Delaware
![Thursday Daily Delawhere [5.1.14]](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2912/13985963274_3f48af4fef_z.jpg "Thursday Daily Delawhere [5.1.14]")
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., April 30, 2014
A particularly-sketchy ‘redevelopment’ project headlines today’s House Committee meetings.
HB 310(Longhurst) essentially enables the ethically-bankrupt Dick Cathcart to be at the center of what looks like a deal that will put $$’s in connected people’s pockets far from the view of the public. You may remember that Cathcart awarded no-bid contracts to friends of his while ‘working’ as contract administrator at Delaware State University; had his clear involvement in awarding these contracts whitewashed by Republican crony pal Auditor Tom Wagner; and even had Wagner recommend him for the position of City Manager of Delaware City as the scandal-scarred Cathcart beat a hasty retreat from elective office before the voters did it for him. Under HB 310, which, by the way just happens to be in the House Administration Committee chaired by…sponsor Valerie Longhurst, this is what would happen….
![Wednesday Daily Delawhere [4.30.14]](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2921/13985519045_7a8c551d36_z.jpg "Wednesday Daily Delawhere [4.30.14]")
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., April 29, 2014
‘Money, That’s What I Want’: Barrett Strong
That’s what the Governor wants, that’s what the General Assembly wants, and that’s what they will talk about. I don’t know what kind of negotiations went on over the Easter break, but state government is facing a budget shortfall, largely due to revenue from ‘abandoned property’ (escheats) coming in lower than projected. BTW, you can’t spell ‘escheats’ with out ‘cheats’. If you think you’ve started to notice a pattern of how much of our budget is built on gimmickry, you are not imagining things. Especially when an alternative is to make the wealthy pay their fair share.
Not to mention that we’ve seen no movement on either the gas tax or proposed water assessment. Unless you count the Rethugs’ putting up signs reading ‘No New Gas Taxes’ all over the New Castle County landscape. Might I suggest perhaps a more constructive project for Rethugs with time on their hands? Maybe fix bridges or fill potholes? You know, the types of repairs that will not be done if Dover denizens do not come to their respective senses? For the umpteenth time:
Governor: Stop talking about castor oil. Start talking about the jobs this would create and the projects that would get done. Then go out there and sell it. If it’s not too late.
Democrats (and whatever Valerie Longhurst passes for this week): Do the same bleeping thing. You do want to create jobs, don’t you? If so, govern like Democrats. If you can’t sell jobs and bridges that won’t fall down, get outta town.
![Tuesday Daily Delawhere [4.29.14]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/13962414926_4cc0b2c402_z.jpg "Tuesday Daily Delawhere [4.29.14]")
![Monday Daily Delawhere [4.28.14]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5101/13985963474_6f81c7b091_z.jpg "Monday Daily Delawhere [4.28.14]")
![Sunday Daily Delawhere [4.27.14]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7230/13982318092_4a0280907e_z.jpg "Sunday Daily Delawhere [4.27.14]")
The Weekly Addresses
President Obama:
I don’t know if this is because of last week’s holidays of Easter and Passover, but Governor Markell published his weekly message on Monday, April 21. So it may be that Markell is now publishing his message at the beginning of the week. Here is the message from April 21:
![Saturday Daily Delawhere [4.26.14]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7121/13962414966_eea2985293_z.jpg "Saturday Daily Delawhere [4.26.14]")
Delaware Political Weekly: April 19-25, 2014
Yesterday, Hunter Biden emerged to tell us that Beau Biden, the new presumed frontrunner for Governor in 2016, is ‘doing great’. The day before, it was Pete Schwartzkopf. Assuming that they speak the truth, can someone, anyone, explain to me why the Beaudhisattva is incommunicado? Is he absorbing more enlightenment beneath the Bo Tree? I’m serious, can someone please provide a plausible scenario that would explain his refusal to come out and say, “Hi, I’m here, I’m healthy, didja miss me?” I honestly don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this. It defies explanation, at least to me. BTW, if you read Hunter Biden’s statement carefully, he doesn’t say that Beau’s in great health. Come inside for the quote.
As to 2016, while Matt Denn has said that he doesn’t ‘expect’ to run for Governor then, neither has he ruled it out. He didn’t expect to run for AG this year b/c he didn’t expect Biden not to run. I think Matt will accomplish more in two years as AG as Beau has done in six, so he’d be well-positioned to run in 2016, especially if Beau surprises everyone again. Which, IMHO, would be no surprise at all.
2014: The Delaware House
In our second post in our informative series on Delaware politics, we shall tackle the Delaware House of Representatives. Yesterday, we discussed the Delaware Senate, and over the coming weeks and months, we will profile each Representative and Senator and their respective districts.
Come inside to check our interactive maps, where you can zoom in to see the fine details of each RD. And we will review the potentially competitive districts. The question is can the GOP pick up the 7 seats they need to win back the majority? The short answer is no, the GOP cannot pick up the 7 seats they need, and that is because there are only 5 potentially competitive Democratic seats, while there are 7 potentially competitive Republican seats that they will have to defend as well. That said, there is opportunity for both parties to pick off incumbents.
![Friday Daily Delawhere [4.25.14]](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2934/13982318352_9dbd1d0b26_z.jpg "Friday Daily Delawhere [4.25.14]")
Guest Post — A Skeptic’s View of SB 197 on Human Trafficking
This is a Guest Post from multiple authors who wanted to discuss some of the weaknesses of HB SB 197 as they see it. As always, this Guest Post doesn’t represent the views or opinions of the editors of Delaware Liberal — we’re giving other voices a forum to air their concerns. I’m hoping that the folks who wrote this will join in the discussion.
We (multiple authors) decided to write this post to outline where exactly we see the land lies with SB 197. This particular piece of legislation has been a long time coming, and we roundly applaud Sen. Blevins and all the co-sponsors on the bill. It should sail thru the legislature easily – who would be against stopping Human Slavery.
However it seems other agencies, with the responsibility for enforcing the law seem to be either unaware or uncaring about the problem. […]
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