Why was it held?
Seriously. Why? I went to the convention anticipating high drama. A floor fight over U.I.’s torture resolution. Perhaps multiple ballots on the party chair races. What did I get? I got shouted at by Auctioneer Tom Carper. I saw a party chair so disorganized that it made me wonder if he really wanted the job. I saw Harriet Windsor Smith give the opening invocation and closing benediction that contained no less than 1,237 “Thank You Gods” that made me think she thought we had just avoided a nuclear holocaust by not having a contested election for party chair.
It felt like it served no real purpose. Now, I know that is not true. I know a lot of hard work went into planning it. I know friends like Rebecca Young and U.I. and others spent hours at resolution drafting and platform meetings. But still, it felt like a show convention, it felt like nothing got accomplished but for the reelection by acclamation of Daniello.
The behind the scenes maneuvering must have been intense in the hours before the convention. Indeed, I expected a deal. As I told a friend afterwards, if I was McGlinchey, I would know that my moment of highest leverage over the party establishment was this morning as I walked in the door. I would have gone to Daniello and say that I would drop out if Daniello would endorse and pass at that very convention a rule change forbidding party involvement in primaries. No endorsements, no money from the state party. And if he did not agree to that, I, the candidate with all the momentum at that moment, would force an full vote among all delegates. No straw polls. No caucus meetings.
Instead, we got an agreement for a straw poll that was most likely inaccurate, since I saw McGlinchey delegates outside with me at the time of the straw poll. Now, I am not a Daniello or McGlinchey partisan. I am not screaming that the vote was stolen or unfair. I had no dog in this race. And I had no vote in this race since I am not a delegate (but I will be next time). Indeed, Daniello has done a lot of good for the party, even if he is the Delaware Way personified. Absent a deal where McGlinchey got sometime in return for bowing out after the straw poll, his candidacy and the convention seemed like a waste of time.
But hey, maybe I am spoiled. Where else but Delaware does the Governor and Lt. Governor know me personally and by name? Where else do I get to cuss out Tom Carper online during a live blog, only to have the victim of my obscenity come over to me literally seconds after I pressed “publish,” shake my hand, point at my laptop and say “Oh that’s great.” Selander will be laughing at that for years.