General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Weds., Jan. 11, 2012

While the legislative season didn’t exactly kick off with a bang, the political Hot Stove League was in full blast mode in Dover.

Greg Lavelle, who had already told colleagues that he would not run for reelection to the House, announced that he would seek the 4th Senatorial District seat currently held by Sen. Michael Katz (D-Centreville). This shapes up as a very competitive race. While I’ve been critical of President Pro-Tem Tony DeLuca’s redistricting machinations that screwed worthy Democrats and progressives, there really wasn’t much that he could do for or to Katz. I mean, Katz lives in Centreville. There aren’t many Democratic enclaves nearby. I would give you the current registration totals, but a quick review of the Department of Elections sites reveals that the on-line totals reflect the old districts, not the reapportioned districts. Memo to the Governor: Elections needs some administrative help. Stat! The respective Departments of Elections websites appear to be in total disarray.

More surprising was the announcement that Rep. Dennis E. Williams from Brandywine Hundred is facing a primary challenger. The reason why it belongs in the Post-Game/Pre-Game is because the challenge appears to have either been encouraged or ginned up by the House Majority Caucus, or members of the Caucus. This is very unusual for what has been an exceedingly disciplined and successful caucus.  As the article states, Dennis E. Williams had called out fellow members of his caucus by name for opposing the building of two more casinos in Delaware. His challenger, Sean Matthews, a 25-year-old school teacher at P. S.DuPont, parroted the caucus criticism of Williams in announcing his candidacy:

“Calling out your own members in the paper like Dennis did is not the path forward,” said Matthews, president of the Chalfonte Civic Association. “I don’t think that’s being a good caucus member. … I don’t think that demonstrates you have the influence to get a bill done behind the scenes.”

Since ‘calling out’ other legislators is as ‘inside-the-Beltway’ as it gets, one that would not resonate with many voters, I can only conclude that this primary is being engineered by members of the Caucus. Most likely Pete Schwartzkopf, who is the political leader of the caucus. Very bad form by Williams, but a surprisingly hubristic response by the House D’s. This will be interesting…it’s not like you simply want to throw away house seats.

Finally, yet another state trooper, and one seemingly with a high Asshole Quotient, has thrown his steel-toed jackboots into the political arena. One Steve Smyk will run for a newly-created  House seat in Sussex County. He met with the House R Caucus in Dover yesterday. Allow me to quote this would-be ‘Honorable’ from the linked News-Journal article:

“They’re very angry that I went to a Republican side,” Smyk said of the Democrats. “[But] I don’t fit well in Democratic skin.”

“They’re afraid of me,” he said of the Democrats.

When a cop is this full of himself, the people he is sworn to protect should be justly afraid of him. He seems to like people being afraid of him, and the guy carries a gun, after all.

Time to look at the official goings-on in Dover…well, it’s official. Either neither House did anything yesterday, or Legislative Council and the House and Senate were simply not prepared for the beginning of session. When you click on the Current Day Action report, you go back to July 1, 2011. Awful, just awful. Between Elections and the General Assembly, was FOIA suspended on July 1? Or is it incompetence? I’m struggling to come up with a third possibility.

Well, at least meeting notices have been posted, although it’s hard to tell if these are all the meetings that have been scheduled. The House exclusively works in committees on Wednesdays. While the full Senate generally meets after committees have met, there is no Senate agenda today. So, the committees are where it’s at today:

The Joint House and Senate Education Committees will discuss key education issues with Dr. Lillian Lowry, Delaware’s Secretary of Education. Posted topics to be discussed include:

DPAS System

Component V

Race To The Top

Other Educational Issues.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet to give its imprimatur to the ‘bath salts’ bill. It will almost certainly appear on Thursday’s Senate Agenda.

That’s it for the Senate.

Here is the list of House committee meetings.

One bill that concerns me is HB 215, which would define what constitutes permissible “lawful use” of electronic tracking (GPS) devices by law enforcement. While the bill’s synopsis claims that the “standards for law enforcement use of electronic tracking meet or exceed prevailing constitutional principles/standards”, I would rather have someone from the ACLU, or at least a lawyer with a clue, make sure that this bill doesn’t hasten creeping Big Brotherism. When you look at the bill’s sponsors, you realize that they’re not exactly Dover’s best and brightest constitutional scholars. The bill is in Rep. Smith’s (formerly Rep. George’s) Judiciary Committee.  One can only hope that  the bill will be reviewed carefully, and with civil liberties in mind.

Those are the highlights for me. YMMV.

Join us tomorrow for perhaps the first meaningful votes of the year and, one would hope, more political intrigue.