Rank and File Dems Blast Carney
I’m sorry I missed the Markell presser. From the release it sounds like it Carney’s miscalculation is going to cost him.
Brian Selander, former Communications Director for Senator Tom Carper, member of the Progressive Democrats of Delaware, and Democratic Committeeman began the press conference demanding that the Carney campaign pay back the full cost of the radio commercials.
“Delaware Democrats deserve more than these underhanded campaign tactics,” Selander said. “It’s just plain wrong. With so many Democratic campaigns that need help against Republicans – campaigns that we can all agree are a priority – why would John Carney allow them to spend thousands of dollars running his ads? His actions are disappointing.”
It is a great point. The underhanded campaign tactics show that Carney is either desperate or lacking in judgement.
“I was the first state-wide elected official in Delaware to endorse Barack Obama,” said Markell. “I recognized that the country needs real change and new ideas,” Markell continued. “And after eight years of the failures of the Bush administration we should all be doing everything we can to help make sure that change comes about. It is disappointing that Lieutenant Governor Carney is using the State Party to pay for ads for his own campaign with funds that should be used to support Barack Obama, or my friend Matt Denn, or a great legislator like Terry Schooley, or our entire slate of Democratic candidates in the fall.”
This Democratic party debacle puts Jack on the side of good Democrats like Denn, Schooley and Obama – and Carney on the side of the corrupt status quo.
Dr. William W. Boyer, Emeritus Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Delaware, put the ads into context, stating, “The State Treasurer is one of the six constitutional officers along with the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Insurance Commissioner and Auditor. Jack Markell is one of the leading Democrats in the state, and received over 70% of the vote in his last election. I’ve never heard of this before. That the State Democratic Party would spend money supporting these ads in a primary is unheard of. I can’t remember anything like this ever happening.”
Unprecedented maladministration by the state party. Carney needs to do the right thing and return the money.
Selander is a Markell crony and Schooley will win in a walk. What a bunch of whiners. The party will use its resources (human and financial) to support its endorsed candidate.
CARNEY 08
A very bad move by the Party and Carney. As a Progressive, I will now not rest until everyone responsible for this action is fired or forced out.
I love anon’s cavalier dismissal of every Democrat who is going to be in a fight this fall. A very insider-y and apt sentiment given your candidate.
As I said yesterday, this only makes sense if you thing John Carney is more important than the the Democratic party.
Electing John Carney is of supreme importance in continuing the union-dominated old guard’s leadership. Remember, this is all the brainchild of the DeLuca-Daniello gang. If you think all the bad guys in Delaware politics are Republicans, you’re dreaming.
Al,
Progressives are interested in retaking our Party from the special interests and the establishment. We know that we have two enemies: the Republicans and the Democratic Establishment.
Rank and file? Jeez, you guys are just as bad as the NJ. 🙂
if it was reversed, everyone here would be yelling that carney is a cry baby and should drop out.
carney is a cry baby and should drop out.
Arthur–
Markell wouldn’t use the party money for his own campaign. And I wouldn’t be attacking Carney if the roles were reversed, for Carney would be right, as Markell is now.
From the NJ article:
“Markell said there is no comparison between the two issues. In one case, people are donating to a person’s campaign. In the other, they are donating to the party to help Democrats win elections.
But, Markell said, if Carney returned the party money and people who donated to his run for treasurer wanted a refund, he would consider providing it.”
Markell cracks me up.
I can see Carney Campaign HQ now:
“Governor Minne…, er, I mean Governor Carney? I think we may have screwed up a bit here.”
the democtaric committee is spending money to defeat the republican candidate. they are spending money on the candidate they want to win.
And u see the problem arthur, they’re not spending it on the golden boy of the blogs.
Though the bloggers here will say if the roles were reversed, they’d be arguing that Markell should return the money. But the roles aren’t, so this is a specious argument.
Anon420, you are such an idiot. Our argument is that the Party should not be spending any party money on any candidate subject to a primary. If Blunt was still in the race with Denn, then we would argue that neither Denn or Blunt should receive party money until after the primary.
Our position is that the party should stay neutral until after the people decide. We don’t want the party spending money on Markell or Carney. Your argument is that the Party should ignore the people and decided on its own who should be the nominee and thus who should receive the money of the party members.
The people have not voted yet, and there is no Democratic nominee yet. So the party, while having every legal right to do so, should not get involved in the primary in anyway, not if it wants to be known as the Party of the People.
God help you Party Hacks if Markell does win this primary. You all will be finished forever in Delaware Democratic politics. Your disdain for the people and democracy makes you better suited to be Republicans.
sounds like anon420 has had one too many 420s today.
No delawaredem, you’re an idiot.
The party endorsed Carney, so the party is helping the candidate they think is best. Them is the rules.
So you confirm that you care not about the people’s vote in September.
Thanks for admitting to your hackitude.
You have quite the nerve calling others hacks, DD, considering your established lack of knowledge of Delaware politics.
What the party is doing is enforcing discipline, and making the party endorsement mean something. If you’re not allowed to help your endorsed candidate, then what’s the point of having one?
If you can’t enforce party discipline, you’ll just end up like the Republicans.
No, all I am saying is there are rules that were set forth and are being followed.
Here’s another example from earlier this year. Obama’s campaign read, understood and executed their campaign under the rules of the Democratic National Party. Clinton’s campaign was clueless and cried foul. This doesn’t make what Obama did wrong, however Clinton’s people cried and cried. Kind of like what you guys are doing now.
DD’s right. You’re all nothing but a bunch of hacks bent on maintaining the status quo hackery in the Democratic Party.
MM, I know you are, but what am I?
Jeez, when you get out-argued, y’all have to resort to name calling.
Let me also add that the “status-quo hackery” you so revile has resulted in us taking 7 of 9 statewide seats, and by the end of this election, majorities in both houses of the Legislature. If we’re fortunate, we could have all 9 statewide offices by 2010.
CARNEY 08
Responding to #22
If ‘majority in both houses of the Legislature’ includes Adams and DeLuca, then I don’t want that good fortune. Adams and his fellow senators embarrass the party (and Delaware Liberals, which I thought this website was devoted to) with the desk drawer vetoes, and with DeLuca’s work in December 2007 (without any help from ‘wind power champion CARNEY 08’) to table offshore wind power for six months.
To Gilligan and Daniello, majorities in both houses of the Legislature are the golden ring. To this Delaware liberal, the majority is only worth celebrating if the majority is made up of elected officials who subscribe to Democratic and democratic principles.
Nine state senators signed to petition Senate Bill 04 (opening the legislature to FOIA) onto the senate floor for a vote–only three were Democrats. The state Senate being in ‘Democratic’ hands is no cause for celebration in my book, given the current makeup of Delaware’s Democratic senators.
I love the way Paul B lays it down.
But you all are acting like Carney is a bad candidate. He is not. Carney was at the Kowalko fundraiser a few weeks ago, Markell was not. I love how people want to take a dump on labor unions around here. The unions are one of the reasons that we have a guy like Kowalko in the house.
You want to support Markell? Fine. But trying to portray Carney as “the Machine’s man” doesn’t really fit. In fact, most of the most ardent supporters of Markell have conceded that if Jack didn’t run, they would have been happy with Carney.
We know who the bad guys are in the Senate and house. Carney knows, too. The difference is that he has some influence on those guys and we are stuck with them for a few more years.
You raise an excellent point about liberals often ranking on unions, although I see no such union-bashing in this post. Unfortunately, this union-bashing by liberals in the past has been so common that union folks are understandably leery of most things that liberals propose. I consider this to be one of the top challenges for liberals going forward.
Kowalko is indeed an incredible find, and Delaware is so lucky to have him. John wrote an op-ed about how the offshore wind project was a success specifically because it brought together disparate groups, including liberals and union groups.
You also raise an excellent point that Carney is a good candidate. Certainly if Carney wins the primary, I can’t see any Markell supporter voting for Lee (although I can see Markell supporters choosing to not campaign for John). The same as supporters of Hillary, you can be disappointed that your candidate did not win, but it doesn’t mean that you can justify helping McCain!
It is indeed unfair to paint Carney with a ‘bad-Democrat brush’ based on the presence of ‘bad Democrats’ in Delaware. It is, however, fair to paint Carney with a ‘bad-Democrat brush’ if there is clear evidence of his acting as a bad-Democrat.
Many of us feel that the DelDems use of party money to run a misleading ad against Democrat Markell was bad behavior. It is unfathomable to suggest that Carney was ‘out of the loop’ with this action.
I would like to see, but am not holding my breath to see, Carney taking the high road, with a statement along the lines ‘As a proud Delaware Democrat, who deeply believe that Democratic principles serve Delawareans far better than Republican principles, and in the interest of party unity, I would like to see the party use its limited resources in races against Republicans and not in races against Democrats, and I have asked the party to follow this simple guideline in the future.’
The party is trying to make sure their endorsement means something. If the endorsed candidates lose, endorsement loses its value. To protect the value of their endorsement, they are spending money.
Ad hominems much?
All I can say is that If Jack Wins he will be on the phone calling over to the office on Old Baltimore Pike looking for Sam’s Support
Anon420! You don’t get it. You are nothing but a Party Hack Enabler! The Party has no business endorsing any candidate in a primary…that is the job of the voters! If you don’t get that simple explanation–mark yourself down as an Enabler of the Delaware Way.
Youre sounding like the Committee of 4 in the IPOD, they make the decisions, screw their members! No election necessary, we picked for you. What pure idiocy.
Selander and Boyer are now “rank and file dems”?
That’s a joke.