Tag: Delaware General Assembly

Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Wed., Jan. 27, 2010

Filed in National by on January 27, 2010 3 Comments

POST-GAME WRAPUP: Lotsa brand new bills and brand new committee assignments for them. I’ll discuss the ones I find interesting (and/or worrisome) in my  Pre-Game Show report below. As noted here yesterday, the Senate considered and passed a series of non-controversial house bills. Perhaps the most notable of the lot is HB 249 (Keeley), which […]

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Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 26, 2010

Filed in National by on January 26, 2010 2 Comments

Last week that the General Assembly meets until breaking for about a 6-week recess to enable the Joint Finance Committee to conduct budget hearings. POST-GAME WRAP-UP A few bills previously discussed here were passed on Thursday. In the Senate: SB 81 w/SA5(Sokola)-Requires nutritional information to be prominently displayed in fast food restaurants. 15 yes, 5 […]

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Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010

Filed in National by on January 21, 2010 1 Comment

Post-Game Wrap-Up I interrupt this report to start out today with a raging screed. To the surprise of absolutely nobody. Yesterday, the Delaware State Senate unanimously approved the nomination of Diane Clarke Streett to become a judge on Superior Court. I know this because the Governor’s office sent out a congratulatory release about this. However, […]

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Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Filed in National by on January 20, 2010 1 Comment

Post-Game Wrap-Up A complete record of yesterday’s activity is here. The House of Representatives, with the notable exception of Rep. Earl Jaques, had no problem putting a registered lobbyist on a medical advisory board, and approved HB 3, discussed here in detail yesterday. Any member of the House is welcome to come here and explain […]

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Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010

Filed in National by on January 19, 2010 11 Comments

The entire record of the previous legislative session (Thursday, January 14) can be found here. Key legislation that was passed, most of it previously discussed here, included: HB 202 (Rep. B. Short)-Designed to protect policyholders when a health or life insurance company is liquidated. Pretty sure that this bill was a Matt Denn proposal from […]

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Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010

Filed in National by on January 14, 2010 2 Comments

According to the Legislative Record, nothing happened yesterday. Of course, in the case of the House of Representatives, we know that committee meetings took place. So, El Somnambulo, you may ask, why does the record not reflect this? Glad you asked as it gives me yet another teaching opportunity. Yay! Once the House breaks for […]

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Pre-Game Show: State Legislative Committee Day-Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

Filed in National by on January 13, 2010 1 Comment

First, a brief primer for newcomers. On Wednesdays when the General Assembly is in session, virtually the entire legislative day is devoted to committee meetings. For the House, other than ceremonial business, it is entirely devoted to committees. The Senate may conduct some business, but committee meetings usually are the main, if not sole, focus. […]

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Legislative Pre-Game Show-Jan. 12: Demagoguery On 1st Agenda of Session

Filed in National by on January 12, 2010 10 Comments

What do you do if you’re a politician and you’ve got nothing but bad news to run on and you’re facing re-election? Simple. Conjure up potential ‘horribles’, create simplistic legislation attacking said ‘horribles’, and run as if you bravely stood up to said ‘horribles’, even if what you did was simply to create horrible legislation […]

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Rep. Thornburg Also Retiring, According to Celia

Filed in National by on January 6, 2010 10 Comments

This is also really big news from Celia Cohen. Rep. Pam Thornburg (R-Dover West) also announced her retirement at the same Caucus meeting where Bill Oberle announced his. She will become administrator of the Delaware Farm Bureau, a position from which she will no doubt lobby her former colleagues. This is huge b/c Thornburg barely […]

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Anita Van Sant: Rest In Peace

Filed in Delaware by on December 16, 2009 1 Comment

I was truly saddened to read of the passing of Anita Van Sant. While the low-key obituary was typically self-effacing, Anita was one of the best political campaign managers I’ve ever met. She and her husband, former State Representative John F. Van Sant, were the perfect political team. As the candidate, John knew that his […]

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A Preview Of Next Year’s Legislative Battles

Filed in National by on December 3, 2009 14 Comments

Speaker Bob Gilligan spoke to the Progressive Democrats of Delaware last night to preview next year’s legislative battles. There are really two big issues we’ll see next year: the budget and the 2010 election. Budget Gilligan told us that they expect at least a $300M-$400M budget gap next year (that’s before the additional job losses […]

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Sex Offender Registry: Good Politics=Bad Policy?

Filed in National by on August 12, 2009 37 Comments

On Sunday, Read All About It In the Sunday Papers featured this as its lead story: “LEAD STORY-The (UK) Economist: Unintended Consequences of Sex Offenders’ Laws? It is easy for politicians to push for tougher laws on sexual offenders. It is even easier to demagogue against anyone who would dare suggest that, in many cases, there […]

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Live-Blogging the House-Vol. 2

Filed in Delaware by on June 30, 2009 2 Comments

Anyone wishing to catch up with El Somnambulo’s timeless prose from earlier today can link here. When the House recessed for an arm-twisting session around 5:30, ‘bulo doubted that it would eventually turn into the dinner break. Apparently, ‘Bulo was wrong, not for the first time today, nor certainly for the last time tonight. Clearly, […]

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