Question of the Day
this is a dead honest question.
Why is Ruth Ann such a horrible Governor?
ok, 5 answers in and I get no specifics. What laws have passed? What things have been created? What hasn’t been done? What didn’t pass?
Are the school problems her fault? The highways disrepair? Overbuilding? Crime in Wilmington? What directly leads to her door step?
Update: 11 responses and the most specific answer I got was “I like the the no smoking thing”
So, the day is hardly over. But, I would have thought that by now at least FSP would have had a specific for me. I’m not even kidding about this question either. I really don’t know why she doesn’t get a fair shake. I heard our Unemployment is at like 3.8% an entire point below the National average.
Seriously people I would like to here specifics. I really would.
Because the same people who have the ability to get her elected (lobbyists and unions) are the same ones she lets tell her what to do when in office. And since lobbyists and unions don’t have to bear the burden of one-sided platforms that hurt taxpayers to enrich their clients/members, they tell her to do all kinds of crazy stuff (like a prevailing wage law that can’t be paid for without drastically reducing projects that benefit the entire state).
Lack of imagination, creative thinking, whatever you want to call it.
Yes, no spark in the spark plug, no leadership, that’s true.
But in some sense this was inevitable for any governor elected that year at the peak of a boom. The sense at the time was that things are fine, why launch crazy new ideas? The risk of change was seen as too great. Short sighted, true, but that’s how voters are. A visionary governor would not have been elected.
And the Republicans didn’t help matters, offering only their usual mix of tax cuts (when we already have low taxes), minimum wage freeze, union-busting, and indoor smoking forever.
The main reason she’s a horrible Governor because she gets away with it.
It’s a hard topic for me because people usually bring up the sore loser thing, but yeah, I AM a sore loser, because we wouldn’t be where we are if my Dad had won in 2000, or if Bill had won in 2004.
We have a state government that ranks as average in nearly every category except spending. So we’re paying for the best and getting average, with a few scandals thrown in. Only there’s no accountability whatsoever.
I always knew she’d be a terrible Governor. It’s the free pass that drives me nuts.
… or if Gore had won in 2000, or if Kerry had won in 2004…
You’re at the end of a 16-year cycle of Carper/Minner, followed by Minner/Carney. They haven’t only run out of ideas, they’ve run out of energy.
Many of the old hands who were with Carper long before he became Governor are still padding their pensions with Minner. The incompetent Vince Meconi comes to mind. And if exhuming Cordrey and Sharp doesn’t say, “We’re not even PRETENDING to at least appear to be trying” to you, I don’t know what does.
All the more reason why, when you see the Ed Friels and Joe Farleys of this world pulling the strings behind the Carney candidacy, you realize that you do have a choice this September:
Continue the intellectual (and I would argue ethical) bankruptcy of the current regime, or usher in a new vision and new leadership with Markell.
To me, this is the overriding issue of this campaign.
I like the no smoking thing.
I wonder if we aren’t seeing the failure of the DLC governing mode here in Delaware. Carper/Minner are dyed-in-the-wool DLCers, whose main shtick is to re-orient policy towards supporting business concerns (with associated Corporate Welfare) and doing enough tinkering around the edges with economic policy so that they can’t be accused of being entirely beholden to Trickle Down economic theory. It is bound to run out of steam, since this is not a way of thinking that is particularly forward-looking.
Cass: I agree that Carper is DLC to the core. I’m not sure Minner is even sophisticated enough to be in that camp. I think she’s just practicing the good ol’ boy politics that raised her to Lt. Gov.
I’m going out on a limb here… I think everyone gets a pass – NOT because they deserve it, but because they have someone else to blame. The economy. The entire country is struggling. I just paid 240.00 for groceries that use to cost me 160.00. Food, gas, electric bills are what people are focusing on. Specifics get lost to the we’re all in the same boat mentality.
Is this the only reason for DE’s sorry state? No, but it will be used as the excuse, and I’m thinking it just might fly.
Cassandra: I think what we’re really seeing is the end of the cycle that began with the enactment of the Financial Center Development Act during Pete duPont’s time as Governor.
For the past 25 years, much of the state’s ‘prosperity’ has been built on the credit card companies that have charged usurous interest rates and pedaled affinity cards. This ‘prosperity’ masked the decline of the state’s manufacturing and chemical industries.
The final salvo of this era came when our legislators sided with the MBNA’s of this world to make bankruptcy filings more difficult. It was not coincidence that Cawley, et al, cashed out soon thereafter.
I don’t really blame Ruth Ann Minner for our current economic straits. At best, she’s been a caretaker governor, and there are times when that’s OK. However, it is clear that neither she nor her team have any idea how to usher in a new economic era in Delaware.
Contrast that with Markell’s plan to make Delaware an incubator for small business and entrepreneurial risk-taking, and you may understand why I don’t think we can afford more of the same from the same people who brought us Carper/Minner/Carney.
our legislators sided with the MBNA’s of this world to make bankruptcy filings more difficult.
Only for you and me. Corporate bankruptcy is still rubberstamped and the perpetrators wrap themselves in the corporate veil and walk away to their next scam.
The lovely Mrs Minner was elected Governess while I lived in Delaware, and then y’all re-elected her. Seems to me that, whatever she was doing, y’all approved of it.
DV, I was serious about the lack of imagination. This latest budget crisis is the latest example. Lots of people saw this drop in revenue coming, but what did the administration do before this year? Nothing. And now that the revenue shortfall is here, Minner’s answer is the same as it was 8 years ago — a hiring freeze — even though the last hiring freeze laid the groundwork for a lot of the manpower problems in the prisons and the Delaware Psychiatric Center.
I think that’s more important than toting up “she did well on this issue, badly on that one.”
Al,
thanks! Heck of an answer. For that you get to buy me a free beer.
as a secondary prize, I’ll invite you on my HAM radio show
The state of the economy will not fly as an excuse for the state of the state, because we still spend more money than anyone.
Plus, the national economic conditions have little to do with poor overall school performance, poor road conditions, and poor small business environment. We spend the money. We should be getting results.
You can blame the economy for the downturn in revenues, but you also have to blame the government for not preparing for it.
but we have 3.8% unemployment in the state.
still no specifics why she is so horrible dave…what gives?
How about that handshake deal where the 2006 DNREC order requiring NRG to clean up its emissions from the Indian River Power Plant was put off?
You’d think the terrifying back slide in the past two years’ “sneaker index” would have driven her administration to act sooner rather than later.
“but we have 3.8% unemployment in the state.”
That number is up 15% over the last 12 months. But she’ll be able to hide behind the national economy on that.
Maria raises a good point. She has allowed polluters to run roughshod over the state.
Plus, she exercises no control over her bureaucracy, essentially letting her cabinet secretaries do whatever they want. It’s a mess.
“but we have 3.8% unemployment in the state.”
That number is up 15% over the last 12 months.
In Delaware that means what – like five guys got laid off?
DV-
Let’s turn it around. You seem to be trying to prove that RAM doesn’t deserve the scorn she’s received. Why on earth would she deserve any praise? What has she done that made the state better, besides sign Hudson’s Clean Indoor Air Act?
Rick,
ahhh, but you are wrong. i’m busting Dave’s balls because he still hasn’t given me anything specific.
I just here people bitching an moaning all the time and I don’t know what she has done. Literally done to deserve it.
I really can’t say what she HAS done that is worth praising besides the smoking ban. I prefaced it by saying it was an honest question, because it is.
Maria,
thanks for that. I didn’t know that. Dave way to piggy back off of Maria with another non specific.
Anon,
I was thinking the same thing about Dave’s numbers. wow a stunning 15% in 12 months and that is what to the national average over the past 12 months…in a state that has how many people employed by banks?
rick,
I almost forgot, you didn’t give me anything specific either.
DV: To her credit side, I would add a willingness to confront the good ol’ boy system in both the state police and the fire service board.
Here goes. Gov Minner is adequate at the “in box” but not very good after that is contained.
Specifically,
On Education- the low graduation rates, the DSTP, the growth in dollars spent and reduced results, the Charter School conduit funding, the growth in bueracracy. SEED was ok.
On the economy. Good on the strategic fund but not nearly enough to spur innovative companies and start ups.
On energy-nothing of record to increase supply, diversify sources or increase efficiency.
On the budget. Good discipline at first but budget growth cant grow at twice the rate of revenues.
On Transportation- Stealing or masking TTF funds and Operational funds was a bad move. Good on Sunday bus service but nothing else.
On health care- good job on Cancer coverage but nothing else noteworthy at all.
On Prisons and DPS- a complete disregard for standard practices and decency.
On gun violence- nothing to use technology or more police in Wilmington.
On the environment- a blind eye to polluters.
On being available for comment- a sad case.
That is enough for now.
Actually, dv, in the first reply I mentioned the prevailing wage law that her handlers pushed through that will make state projects (present and future) too expensive to consider.
I took that as a good thing Rick. I was asking for reason’s she is a bad governor 🙂
She is the opposite of hotness.
best one of all by far
I think Mike Protack’s comments sort of frame the general idea here. Terrible? No. Great? No. Just more of the same? Yes. Just more of the same when the same kind of sucks? That really hits the nail on the head.
I want a Governor who busts polluters, pushes for Civil Unions, speaks out on the issues of the day, and takes on the Legislature when they need a kick in the pants (like the Senate does over the wind power issue).
But I’ll always have fond memories thanks to the smoking ban. Being able to go to a bar without stinking afterwards is a major quality-of-life improvement.
I took that as a good thing Rick. I was asking for reason’s she is a bad governor 🙂
If you’re saying the state takes on too many ill-advised projects, then we agree on something. (Check outside and see if it’s raining blood).
Near where I live, the Indian River Inlet Bridge is a huge problem. (There are hundreds of others, but it’s the one I know best so it’ll be the example here.) DelDOT has spent millions of dollars trying to keep it from falling into the water (not hyperbole – see http://www.deldot.gov/information/projects/indian_river_bridge/pdf/dennis_oshea_commentary.pdf) aside from the costs of construction.
Setting aside the boondoggle of aborted construction due to overwrought plans and poor construction materials, the state will now pay a great deal more to construct that bridge than they would have without the prevailing wage law in place. This is for a necessary project, not the Jim Vaughn Memorial Dogtrack or the Thurman Adams Home for the Criminally Cantankerous.
Plus, she exercises no control over her bureaucracy, essentially letting her cabinet secretaries do whatever they want. It’s a mess.
*
This is naive in my view. The governor and her posse are at the helm. It is an orchestrated madness, IMHO to achieve an ordained outcome. Follow the money and you’ll see who is being served and who is taking orders from whom.