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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-04-14

Education Overview in the Post

The Post's Lead Editorial today is on the efforts in this legislative session to work on education issues. It's mostly just an overview, with little in the way of news or dramatic opinion. But there is this accidentally revealing line:

But this year, even though nearly 40 education-related bills have been introduced at the General Assembly, legislators seem content to just tinker around the edges, altering existing laws and streamlining others.

Part of that can be attributed to the Democrats' new majority. Fearful it will be short-lived, they're hesitant to make drastic proposals.

Keep that in mind--it's not that they don't want a complete overhaul, it's just that they're afraid of making news so that they can retain their majority.

On the one hand, this reveals the truth behind the drastic move to the center of the Democratic Party in Colorado: it's not that they're really, truly moderate like they say they are--they just know it won't fly. But on the other hand, this also is a window into an effective long-term strategy. Given the slimmest of majorities, the Dems are content to "eat up the clock" in this legislative session, making sure that they're positioned well to gain seats and increase their majority next time around. In the last session, the slim Republican majority took on many of the major cultural issues, which opened them up to the well-funded (and I stress WELL-FUNDED) attacks of the 527s last November. The Dems may have learned from that, and are simply holding onto the ball for now.

Hey, that kind of strategy won two Super Bowls for the Patriots--it could work in the legislature. The GOP will have to be pretty sharp next time around to overcome this approach.

For more thoughts on the next legislative elections, check out Ben and follow his link to MileHigh Delphi.
Posted by: Michael / 4/14/2005 06:59:00 AM

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