Tag: Karen Peterson
DL Endorsements for the General Assembly
We have a few primaries in races for the General Assembly that we, as liberals and progressives, would like to weigh in on. We have an open seat in the 9th Senatorial District, a challenger to Speaker Schwartzkopf in the 14th Representative District, and a rematch between current Representative Sean Matthews and former Representative Dennis Williams in the 10th Representative District.
Does Delaware deserve to kill?
The real question isn’t “Do people deserve to die for the crimes they’ve committed?”, it’s “Do we deserve to kill?”
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up: Week of March 17-19, 2015
That was quite the dust-up between Sen. Karen Peterson and Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf this week. The argument? Why won’t Schwartzkopf allow a floor vote on legislation eliminating the death penalty? Both legislators make legitimate points.
Pete Schwartzkopf by and large does control the fate of the bill. As Speaker, he not only decides what committee receives the bill, he determines the members of the committees. Put the bill in a committee in which the majority does not support death penalty repeal, and the bill isn’t coming out unless petitioned out. Going against the Speaker to petition a bill out has its own set of perils. So Peterson is correct there. Pete has taken steps to stop the bill, his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.
However, Schwartzkopf has offered a compromise:
Schwartzkopf has said that he would oppose any repeal legislation that did not include exemptions for those inmates convicted of killing members of law enforcement, including correctional officers.
Not including those exemptions would endanger every correctional officer working in the state’s prisons, he said. He added that he offered amendments to repeal legislation last year, but those requests “fell on deaf ears.”
He said that compromise is needed on the bill. Peterson, he said, is not willing to compromise.
“This building is bigger than one bill,” Schwartzkopf said.
This raises two questions: (1) Would Schwartzkopf take steps to ensure the bill’s consideration if this compromise was accepted; and (2) is it worth it to have a repeal bill with these exceptions?
Who Will Run and How Do They Stack Up?
With Beau Biden’s withdrawal from the Senate race yesterday, we have a lot of scrambling going on. Let’s discuss the pros and cons of each of the prospective Democratic candidates.
First, let’s dispense with Lt. Governor Matt Denn. I spoke to him yesterday. He isn’t going to run. His two kids come first in his life, and not seeing them for days at a time would be an abdication of his most important role. But let me say for the record, he would be my first choice.
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