John Carney Primary Challenge Imminent ?
So I guess this is happening now. If I get some pledges, and Mrs. (not as) Liberal (as me), doesn’t kill me – I guess I’ll have some news to announce.
For the record – if John Carney paid a crumb’s worth of attention to the Democratic base, this wouldn’t be necessary. I actually had high hopes for Carney, but there is no more room left for hoping for the best. He is a complete a total sell out. His constant overtures to the obstructionist Republicans are hard to swallow, but you can chalk that up to a warm and open personality. Doing the Koch Brother’s bidding is the last straw, however. It isn’t an issue of style. Now he is openly working against the interests of middle class Delawareans.
This country has moved to the right over the past 20 years because the GOP has primaries which force the party to pay attention to the base. The Democrats don;t have primaries, so Democrats like John Carney are free to utterly ignore the legitimate concerns of the Democratic base.
I think I have to primary John Carney. Not because I want to be in Congress, or be a O’Donell type spoiler and risk throwing the seat to the Republicans. John Carney will easily beat me in the primary.
But I want to do it to just have a chance to tell him to his face that he is wrong to take $300k from the financial services industry. That he is wrong to enable the Tea Party like he does by giving “bipartisan” gloss to all the bullshit they are pulling. That he is wrong to use his seat to benefit billionaires like Pete Peterson at the expense of Delawareans he is supposed to be representing.
What’s the filling fee? I would surely lose – but if I could just tell him to be a Democrat to his face it might shame him into thinking twice about being the Republican’s boy on the other side of the isle. Even if is didn’t, it would make me feel better.
I’m in for 100.00 and *sigh* some work… with cocktails?
Seriously, I’m in for the 100.00.
$100.00 from me as well.
If your surprised you haven’t been watching.
Filing fee is $3,480.
You had me at “John Carney Primary”
Tell us more……
But be forewarned, Jason, and review what happened to Pires when he dared challenge Carper and call the Senator out on his B.S. Crickets and tumbleweeds from the left.
I didn’t get the sense that Pires was going after Carper from the left, or I would have been on board.
I’m in for $50. Carney is nothing more than a slick huckster. How do we get it to you?
I’m just taking pledges right now. When it time to collect I’ll put up an Act Blue Page or something.
You should have looked at his website.
He sure as hell wasn’t attacking Carper from the right.
Aside from accusing Carper of criminal activity and being corrupt, he was for US out of Iraq “10 years was more than enough” and supported gay marriage/equality.
He was also critical of Carper for the banking “reforms” and bailouts Carper supported.
Pires pledged to serve one term, claiming 36 years was too long for Carper to be in Washington.
But all that won’t matter. You will be dismissed, derided and put under a microscope by Team Carney and the Ds. I am sure you will soon find many “pragmatic progressives” that would rather have a turd they know, then open the possibility of having a tea party republican win. Even though the turd they know is a moderate republican already.
I’m in for $100. Gutsy move and courageous.
If “pragmatic progressives” means that you’d rather have a turd you know, then open the possibility of having a tea party republican win, then I’m a pragmatic progressive.
I would not run if I thought I was going to win. (Everyone should know that I’m not going to be “in it to win it.” For what its worth, I’m going to be making a case that Delaware should be represented in congress by a Democrat.)
If team Carney gets twitchy and goes negative on me – he’ll win by 30% instead of 20%. Big whoop.
I’m in as well but I’m not as nice as the rest of you, Carney’s a creep and needs to go. I found the Pete Peterson bit astoundingly offensive and ill considered, that and his definition of compromise is capitulation.
Pires was running for his ego. The guy is just another rich douche, even dressed up in prog clothing. A true loose cannon. That’s why crickets.
Thanks bamboozer. Ignoring the Democratic base is one thing. We are used to that kind of treatment. But going out of his way to insult us is a bit much.
Um… wasn’t Pires nuts? Seemed like it.
If you’re “not in it to win it”, you do nothing to force someone closer to your desired position. The only motivation a politician would respond to is to not lose.
And Carper is……not nuts? You have met the man right? Spits out politcal rhetoric likes its his first language? THAT rich douche Tom Carper?
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Ego is a lame excuse. Political campaigns start with “I am the smartest person in this room/town/district/state/county/country and I have a better idea than these other people.” Every politician has an ego. Even the ones you may like and agree with.
Ego or no, Pires was really pissed off at Carper for his banking B.S. But lets talk about personality, hair, baseball hat, car, ego. Anything but his platform.
But this is Jasons thread and moment. Have at it Jason. Good luck corralling your fellow pragmatic progressives when carper/carney/coons comes to town.
Huge difference between running for office because of your ego and having an ego. Also of all Delaware politicians I’d say John is the closest to not having an ego.
I think running for office requires an ego of some sort to actually win. Everyone wants to know why you’re the best candidate, you should be able to stand up and say why you’re better. I mean, a massive ego isn’t the best thing, but some ego is required.
Great !! Looks like we will have a three way primary. I just heard Rose Izzo is changing her registration. She is going to run against John in the D primary with help from her old boss Pires.
I’m retired with lots of time to help, I’m in!
When I saw Cantor’s resignation speech today, I started thinking about calling Carney’s office to tell them I couldn’t wait for Carney’s resignation speech when he loses a primary, but alas, it was too late to call.
Progressive populism is sweeping the land, let’s begin to clean up Delaware with that broom!
I’ll be your Press Secretary, our first campaign slogan, “Izzo Is So Wrong for Delaware”.
We’ll follow that up with, “Carnies work in the circus, John Carney doesn’t work for you”.
It’s all kind of amusing, but I’d like to see it happen. Not that Mr 330 would have a snowball’s chance in Hell — of course, neither did Dr Brat! — but it would be interesting to see the hard left actually present themselves to the voters in places other than Massachusetts. Quite frankly, it would show us that the majority of Democrats are not as far to the left as the denizens of the Delaware Liberal think that they ought to be.
As for me, I’d like to see Mr 330′s campaign platform. Oh, there are thousands of posts that he has written on this site, but a real, thought-out campaign document would be a good thing. I want to see him run, seriously, on the kind of platform his writings on the Delaware Liberal suggest.
By the way, what is the blockquote in the main article? Was that meant to be along quote, or is it simply a formatting error?
I wouldn’t be trying to lose, but I wouldn’t be doing the typical things people do who are trying to win – like raising money. This is the mission statement:
– I want to do it to just have a chance to tell him to his face that he is wrong to take $300k from the financial services industry.
– That he is wrong to enable the Tea Party like he does by giving “bipartisan” gloss to all the bullshit they are pulling.
– That he is wrong to use his seat to benefit billionaires like Pete Peterson at the expense of Delawareans he is supposed to be representing.
Billionaires, hedge fund managers and people who want unregulated derivatives trading have too many friends in Congress already. They have too many friends in the Delaware delegation for fuck sake. This campaign is simply to say that we want a member of Congress that will be representing Delawareans who are not among the 1%. Is that person me? I rather doubt it. Can it be John Carney? I’m losing hope that it can, but I feel like I have to ry something to break through.
I love this kind of shit. You can get my real life contact from your “connections.” (We have met a few times if you’ll recall.)
I’m in as well. I’m not going to just pledge a figure. Let’s talk about what money you’ll need to file. I have a rainy day fund for emergencies, bail money, legal fees, etc. And it’s raining today.
This is great. I always enjoyed the way Reggie Jackson described himself as “the straw that stirs the drink.” Let’s have a debate with this Carney.
Thanks for the support. When the financial services industry gives Carney $300k, when the Koch Brothers lobbyists sit down with Carney to talk strategy – they want something. We all know by know that what they want is not going to be good for the average Delawarean.
So you’re going to post some blog posts, show up at a few events, and then complain that your protest campaign is another reason why democracy doesn’t work.
Sounds solid.
What’s your bright idea to try and wake up the Congressman then? You must be brimming with them.
If you think there is a true desire to get him out, then put in the work. Saying you’re going to try to shove it to the man but not actually put in the hard work of creating momentum and raising money is just being lazy. Yes money has more power than it should in politics, but that doesn’t mean even underdog campaigns don’t have to actually raise money. Just like anything else in life, you have to put in the work.
I can say I hate my boss and hate my job all I want. But if I don’t put in the work to find another job or make the changes I need at work, then the joke is on me.
But to answer your questions directly…
So you’re going to post some blog posts? Yes.
Show up at a few events? yes.
Then complain that your protest campaign is another reason why democracy doesn’t work? No. The protest candidacy embodies the complaint. Complaining about out Congressman being bought off is the very heart of this thing.
Your “hard work” theory is based on the premise that the system isn’t rigged. I reject that.
It isn’t rigged. Even incumbents like Carney have to put up with the same BS of inter politics, they just work through it.
We’ll have to agree to disagree.
You can’t put in half the work and expect a full result. But sure the system is rigged.
I say this as someone who has lost plenty of campaigns I’ve been involved in. But I can guarantee you it wasn’t because the system was “rigged”. If the system was “rigged”, Tom Gordon would not be County Executive nor would Karen Weldin Stewart be Insurance Commissioner.
But cool.
I get that some people would want me to take this more seriously. We are talking about important issues. Carney’s adoption of the GOP’s cynical “Cut and Grow” economic strategies is having a very real impact. But I simply can’t take it that seriously. I’m too practical.
The Senate seat is a sinecure. Only father time can take out a Senator. (Roth fell to father time, but you can’t knock Carper on his timing.)
The House seat is a little less of a sinecure, so perhaps not as rigged by tradition and monied influence than a Senate seat, but clearly more rigged than a County Executive spot.
I’ll be signing up to stir the pot. Not to hit my head against a wall.
“If the system was “rigged”, Tom Gordon would not be County Executive nor would Karen Weldin Stewart be Insurance Commissioner.”
Better check your rigging. If you knew some of the crap KWS pulled.
Not to read toooooo much into the Cantor thing, but Jason, you really should give it a go as much as possible. This IS a blue state, lets see how true blue values fly in the face of corpo moderate republican Ds.
I’m hardly living under a rock…
“If the system was “rigged”, Tom Gordon would not be County Executive”
Bull-fucking-shit. You don’t think the Bidens had anything to do with any of this? You don’t think Biden fucking over Colm Connelly didn’t send a message? You don’t think hiring DeGenova-Tensing — two fucking Republicans, for God’s sake — was part of rigging the game? The judge-shopping?
Who was capable of rigging the game in Paul Clark’s favor? Who were Paul Clark’s peeps? You know who created Paul Clark in the first place? Tom Gordon.
You might not be living under a rock, but you apparently keep your common sense there.
Perhaps the fact that it is rigged can work in my favor? We are talking about a primary – so voters who like Carney for his willingness to work with the truly horrible GOP will be mostly on the sidelines. He’ll have his machine working, but I’ll be speaking directly to Dem partisans and trying to get them to help me send a message, not just to John Carney, but to the Delaware Democratic Party. With a very little bit of money and some social media, I believe we can put a scare into them.
Jason – I think that when you pull back the curtain, Carney doesn’t have much of a “machine” besides showing up to parades and sending out mail.
We’re talking about maybe 35,000 – 45,000 voters turning out. You have about 90 days. I think persuading 20,000 of the core group of voting Dems in that amount of time is actually doable. You have a lot of people willing to put in some time, money, and effort here…
Much more relevant than Cantor, think about Townsend and Deluca. Low turnout primaries can be the silent killer.
Yeah Painesme, think about Townsend and DeLuca?… A State Senate race in Newark where the opponent had a year to build an organization, raise money, and knock on doors in a race against a man who hadn’t had an opponent in a decade and was being destroyed in the press for years?
That’s your great example? That it’s just like being 90 days out with no campaign, money, or name recognition in a statewide race against a guy that gets 55-+60% of the vote in every election except when he was about 1,000 votes away from being Governor?
Besides painesme, low turn-out primaries actually help incumbents, its the high turnout elections that are poisonous to the establishment. But apparently you don’t even know what a low vs high turnout primary is in DE. Smh.. 35-40000 voters? Where did you get that number. Turn out for a contested federal race is rarely ever that low in this state. Even Carper vs Spanarelli got more than 40,000 people out. Hopefully Jason you get some real campaign people to help you because some of these commenters are pulling this stuff out of their arse. I’m available
Revolution a brewing in the comment thread.
Thanks for the support Painsme and Bane. I was thinking Marty Huggins vs. Cam Newton as the controlling analogy.
I’ll post later today, but with the wary endorsement of my family, this project has just taken a rather big step forward. Some good questions were raised; Have I exhausted every other avenue for trying to get John Carney to take these concerns seriously? Am I sure this limited scope candidacy is worth the effort? You realize that this could go off in crazy ways that you can’t foresee or even imagine right now, right? And – What does Matt Denn think about this?
To which I answered; I believe I have. I have been in direct contact with Carney’s office going back to December of 2011. The emails were initially between me and James Allen who seemed like a good guy. As Carney’s first term wore on he seemed and more interested in touting his awards from Peter Peterson and less interested in the Democratic base by the day.
Am I sure this limited scope candidacy is worth the effort and do I realize that I’m opening a can of worms? I’ve discussed that in this thread. Ultimately, who knows how much, if any impact this will have. I realize that this might be a huge mistake, but I feel like I have to try something to break through the deficit mania and “Cut and Grow” economic idiocy that Carney has adopted.
Regarding Matt Denn, he’d probably be able to talk me out of this. Mrs Liberal knows that I believe Matt Denn to be the best expression of Democratic values we have in this state, so the last question was serious one. So I’m not planning on asking Denn what he thinks about it.
I love it! This is pure genius. Andy Kaufman would be proud.
I want to primary Coons! People are telling me am crazy! But am not! I also need your help.
http://www.drissaforussenate.com/
Mark your $50.00 donation for chocolate chip cookies and milk, and welcome aboard.
Sorry Jahi. I don’t support people for public office who can’t take a selfie without getting a cell phone shadow on their face.
http://www.drissaforussenate.com/
Am doing this because we live in a democracy! Because the constitution says I can! Because I’m tired of complaining about what they are doing wrong once they get into Office. Go Jason! I only wish that more of us who are everyday people challenge the establishment more! Am running a grassroots campaign. Tired of being jerked around by those whom I put my trust in! I know the media won’t be nice if I get the $10,000. But I don’t care anymore! Am tired of being tired! Leaders with the whipping post mentality! But never worry again!
Dr. Issa, I’m no political guru, but you may want to rethink the “N.W.A.” campaign slogan.
Dr. Issa, I see you attended TSU in Houston? Some of my best buds graduated from TSU. I’m on board with your platform too and TSU was all I needed to close the deal.
Eager to talk with you.
Bane –
Never before have I seen someone try to establish their Delaware campaign credentials so aggressively as you while not offering anything the slightest bit substantive. Maybe you thought that we were competing for a job with Jason’s campaign? Not sure, but here’s my meager rebuttal:
-Deluca spent more than $100,000 on his race, dwarfing whatever money that Townsend was able to raise in a year. He was one of three Dems on the local level that spent more than six figures on their race, and all three lost. I won’t count lack-of-money as too much of an issue against an incumbent in DE, especially if the incumbent isn’t burning up the shoe-leather.
-Yep, time is short to build an organization, and knock on doors. But then again, he has a lot of folks on DL, and Carney has never been much for knocking on doors…
-“a guy that gets 55-+60% of the vote in every election…” I think that should read “in every election that he wasn’t at the top of the ticket”. Like you said, the one time he was at the top of the ticket, he lost. Every other election, he won by much smaller margins than those upstream. Did you see how far he trailed Markell in 2012? Not just vote share, but vote totals. I believe this is called “roll-off”.
-Low turnout vs. high turnout…. sure, you can make a case either way, but then again, you didn’t make a case at all. In this hypothetical, I’m pitting Carney, who does not believe in person-to-person organizing and relies entirely on other organizations to do turnout for him against a motivated and savvy insurgent campaign that can identify and turnout supporters effectively. Normally, high turnout means that both candidates are churning out their supporters, while low turnout *typically* leans towards high-information voters more likely to break with the establishment. Your truism works fine, just not if you have asymmetric turnout. I’m not really familiar with the internal mechanics of the Castle or O’Donnell campaigns, but apparently by your own standards it was not a “high turnout” election. But sure, my projection could be a little low, and I certainly wouldn’t strenuously object if you had evidence for turnout more in the 45-50 range, but maybe I missed your own turnout projection?
-Other than sharing a few letters, Carper and Carney are very different candidates with very different organizations. For instance, Carper actually had staff doing direct voter contact whereas Carney was more concerned about sign placement and parade logistics.
Anyways, I’m glad that you’re available to help Jason. For all the above sardonicisms, he really does need people to help that are thinking about these things, and you’re on the right track.