Markell raises $1.1 million; Carney at $420,000; Lee gets $300,000; Protack nets $26,670

here are many reasons.

First, the Independent Party of Delaware’s executive committee holds a secret meeting at a Grotto Pizza in Millsboro to name Mike Protack its gubernatorial nominee without notifying the rest of the party’s members.

Second, activist and party member, Liz Allen, who also comments here and elsewhere in the Delaware blogosphere, files suit in the Delaware Chancery Court to force the IPOD to hold a nominating convention and to strip Protack’s name from the IPOD’s ballot line.

In response to this complaint, IPOD chairman vonBaumgart said Allen’s complaint was baseless, motivated by someone who had declared that she would leave the Independent Party to become Democrat.  He further said the Executive Committee of the IPOD was within its rights to name a nominee early and inexpensively.   His reason to do so?

“We want to get a candidate who has a chance of winning,” he said.

Yes, they silenced the voices of the party’s 600 members because they wanted to choose a candidate who would win, rather than risk the party membership choosing a candidate that would lose.    And the candidate they thought could win was…. Mike Protack.

Third, the same Executive Committee voted today to close the party’s state convention to the press.

Not that that matters much, because it is not likely the press and the party membership will be able to find the location of the convention.   Which is reason #4:

The convention is scheduled for Wednesday, 6 to 9 p.m., at 32248 Bayshore Blvd. in Long Neck in Sussex County, party officials said. Bayshore Boulevard does not appear on current Sussex County maps, and Google Maps redirects people looking for Bayshore Boulevard to Bayshore Drive.

LOL.   I mean, the regular rank and file of the Independent Party of Delaware should just start over if they truly want to have a third party.   The IPOD’s leadership would be laughable, if they weren’t so deliberately incompentent.

Karen Hartley-Nagle has the inside track. She has lined up the Democratic Party (more or less) and been recognized by some unions. She has been keeping an awfully low profile though and may (or may not) have fundraising problems. KHN: 44%

Jerry Northington has been raising some money online due to his longstanding connection to Daily Kos and scored the Progressive Dems endorsment in a walk when KHN decided not to compete for it. Other than that and his willingness to lend his campaign a few bucks, he seems like a one dimensional anti-war candiate. JN: 30%

Mike Miller is the wild card. He won this thing a few elections ago, so if the city of Wilmington turns out, he might earn the distinction of losing to Mike Castle twice. MM: ??

Light Applause sign….

Illuminate Boo Sign

“I was walking through and 10 minutes after I was there, the security guard approached me, asked me to step aside, made me completely do a turn around while he stared me up and down and then asked me to leave because my outfit was too provocative and people’s husbands was (sic) looking at me,” says Clem.

spoon is to bazooka as….

When you surround yourself with people like Hillary did you don’t deserve to be the decider. You get to be bitter though I guess and complain every step of the way. You get to stand in front of your pathetic supporters that can’t let go and get over it. Like the girl (or guy) that can’t believe she got dumped and takes it SOO personal. Like somehow because it didn’t get to end on HER terms it won’t ever end. There is something to be said about having some dignity in losing. It shows a lot of character to go about losing the way she has….

that being said, I still freaking think this entire DHB thing is total BS and we should have just had some other fundraiser to send Delaware’s milque-toast blogger to Denver.

Drew Voltura once again bests the NJ’s Beth Miller with his AdGate coverage. I can’t link to it, but I love this part:

“(Carney campaign manager David Hamrick) said (The Markell campaign) is at­tempting to use money to buy the election instead of engaging in a positive discussion of the issues,” he said.

Hilarious, because in the very next paragraph…

The Carney campaign would not provide details of its spending. Campaign spokesman Scott Mc­Connell said it is the campaign’s policy not to discuss spending specifics.

But wait, Volturo does some reporting (take note News Journal, this is what journalism looks like) and finds…

In July, the campaign spent about $15,000 on a television commercial that aired Down­state, and it spent at least $22,446 on a radio ad that began airing Saturday.
By comparison, the Delaware Democratic Party has spent more than $53,000 on ads supporting Lt. Gov. Carney — who is the party’s endorsed candidate — in­cluding $13,000 for a 30-second TV commercial that begins airing on WBOC today.

I don’t know about you, but that tells me Carney is sucking air and is basically being propped up by the Delaware Democrats who are spending $5.00 to run Carney ads for every $3.00 being spent by the Carney campaign.

No wonder Scott Mc­Connell didn’t want to talk about it.

it’s a good one

h/t suburban guerrilla

Duffy asks…

Please explain how you will tax corporations and not have them pass that cost on to consumers.

Easy. They might not make $11 billion dollars in profit one quarter.

I can’t get over what a bunch of empty headed zombies these Republicans have been turned into. There was a time in this country when we felt we were “all in this together.” Now, the Republicans who comment here, feel the need to protect Sam Walton’s billionaire off-spring from any bumps and bruises the free market might occasionally apply.

Instead of giving a single thought to the country, it is all about making sure Paris Hilton keeps her trustfund intact for these deep thinkers and patriots.

That corporations don’t pay taxes? NO WAY!

And most foreign companies that do business in the United States aren’t paying corporate taxes.

The study says about two-thirds of American corporations paid zero income taxes to Uncle Sam between 1998 and 2005.

Democracy American style baby. Socializing loss Privatizing gain.

I guess being a toady enabler of George Bush is not what it is cracked up to be.

ABC news…

strong>Georgian troops have been serving as part of the “coalition of the willing”

The Georgian government has requested the U.S. government airlift roughly 2,000 Georgian soldiers out of Iraq and back to defend their homeland, an intelligence officer tells ABC News.
1,500 killed in fighting with Georgia republic.

The intelligence official asked not be identified because he is not authorized to speak about the diplomatic situation.

The immediacy of the situation for the Georgians is this: They are significantly overpowered by the Russian military and there is fear the Georgians can be defeated as soon as this weekend.

I forced Mike Castle into and early retirment with nothing more at my disposal than the truth.

We Only Send One