‘Kinder Gentler’ Pete Revealed As The Same Old Lying Asshole
Isn’t today an official State Holiday? Doesn’t matter. Speaker Pete chose today to release the committee assignments. They are, um, horrible. You’ll need to click on the PDF link in the article to see all of them. Lowlights abound.
Bottom line–only two committees have what could be considered progressive chairs: Rep. Lynn for Judiciary, Rep. Baumbach for Revenue & Finance. Revenue & Finance is a decidedly minor committee. Those are the only two committees that don’t have Pete/Val loyalists chairing them.
Lumpy Carson is JFC Co-chair, and chairs Appropriations. Stephanie Bolden is on both committees. Meaning, along with the R’s, that Delaware Way hacks control what happens there.
Deb Heffernan co-chairs the Bond Committee. With Reps. Bush and Matthews also on the committee, it means that Delaware Way hacks control what happens there.
Nnamdi and Rep. Cooke co-chair Corrections. And just to be safe, Speaker Pete put Bill Bush on the committee. Meaning, you guessed it, Delaware Way hacks control what happens there. Which will not include any police reform.
As if Ol’ Lump doesn’t have enough in his glass on his plate, he now co-chairs the Business Lapdog Committee along with Bill Bush. Meaning (cut and paste). Once House leadership becomes more progressive, this committee, which was the brainchild of Bryon Short, who now sits on the NCC Chamber Board of Directors, should be eliminated. I mean, a committee exclusively devoted to pushing the Chamber agenda? No thank you.
Check out the Gaming & Parimutuels Committee. Stephanie Bolden chairs that one, along with, wait for it, Bill Bush. I don’t need to be redundant, but feel free to add the tagline right here.
Nnamdi and Ol’ Lump co-chair Veterans’ Affairs.
Rep. Heffernan is back to deep-six environmental legislation as Chair of Natural Resources & Energy.
Our PAL Val of course will chair House Administration, Ethics (no, really), and Rules.
By my count, Ol’ Lump has assignments on 7 committees, including 4 where he is either chair or co-chair.
Let’s be clear: These assignments are a ‘Fuck You’ not only to progressive members of the Caucus, but to the Senate Democratic Caucus, and a whole lot of Delawareans who believe in positive change.
To be clear: Speaker Pete’s committee assignments are blatantly anti-progressive. Blatantly anti-progressive legislators as well.
Congrats to all those who voted for this leadership team. You got what you deserve.
This is actually worse than the last session’s Committee assignments—the number of people without chairmanships has *increased*.
That said, I’m skeptical of your counting Sean Lynn as a progressive but not Mimi Minor-Brown or Kim Williams. They’ve maybe not been as bold endorsements-wise as Lynn has been (especially with backing Kerri Evelyn Harris over Carper in 2018), but they’ve both spearheaded things that actually required political imagination—a sorely lacking in our state.
Didja check out Kim Williams on assault weapons?
You could be right on Mimi Minor-Brown. However–she publicly (as on Youtube) endorsed Dave McBride against Marie Pinkney. And she has now inherited the Ft. DuPont boondoggle from Our PAL Val post-redistricting.
Did either of them campaign on behalf of progressive challengers last year?
I’m glad that they take progressive stands on certain issues. And I don’t expect everybody to march in lockstep on every bill. However, both have been around for awhile, and the jury is still out at best.
I’m not sure if Mimi Minor-Brown publicly campaigned for any progressive challengers this year. But she definitely worked behind the scenes for at least one who shall remain nameless. I don’t agree with every position she’s ever taken, but I’d hardly call her a Pete loyalist, especially when she campaigned for Madinah Wilson-Anton while Speaker Pete did the same for her rabid right-wing challenger. While I recognize her support of Madinah and Eric Morrison isn’t as significant as supporting those actually challenging her colleagues (as Eric and Madinah both did, to their enormous credit), it’s still as far as I can tell more than Sean Lynn has done over the last cycle to further the progressive cause in Delaware. To be clear, I’m not anti-Sean Lynn–far from it. I just want to give Mimi Minor-Brown her credit if Sean Lynn is getting some is all.
As far as Kim Williams, you may be right about the assault weapons thing. But there are plenty of progressives who aren’t as anti-gun as you might expect. There’s a very famous example from Vermont who we can all think of, for instance.
Not necessarily disagreeing with you. Probably still too hung up on her support for Dave McBride over Marie Pinkney. That really pissed me off. It’s not like she HAD to do that.
I’ll be fascinated to see whether she runs interference for the Ft. DuPont project as Val did. It’s now in Mimi’s district. I, for one, will be watching.
I remain skeptical, but hopeful. After all, she could possibly be a decent compromise Speaker a couple of years from now.
Complicated is an overused description but it absolutely fits Mimi in my view. I worked with her at a now defunct large social service agency and I know firsthand that she is a dedicated caring nurse. I am aware of the Marie opposition but I observe a warm collegial relationship there now. I have a small window into Mimi as a person and she meets and exceeds my personal most important test, she is a good human!
Do you have any sense that a leadership change is just one or two seats away? Or does a more progressive caucus continue to recede on the horizon as we approach it?
Are Pete and Val simply too good at the game and the progressives are just a bunch of suckers?
Pete ‘n Val are too good at the game in the sense that they’ve turned the Caucus, with a few exceptions, into the Stockholm Syndrome Caucus.
I was told that, had Frank Burns and Shane won, there would have been enough votes for a leadership change. In terms of identifying who to challenge in 2024, the people who Speaker Pete rewarded comprise inviting targets: Carson, Bush, Nnamdi, Cooke, Matthews, Heffernan, Bolden and Longhurst. Assuming, of course, that Pete follows through on his promise to retire. Otherwise, he must be challenged as well. We also need a Burns rematch with Ramone–AND a challenger to Mike Smith.
One of the problems is that there hasn’t been a clear credible candidate for progressives to rally around. From what I’ve heard, Paul Baumbach doesn’t, didn’t, work hard enough at it.
I cosign this analysis. with all due respect (0) Baumbach seems to have attended the Kevin McCarthy school of leadership skills:)
Translation it’s the same old, same old for what passes for “good government” in Delaware. And that money buys what ever the corporations need or want for the moment.
Aieeee! It is de same old sh*t yet again! Change will be generational here. Take heart, the old trash is dying, and it is a glorious thing.
what will be interesting to see is how many committee meetings and votes all these asshats make it to
Melissa is great.
No one lets sick inmates suffer in the Department of Prisons like her.
As far as I can tell, she hasnt done anything to help the $%^#ed up prison health care system as Chair of the Prison Committee.