Tag: Cathy Cloutier
Delaware Political Weekly: Jan. 8-14, 2016
Denise D. Bowers has filed to run against State Senator Cathy Cloutier for the 5th SD seat in Brandywine Hundred. Based on registration, this projects as a competitive race. Current figures: 13,703 D; 11,169 R; and 8790 I.
Her candidacy does not come without questions. She is a 21-year veteran of the Wilmington Police Department, although it’s not entirely clear that she was on duty for all that time. She filed at least two legal actions concerning her job during her time on the force. The first deals with compensation for a scar on her knee, aka a ‘ serious and permanent disfigurement’. The second was a prolonged litigation concerning her ‘involuntary retirement’ from the force. In fact, even though she allegedly was a police officer until 2008, it is not clear whether she was on the job after 2005, when she suffered the knee injury mentioned in the second suit. A swift Google search also reveals several actions brought against Bowers and her husband for unpaid taxes on rental properties in Wilmington. OTOH, Bowers is president of the Northwood Civic Association and is currently the State Director of the Treatment Access Center, the liaison between the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health and the courts system. I’m sure that some of you must have met her. I need feedback, pipples!
Honoring the 2013 MVP’s (Most Valuable to the Progressive Cause)
One of the people in the picture to the left is the MVP this year. There were several worthy contenders who just missed the list this year. Superior legislators like Melanie George Smith and Michael Barbieri deserve consideration every year. Ed Osienski is fast approaching that status. Helene Keeley and Kim Williams were on my list at one time or another during my deliberations.
2013 was a great year for social justice in Delaware. Economic justice, not so much. However, I am encouraged that at least three strong voices for progressive principles joined the General Assembly this year, and a couple of Leg Hall vets found their voices as well. The progressive grassroots became more effective this year, and helped ensure historic victories that would not have happened without their support. Marriage equality, transgender equality, and justice for manufactured home owners, being among them.
The most notable omission from my list, and I struggled with it, is Governor Jack Markell. His role in hastening civil rights for the LGBT community will most assuredly be his lasting positive legacy. But, his actions in slowing the passage of minimum wage; his continued pushing for corporate education solutions and favoring charter schools; his granting of a tax cut for Delaware’s wealthiest citizens; his almost-disastrous actions concerning the Port of Wilmington; and several others, led me to omit him from the list. At best, the good and the bad canceled each other out. And, no, you don’t have to take the bad with the good. Or at least you shouldn’t accept it. I don’t.
Now to the list….
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., May 7, 2013
Damn! I feel like Cathy Cloutier circa 2011. Gotta miss today’s vote. Off the radar screen, although I’ll be checking in from the road. This time, I think that Cathy Cloutier will be in the building, and that she will vote yes. In fact, I predict that both she and Bethany Hall-Long will do the right thing, which means that HB 75 will get 12 votes, and that marriage equality will become reality in Delaware. It should be a great day in Dover. Chamber and the gallery packed. Matt Denn presiding over the Senate in case he might have to cast the deciding vote. A lot of pent-up emotion. Hopefully to be followed by a joyful catharsis.
Sen. Blevins has cleared the decks by scheduling HB 75, and only HB 75, on today’s Senate agenda. You all know that Delaware Liberal is the place to go for continuing coverage of this historic debate. Maybe I’ll even chime in from someplace in Bumf-ck, Indiana, assuming that the internets have reached there. [Delaware Dem note: I will be setting up a Debate and Vote thread this afternoon].
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 26, 2013
Jack Markell: From clammed-up to happy-as-a-clam. The Governor who was unwilling to take a public position on a minimum wage increase effusively praised it after it had passed the Senate:
“I commend Senator Marshall for the changes he made to the bill. I assured Senator Marshall I would sign the bill as passed by the Senate because of the help it will provide to many struggling families,” Markell said in a statement.
Jack Markell has proven time and time again that he cares not for struggling families. But Markell was able to (a) get a cost-of-living provision struck from the bill, (b) get the effective date for the bill pushed back, and (c) lower the amount of the minimum wage to $7.75 an hour in 2014 and $8.25 in 2015. All this in exchange for dropping his threat to veto the bill. Ladies and gentlemen, your Democratic governor. Still, kudos to the 12 D’s who voted yes. It’s better than nothing, which is all you’re gonna get from this governor. For the record, self-professed ‘friend of labor’ Cathy Cloutier voted no. This will not be the last time that she proves to be a phony during this, or any session, of the Delaware General Assembly.
A ‘Must-Listen’ Al Show On Tuesday!
Cathy Cloutier came on the Al Mascitti Show Monday to ‘set the record straight’ concerning my claims that, not only hadn’t Cloutier earned the trust of the LGBT community, she had betrayed that trust. At least twice, by my account.
(For the uninitiated, Cloutier’s campaign signs read “She’s Earned Our Trust”).
For the first time for most people, an entire radio audience was exposed to someone who is incapable of thinking on her own, and someone who, even after 14 years in the Delaware General Assembly, is the proverbial deer in the headlights. Oh, and she dissembled and, yes, lied.
You really ought to listen to the WDEL podcast
I’ve Just Met the New State Senator from the 5th District–I Think
Some of you will recall that #2 on my list of Most Vulnerable Delaware Republicans is/was State Sen. Cathy Cloutier. For those of you who missed my Magnum Opus on this race, or who just want to relive the snark, here is my analysis. That seat is far more vulnerable today as the Democrats have […]
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