DL Open Thread: Saturday, June 26, 2021

Keep This Bill Dead And Buried.  When the bill passed the House quite awhile ago, I thought it was a done deal in the Senate.  Thankfully, it’s languished in the Senate, where it should remain. We’re talking about moving the primary to April:

The end-of-summer primary is uniquely Delaware and uniquely effective. Titans have been toppled, careers launched, and louts evicted from office after upstarts have spent the warm weather collecting supporters and making their cases. Some legislators have complained that primaries can rob them of vacation time. (No wonder that Stephanie Bolden, who ranks #1 on my list of Most Narcissistic Legislators, sponsored this bill.) Careful lawmakers know that the threat of a primary helps them keep focus.

Powerful legislators have been removed in late-summer primaries. Last year’s Senate president pro tempore, Bear Democrat David McBride, came to the General Assembly by unseating Robert Byrd in a 1978 primary. McBride was defeated in a 2020 primary by Marie Pinkney, in a masterful grassroots campaign that could hardly have been replicated in March.

Another rising star, Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, earned his ticket to the Senate by ousting a previous president pro tempore, Tony DeLuca, in a 2012 primary campaign that drew on the people power that becomes available during summer break but is scarce when the snow is melting.

A September primary lets voters see a lawmaker’s complete scorecard. Any controversial votes or late-night deals at the end of the session are known to the public. When the filing deadline is in July, a lawmaker can’t duck accountability for votes in June. If the primary were shifted to the early spring, special interests could nudge wavering legislators into votes they could not justify in a spirited primary two months later. The late primary protects the public interest.

Even more insidiously, the pending bill would move the filing deadline for a candidate to February — before almost any action has begun in the session. Challengers would have to canvass on icy sidewalks.

Add to this that (a) there’s no good justification, other than saving some paltry dollars if/when there’s a competitive Presidential primary, which there rarely is; and (b) candidates could drop out after the February filing deadline, meaning that the voters in the district could not determine the candidate (it would be done by the committee). The bill is anti-democratic/pro-incumbent.

Yep, The Surfside Condo Collapse Was Foreseeable, And Foreseen:

At the ground level of the complex, vehicles can drive in next to a pool deck where residents would lounge in the sun. Mr. Morabito in 2018 said that the waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive was failing, “causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.”

The report added that “failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.” The problem, he said, was that the waterproofing was laid flat, not sloped in a way that would allow water to run off, an issue he called a “major error” in the original design. The replacement would be “extremely expensive,” he warned, and cause a major disturbance to residents.

Voter Fraud In Ohio! One Rethug official voted twice.  Since they do it, they assume that everybody else does it.  Or at least claim that everybody does it.  At least most Ohio R’s are skipping Trump’s ‘rally’ in Wellington today. Wellington? Didn’t know there was a Wellington, OH. Trump’s headed out there to try to exact revenge on a US Rep. who voted for his impeachment. Sad.

Unprecedented Heat Wave In Pacific Northwest.  Meaning, from this point forward, it’s no longer unprecedented.  Not a whole lot of AC units in the Pacific Northwest.

NCC Considering How To Use American Rescue Plan Funds.  You can provide input here.

Pity Party By Dover Rethugs.  They push extreme legislation, decry the absence of ‘bipartisanship’ in Delaware. When, in fact, their extremism is the reason there is less bipartisanship in Dover. Uh, not that I lament the absence of bipartisanship.  Here’s how they forced bipartisanship on Delaware back in 2018:

They wielded that power in 2018 when protesting a Democratic measure to increase the minimum wage by $1. In protest, they blocked the bond bill — the state’s annual, colossal infrastructure spending bill — for four hours on the final day of the session, stretching negotiations into the early hours of the morning.

Democrats were forced to compromise by creating a law that allows employers to pay young workers and new hires 50 cents less than the minimum wage.

Two weeks ago, when the General Assembly voted to repeal that now-3-year-old law, Republicans warned they still have enough power to hold those spending bills hostage.

“That same negotiation will take place because you’re going to need our votes before the end of June,” Senate Minority Leader Gerald Hocker said.

That sums it up. To Rethugs, ‘bipartisanship’ means taking money away from young workers.  I wonder what, if any, concessions, the D’s will throw their way in exchange to pass the ‘super-majority’ Bond Bill.  Alby is right: Fuck all this supermajority stuff.  Find a way to do it. Then do it.

What do you want to talk about?