The Delaware Liberal Interview With John Mackenzie

John Mackenzie a Ph.D. economist, UD professor and reform minded Democrat running against a 16-year incumbent Republican with a lot of big money support. Mackenzie wants to use his senate seat to push for open government, local control over public schools, smart growth and for economic incentives that motivate individuals and businesses to maintain a cleaner, greener Delaware . He is also my pick for the upset of 2008. John was good enough to take a few minutes away from door knocking to answer a few questions (via email).

Jason: First off, how is the campaign going? What are you finding out there?

John Mackenzie: It’s going great, particularly the canvassing. I love Delaware-style politics; voters really appreciate being asked for their votes face-to-face. I have been door-knocking since July, and talked with over 2,000 people, and everyone has been gracious, willing to give me a look. I can count on one hand the number of people who were rude.

Jason: The Republicans in your district are not crazy wingnuts. So why donʼt you think any Delaware Republicans stood up to the National GOPʼs strategy of embracing the far right? You opponent for example, still has not repudiated the GOP philosophies that have wrecked the economy?

John Mackenzie: If you’re still a solid Republican in this day and age–after the lies that got us into Iraq, the incompetence, theft, wire-tapping, torture, record deficits and idiotic fiscal and monetary mismanagement that have crippled our economy–well, you have to be pretty hard-core. I used to support Mike Castle, and I like him personally, but but despite his moderate positions, he’s channels a lot of campaign money to some pretty unsavory neo-cons. I don’t really know my opponent’s economic philosophies, I doubt there’s any particular economic ideology driving her votes.

I noticed that most of the Republican candidates around here are omitting their party affiliation on their signs and campaign literature. Liane is claiming she’s “Strong & Effective. Independent.” Well, she’s not an Independent, she’s Republican through and through. In some states it’s illegal to campaign like that without revealing your party affiliation. I don’t see the logic of this strategy. Once voters are in the voting booth, they’ll see what party she is. I guess this is a weak attempt to distance herself from the Republican mainstream, but it’s risky: why would loyal Republicans support a candidate who’s not willing to even acknowledge the party?

Jason: Iʼve spoken to people who think that the biggest obstacles to the kinds of open government reforms you talk about might be the sitting Democrats. How do you rate the Democrat Partyʼs ability to heal itself?

John Mackenzie: In the case of the Senate, that’s absolutely true: the Dem majority deserves most of the blame. The Republican minority caucus can’t accomplish much. My opponent is minority whip, her specific job is to muster Senate Republican support for bills like SB4, but she failed to get her caucus behind it. But there were plenty of Dems who also left SB 4 to languish.

The Sept. primary proved that Dems can clean up their own act, though. The prospect of joining the Senate with two other reform Dems, Katz and Hall-Long, is pretty exciting. I’m thinking we will tip the balance in the Dem caucus and push through the open govt. reforms we need. It will also give Markell a better chance to get his legislative agenda through.

Jason: What were the biggest lessons you learned from being on the Christiana school board?

John Mackenzie: Humility and patience. I started out as a major critic of Christina: why aren’t we scoring better on the DSTP? Why are our buildings so dilapidated? When Terry Schooley left the board to run for the House, she suggested I run for school board. It was pretty much put up or shut up. I came on the board the same day Joey Wise, our former superintendent, started here–I was not involved in hiring him. Wise soon discovered that the financial and regulatory constraints would make it difficult to implement his big plans. He did a lot of good things for Christina, but he left us with a financial mess to clean up.

That’s when things got ugly: I had to vote approval of teacher layoffs, some of them my friends and neighbors. The News-Journal editorial board published demands for my resignation, and kept blathering on about “$28 million missing” in Christina. Our deficit was $12.4M and it was all accounted for: Wise had hired more teachers than we could afford. But people attacked me in letters and blogs, and a few wackos even attacked my children. But the board hung in there and got the deficit closed in a matter of months. And we became experts in school finance, and came to understand just how dysfunctional our whole public education finance system really is. We put out a capital referendum in November 2007, and is passed with 79% of voters voting yes. They felt we had put things right, and they were willing to trust us again. Also we were able to give homeowners small tax reductions in 2007 and 2008. Public school systems are big and complex, and reforming them takes patience and creativity. People spend 12 years in school, so they’re all experts on what’s wrong with our schools.

Jason: Your primary was hard fought, but kept to the issues. You and your primary opponent still have nothing but kind words for each other. Do you think that will be the case with this election? Do you see it possibly turning nasty in the home stretch?

John Mackenzie: MIke Terranova is a class act. I really hope the general election stays on the high road through Nov. 4th, remains focused on the issues. At the Monday night GHADA forum in Hockessin, Liane and I followed Katz and Clatworthy; their debate got so nasty that we agreed to keep our session very above-board, and we did. I’m going to stay focused on the issues.

Jason: It took John Kowalko two races to win his seat from a long time incumbent Republican. I know you are out to win this year, but have you given anything to this possibly being a long term project?

John Mackenzie: I intend to win this year, and am totally focused on Nov. 4, no time to speculate about 2 or 4 years out!