General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Wednesday, March 23, 2022

False advertising.  At least for the most part.  I couldn’t shut off my brain following what happened with LEOBOR Reform yesterday.  I’m not sure my thoughts will make any more sense as I write them down, but I’m gonna try.  In one inexplicable regard, what Tizzy Lockman did yesterday is unprecedented when it comes to my years in the General Assembly.  Political self-immolation.

But, first, some brief legislative updates.  Here are today’s Committee meeting schedules.  House. Senate.  If things go as I hope they will, and if SS1/SB 101 is finally released from Stephanie Bolden’s evil clutches, it will give me great joy to send shout-outs to Speaker Pete and to Bud Freel.

I also thought you’d be fascinated by this fantastic ‘Inside Baseball’ story from Larry Nagengast.  It pertains to two Charter school bills bring considered in today’s House Education Committee.  My big takeaway:  This Kendall Massett, who is the executive director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network, is as out-of-control as, say, the head of the FOP:

“Legislators who benefited from school choice when it came to their own education and/or their children’s education have chosen to introduce legislation that would eliminate those choices for other families,” she wrote. That comment referred to State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, (D-Bear) a graduate of the Charter School of Wilmington, and to Lockman, whose daughter graduated from the same school in 2021.

“H.B. 353 is not an ‘anti-charter bill,’ which it has been inaccurately and unfairly labeled as,” Wilson-Anton responded. “Delaware is fortunate to have some very strong charter schools … but we have also seen numerous charters close just years after opening their doors.”

Later in the email, Massett wrote: “Our charter leaders and educators need to be focused on moving our students forward, instead, they must spend their time fighting off attacks from those that hate our schools just because we are different.” Asked Tuesday to identify those who hate charter schools, she spoke broadly of officials and supporters of the Christina School District and three Democratic legislators – Reps. Kim Williams (D-Stanton), the chair of the House Education Committee; and John Kowalko (D-Newark) and Paul Baumbach (D-Newark).

“They are just not good people,” Massett said Tuesday. She claimed later that she was referring only to charter opponents in the Christina district, and not to the lawmakers.

Let me be clear: I support quality education in all its forms.  Those who know me and my family know that I am not opposed to quality charter schools and, in fact, celebrate schools and teachers who do great work.  It is also true that the Markell/Rodel ‘Charters R Us’ era was an unmitigated disaster, replete with fly-by-night schools and corrupt administrators.

Why this Kendall Massett has chosen to go scorched earth against some of Delaware’s best legislators is beyond me.  But I know that it will have the opposite effect from what she and her organization seek.

BTW, Larry Nagengast?  I think I first met him when I was umpiring Little League baseball.  I still feel bad about a blown call I made that cost his team a game.  But he’s a great journalist who has not mellowed with age.  If anything, his reporting is as sharp as ever. Read the piece in its entirety.

OK. I’ve been putting this off as long as I could.  I should have written this sometime around 1 a.m. because I couldn’t clear my brain of all the questions that arose from Sen. Lockman’s destruction of police reform.

Let me first say that I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered an analogous situation where someone decided to destroy an excellent bill that they sponsored, which the original SB 149 was, and destroy their own political career in the process. The original SB 149 apparently had the votes to pass the Senate,  with no significant changes required to ensure its passage. The prime sponsor of the bill, which presumably means that she was sufficiently comfortable with the bill to be the prime sponsor and to push for its passage, was Sen. Tizzie Lockman.  Lockman campaigned for her Senate seat with the issue of police accountability serving as a centerpiece of her campaign.  Her introduction of the bill led to a vibrant grassroots effort on its behalf.  A lot of people trusted her and were counting on her. And worked very hard for SB 149’s passage.

And, then…Lockman let it be known that she was going to introduce a substitute bill, and that she would seek input from the ‘stakeholders’.  Of course, the concerns of the stakeholders who had been disastrously impacted by LEOBOR had already been incorporated into SB 149. Stealing one of my comments from yesterday:

How many ‘stakeholders’, including community activists, impacted residents, and minorities who had traditionally been singled out by police, do you suppose took part in the creation of LEOBOR?  The answer is none.  This was a bill crafted by law enforcement, for law enforcement, and passed by the gaggle of law enforcement legislators/groupies who ruled the roost when the bill was passed.  The bill, and the people who crafted it, are/were the problem.

The stakeholders referenced by Lockman were the police.  Specifically, the top officials whose only interest was to destroy the bill.  Lockman betrayed everyone who had worked so hard for LEOBOR reform. The resulting substitute is unworthy of even being considered.  It’s that terrible.  Allow me to quote from former DL colleague and current chair of the Wilmington Democratic Party Cassandra Marshall:

I know that Senator Lockman worked hard to get to SOMETHING, but I’m stunned at how bad this “reform” is. It basically does not exist. It undermines Wilmington’s Home Rule, leaves substantive oversight of bad behavior in the hands of the police, and still provides the public — the people who pay for this enterprise — quite in the dark. It’s also quite a remarkable back of the hand to the local D base that was pretty active in getting many of these folks elected. On a day where this body finds taking up the question of who gets to vaccinate ferrets, this bill is a genuine insult. Especially since a year ago, the Maryland GA did blow up their LEOBOR shield.

Just-wow. As Cassandra points out, Maryland successfully reformed their LEOBOR bill last year.  Yet Lockman unilaterally sold out to the cops.  I suppose I’m less angry than most.  I never expected the House Kop Kabal, as currently constituted, to pass anything meaningful.  My hope was that the Senate would pass SB 149 with most of its provisions intact, the grassroots would mobilize over on the House side, the obstructionists would be outed for all to see, and we’d knock off enough of them to deep-six the Kop Kabal leadership once and for all.  (BTW, we can still do that.)  SB 149 will not be that vehicle for change, though.

I honestly don’t know what motivated Lockman to do this.  I’m certain that several of her colleagues were advising her against doing this.  Perhaps she genuinely believed that passing anything, regardless of how toothless, was worthwhile.  If so, she couldn’t have been more wrong.  The bill she introduced yesterday could literally have been written by the police. Perhaps it was.  I’ve been wracking my brain for an explanation.  All I can come up with is a question: Is her new husband a cop?

Regardless, her career in the Senate is over. If anything, her Senate District has a larger percentage of Black voters and a larger percentage of Latino voters than previously.  It goes without saying that she can’t get renominated based on hordes of cop contributions to the cause. I admit that I sorta feel bad for her.  I hope that wherever the road takes her, she will be able to make a meaningful contribution in the years ahead. As for LEOBOR reform, with so many supporters already abandoning the substitute bill, the Senate would do well to simply not bring it up for consideration.  Start over next year, with hopefully an honest senator in SD 3 and even more hopefully, a House Caucus not beholden to the police.