El Somnambulo's Latest Posts
Election 2014: Delaware’s Most Vulnerable Incumbents
I’m El Somnambulo, and I’m a listaholic.
Admit it: So are you.
Bearing in mind that incumbents need viable challengers in order to be vulnerable, here is a list of those with at least reason to be worried:
State Auditor Tom Wagner: A do-nothing R in an increasingly D state. Here’s the problem. If a do-nothing R is replaced by a do-nothing D, does it really make any difference? No doubt it does to Tom Wagner. But not to Patrick Harker or Lonnie George. Which is my point. And the problem.
State Treasurer Chip Flowers: While the R’s talk hopefully, and, IMHO, delusionally, about defeating him, I suspect that any real challenge would come from the Democrats. We’ll likely know in 6 months or so whether there will be a party-backed challenger. We might as well get used to Flowers being a polarizing figure by choice. Which would be fine if it was principle, not ego, driving that train.
State Senator Greg Lavelle (4th SD): Got 50.8% against Michael Katz. Probably less vulnerable this time, but he’s got two more years of anti-gay and pro-gun votes on his record. Will a credible challenger emerge?
I know that people expect me to have Ernesto Lopez on this list, but I don’t see him as particularly vulnerable. Feel free to make a case.
More inside….
Carper to Homeland Security, Beau to Senate??
Major tip o’ the sombrero to one of my compadres for passing along this juicy rumor: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/07/12/napolitano_will_resign_as_homeland_security_secretary.html Carper as a possibility to replace Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Beaudhisattva to the Senate. Major upgrade for our delegation, major downgrade to the Cabinet. Although, as a doddering fool, Carper would be ideally suited […]
Good News From Pennsylvania To Start the Day
Looks like, on the issue of same-sex marriage, Gov. Jim Corbett is gonna have to go it alone. Philly.com reports that AG Kathleen Kane will not defend the state in a federal lawsuit challenging Pa’s refusal to recognize gay marriage.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: The Final Day, Night, & Day
We’re gonna have drama after all! Democrats vs. fellow Democrat Chip Flowers. I support the Democrats not named Chip Flowers, and so should you. Here’s why. Chip Flowers claims that he has the power to invest state money, money that goes to fund state pensions. He is the only treasurer in memory to make that claim. Other treasurers have recognized that the responsibility for making these determinations rests with the Cash Management Policy Board, of which the Treasurer is but one member. Flowers wants to play cowboy in search of higher investment returns. He’s even hired some guy to look at how to increase performance. He hasn’t hired anyone to warn him of imprudent risk. This is precisely the type of fiscal irresponsibility that left scores of public pension funds in shambles throughout the country following the financial scandal. Delaware, which had invested its money prudently and conservatively, remained in strong fiscal condition, and so did state pensions. If Chip Flowers wants to gamble, let him do so at a racino or online or in the market with his own money. As a pensioner of the state, the last thing I want is for him to do is play the market with our money.
The proposed bill essentially does to Flowers what earlier legislation did to the Sheriff of Nuttingham–make clear that he can’t overstep his bounds and/or create new imaginary powers for himself. For the sake of my fellow pensioners, I hope it passes.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 27, 2013
Now the days dwindle down to a precious few two… Today and Sunday, and it’s a wrap for the first session of the 147th Delaware General Assembly. We are not in the denouement phase just yet, but we’re getting there. The Senate will give final approval to the Budget Bill today, the House will likely […]
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 26, 2013
I’m disappointed that HB165(Jaques) passed, and will be signed by the Governor today. But the Senate also passed two bills sponsored by Sen. Townsend that will make that passage at least a little more palatable. SB 147 creates more of a partnership between charters and public schools, including the sharing of ‘best practices’. Here is the 17-4 roll call. SB 148:
promotes transparency in government spending relating to competitive grants administered by the Department of Education by requiring that the Department publish on its website the eligibility requirements, criteria and successful applications for every competitive grant it administers.
I believe that the Markell Administration has signed off on both bills. Seriously, you don’t see legislating of this quality very often in Dover. A lesson to legislators: If you know you’re gonna lose on an issue, at least try to get something positive out of it. Sometimes you succeed. And thanks to the Markell Administration for working with Sen. Townsend on this.
SS1/SB33(Ennis) got final Senate approval and heads to the Governor. Yay!! The two bitter holdouts who voted no were Bloviator Bonini and, wait for it, Pope Pompous I, formerly Monsignor Lavelle. To quote the parrot from ‘Aladdin’, “Why am I not surprised?”
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 25, 2013
On the subject of Jack Markell’s tactics, when it comes to state employees, he needs an intervention. Which the House D’s, who have bottled up legislation giving state employees a voice on the…State Employees’ Benefits Committee, seem prepared to offer him. Rather than let SB 21, which would give state employees two seats on the committee, come to a vote, the House has announced a ‘compromise’. Rather than just pass the bill, which I have no doubt would pass, or even let it out of committee, well, let’s let mealy-mouthed Valerie Longhurst spell out the ‘compromise’. Direct from a House of Reps press release:
House Majority Leader Rep. Valerie Longhurst, who chairs the Administration Committee, and Senate Bill 21 sponsor Rep. Larry Mitchell worked with union officials last week to reach a general compromise on the measure and will iron out details of an amendment during the legislative break.
“We know that the unions really want this bill to move forward, but we know there is opposition from the administration too,” said Rep. Longhurst, D-Bear. “There also is a good amount of support within our own caucus for the bill, so I have committed to Rep. Mitchell and the unions that we will work out an agreement during the break and come back in January, get the bill released from committee and put it on the floor for a full House vote.”
Allow moi to translate: “We’re gonna stick with the Governor’s anti-employee approach until we totally have to cave to our members.” I mean, what kind of ‘compromise’ is Governor Walker Markell willing to accept in January that he couldn’t accept today? One member instead of two? He’s already got the votes to outvote state employees on the committee if it comes to that. He simply doesn’t even want them to have a seat at the table. And he’s got Schwartzkopf and Longhurst running interference for him. Even though they’re supposed to lead a caucus that wants this bill.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 20, 2013
Spidey Sense working overtime as we enter the last five days of legislative session. We know that some kind of closed door deal has been cut on HB 165, but no one will let us in on the secret. Governor Open Government has become Governor None of Your Bleeping Business. Loads of ill-conceived Bond Bill […]
N-n-noooooh!! ‘Tony Soprano’ Sleeps With the Fishes
James Gandolfini reportedly dead of a heart attack suffered while he was in Italy.
Actor James Gandolfini died suddenly after a suspected heart attack while on holiday in Rome to attend the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily. He was 51. Gandolfini will be forever known for his portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano on the seminal HBO series The Sopranos, which eventually won him 3 Emmy Awards and a $1,000,000-an-episode paycheck. Overweight, balding, rough around the edges with a thick New Jersey accent, Gandolfini was the opposite of a marquee leading man, destined to be a character actor. Yet he proved through his masterful acting that he could make Tony Soprano sexy and smart, towering and powerful.
More inside….
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 19, 2013
The Great Grubby Gold Rush of 2013 has begun. Millions for an Archmere mansion(?), $8 mill for racinos w/no strings attached(?), more $$’s down the aglands preservation rabbit hole(?), $2.2 mill to buy a Sussex hunting preserve(?). A disproportionate number of these requests for downstate projects. The News-Journal covers it here. And the racino $8 mill rationalizations here. Enjoy (or despair of) Bloviator Colin Bonini’s contradictions within mere paragraphs of each other. Must be Bond Bill time.
The idea of giving $8 mill to the racinos that were already given legal monopoly status with no licensing fees and slot machines video lotteries subsidized by the state is brain-dead. What other casinos in this country received such a sweetheart deal? As Al Mascitti pointed out on our show yesterday, it’s not our fault that idiots at Dover Downs somehow decided that theirs would be a ‘destination resort’ that required hotels and restaurants. Nothing says destination resort quite like anonymous concrete strip malls and traffic lights every 20 feet. Why in hell should they get even a penny of bailout money? In this case, true to Markell form, this lame cash dump doesn’t even require the racinos to forestall layoffs, which is just what they’re threatening to do if they don’t get relief. Markell is simply doubling-down on someone else’s bad bet. With our money. Let’s see…$8 mill earmarked for racinos, $7.5 mill pissed away on agland preservation, you could more than pay for a 1% increase for state employees with that money. Jack, Jack?
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 18, 2013
Conspiracy Theory of the Week: DSEA Sells Out Public Schools, Secures Raises for Teachers.
If you were wondering why DSEA agreed to support charter schools’ grubby grab of public cash earmarked for public schools, we may now have the answer. Included in the Governor’s budget is “$8.5 million for ‘step increases’ for school employees, gradual pay raises teachers get as they gain experience and education”, according to Monday’s News-Journal article by Matthew Albright. Considering that the first $2 mill of the charter schools cash grab is also in the same budget bill, we can see how Markell bought off public education officials. Another $2.6 million is for ‘state testing computers’, yet more money down the rabbit hole of standardized testing. Need I remind anyone that we’ve got $8.5 mill for teachers’ increases, $0.00 for state employee increases. While I’m fine with raises for teachers, Strongly supportive in fact, I’m not fine with the Deal with the Devil that enabled them. Ladies and gentlemen, your Democratic governor. And the purported protectors of public education.
BTW, time for, IMHO, an important digression. Is it possible, just possible, that Jack Markell is campaigning…for CIA Chief? I’m (sorta) serious about this. The man who ran on the issue of government transparency has made secrecy the defining touchstone of his second term. First, the Port machinations. Then, the Charter Schools debacle, where his administration literally dared doubters to file a FOIA lawsuit. And, just this Sunday, an incredible piece by Jeff Montgomery in the News-Journal, which effectively lays out a strong case that Gov. Markell deliberately suppressed environmental data casting serious doubt on the environmental safety of the Delaware City oil refinery. Deliberately suppressed. Anybody getting angry yet?
Meanwhile, SB 97(Henry) “adds the term “gender identity” to the already-existing list of prohibited practices of discrimination and hate crimes. As such, this Act would forbid discrimination against a person on the basis of gender identity in housing, employment, public works contracting, public accommodations, and insurance, and it would provide for increased punishment of a person who intentionally selects the victim of a crime because of the victim’s gender identity.” SB 97 received the bare minimum 11 votes required to pass the Senate. I think it will likely have a more comfortable margin in the House.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 13, 2013
Let me get this straight. Jack Markell cuts taxes for his wealthy friends early this session. The only tax among the so-called temporary emergency taxes enacted in 2009 that he cut. Now he says he needs $80 million in new taxes and fees, or bridges will fall down, highways will crumble. Oh, and if they do, it will be somebody else’s fault because Markell gave the legislators a full 2 1/2 week’s warning before the end of session. Maybe, just maybe, if he stopped appearing on TV, writing half-baked op-eds, or accepting ginned-up awards created solely to increase his national stature (I recommend lifts as an alternative), he might find time to, you know, actually govern. I mean in public, not in secret.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds. June 12, 2013
Let us circle June 11, 2013 on the calendar. It will go down as a day when public schools were dealt yet another blow at the hands of greed and silence. The Governor’s greedy desire to rise above his station, D’s and R’s alike greedy desire to get their hands on funds they shouldn’t have, the press’ unwillingness to function as journalists instead of lapdogs; a conspiracy of silence that rippled through the Delaware Way, leaving only the have-nots behind (admittedly, that’s a dog-bites-man story in Jack Markell’s Delaware). Here’s the roll call on the charter schools money grab, if you have the heart.
Oh, and if anyone thinks that $5 mill is the end instead of the beginning, well, you’re not thinking. So, Markell will get his Race to the Top filthy lucre and his imaginary presidential street cred, Charlie Copeland (!) will parlay his family’s expertise in bankruptcies into running a hy-ooge city charter. A Tower Hill grad who inherited his fortune will be one of the largest players in Delaware education. In the inner city. I mean, has anybody with any say-so over who gets to run a charter ever read Dissolute Recrimination?
The politicians who supported this railroad job (deliberations in private, rushed through in a week and a half) opted to serve themselves instead of the majority of their constituents. The least they could do is let everyone in on the details of the deals. A very dark day for public education in Delaware. And a black mark on the Delaware General Assembly that won’t be easily removed. Jack Markell is now officially dead to me.
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