While I don’t have a complete picture as to what led to the defeat of SS2/SB 100 (Huxtable), which was the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment to enshrine same-sex marriage in the Delaware Constitution, I have a pretty good picture courtesy of WDEL, as Sean Greene provided the best coverage of the debate.
A move to alter Delaware’s Constitution to protect same-gender marriage was rejected by a Delaware House unwilling to actually vote against the amendment.
State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton (D-Bear) joined 13 Republicans in choosing not to vote on SB 100 (ss 2), the first leg of a constitutional amendment saying that there is a civil right to marriage due to the equal protection clauses of race, color, national origin, and sex.
The vote required 28 of the 41 members to vote yes, but it only received 25, with sponsor state Rep. Claire Snyder-Hall reversing her “yes” vote at the last minute in a technical move to keep the bill alive, making it a 24yes-3no-14notvoting result.
Some who did not support the amendment did speak on the floor.
Wilson-Anton posed a question to Snyder-Hall about a constituent who immigrated from Morocco to Delaware after marrying his first cousin, which is not recognized in the First State, and whether this amendment would change that situation.
After Snyder-Hall voted no, Wilson-Anton did not vote on the measure.
State Rep. Michael Smith (R-Pike Creek) went a technical route towards a no vote, saying he was representing the Republican Caucus’ view.
Because he has no mind of his own? Rhetorical question.
But that’s not the big story:
Besides Snyder-Hall’s reversal, the other Democratic no vote came from Democrat State Rep. Josue Ortega (D-Wilmington), who did not give a personal reason for his decision.
“I heard from many constituents who expressed strong opposition to this bill, and I believe their voices deserved to be reflected in my vote.”
Setting aside the obvious that he didn’t take a fucking poll to arrive at that conclusion, I’m here to defend Ortega. His deep Catholic beliefs reinforce that marriage is to be between one man, one woman, and one piece on the side.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report. Might I point out that House passage of Senator Pinkney’s SS1/SB 13 did more to provide health care accessibility and cost control for Delawareans than the much-ballyhooed SS2/SB 1 (Townsend) does. Which is what happens when you don’t give ChristianaCare the ability to basically rewrite the bill. Kids, there’s a reason why ChristianaCare endorsed Townsend’s bill, and there’s a reason why retired ChristianaCare corporate bean-counter Ray Seigfried is on the bill as a co-sponsor. The bill, which has passed the Senate, is not yet on a House Agenda. I would like to humbly suggest a House Amendment doing away with the hospitals being able to jawbone as part of the rate-setting process. If hospitals are gonna have that platform, then so should healthcare recipients.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.
There are a lot of good bills on today’s House Agenda. I include among them SB 271 (Sokola), SB 283 (Pinkney), SB 291 (Pinkney), and SB 312 (Poore). The House will also consider the FY ’27 State Budget. Look for a bill signing in the Governor’s Office later today.
I found less of interest on the Senate Agenda, which consists mainly of relatively-minor House bills along with Senate bills that were amended in the House and returned to the Senate. If something floats your boat, that’s what the Comments Section is for.
A whole bunch of Senate Committee meetings today. Virtually all of which are scheduled to consider House bills, and House bills only. Here’s the one exception. The Senate Executive Committee will consider SB 350 (Sokola), which ‘establishes a uniform statewide framework for classifying taxable real property and explicitly grants split-rate tax authority to counties, school districts, and vocational-technical school districts.’
Only three scheduled House Committee meetings today, and (woo-hoo!) only Senate bills are on the Agendas.
Still waiting on the Bond Bill and the Grants-In-Aid.
We’re adjourned.
“immigrated from Morocco to Delaware after marrying his first cousin, which is not recognized in the First State, ” – so if a same sex couple from Virginia, where their constitution provides protection for same sex marriage, moves to Delaware can Delaware disallow their marriage? Why are they worried about first cousin marriage from morocco and not first cousin marriage of duponts?
I think we can all see Ortega’s problematic “machismo” – cut from the same block as Nick Fuentes et. al.
It would help to provide some background on the rules for passing a DE amendment vs a regular bill. Do I understand correctly that the bill was stopped preemptively because Dems don’t think they have enough votes within their own caucus to get this through? I would like to think even with a few clowns like Ortega they would be bale to muster 2/3 of both chambers.
Because they don’t quite have a 2/3rds majority in the House. (They do in the Senate.)
They’re almost there. Right now, they’d need all D’s and 1 R to pass a constitutional amendment, assuming all the D’s vote for it.
If they’re able to flip Hensley’s seat, which is quite possible, and if they retain all of their seats, which is likely, they’ll then have that 2/3rds majority in both bodies.
Wouldn’t hurt to replace Ortega with a real Democrat either.
Ortega was expected to vote against but I didn’t see Madinah coming with a nay. I asked for an explanation.
Initially I thought that Madinah’s non-vote had to do with some kind of parliamentary procedure to keep the bill in play until the whip could get things sorted out. But now it seems like she is quietly opposed?
If so, this is a big red flag.
Couple things here
1) terrible vote by Madinah, been a fan but cmon…and the marry a cousin bill is not what you want to be defined by. Madinah, take a step back
2) Mike Smith proves to be what everyone knows. He’s an empty suit who likes to smile at middle aged women and get ice cream for kids so he somehow holds on.
3) Ortega and his religious tilt to his vote is interesting….considering he’s under investigation for being married in a car with another woman
4) While we are defeating AIPAC funded corporate Dems, can we take out the likes of Levin and a few others?
Can we just admit Dover is a cesspool? Rant complete