hasn’t been run–maybe there are more senators opposed to it for the reasons why I’m opposed to it.

            ‘Good authority from multiple sources’. Ha. Ha ha. But, then again you now paint me as the ‘supposed superior pure progressive’ who is defending Dave McBride and Nicole Poore.

            Right. And I’m a Bernie Bro too. And a corporate shill lawyer.

            There’s a reason why you don’t write here anymore, and why we’re happy that you don’t write here anymore.

            You just laid it all out there. Go back to your e-basement. Unless you enjoy further de-basement.

  3. BTW, didja see that the Green Room will be renamed Le Cavalier at the Green Room? THAT’ll expand their appeal beyond the dowager set. To be fair, the guy from Buccini/Pollin saw Caesar Rodney on the horse and immediately thought of that haughty French description for the restaurant.

    Me? I think ‘Manure’ scans better.

  4. Mediawatch says:

    Would have preferred La Salle Verte de Chemours