As reported in the Delco Times, Rep. Mike Carroll (PA-118) is sponsoring a bill to outlaw all non-wood bats for youth baseball and softball in the Commonwealth.

Even though I’m a loving and protective father with a son who participates in youth baseball, I’m still skeptical about this bill on several grounds:

1. Although there are catastrophic injuries from batted balls, they hardly seem frequent enough to demand a governmental response. The number of annual injuries from batted balls has been going down dramatically over time. And injuries still occur in places that use wood bats. This is one of those cases where the fear of shark attack seems inversely proportional to the risk of shark attacks. Resorting to legislation seems like governmental overreaching, even to a confirmed liberal weenie such as myself. Perhaps we should investigate a ban on swimming pools before we ban metal bats. Or cars, guns, and junk food.
2. Even if one agrees that some coordinated response is required, an outright ban of aluminum seems unnecessary. The biggest factor in generating ball speed is bat speed. An aluminum bat can, and often is, manufactured to increase bat speed by manipulating its weight. But the performance characteristics of aluminum bats can be regulated within the sport. The National Federation of State High School Associations seems to have come up with a perfectly reasonable solution of mandating limits on length-to-weight ratio. (In high school competition, bats cannot be more than three ounces lighter than their length in inches.) If you simply stop the arms race in bat engineering, you’ll probably accomplish just as much good. The length-to-weight ratio is a nice solution, because it is easily managed by umpires and coaches on the field of play.
3. The durability of aluminum bats is a boon to youth baseball.

It doesn’t sound like this legislation is going anywhere. (The Delco Times article leads me to believe that our legislator, Bryan Lentz, is dubious too.) Still, this issue pops up in states and municipalities all the time. I don’t understand why this pet issue has so much staying power.

Of course, we grow a lot of the Northern white ash used in wooden baseball bats here in PA. Maybe some industry lobbyists are behind the scheme.

For those who missed the August 5th program, the NBC10 Live @ Issue program is available online. Both Congressman Joe Sestak and State Representative Bryan Lentz are interviewed.

Bryan Lentz also has posted video of the July 23rd hearing on HB1182 held by the PA House Transportation Committee in Ridley Township. HB1182 is the Lentz’s bill proposing to create a regional airport authority.

Rep. Bryan Lentz, (D, PA-161) annouced on Friday that he’ll introduce legislation to strengthen the Commonwealth’s Sunshine Act. The measure reportedly has the support of the Local Government Committee Chairman Robert Freeman, (D, PA-136).

Sunshine laws (or open meeting laws) enhance the public’s ability to monitor their government by carefully limiting the topics that may be discussed by a government council or board in private meetings. Despite the law, many such bodies do not adhere to the law’s requirements.

Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania law is effectively toothless. According to 65 Pa.C.S.A. § 714:

Any member of any agency who participates in a meeting with the intent and purpose by that member of violating this chapter commits a summary offense and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $100 plus costs of prosecution.

So the penalty is a mere slap on the wrist, and that only if a brave citizen takes legal action, and the officials can be demonstrated to have participated with the intent to subvert the law.

Recent alleged misconduct in Haverford has brought the issue of the Sunshine Act back to the fore. The Governor has indicated that he’s in favor of toughening the law. Lentz, a reform-oriented freshman from Delaware County who sits on the Local Government Committee, is the right person to get the ball rolling.

Because Delaware County has lived under one-party rule for thirty years, this is an issue on which I’m unusually sensitive. In fact, the only time I have marched into a public meeting and griped at my municipal commissioners was when allegations arose that they’d been discussing out-of-bounds topics in executive session.

Daddy Democrat endorses the efforts of any legislators, regardless of party, to strengthen the Sunshine Act. My gratitude goes out, yet again, to Bryan Lentz. Politically, everybody knows I’m a big supporter of his, but so far, he’s done everything to deserve my continued trust.

Among my many identities, Daddy Democrat is a committee member for the Delaware County Democratic Party. Tonight was the belated nominating convention for the 2007 court and municipal elections.

For starters, State Representative Bryan Lentz (PA-161) was NOT in attendence. He and his wife Jennifer are celebrating the birth of their baby boy Joseph Thomas Lentz–today! So when some future opponent tries to make an issue of the fact that he wasn’t in Harrisburg to vote on important ethics reform legislation, remember that he was demonstrating his family values and attending to job #1. A heartfelt congratulations to the Lentz family.

It turns out there were no endorsements to come out of the nominating convention. Anyone who knows Delco Democratic politics knows that the party is highly fractured. We get behind the same candidates up-ticket, but there’s significant tension over the management of the party at the County-wide level under the leadership of County Chair Cliff Wilson. Last year, Wilson barely survived an internal challenge from Radnor Democratic Chair Bruce Bikin. The vote was 163-161.

For sure, Wilson had his hand-picked cast of regulars who routinely fail to raise money and seriously contest County Republicans. Nether Providence Democratic Committee Chair David Landau was one of the upstarts who filed hundreds of signatures on petititions to enter the race for County Council. (Landau was also most recently the senior campaign advisor to Joe Sestak’s successful congressional campaign.)

It’s unknown at what point Wilson saw the writing on the wall, but Landau had a lot of supporters in the room. Wilson made a speech in which he said that elections shouldn’t be decided by “the plutocrats” and said power should be returned to the people. Representatives from each of the two camps of the party made a motion to forego endorsements and have an open primary.The vote was unanimous. Okay, there was one vote in opposition, but it seemed to come from back near the bar area.

So now candidates will have to work to introduce themselves to the voters. In my mind, this is a good outcome. Yes, primaries are expensive, and divert races away from general elections. On the other hand, an active primary might actually alert area Democrats to the municipal and county elections in 2007.

Landau gave a very good speech. For what it’s worth, I was also impressed by presentations from Lansdowne Mayor Jayne Young, and former Chester Councilwoman Patricia Lewis-West. Newly minted Democrat Rocco Polidoro, who has been a figure in local politics for some years as an “Independent Repubican,” and gets points for the help he gave to Joe Sestak last year. But he didn’t give a good explanation as to why he couldn’t be a Democrat for the 20 years in which he was combating the Charlie Sexton machine in Springfield. He might have been forgiven this character flaw, except that he repeatedly antagonized the audience by calling us the “Democrat” party, just like he who shall not be named.

The committee assignments for the PA House haven’t been posted on their web site yet, but the Delco Times print edition reported yesterday that Bryan Lentz (PA-161) was informed by Appropriations Committee Chair Dwight Evans, that he will have a seat on the coveted committee.

Tom Gannon didn’t have a seat on Appropriations; those who are concerned about a potential loss of influence in Harrisburg by trading in a 28-year incumbent for a freshman representative should be reassured that district interests will make it to the table.

It’s not exactly the easiest thing to do to find the new contact information for new legislators. So to aid you Googlers, I’m posting these here to assist you.

The district office for Joe Sestak (PA-7) is at 600 N. Jackson Street, Suite 203, Media, PA 19063. The phone number is (610) 892-8623.

Patrick Murphy (PA-8) has set up his new district office at 60 North Main Street, Doylestown, PA 18901. Phone: (215) 348-1194.

Bryan Lentz’s (PA-161) constituent office is located in the Swarthmore Office Plaza. The address is 630 Fairview Road, Suite 104, Swarthmore, PA 19081. The phone number is (610) 544-7301.

UPDATE: official legislative web links

Joe Sestak (PA-07)
Patrick Murphy (PA-08)

Bryan Lentz (PA-161)

At the last minute, I decided I’d drive to Harrisburg for the Swearing In ceremony of Bryan Lentz and the other new legislators in the PA House. Not only would I be able to savor the hard-won victory of November among friends, but I could also make a surprise visit with my dad and brother in the area.

I’ve never been to an event like this. I grew up in the area, and I used to visit the Capitol cafeteria one summer when I did a College internship with the PR office for a State agency. But it was something else entirely to be around town for big goings on.

By now, the results are not really news. Neither DeWeese nor any other members of the Majority party was able to assume the Speakership of the House thanks to a defection from the ranks. But they were able to catch the Republicans off guard and install a more cooperative Philly Republican as the new Speaker with the help of a handful of Republicans breaking ranks. You can read more at Mario Cattabiani’s insta-blog on the Speaker election nominations.

What Mario’s account doesn’t adequately convey was just how crazy and bizarre the whole event was as it was happening in real time. DeWeese sprung the nomination out as a surprise, but slightly out of turn. For the following hour, there was a bizarre parliamentary exercise in which the Republicans, knowing they’d probably been bested, seemed to be stalling while (I assume) some of the numbers worked the floor trying to make a last ditch appeal to count their votes, cut deals and twist arms.

Brief skirmishes over rules of order and bizarre ramblings by Dem. Leader DeWeese punctuated long spells of silence while the two parties worked every tactical angle they could think of.

While it was all going on, I had two ideas in my head. One was that for politicial junkies, this was amazing event to witness first-hand. In all my years, I may never see an event this bizarre and amusing.

The other thought was that the display of behavior on the part of this body, especially Perzel and DeWeese, was a perfect example of the shenanigans that the voters have gotten so sick of. It wasn’t that there was a leadership battle, it was that they were playing every silly procedural game in the book as part of an elaborate show with an almost certain conclusion. It certainly wasn’t an event filled with taste and decorum.

It reminded me of my old days as a high school debater when a borderline team would run what’s lovingly called a “squirrel case.” While you’re talking about serious environmental policy, the other team would mockingly make up a silly case with absurd evidence. It was essentially an elaborate, nerdy joke. Part of you thinks it’s funny, but the other part of you is resentful that they’re wasting your time.

In the end, the CleanSweepers got what they wanted, more or less:

In other notes, Lentz had a nice gathering for his supporters downtown after the ceremony. I met some nice folks from back home in the district. I also note that Bryan’s sharing an office suite in the capitol with fellow newcomer Rick Taylor. They’re in the same little neighborhood with the gang of other young, suburban superstars Vitali, Gerber, and Shapiro. I assume that they’ll have lots of chances to work together as a block on regional interests and issues. There is a heck of a lot of can-do and dynamism in that gang of five.

With Governor Ed in office for four more years, and a new Speaker from Philly, I have to assume that this bodes well for the prospects on issues critical to the Delaware Valley region, especially transportation.