I'm Breaking the 11th Commandment!

I know Reagan had an 11th Commandment, and I read about Carper swearing the JJ Dinner to not speak ill of a fellow Dem (changing Reagan's old saying to fit the D's), but I'm going to break that rule...

Is anyone going to run against Harris McDowell? I must admit that I'm not in his district, nor am I a huge follower of State Senate business, but I have heard and read enough to completely convince me that 31 years in the General Assembly might just be enough for him.

The latest news that Harris has become a crony for Delmarva Power isn’t the only troubling story of my good friend's tenure. First off, he has been one of the more loyal supporters of Senate Pro Tem Thurmond Adams. As the story goes, Senator Blevins (a pretty good Dem, I must say) was on her way to becoming President Pro Tem after Sen. Sharp left office, and McDowell was one of her supporters. But last minute, Harris changed his vote; now supporting the network of “good old boys” in a deal that most likely secured him the Majority Leader’s position (a seat which he luckily doesn’t hold anymore). This may just be a rumor, but if it is true, Harris single handedly kept the State Senate in the hands of men like Adams and Vaughn (God forgive me for desecrating the name of the deceased) who have worked to maintain the public’s skepticism of the General Assembly, to put it mildly.

Besides Harris’ opposition to wind power and his coup d'état of the Senate Leadership, his almost spineless leadership on issues that he supports, like equal rights, has also led me to wonder why he is still in office. Yes, he was one of the main sponsors of SEED. Yes, it is a good program, but come on who is really against Education? I’m sorry, I am forgetting that he SUPPORTED Sen. Henry’s needle-exchange effort. But in reality, Harris deserves little credit for that. It was Margaret Rose and Helene Keeley (I know I may get in some trouble for saying that on this blog) that did all of the hard work and received much of the negative press.

Year after year, legislative session after legislative session, Senators and Representatives continue to bring up a bill which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation from many facets of life, including housing and employment. Every year, this bill is passed by the House, and every year, the McDowell supported Adams’ Senate ignores it. Thanks to an archaic Senate rule, committee chairman can keep bills held up in their committee until the end of session, effectively killing the legislation. But there is a little known rule that can be used to override the Chairman and President Pro Tem; if a certain amount of Senators sign a letter requesting a floor vote, the bill can by-pass the committee stage. From what I have heard, they have been just under the necessary amount of signatures needed to get a vote, and guess who is one of Senators who fails, every year, to sign that letter:

Yes, you guessed it, Harris McDowell!

Quick Side Note: Luckily, enough pressure was brought to bear that Adams finally passed the bill on to the Insurance and Elections Committee (which had a friendly Chairperson, the wonderful Ms. Patti Blevins), but because Nancy Cook resorted to “voting with her district,” she opposed that bill and voted to keep it IN committee…but that is a whole other issue.

Okay, I am finished, I won’t write anymore about Harris… but, someone, please… PLEASE run and let Harris know that Democrats in his district won’t sit idly by while he corrupts the party platform to resemble one of both a meeting of the Delmarva Board of Directors and a Dixiecrat rally.

-Silence Dogood