I decided to change up the Vote Tracker and how it is organized. Before, it was organized by the status of the bills, as in what bills were in Committee, what bills were on Ready Lists, what bills were passed or defeated, or were in limbo. Now, every bill will be listed under categories to make it easier to find specific bills. Those categories are, in no order of importance because every category is important:
- Environment
- Government Reform (bills related to FOIA or open government or changing government processes)
- Criminal Justice (bills related to criminal justice reform or the criminal justice system)
- Drug Control
- Jobs – Economics – Consumer Protection
- Healthcare – Health Insurance
- Taxes – Budget
- Gun Control
- Education
- Civil Rights – Discrimination
- Voting – Elections
You will notice some colors on the chart below. If a bill is highlighted in yellow, that means it is a must pass for this session. These are bills that any Democratic Majority in any other state legislature would pass without a second thought, and thus, they must pass here. Enough Delaware Way excuses. These bills must be passed or else the Democratic voter will wonder what the point of having Democrats in the majority is. Understand Pete and Dave? You win elections by getting your voter to the polls, not by converting Republicans.
Bills highlighted in green have been passed by the General Assembly and either have been signed by Governor Carney or will be or don’t need to be (i.e. Constitutional Amendments).
Bills highlighted in red have been defeated, either by vote on the floor or in committee or have been tabled on the floor or in committee.
The last column on the right is new: BD Position. Because not all bills we follow here are bills that we, or Democrats in the General Assembly, should support. Most bills, as you will see, we do support. Some bills we will be neutral on. And some bills we will oppose.
You can access our Vote Tracker page anytime you want by clicking on the Vote Tracker tab on the main horizontal menu below our Blue Delaware logo on the front page.
So instead of getting my real work done this morning, I spent some time looking through some of these bills and your list, DD.
First up, this is a fantastic resource and I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this.
Second (and I am talking to Delaware candidates here), this points out how very little the state’s GOP adds to the governing conversation here. There’s very little that they’ve proposed that is about helping anybody, just working their agendas.
Third, WTF is up with Bobby Marshall and trying to disallow juvenile offenders from voting? (I should also note that I have not heard back from his office on his NO vote on the gun bill.)
On your second point, to be fair, I do not include a lot of legislation that they propose and file, for a couple reasons. Most legislation they file are hyper local to Sussex County or Kent County and/or are perfunctory. For example, modifying the town charter of Georgetown or zoning issues. Stuff like that. The Republican legislation that I do include are pieces of legislation that I actually agree with (For example, Republicans have been smart about taking on Democrats in open government issues, like Double Dipping Disclosure. They are doing it cynically, but I support the actual legislation); or that we as Democrats, liberals and progressive must oppose with all our might, like right to work or prevailing wage reform.