For all the freaking out going all about HB177 (Fusion) I wonder why Mike Castle , who scuttled the bill last time, has been silent?
According to Castle the bill was an afront to Democracy last June. Now…not so much. One wave of his mighty hand and HB177 would be history. Has he flip flopped? If not, what is he waiting for? Why hasn’t the News Journal asked him since he was so out front on killing the bill last time?
The long arm of Mike Castle
U.S. Rep. Michael N. Castle has been out of Dover for 14 years, but the two-term Republican ex-governor still knows how to kill a bill.
Before Castle intervened, it looked in June as though the Democrats and Republicans had found common ground on legislation that would prohibit “fusion” candidates — people running on more than one ticket.
There was nothing in state law to prevent it. The bill proposed that candidates be allowed to file only with the party where they were registered. It would mean no more dual candidates like Karen M. Hartley-Nagle, currently running for the U.S. House of Representatives on the tickets of the Democratic Party and the Independent Party of Delaware.
From the perspective of the major parties, dual candidates were gaming the system. Hartley-Nagle could lose the Democratic primary to Dennis Spivack, the endorsed candidate, as widely expected, but still be around for the general election as a minor-party candidate.
The bill looked like a lock. Then the bill stalled. Castle had done it in.
Good times, good times…