The Delaware General Assembly Redistricting Special Session
Lt. Gov. BHL has just reconvened the Senate.
Sen. Sokola has moved that SB 199, the legislative redistricting bill, be considered under suspension of rules.
Sokola: Retains the cores of all 21 Senate districts, 5 minority-majority districts, one Black majority districts.
Hocker: Will vote against bill b/c too much consideration is given to districts losing population. Of course, the maps aren’t drawn according to what someone projects the population will be, but what the population is. Sussex County is being dissed, according to Hocker. Boo-hoo.
Sokola: Deliberate undercount in poor districts, mostly in NCC, with some in western Sussex. Constitutionally required to draw districts based on numbers they were given.
Pettyjohn: Deviations: NCC: -2.8%. Sussex: +3-plus %. So? That’s what the +/- 5% allows. Cry me a river.
Sokola: Rethugs didn’t provide maps, so what’s their beef.
Richardson: Waaugh, we don’t have enough staff, blahblahblah. 24 majority staff, 9 minority staff.
Sokola: Majority staff has to staff committees and run the chamber, so of course there is more majority staff.
Roll call: 14Y, 7 N. Passed. Doesn’t pay to even pay lip service to the R’s. D’s should have screwed them more.
SCR 63-requests an advisory opinion from the Justices of the Delaware Supreme Court concerning legislative ability and obligations when it comes to considering the possible removal of the State Auditor and future issues that may arise.
Sen. Pettyjohn speaks against the resolution, citing ‘presumption of innocence’. ‘To start taking an action against someone who has just been accused of conduct’ is dangerous.
Sen. Lawson brings up, without mentioning his name, Darius Brown. Sokola: One has been indicted by a Grand Jury, one has not. Townsend: Only the Auditor’s issue relates to the issue being referred to the Supreme Court. The other (Brown) case is non-germane, and indeed is scheduled to be heard by the court on December 1.
Roll call: 14Y, 7 N. Not a single Rethug votes to have the Supreme Court weigh in on the appropriate process to even consider how to go about removing a corrupt state official. A Democratic state official, at that.
Oh, fuck. These Rethugs have introduced a resolution ‘condemning’ the violation of rights of parents when it comes to intimidating school board members. Bonini: ‘God Bless School Boards’. ‘Unfortunately, this might end up being a partisan vote.’ Ya think? We’re officially in waste-of-time mode now. Parents disrupting meetings (if they really are parents), insisting on going unmasked, threatening violence, and causing meetings to be canceled, aren’t engaging in free speech. They’re seeking to completely hijack the process.
Roll Call On SR 22: 7Y, 14 N.
Hocker announces he’s a new grandfather 14 times over now. Thankfully, the new one lives in Tennessee.
Senate has ended the Special Session. House due to convene at 2 pm.
Did I mention the House was to convene at 2? They were. Delay is probably just the normal cat-herding of getting members to the chamber…
Well, now it says the House Session is in progress, but still no live stream…
…And, we’re in at 3:17. Roll call. Gang’s all here.
Rep. Dorsey Walker goes heavy on Jee-zus during the prayer. Was that really necessary? Especially with at least one Muslim in the chamber?
Motion to suspend rules on SB 199, the omnibus redistricting bill.
Rep. Short: Seemed conciliatory. Asks what happens if there is some mess-up in the bill.
Rep. Schwartzkopf: Will be a clean-up bill if there are unintended issues, like inaccurate census block numbers.
Roll Call: 40 Y 1 N. Mike Smith voted no. He may still have Stephanie Barry in his district, I don’t know for sure.
House is in recess, awaiting a resolution (perhaps the Senate Concurrent Resolution on requesting a Supreme Court advisory?).
OK, I think I’m gonna call it a day here.
However, since redistricting is now over with, I think it’s time for my first Delaware (Sorta) Political Weekly of the election season. Hopefully tomorrow.
OK, I’m back. Instead of simply passing the SCR and seeking an opinion on how to possibly get rid of a corrupt official, the House did the following. From WDEL:
After a lengthy recess for caucusing, the House also passed a concurrent resolution, but it differed slightly from the Senate’s version. House Concurrent Resolution 42, which passed in the House in a vote 25-8, puts a deadline of December 17 for the state Supreme Court to give lawmakers an advisory opinion. The Delaware Supreme Court could deny the legislature’s request entirely. The House’s resolution also calls on the judiciary committees of both Houses to meet jointly, on or before Dec. 17, to determine a path forward, regardless of whether an advisory opinion is issued.
Six members of the House abstained from voting on HCR 42 while two were absent.
Those who voted “no” included Republican state Reps. Briggs-King, Dukes, Gray, Hensley, Morris, Postles, Short, and Shupe. Republican state Reps. Ramone, Smith, Smyck, Spiegelman, and Yearick joined Democratic House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf in abstaining. Republican state Reps. Collins and Vanderwende were absent.
Since the two Houses voted on slightly different measures, for now, no advisory opinion is being sought.A spokesman for the state Senate told WDEL that the Senate is considering reconvening in another special session to vote on HCR 42.
So. In practical terms, what the House did was to guarantee that no opinion would be sought following today’s session. Complete and utter bullshit.
Phew, Matt Bittle going off on Twitter. Are we sure he isn’t still reporting? LOL
Matt and Al could share the same decompression chamber…
Seriously, these Rethugs bring NOTHING to the table. Good thing is, with only seven of them, they can’t even be obstructionists.
BTW, more power to Matt. He had to pull his punches while reporting. He can now allow his Kafkaesque sense of alienation to flourish. There’s a lot about which to be alienated.
Without a doubt, the smarmiest aspect of the ‘parents’ rights’ resolution was Colin Bonini’s assertion that he crafted this as a ‘bipartisan’ bill. After all, what could be more bipartisan than this?:
” WHEREAS, on October 4, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland, sent a memorandum directing federal law enforcement to partner with state and local governments to address “threats of violence, and other forms of intimidation and harassment” of “school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff” in public schools; and
WHEREAS, the rhetoric expressed in the memorandum does not accurately reflect the reality of what is occurring nationally and in Delaware; and
WHEREAS, the national grassroots interest we are seeing by parents is to be commended and encouraged; and
WHEREAS, parents of children in school have the right to peacefully express their opinions about what is being taught in the classroom; and…”
Yo, Colin, we SEE the reality, and we know you’re lying about it.
Now, let’s see if the House Rethugs fashion a similar resolution. It’s a political stunt which, BTW, is likely to bear fruit in Virginia today.
Not widely known, but “Colin Bonini” is Italian for “fat useless clown.”
Is the House having technical difficulties?
Either technical difficulties…or difficulties. I have no idea whether they’re in session, or they haven’t convened. The site says ‘In Progress’, but I still also have the ‘House Session Beginning Soon’ message on what’s supposed to be the live feed.
Roman Battaglia said GOP Caucus
Only Republicans speak in support of the corrupt state auditor. How surprising.
There was an op ed in the Sunday News Journal by the Delaware Coalition for Open Government that pushed for an “independent, nonpartisan” Delaware Inspector General to basically do what the Auditor is supposed to be doing. That all sounds great until I think about how the IG would come into office – via appointment (? guess – no mention in the op ed). Where the current system runs the risk of the voters choosing a do-nothing political hack, having an IG appointed by the powers that be practically guarantees it.
Well, the Devil’s in the details. If Sokola is gonna be the primary sponsor, I at least have confidence that he intends to do the right thing. We could see legislation as early as January.
The op-ed pointed to Florida (!), where every state agency has an IG (all on the public payroll, of course) as a model. ‘Nuff said.