Tag: Steve Tanzer Delaware
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 12, 2012
The payday loan bill passed the Senate and the Governor says that he will sign it! No amendments, and only one no vote (Mike Katz, whose actions get more inscrutable by the day). Congratulations to sponsor Helene Keeley, Paul Calistro, and to a dedicated and politically-savvy group of supporters. If you contacted your elected officials on this bill, consider yourselves congratulated as well. No, the bill doesn’t have everything supporters would have liked in it, but it’s a major improvement, and it’s more than I thought would get through this General Assembly. A rare victory for progressivism in Dover. Savor it.
Delaware Political Weekly: June 2-8, 2012
She richly deserves one. She is the primary sponsor of the Delmarva Power special interest legislation that would literally make the powerless powerless. Whether James D. Burton of Caravel Hunt is a legit challenger is open to question. Couldn’t turn up anything on the Google, so, spies, I turn to you. Anyone know anything about this guy? Anyway, both Longhurst and Burton filed since our last report, and will face off in the D primary in September.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 7, 2012
Campaign finance reform passed the Senate yesterday, and heads to the Governor. My sophisticated analysis can be summed up as follows: HB 300(Gilligan), good. HB 310(Longhurst), bad, but nowhere near as important as HB 300. It’s really kinda like a hitchhiker, with 300 driving the car. And so insubstantial that 300 probably wouldn’t ask for gas money.
Kids, if you’re as alarmed at that last paragraph as I am, you can do something about it. I fear that I am in the early stages of TAS (Tortured Analogy Syndrome)
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show, Weds., June 6, 2012
Brad Bennett announced he would not seek reelection to the 32nd Representative District seat. He did it publicly on the House floor, he did it with dignity, and I wish him success in addressing the issues that led to his announcement. The legislative agendas ran true to form yesterday, with both the good and the […]
General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, June 5, 2012
No doubt the big action of the day will take place in party caucuses, where members of the Joint Finance Committee will brief members on the markup of the budget.
It’s always possible (wishful thinking, I know) that, after two weeks of soul-searching away from Dover, some legislators may announce that they’ve decided to retire. Of course, careful readers have already detected the Jeff Goldblum-sized Fly in the ointment, the very notion of soul-searching by politicos.
Extortion? Puh-leeze.
First it was plagiarism, now it’s extortion. Mike Katz may be a doctor but, judging by the way he throws overheated charges around, he’s sure no lawyer. And he looks less and less like a progressive all the time. Which, perhaps, is what he wants in his R district, but it’s not something I, for one, need. Nor do progressives.
In fact, he is using his claim of ‘political extortion’ to justify his burial of National Popular Vote legislation in his Senate Elections Committee. Might I point out that Katz sought the office of President Pro Tempore on a promise of not ‘desk-drawering’ legislation, which is exactly what he’s done? HB 55(D. E. Williams) passed the House on June 7, 2011. President Pro-Tem Tony DeLuca assigned the bill to the Senate Administrative Services/Elections Committee, which certainly appears to be the correct committee, on June 8, 2011. It has sat there for almost a year now, even though three committee members, Senators Blevins, Marshall, and Sokola, support its release from committee. Katz has joined two Rethugs, Senators Booth and Lawson, in keeping HB 55 bottled up in committee.
Delaware Political Weekly: May 26-June 1, 2012
1. A Candidate For the Rest of Us? To Be Determined. Long-time New Castle County employee Jonathan Husband announced that he would run for New Castle County Executive. Husband is the Engineering and Environmental Services Manager in the County’s Division of Special Services, and is also active in Fox Point civic activities. While I haven’t […]
Delaware Political Weekly: May 19-25, 2012
Carper Gets New Challenger–And He SPEAKS! Independent Alex Pires, owner of the Bottle and Cork in Dewey. The Bad News: Announced on Fox News. The Good News: He’s going after Carper for his banking industry ties, and he’s not afraid to hit hard:
“When people find out how dishonest the Democratic party is, and his work is, he’ll never get reelected,” Pires said. “He’s done. He’s finished. Carper, if you’re out there listening, your 36 years of taking money from poor people and living off the fat of the working class man, is done. I am the working class guy. I’m going to mop him up. I’m serious beyond serious.”
Memo to Alex Pires: If you want to win, you’re gonna need Democrats, LOTS of Democrats. Many D’s still identify with the Party, but not the Carper Corporate subsidiary it’s become in Delaware and elsewhere. You don’t want to alienate prospective supporters like me by an ad hominem blast at our party. You can blast where the Party has gone w/o blasting the traditional values of the Party, which many of us want to see the Party return to. Tone it down just a bit, you want to be seen as a credible alternative to Carper.
Did McDowell & Williams Go Rogue?
Signs point to ‘yes’. On the first day of budget mark-up by the Joint Finance Committee, co-chairs Sen. Harris McDowell and Rep. Dennis P. Williams unveiled a proposed 2% pay hike for state employees. Trouble is that they apparently did not give anyone a ‘heads-up’ on the move. By ‘anyone’, I mean the Markell Administration […]
Delaware Political Weekly: May 12-18, 2012
Looks Like Dori Connor’s In Trouble.
This week’s huge development makes me wonder whether the incumbent state senator will even run for reelection. I’m guessing no. Democrats scored what appears to be quite the recruiting coup as Nicole Poore filed for the 12th Senatorial District seat currently held by Republican Dori Connor. Connor has yet to file. Connor has never had what one would call a credible Democratic challenger in this overwhelmingly-Democratic district.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., May 16, 2012
If today’s column was science fiction, it’d be called “Invasion of the Home Invasion Bills”. Oh, no! There are two of them, accosting every legislator in their path! Cut to the finish: Turns out both bills are harmless and toothless, so no Solomoronic solons were injured in the creation of this legislative fever dream.
Both bills soon to be available to you at no cost in the guise of political brochures.
SB 161 and HB 277 both passed the Senate yesterday. Since a Senate amendment was added to HB 277, both bills head to the House. Both bills create the ‘new crime’ of home invasion. Both bills are merely political window dressing, as there are already about 150 offenses that would put home invaders away for a long, long time. Did I mention that this is an election year?
Delaware Political, Uh, Semi-Weekly: April 28-May 11, 2012
My absence last week compels me to offer up a Deluxe Double Edition of Delaware Political Weekly at no extra cost to you the reader. Well, excepting whatever psychic toll might be exacted for reading beyond this point. The top stories involve Pastor D, Tom Gordon, Shirley Price, Bruce Ennis and lots of filings.
Recent Comments