Play ball
Yeah, so I've been a little quiet. The thing is, I really believed this was going to work out. MLB wanted to be here, the Council basically wanted baseball. Oh, and there was the little matter of my final exams.
When I worked for the Council, I often bemoaned that Linda Cropp didn't stand up for the Council's prerogatives as a legislative body. Not so much a problem anymore. Structurally, it's important to note that she still didn't really speak for anyone except herself. In the Congress, the Speaker of the House is elected by the members of that body. (Really, just the members of the Majority, but that's irrelevant to my point here.) And the Senate Majority Leader is elected by the other majority-party Senators.
Linda Cropp was elected as an At-Large Representative to the Office of the Chair. I've always thought that the Home Rule Act made a mistake, because she's not empowered to speak for the other members. It's certainly conceivable that the voters could chose a Chair who doesn't believe anything the other members do.
The single-party dominance of the District makes this unlikely, but I've always believed that the Democrats' dominance is self-fulfilling. I mean, if I were a Republican (G-d forbid), I'd still register as a Democrat because all the offices (save 2 at-large seats) are decided in the primary.
Now, all of this has turned out to be rather interesting because if the Council were designed as most legislative bodies are -- electing its own chair -- it seems pretty likely to me that Jack Evans would be the Chair. (Maybe it would have been Kevin Chavous. So sometimes things work out.) At least could have been. He's a great guy, well liked by his colleagues, smart, all of it. (Of course, he's also white, so I'm not sure how the politics would have played out, if members would have preferred an African-American as chair, but that's somewhat beside the point.)
I'm declaring a moratorium on parenthetical for the rest of this post.
Had Jack Evans been elected *by the members*, he would have been able to tell MLB -- no matter how strong his personal support -- the votes were not available for the initial financing package. Linda Cropp never had that ability because she really has no powers beyond the rather important matter of committee assignments, which only come into play at the beginning of the term.
But I digress. Play ball.
When I worked for the Council, I often bemoaned that Linda Cropp didn't stand up for the Council's prerogatives as a legislative body. Not so much a problem anymore. Structurally, it's important to note that she still didn't really speak for anyone except herself. In the Congress, the Speaker of the House is elected by the members of that body. (Really, just the members of the Majority, but that's irrelevant to my point here.) And the Senate Majority Leader is elected by the other majority-party Senators.
Linda Cropp was elected as an At-Large Representative to the Office of the Chair. I've always thought that the Home Rule Act made a mistake, because she's not empowered to speak for the other members. It's certainly conceivable that the voters could chose a Chair who doesn't believe anything the other members do.
The single-party dominance of the District makes this unlikely, but I've always believed that the Democrats' dominance is self-fulfilling. I mean, if I were a Republican (G-d forbid), I'd still register as a Democrat because all the offices (save 2 at-large seats) are decided in the primary.
Now, all of this has turned out to be rather interesting because if the Council were designed as most legislative bodies are -- electing its own chair -- it seems pretty likely to me that Jack Evans would be the Chair. (Maybe it would have been Kevin Chavous. So sometimes things work out.) At least could have been. He's a great guy, well liked by his colleagues, smart, all of it. (Of course, he's also white, so I'm not sure how the politics would have played out, if members would have preferred an African-American as chair, but that's somewhat beside the point.)
I'm declaring a moratorium on parenthetical for the rest of this post.
Had Jack Evans been elected *by the members*, he would have been able to tell MLB -- no matter how strong his personal support -- the votes were not available for the initial financing package. Linda Cropp never had that ability because she really has no powers beyond the rather important matter of committee assignments, which only come into play at the beginning of the term.
But I digress. Play ball.
posted by Josh at
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
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