Breaking: Alan Levin Now “80 percent likely” to Run Against Mike Protack
It is not me saying it. It is Louis Jacobson, Stateline.org Columnist.
As Delaware Democrats try to retain the seat held by term-limited Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, the primary battle between Lt. Gov. John Carney (D) and state Treasurer Jack Markell (D) is heating up. Polls are scarce, but Carney is thought to be ahead, albeit by a decreasing margin. Republicans hope for two things: a rough Democratic primary that leaves the loser’s supporters dejected, and the entry into the race by Alan Levin (R), a moderate former U.S. Senate aide who last year sold his family’s Happy Harry’s drug store chain to Walgreens. Analysts think Levin is 80 percent likely to run. Either Democrat would be favored, especially in a presidential year, but Levin would be a credible challenger.
Yes. I know that it also means that there is a 20% chance that he will not challenge Protack. But maybe there is something to these rumors about Levin challenging Protack after all.
Great catch. If Levin doesn’t run, what other State Chamber candidates do they have in the paddock? And if it’s Protack by default, will Burris say nice things about Markell and Carney?
Burris is already trying to claim Markell. Nice guy, but totally shamless that Burris.
That guy CLEARLY hasn’t been reading Delaware Liberal. They could have told him better. Their fake breaking news trumps his fake breaking news any day.
Oh, and I have to admit I’ve become a little more partial to Markell since he rolled out a carbon copy of Mitt Romney’s healthcare plan for Delaware.
Look at Charles Potter’s yearend report. Levin gave him $200.
Levin does not have what it takes to run and win and Ron Williams said so two weeks ago. Either Markell or Carney clean up with him on the ballot.
Mike Protack is the only candidate that has the working class backing to offer a clear challenge.
“Oh, and I have to admit I’ve become a little more partial to Markell since he rolled out a carbon copy of Mitt Romney’s healthcare plan for Delaware.”
And that’s precisely what’s wrong about Markell’s plan. He supports a system that has already failed even before it has fully been implemented. Notice how the Mass. plan is already way over budget and how the prospect of mandated purchase of private health insurance hasn’t resulted in the nirvana of price stability, much less decreases, competition is supposed to bring. The cost of private health insurance has gone through the roof:
“State officials project that more than 300,000 previously uninsured people will sign up in time, a third of them in a surge over the last month. That has put Massachusetts more than halfway to its goal of insuring everyone.
“The downside, and one noted by states with widening budget gaps, is that the program is expected to exceed its first-year budget by at least $150 million. And state officials are struggling to prevent double-digit premium increases next year.”
http://jkn.com/View?j=876821.414976691120
Poor Dave Burris. The man who would rearrange deck chairs on the Titantic.
With his deteriorating financial conditions, he likes millionaires that build their fortunes on the backs of the working man.
FSP Burris likes Millionaire Mitt, who is being shown for the liar he is and now Burris is promoting Millionaire Levin, the silver spooned answer to Deleware’s problems.
No thanks.
Say what you want about Protack but he wants to win and has the backing of the little people who favor his plan on universal health care. He’s got the testicular fortitude to fight the vested special interests and that’s what we need in this state.
Levin can not win the GOP primary because he doesn’t have enough millionares registered to vote to win.
Access to affordable insurance is what businesses want to provide and individuals need to have.
Wellness Productivity Security
Our plan Delacare 2008 is universal private insurance based on the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan the state employees have access to. We would allow any entity to bid on “administering” Delacare, there will be no input or decision making by any insurance company. No HMO’s , no PPO’s.
This access to insurance would not be tied to employment status which is greatly needed for 40% of Delawareans.
Also, there would be no additional state bureacracy or costs to the state,we implement “Health Care Courts” to bring some sense to the litigation environment and offer dollar for dollar tax credits for Electronic Health Care Records and E Scripts.
Thanks.
“Poor Dave Burris. The man who would rearrange deck chairs on the Titantic.
With his deteriorating financial conditions, he likes millionaires that build their fortunes on the backs of the working man.”
1. Neither Romney nor Levin currently occupies a “deck chair.”
2. My financial condition? What does anyone know about my financial condition?
3. Protack, Huckabee and Edwards. Birds of a feather who would play class warfare to win and would violate the spirit of Lincoln by tearing down the successful in a failed effort to raise up the less successful. Great for us that none of them will be successful.
Face it, jackass. Your boy’s a fraud, a phony and a failure. And I know who you are.
There is no class warfare from me. I merely want to apply some logic to health care and stop this senseless delivery of health care by which category you fit in. Medicare- single payer, socialized-VA, Medicaid- government controlled and employer/employeepaid care. These categories circle around each other and bounce in to each other wasting valuable dollars and costing lives.
We use choice, competition and technology to make health care beneficial to businesses and individuals. I believe Lincoln would be proud of that logic.
“There is no class warfare from me”
Then your three supporters apparently didn’t get the memo.
There is class warfare in America and it was restarted in earnest by the wealthy w/ the election of Ronald Reagan,
Why it is so non-PC to state the fact that class warfare exists in the USA escapes me, unless it’s simply to keep the populace from recognizing how most of them are being screwed by the US political-economy.
“FSP Burris likes Millionaire Mitt, who is being shown for the liar he is and now Burris is promoting Millionaire Levin, the silver spooned answer to Deleware’s problems.”
Why Dave likes Romney isn’t clear to me, but I don’t think it’s because he’s a millionaire per se. Dave does tend to like people who have been successful in the private sector because, it seems he believes, that a demonstrable history of successful administration is a prerequisite for effective governance. To the degree Dave believes governments should run like businesses, I disagree w/ him. But it certainly valid to argue that a successful career as an administrator of some type is a good, if not compelling, qualification for elective office, particularly in the executive branch.
I too had an instinctual aversion to Levin until I heard him on WDEL. He surprised me w/ how many of his ideas were genuinely progressive. I’m totally sold on him, but it would be wrong t disregard him as a viable and potentially attractive candidate who has important ideas that need to be discussed and debated. In the eyes of voters, being rich shouldn’t be a primary qualification for running for office, but it shouldn’t be an automatic disqualification either.
“Say what you want about Protack but he wants to win and has the backing of the little people who favor his plan on universal health care.”
Not from this little person he doesn’t. His plan puts health insurance companies in the catbird seat. I want the driven out of DE on a rail.
Dana,
Respectfully, there is no way you could have read Delacare and come to the conclusion that insurance companies are in the catbird seat. There is no role for any insurance company in Delacare to do anything other than clerical responsibilities, that’s all. None.
After all, DELDOT doesn’t build roads and neither does the Department of Education build schools but they do set the terms and conditions for those products.
In Delacare there are no HMO’s, no PPO’s etc. Complete freedom of choice to see any Doctor.
I will be at the A. Phillip Randolph Institue meeting this Saturday and I will be happy to explain it to you.
Lastly, our plan is the only one which is universal among the Governor candidates. Any plan which is not universal is not a plan at all. Isn’t it ironic a Republican has the only universal plan?
Thanks
Delacare
Protack For Governor
Wellness Productivity Security
1. One risk pool for all citizens of Delaware.
2. Health care access is not tied to employment.
3. Every citizen will be covered by a private basic plan which will be administered by one provider after competitive bidding.
4. Multi payer system – employer, employees, general tax revenues.
5. Choice is encouraged within the basic plan which is modeled after BCBS state employee plan.
6. No HMO’s, no PPO’s and no workman’s comp.
7. EHR implementation with dollar for dollar reimbursement to providers.
8. Health care courts for fairer and more streamlined tort process.
9. Incentives for healthy lifestyles, penalties for injurious lifestyle choice.
10. Everyone is in, no one is out, everyone pays their fair share.
Let’s face it, the GOP bosses in Delaware are presiding over a diminishing resource – candidates that will do exactly what the Chamber of Commerce and the party bosses want them to say and do.
Mr. Levin’s inherited fortune came from cutting corners and raiding pension funds.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the IRS cut some of their time from investigating Dave Burris and shifted it to Levin.
This is going to be rough and tumble with Mike Protack in the race as it is.
A decorated Marine veteran and a soldier who deserves and receives the thanks of many grateful people of Delaware, he gets my vote.
Mike’s plan is a solid one that appeals to the vast majority of voters, D or R.
Levin won’t last a day on the campaign trail with Mike Protack.
I doubt he’s got what it takes to expose himself, his father and his company’s finances to the rigorous examinations that will be forthcoming.
I really don’t believe that Levin wants to expose his finances and that of his company to the incredible scrutiny that will accompany a race for Governor.
It’s bad enough to face a challenge from a seasoned political pro who has a distinguished record with the United States Marine Corps but then you have to subject yourself and your family to the types of questions that have been around for a long time about worker conditions at Happy Harry’s and the misuse of pension funds.
It could be a really exhausting time for Levin and he doesn’t appear to have the fortitude to do it.
I give him 10% likehood of putting his family through the ringer.
Protack’s plan makes sense.
Levin doesn’t have a plan.
Mike would mop the floor with Levin and the silk stocking set.
Mr. Burris doesn’t know me but I know Mr. Burris and I know Mr. Levin.
Given what little I know about Mr. Levin’s finances I can assure you that Mr. Levin will not subject himself or his family to the media scrutiny that would accompany a candidacy.
Mr. Levin would not know what to do against a seasoned challenger like Mr. Protack.
A decorated US Marine who knows how to fight literally and politically would mop the floor with Mr. Levin.
Once the workers who once worked for Happy’s start putting their info out it will be a field day at Mr. Levin’s expense.
He won’t run but I hope he does.
I love the traditional Protack “taste of the slime to come” post. Kinda like “we have this videotape on Bill Lee.”
And I do know who you are. Buckle up.
My room mate, M. F. came back from an extended hospital stay with 8 new prescriptions to be filled. He uses the Happy Harry’s at Suburban Plaza and I went over to get the medicine for him. They filled 6 but said that M. would have to call his doctor who would have to call the insurance company in order for the pharmacy to sell me these pills for the insured price.
The doctor who prescribed these pills to this sick person had to reaffirm to a middle-man operation that his signature on the prescription was serious in order for M. to get the medicine his doctor decided he needed to get healthy?
Happy Harry’s told me that the medicine would be available within a 24 hour window. That was on Thursday. I went over today and was told I could not buy the medicine yet for the insured price. So M. has yet to have his medicine. Will this require another hospital stay? Who knows.
Does Levin support the insurance company-as-profit-oriented- middleman? Does he have a plan?
Maybe the “rumours” Mr. Williams lives on and which come directly from Strine and Rakestraw should be checked. While these two clowns have spent so much time attacking Protack, a Marine Veteran, Airline Captain and near US Senate primary winner in 2006 they should have been attacking the Democrats? Losing two special elections in 60 days and letting the Democrats widen their voter advantage by over 9,000 voters since 2004 would be a higher priority??
Mr. Levin will be a repeat of 2000 where the GOV with the GED beat the Chamber of Commerce and GOP insiders pick by 20%. Burris won only a handful of districts and gave us Gov Minner. The insiders were wrong then and they are wrong now and they have been wrong for years and years.
So Dave, who is it? Big deal….
Dave FSP (I won’t tell you what I think FSP really stands for) what videotape are you talking about??
Inquiring minds want to know.
I would love to hear that answer and please provide facts not postulation or rumor. Where was it shown? Who was told about it?? Let’s see what a liar you are.
Talk about post of slime? Please back up this slime of yours if you can or shut up.
Levin is a mirror image of the 2000 race when State Chamber head John Burris got whacked by Minner and by all accounts Carney and Markell are much smarter than Minner.
Carney or Markell would mop the floor with Levin.
Note: not a mop from Happy Harry’s – they don’t hold up very well.
“I am for the means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number”
Abraham Lincoln Feb 12 ,1861 Cincinnati, Ohio
Protack thinks health care is a greater good and so does 90% of Delawareans regardless of party, Protack has a plan which will benefit Delaware while Levin used health care in Delaware to pocket millions and benefitted only himself.
Yeah, I’m going to need an IP address check…
RickJ, no clear answer. But I’d be surprised if some aren’t the same person.
OK, honestly, I am entertained. All you have to do is put “Levin” in a post title and Protack and his trolls come “flying” in (pardon the pun).
They are almost nowhere to be found, then you say “Levin,” and…swooooosh…they swoop down.
What’s even more interesting, Protack more or less trashed the blogosphere and any influence we may have (as little as it is), yet where would his campaign be without his very own participation?
What we need is a good Ron Paul/Levin post and our traffic will go through the roof.
Further discussion with the pharmacist today revealed that there was likely some pretty foul stuff between the SOB at the Christiana Hospital who wrote these prescriptions and perhaps the pharmaceutical industry since the SOB wrote a prescription for the most freaking expensive pills possible which the insurance company balked at. NONE of these fuckers were thinking of M.F., that is evident.
I am going to go to meet this SOB who wrote the prescriptions and then IGNORED the pharmacists at Suburban Plaza who sent him a fax that explained that they were barred from providing the medicine to the sick person at the insured price.
This stuff can take the steam out of a girl.
Nancy – I am sorry what your roommate is going through, seriously. Having before worked for HH (years ago and I enjoyed it very much), I can tell you that the Pharmacy employees there and other chains are often put into the middle between the customers and the insurance companies computer programs. I can’t tell you the countless times I felt bad for the techs and Pharmacists that caught the brunt of anger for something that was of no fault of their own.
Unfortunately, it isn’t always the insurance companies. I’ve also seen it come from some doctors that aren’t in touch with their patients and from hospital scripts, as you are noting above.
Taking a time out from all the snark, I sincerely hope all ends well for your roommate.
For the record, “smittyviaemail” is in fact me. Geek and Jason allow me to email a comment to them that they post on my behalf when I am unable to post myself. Word up, yos!
I have to say, I reread this thread and it is just so darned cute how all of MP’s 5 or so active blogging IDs, I mean supporters just always appear en masse when Jason lays up a Levin post. I could just pinch their cheeks, they are do darned predictibly cute.
Where, pray tell, is the evidence that Mike Protack would get more votes than Alan Levin?
That Protack has “the working class backing” to win a general election against any Democrat? Remember, before you answer, that Mike Protack’s right-wing views on a variety of issues would receive a wide airing in a general election. They hardly fit the profile of an ever-Bluer Delaware.
How can his supporter(s) predict success? When, indeed, has Mike Protack ever run against, let alone defeated, a Democrat? When has he ever campaigned against a Democrat?
And, just to get to the heart of things, why do the same phrases come up with monotonous regularity whenever this supporter(s) posts on a blog?
“Say what you want about Protack but he wants to win…”
Who runs for office and doesn’t want to win?
“… and has the backing of the little people who favor his plan on universal health care.”
Bullshit. Prove it.
As for your plan, Mike, are you proposing that the state insure its citizens itself, or would it be taking this statewide risk pool out into the insurance market? How do you have any idea what kind of bid would come in? You’re talking through your hat here, aren’t you? Do you have the slightest inkling what a pool that includes all the uninsured would cost? If so, where did you get the numbers?
Wouldn’t your “health care courts” require a constitutional change to implement? In what way would they be “fairer” or more “streamlined” than current courts? This sounds like another of your “change for its own sake” proposals, like your hare-brained idea for education of getting rid of property taxes (and referendums) in favor of 100% state funding from the general fund.
And of course, last but not least, why would anyone in the General Assembly back this plan? You have what, exactly zero support among our 62 legislators? Who exactly will you turn to so this wonderful package of bills will be introduced and passed?
“health care courts”
Yeah, we could get like, twelve people picked at random from the citizenry. And then, maybe have each side represended by some kind of professional, like maybe a “lawyer.”And then you could even discuss the issue based on “evidence.”
Nah, it’d never work.
Excuse me! I deliberately checked my comment above before I posted it. But instead of it now reading about Levin “I’m not totally sold on him,” it now reads “I’m totally sold on him.”
There can only be one conclusion: SOMEONE DELIBERATELY ALTERED MY POST to create the impression I am a Levin backer.
What the hell are you people up to?
What indeed. I know that contributors to this blog have the ability to edit comments but I can’t imagine anybody doing it. maybe the site is still glitchy and someone else figured out how to change a comment. We’ll look into it.