Progressive Touchstones.
Ask any politically astute person in Delaware who are the more notable Progressives in the state, and I am sure they will answer Rebecca Young and John Kowalko. So just in case you think this party chair election tomorrow is really all about Progressives v. the Party Establishment, be aware that Rebecca has endorsed Daniello and John has endorsed McGlinchey. Sure, McGlinchey is trying to capitalize on disenchantment with the Delaware Way, or at the very least with Daniello’s intervention in the primaries last year, in his upstart race to unseat Daniello. That and his union credentials are really the only cards he has to play.
But an anonymous poster on the Progressive Democrats of Delaware email list has this to say about that disenchantment:
What happened last year is water under the bridge and has, in and of itself, brought a valuable lesson to party leadership. I would expect a rule change to come out of all of this once the dust settles if Daniello is re-elected.
Indeed. You can argue that Markell’s win over Carney and subsequent election as Governor was all the revenge that was needed. The wounds have healed from that dust up, and there are now various contacts and partnerships between Markell’s supporters and his Administration and the state Party.
The fault lines in this race are everywhere and nowhere, and that is why I think, after all the shouting tomorrow, Daniello will be reelected as party chair. In fact, I foresee a deal tomorrow: McGlinchey will withdraw prior to the election in exchange for a new rule about noninterference in party primaries.
Since Daniello did make a mistake, why has he not apologized to the party for it?
Why has he then not campaigned with a promise to change the rules.
I don’t trust the man!
Perhaps we will see that today
‘Water under the damn’, etc. are phrases that brush off what is really going on…..Daniello is a gatekeeper of the first magnitude in the style of leo marshall, richard daley, frank rizzo, and tamany hall….it’s the 21st century and that ‘Delaware Way’ inspired way of running a party is passe.
I agree Susan. But that doesn’t mean he is going to lose tomorrow.
or today either.
Something that hasn’t been brought up here, but which ‘bulo thinks is important, is the fact that Daniello embraced Dean’s 50-state strategy, and brought in highly-qualified people to carry out the grassroots strategy that ultimately led to the D’s winning the House.
Without people like Kristin Dwyer, Alex Snyder-Macklin (sp?), and Molly Jurusik, for example, there’s no way that Bryon Short wins the special election in Brandywine Hundred. And there’s no way that candidates from 2004 on could go out into the electoral battlefield with such well-crafted grassroots campaign plans.
He could have used the $$’s to bring in ‘cronies’, but he didn’t. He went out and got the best people he could find, some from out-of-state.
That’s the part of running the party no one hears about. For better or for worse, at least Daniello has done that, and he deserves credit for it.
BTW, DelDem, ‘bulo thinks that there is no way that McGlinchey will withdraw. However, if you’re correct, he’ll buy you that beer that Liberal Geek turned down last week.
Of, course, it might be a little flat by now…