Just wait until the national media learns that Seaford’s “corporations can vote” plan also includes giving African Americans 3/5ths of a vote.
The state of Delaware is famously business-friendly. With more than 1.8 million entities registered in the First State, companies outnumber its human residents by nearly two-to-one.
One city is now moving to raise businesses’ influence in the state even further, with a proposal to grant them the right to vote.
Seaford, a town of about 8,000 on the Nanticoke River, amended its charter in April to allow businesses — including LLCs, corporations, trusts or partnerships — the right to vote in local elections. The law would go into effect once both houses of Delaware’s state legislature approve it.
The proposal has rekindled a debate over how much power corporations should have in local government, with fierce opposition from civic interest groups who say businesses already wield too much influence over politics.
“It was very shocking to see this attempt to have artificial entities have voting rights,” said Claire Snyder-Hall, executive director of Common Cause Delaware, a watchdog group.
I’m looking forward to Claire Snyder-Hall being interviewed on MSNBC.
Excellent small town government in action! Suggest a brisk round of third party audits for the politicians, born suspicious I’m thinking somebody got paid.
They want to embarrass the President and the Democratic Party. Democrat miss-leadership including the Governor should get their faces slapped with this bull shit. And the Black Caucus, have they forgotten “ONE MAN ONE VOTE”? If they vote for this shit sandwich, they will never be able to call themselves leaders of a marginal community. Just plain sellouts to Corporate interests and Democrats that adhere to PUBLIC – PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP. That’s John Carney’s M.O..
Don’t be mislead House and Senate, reject this stupid shit and save what’s left of your reputations. YOUR DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP HAS SOLD YOU OUT. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN. FIGHT BACK, VOTE NO! If you let this happen, YOUR DONE, FINISHED.
It hasn’t passed yet. Been pulled from the Agenda twice. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here…
I’d love to see Seaford residents vote on this proposal in a referendum. Have a hard time believing that actual living, breathing individuals (including Stone Age regressives) would really want LLCs voting in their town elections.
OTOH, imagine the possibilities after Rob Herrera transforms that Nylon Capital shopping center into an office park, and Rod Ward puts a Sussex branch of CSC in there, and dozens of Fortune 500 companies transfer their corporate address from Wilmington to Seaford …
Just thinkin’ out loud.
That’s what sucks the most about this–three people in the entire town created this proposed charter change w/o any way for residents to vote on it first.
In Arden, we can’t even SEND a Charter Change to the General Assembly w/o the Town voting on it in a referendum.
I guess this is what happens when a company town is abandoned by its company.
I wrote the mayor of Seaford on this and his response was effectively “It is OK because other Delaware municipalities have done it. Apalling whataboutism or ‘everyone does it ism”. This sickens me as a resident of the “first state”.
I don’t know why Val and Pete are struggling with this. Unless you are a corrupt fuckhead in the pocket of the chamber of commerce, It’s an easy no.
On second thought I know why Val and Pete are struggling with this.
Has anyone explained what it is that corporations would vote for that actual humans won’t? Because there must be some particular issue fueling this push, just as there was when McGuiness pushed it as a Rehoboth Beach commissioner.
But it’s local elections, so it’s not the what, it’s the who, as in who is the candidate that corporations would vote for that people wouldn’t vote for.
I’m struggling with this as much as everyone else is … the next logical step in this bizarro town’s logic would be putting an LLC on the ballot for the town council.
It shouldn’t be necessary, but I think it’s incumbent on one of the more progressive legislators to propose an amendment that restricts voting to resident natural persons. But that’s just me.
I’ve been informed by a friend and colleague that there’s already a such a bill sitting in the Admin committee https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=140507.
Let’s hope it actually goes somewhere
Couldn’t we all just register our own individual LLCs to a mailbox in Seaford, and then once we finish voting in our upstate districts, we could run down and vote in Seaford too? Or does the bill impose some kind pf means test on LLC voters?
I was wondering about that, because the rest of the state could make Seaford into the most liberal town (by their laws and town council) in the whole state.
Interesting that INVISTA took over the old DuPont plant in Seaford. INVISTA was bought by the Koch Industries in 2004. Seems like this bill would fit the Koch brothers political agenda. Just wondering…..