Feroce makes this point:
We are an incumbent driven state, so there are few opportunities (of a candidate doing well against an incumbent or challenger simply because he or she ran against the opponent’s national party) to cite. Even when we have open seats it’s an incumbent rotation.
Having said that, Dennis Spivak is a perfect example of that, he did much better than expected. Furthermore I would contend that Tom Wagner had a scare solely based on a Republican Backlash.
I agree. We are an incumbent driven state. In order to be a credible candidate for an office, you have to be an incumbent of something. We rarely elect challengers that are true outsiders to government. And in open elections, we still choose a person whose “turn” it is. The only examples I can think of where we elected a true outsider not in state government are the Bidens. Joe Biden upset Boggs being a member of the New Castle County Council. In 2006, Beau Biden beat Wharton by not being an incumbent of anything, but we all know his name equaled an incumbency of a sort.
Thus, the Karen Hartley Nagles, Michael Millers, Dennis Spivacks, Jerry Northingtons, Christine O’Donnells, Jan Tings, and Mike Protacks of this world have no chance to win anywhere at anytime in Delaware.
Yes. They. Will. Never. Win. It is true for both Parties. O’Donnell will NEVER beat Markell, Denn, Carney, Carper or Biden. Neither will Protack. If they both had gone the Copeland route of getting elected to the Assembly or the Senate some years back, then, maybe, they would be credible today. But they didn’t and they are not. The same holds true for their Democratic counterparts.
So what we need in Delaware is a race to open up where none of the heavyweights enter the race. Yeah, imagine what would happen if Castle retires, and Carney, for whatever reason, decides not to run for the House race, and no other elected Democrat or Republican decides to run either. Can you imagine the entertainment that would result if we had an Protack v. O’Donnell primary on the GOP side, and a repeat of the Hartley-Nagle v. Miller v. Northington race on the Dem side?
It would be a blogger’s dream.