Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Desk drawer veto bill

I saw an article yesterday that merits a quick comment. I would link the article, but I can't figure out the State News's new website. They say they are all for free speech and free ads, but without any free substance, it's hard to say what type of audience they are targeting. Unfortunately, I couldn't find this particular article on the News Journal's (arguably equally as bad) website either, but I did find two blog entries about the desk drawer veto currently at issue in our capital: Delaware Watch and First State Politics. There's also some opinion article from the News Journal about the issue here.

My point about this particular article has nothing to do with the desk drawer veto but rather, a simple question of voting. In the article, it states (perhaps overly so), that "Sen. Ennis noted that he voted for a House bill in June - while he still was a member of the chamber - that would subject the General Assembly to [the State's Freedom of Information Act], excluding party caucuses." Does this mean he voted on the bill that passed in the House, and now (by comedy of coincidences) can now vote on that same bill as a Senator?

Granted, this is probably not the case, and I'm just throwing it out there as an interesting hypothetical. First, I am assuming that Sen. Ennis had voted on this bill while he was in the House, and it passed in the House before the Senate sat on it, and now it is still eligible to be passed in the Senate. If these assumptions are correct, and Sen. Ennis votes on it and it now passes by a narrow majority, isn't this sort of cut against the one man, one vote concept?

More than likely, I am reading too into this whole article, and I'm certainly no expert on how bicameralism works in Delaware. In all likelihood, the Senate will simply pass another bill and avoid the gray issues. If my assumptions are correct, however, it certainly makes this much more interesting to follow. If I decide to form an opinion about the whole desk drawer veto issue, perhaps I will write about it at another point.

1 comment:

Anonymous Delawarean said...

I saw from another blog why the State News has gone "dark" in its online content. There are plenty more things I can spend $145 on, and paying for the content of what (honestly) isn't that great a newspaper, isn't one of them. Maybe they give you a free online subscription with your print subscription, but somehow I doubt that's the case.

Even the Wall Street Journal and the N.Y. Times has free content! "Free speech and free ads" seems to run counter their stated goals of providing "the information citizens need to make their own intelligent decisions about public issues."