The venerable Celia Cohen says that Coons, Carney and Biden may well run unopposed
Sure there will be some nutbags. And I can’t imagine that Charles Lammot DuPont Copeland would be incompetent enough to let this come to pass, but so far nobody is whispering legitimate names into the ear of the Dean of Delaware political bloggers.
In the age of the perpetual campaign, Delaware looks like the place that politics forgot.
… So far it is nothing but a free ride at the top of the ballot for Chris Coons, John Carney and Beau Biden on the Democrats’ 2014 statewide ticket, not a Republican opponent or a primary challenger in sight.
SO maybe I spoke too soon when I said that Coons would be out and about and relativity accessible this year?
What are the thoughts on the impact this will have on the Treasurer and Auditor races
Will this help or hurt the GOP?
Good question. I guess conventional wisdom suggests that it would help the Republicans on the bottom of the ticket. No big races at the top would make it a very low turnout mid-term election.
@jason
Interesting, my first reaction was the opposite. I thought it would free up some money and the ability of the big-ticket names (if they care) to come in and campaign for the down-ticket Dems. Figured it would more hurt the GOP to be seen to be unable even to field candidates.
Can the GOP brand be MORE damaged? You make some good points, but the model you have to look at is a very low turnout election. (Calling John Tobin, come in John Tobin)
My sense is that the GOP has far fewer registered voters, but it may have more zealots.
So I hear people talking about John Carney and that he is tired of being a Congressman — anyone else hearing that from credible sources?
…tired of being a Congressman…? That is just crazy enough to be believable.
What about Rose Izzo. I saw her picture with Lacey Lafferty (R-GOV 2016) at the Laurel Parade. No sign of Wagner or Simpler or Bonini??? GOP should apply for ObamaCare.
Carney never wanted that job. He’s going to be making a run for governor in 2016 alongside Denn and Gordon.
If the GOP wants to pretend to relevance, it’ll have to put up some names for those slots. I wonder if any safe senators will take one for the team, or if random bizpeeps will be getting their 20 seconds of fame.
In a one party state you get plenty of losers like Mr. Coons …
If the R’s don’t bother to put up candidates for the top races, there will be no incentive for R’s to come out to vote.
It’s not as if there’s a rabid grassroots constituency for Tom Wagner. I think he’s gonna lose either way, but he’ll lose more if the R’s punt on other statewide races.
Would help the D’s if they replace Chip Flowers, though, otherwise the R’s have something to rally around.
As POD Person notes above, it’s not as if no names will appear on the ballot. If Izzo and Lafferty are the only GOPers to step forward, that means they will get about 40% of the vote, which would serve to make them look like legitimate candidates. Whether you want that depends on how much entertainment you expect from politics, and whether you think it’s better to keep such people off the general election ballot altogether to ensure they’ll never be elected.
POD person must have skipped the first sentence of this post, “Sure there will be some nutbags.”
No incumbent popular D’s hurts bottom of the ticket –
Celia sounds a little mournful that there don’t seem to be any top ticket battles in store.
We have to have a strong ticket! The R’s are rallying around Ken Simpler as the future of their party. They think he will become Treasurer and then in two or six years become Governor.
To become Treasurer and then Governor, Simpler would need to announce his run for the top job just six months after being sworn in as Treasurer. He’d lose the Governor’s race and then get bounced from the Treasurer’s job next cycle for being too transparent.