Two Really Good Men
This Dialogue Delaware vignette is very informative, and makes our two Democratic candidates for Governor look very sincere:
Jack Markell was at home in shorts and a T-shirt Tuesday night, hitting “refresh” on his computer screen to keep up with election returns, when a campaign staffer called to tell him to come down to the Riverfront and join the large crowd of supporters gathering there.
His last check of the numbers — with Wilmington precincts still remaining — wasn’t promising.
“When I got in the car, I thought I was going to lose,” he said. “I wasn’t doing as well in Wilmington as I had hoped, and I was making people crazy saying, ‘This doesn’t look good.’ It was not until John called me, when I was two minutes away from the Riverfront. He congratulated me.”
Carney said Markell was surprised by his call.
“He said, ‘You mean it’s over?’ And I said, ‘You’re ahead by 1,700 with only a few ED’s [election districts] left. There’s no way,’ ” Carney said. “He honestly was surprised.”
Indeed, in another article in today’s paper, Jack Markell also indicates that he holds no grudge towards Bluewater Wind in their effusive praise of John Carney after the Offshore Energy deal.
“Should I be fortunate enough to win the general election, I’ve got a very important job to do, to serve the people of this state,” Markell said. “Personal feelings are really unimportant at that point. The question is, what’s in the best interest of all the people of the state? That’s where my focus is.”
In normal politics in Washington and elsewhere, grudges and the consequences of endorsing a losing candidate are common. Look at the race between Obama and Clinton. When Hillary was the inevitable frontrunner in late 2007, many Democrats were falling over themselves to support her. And when some Democratic officials endorsed Obama, especially a young freshman Democratic Congressman like Patrick Murphy, they were literally risking their careers. Most politicians do hold grudges. It is just the nature of the business.
“The consequence is there’s some type of lashback by the opponent[,” said Majority Leader Cathcart]. Markell is “too classy” to do that, [he] said.
For once, Cathcart and I agree.
Both candidates are truly gentlemen. We’ll be hearing from John again. And we’ll be glad to do so.
Except it’s revisionist bullsh.t.
We had the Delaware elections return site up most of the night. Markell knew he was winning earlier than halfway through.
This smells like a “gee, ain’t I so humble” make-believe story.
Just when you think you got a real live person…..he turns out to be a politician.
Good thing he and Carney weren’t drawing crosses in the dirt……
Let’s put lipstick on him!
The Wilmington precincts were widely expected to break heavily for Carney and could have tipped it to him.
Blacks the poor don’t vote in primaries as much. There was never any expection that Carney would stomp in Wilmington. This was a middle class beachgoer’s game, and Jack had that locked up by July.
Seratoninevah, you are wrong, and you are surprisingly bigoted.
I was at the Markell headquarters, and the reason no one called the race until there were only 2 precincts left is because everyone expected Carney to roll up big numbers in Wilmington.
And yes, the “blacks [and] the poor] do vote. More often than the lazy “middle class beachgoers,” simply because it is their only voice in our society.
This election we had two really good choices. I preferred Markell, but I would have been happy to support Carney had he won. I think Carney has a great future in politics. We haven’t seen the last of him. I hope we will see him running against Castle or for the Senate seat when it becomes available.
DelDen,
What you said in #5.
All 3 paragraphs. Agreed.
Ask Dan Frawley about his supporters that went to the Brandywine flower show. 16 years ago.
Delawaredem,
“Surprisingly”? Now that’s funny. You must have stuck your tongue through your cheek for that one!
One of the things I really liked about watching John and Jack in their multiple debates and appearances together is how they always seemed to like each other, how they both seemed to work at focusing on issues and solutions and while they both threw some elbows, it wasn’t especially personal. And I think that came across in the quick endorsement by Carney and the rest of the machine. I can see the two of them working together pretty effectively (as long as Jack sets policy and steers high level hires away from the usual suspects) in a Markell administration.
With the last precincts in play, it was still concieivable that Carney could pull it out, if those ED’s were in the City. The black vote was expected to be heavy in the City with the Mayor on the ballot. Actually, Kent County and Carney’s hometown of Claymont really won this race for Markell. The rest of the districts polled as predicted by most. Kent County was the wildcard. There is some indication that the vote in Kent was a reflection of the representation that Carney had a statewide endorsement when the county party clearly passed on that process.