Once again acknowledging his inability to understand Sussex County at all, it appears to ‘bulo that the R’s have chosen their strongest possible candidate. Booth’s conservative profile suits the district, he has high name recognition from his previous races, and doesn’t seem to be saddled with any real controversy.
Also, the nominal 1200-plurality voting edge for the D’s means nothing in a district that voted overwhelmingly for John McCain. The ‘Democrats’ are, to a great extent, ‘old-school’ southern Democrats. Party ID will mean little here. In his last two elections, Booth ran unopposed in 2006, and captured over 64% of the vote against Helen Truitt (Sen. Richard Cordrey’s former assistant) in 2008 in the 37th RD. He’s a proven vote-getter and, just as importantly, he has a campaign organization already in place.
Apparently the D’s will gather tonight to select their candidate. The Beast Who Slumbers will leave it to the wiser heads from lowerslower Delaware to even hazard a prediction.
The Beast Who Slumbers would actually welcome a Booth victory in the sense that he believes it would place the reform D’s in a stronger position in the Senate. It would leave only Cook and Venables as the unreconstructed obstructionists on the D side of the aisle. (Former Phils’ manager Gene Mauch once said, “Sometimes you add by subtracting.” ‘Bulo believes that subtracting a conservative D senator from Sussex County would prove Mauch’s point.) The R’s would still only have 6 senators, so they’d still have virtually no impact. For Booth, he likely still could serve on JFC where, by most accounts, he did a fine job. He could also swiftly move up the leadership chain in a body almost devoid of strong R leaders.
In the event that Booth wins the Senate seat, the D’s could have at least a fighting chance in the 37th RD. They have a very nominal registration edge and, depending on the dynamics of the Senate race, perhaps the voters would want to split the difference and give a member of the Adams’ Family (ghoulish reference intentional) the chance to follow in Uncle Thurm’s footsteps.
All this idle speculation is an open invitation to political junkies to fire away at the ‘Beast Who Slumbers and Who In Fact Retired Early on June 30’, and to put forth your own idle or not-so idle speculation. The only guarantee is that it will be better informed than ‘bulo’s.