A tip of the hat to Del. Albert Pollard, whose resignation (pdf) provided some much-needed inspiration for my latest op-ed. And congratulations to the General Assembly, whose unanimous passage of the budget gave me hope that it is possible to put politics aside and do what is right by the people.
3 thoughts on “Power instead of governance”
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Great article and I completely agree. During the campaign, Kenny had a proposal to reform the way committees are structured in the House. He wanted the minority party to chair some of the less important committees and term limits for committee chairs. I don’t remember all the details, but it was very well thought out and seemed feasible, politics notwithstanding.
Do you think such a proposal could ever work outside of the obvious political resistance?
No, I don’t think it could work. Biggest issue, in addition to the political considerations, is the seniority system.
True, but I think there are many cases where the Committee chair has less seniority than, at least on sub-committees. Even splitting up sub-committee chairs would be a good start, I saw a freshman Congressman chairing a defense one on CSPAN today.
Selecting chairs primarily on seniority and not party seems like it would end up with more bi-partisanship than we have now.