PDD-DL Vote Tracker Update [5.9.13]
The Governor signed HB 35 into law yesterday, surrounded by a group of parents who lost their children in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut last December. The law extends mandatory background checks to most private gun sales this July. There are three other gun control measures that are part of the Governor’s gun control package: a bill establishing gun-free school zones (HB 67), a ban on high-capacity magazines (HB 58), and a requirement to report lost or stolen guns (SB 16).
SB 16, the aforementioned bill that would require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns within 7 days after discovering the bill lost or stolen, has cleared the committee and is headed to the House floor for a vote. How anyone can oppose this bill is beyond me. Indeed, if you oppose this bill, you must be a terrorist or a criminal, or at least an enabler of the two.
Represenative Kowalko’s HB 13 finally passed the House after six years of trying, 30-11. The bill bans lawmakers from becoming lobbyists after they leave the General Assembly for one year after leaving office. His previous bills called for 2 years. The Republicans have introduced that version of the bill in the Senate, and offered an Amendment was offered to increase the term to 2 years, but it was defeated. I am not sure why, but some Democrats in the House are really making themselves look like defenders of lobbyists by opposing this legislation. Some surprising names in the no column. And given that all the Republicans voted yes, it is obvious that they are using this and the double dipping issue to their advantage. And the Democrats voting no are dumb enough to let them.
Meanwhile, SB 6, the bill to raise the minimum wage has been tabled in the House Economic Development and Banking Committee. The committee voted 7-3 to table the measure. The proposal would raise the current hourly wage from $7.25 to $7.75 on Jan. 1, 2014, and to $8.25 on Jan. 1, 2015. The bill can be revived at any time during this session by having the committee change its mind and report it out for a House floor vote, or 21 House members can petition the committee to release the bill for a floor vote.
Here are the members of that committee:
I imagine all the Republicans voted to table. That’s 4. I can guess that Paul Baumbach and Dennis Williams were 2 of the 3 to oppose the motion to table. The question is who are the three Democrats who joined with the Republicans to screw us.
Finally, HB 105, the bill to allow Election Day voter registration cleared the committee and awaits a vote on the House floor.
And now for the rest of the Vote Tracker:
To keep up to date on all legislation that is of priority to liberals and progressives, DL has partnered with the Progressive Democrats for Delaware (PDD) to compile this Vote Tracker. Now, this chart does not follow all the legislation that has been filed. We don’t report on perfunctory bills like the ones about the charter of Georgetown or ticket scalping. Nor do we follow the progress of judicial nominations, executive nominations, or Concurrent or Joint Resolutions unless they are a matter of controversy. So the legislation that is listed is a matter of concern and priority for those of us on the liberal / progressive side of the aisle.
The legislator’s names which are colored blue are Democrats. If they are colored red, they are Republicans. The first chart focuses on House Bills, and the second chart focuses on Senate Bills. If you want to download this Vote Tracker chart, at the very bottom you will see a black bar with a Microsoft Excel logo on the right. Click on it and you will be able to download the chart into the Excel format.
HOUSE BILLS:
SENATE BILLS:
Is there a place where we can see the roll call on amendment on HB13? That measure failed, 17-21, with 2 not voting and 1 absent. I would like to know how that vote went.
Yes. Here is the link: http://www.legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/7712cf7cc0e9227a852568470077336f/265718616ad2d43485257b640071fa25?OpenDocument
The Amendment was defeated 21-17, with Paul Baumbach and John Kowalko not voting and Melanie George Smith absent. Given their druthers, I imagine Baumbach and Kowalko wanted to vote yes on the amendment, but decided against it so as to keep the Democratic votes on the 1 year bill. The only Democrats to vote for the Amendment were Larry Mitchell and Trey Paradee. Otherwise all the yes votes were Republican. It is truly assine that the Democrats in the House are positioning themselves in this fashion.
Why the hell give the Republicans an issue?
I was in the room for the vote on SB6 minimum wage bill.
I don’t remember whether Andria Bennett or Trey Paradee voted to release and which one voted to table…
Here are the other Ds:
Chairman: Bryon Short: Opposed the bill, voted to table
Vice Chairman: Dennis E. Williams: Said he was undecided on the bill, but voted to release it from committee
Members:
Paul Baumbach: He was at the beginning of the meeting but was not in the room for the votes
Quinn Johnson voted to table the bill
Helene Keeley was the champion for the bill and advocated quite strongly for it
Senate Bill 48, the redistricting reform bill, also made its way out of committee.
Dennis E. Williams is on the record regarding a “cooling off” period for former lawmakers. See:
http://data.delawareonline.com/webapps/Voters_Guide/76/81/
4. Do you think a member of the General Assembly should be allowed to work as a paid lobbyist immediately after leaving office?
I have a full time job as a corporate controller and have worked in managerial accounting for my entire career. I would have no intention of working as a lobbyist should I no longer be a member of the General Assembly. I do not, however, believe that we should restrict someone’s employment opportunities once they leave public office.
So,
Republicans + Bryon Short + Quinn Johnson + either Bennett or Paradee. My guess, given his other votes so far, is that Paradee voted to table, and Bennett voted to release.
Bennett’s quote in today’s News-Journal indicates that she was a ‘no’. Parroted Chamber talking points.
You mean Bennett voted to table. Gotcha. Paradee surprises.
Here’s a couple of suggestions I’ve been meaning to make on this excellent tracker:
1. Could you add a column or entry someplace to note the PDD recommended vote on these issues? It might not be clear to casual followers what the Progressive position on some of these might be.
2. To help people look at track records over the long term, it would be interesting to show backsheets for this that would keep a running summary of how legislators vote for these bills. At the end of each year, you could come up with scorecards or at least better historical data that could be used in the endorsement process.
Item 2 is a fair amount of work, though.
We started out with the PDD logo being added under the Bill Number to indicate whether this was an official PDD endorsed piece of legislation. But as bills changed in the committee process, most notably the tax bills and the minimum wage bills, we decided to take away that logo, as the bills became less progressive than the PDD would have liked. So PDD has been announcing by press releases and letters which individual bills they support (for exampale, SB 19 (Death Penalty repeal), HB 74 (Single Payer Healthcare), HB 75 (Marriage Equality), etc.
Tomorrow, an official list of PDD sponsored legislation will be released tomorrow in advance of the State Convention, and I think we will add the PDD recommendation back into the chart shortly.
As to #2, the tracker is intended to be used come election time to aid in the endorsement process for the PDD, and will be available as a database to see how Senators and Representatives voted on key issues.