Thursday, February 22nd, 2007...7:24 pm
Despite the Scouting Reports, Democrats Hang Together
All of Mo Udall’s talk about the circular firing squads seems to have fallen away and the Democratic caucus has gotten past whatever differences led to the split that was talked about way back in the first week of the session.
This week, the House Democratic caucus has largely held together in opposition to Republican bills. In an odd sort of victory, the dreaded “Cable Bill” passed in Committee of the Whole with only one Democratic “yes” vote and a bare 30-27 majority. The bill, appropriate since it regards cable television, has died and come back several times like a bad horror movie villain. This time, it was brought up as a “strike all” on top of a bill that used to be a technical change regarding interior inspections of rental units. Supporters of the bill were counting on more support from Republicans and a few more break offs from Democrats. Didn’t happen that way.
It seems like a loss, but in the end it became a win. Even though the bill passed Committee of the Whole, 30 votes would not be enough to pass the full house where 31 votes are necessary. Cox Cable, who had been pushing for a bill in the hopes of bypassing negotiations with the City of Tucson, threw up a white flag. Within an hour of the vote they informed the city that they would like to restart negotiations. They saw that the 31st vote would be hard to come by.
There have been more tangible victories too. A bill that was a favorite of Warde Nichols was defeated for a second time today. If the caucus continues to hold and act like a caucus, then budget time will be very interesting.
1 Comment
February 27th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
This is another result of the state GOP freezing out the Democrats. If Democrats are unable to get a hearing on a bill anyway, then there is little to tempt them away from voting as a bloc.
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