Democrat Scott Spencer challenges his primary opponent, John Carney, to pledge not to use any Democratic Party money should he be endorsed by the state Party in his primary. It does seem to be a perfectly reasonable request. For we here at Delaware Liberal were all up in arms, and legitimately so, in 2008 when Carney, as the party endorsed candidate, used state party money in his race against Jack Markell. Progressives in the state party committees have moved for rule changes to prevent not only endorsements in contested primaries but also the use of party money in contested primaries. These rule changes have not been finalized yet, but John Carney is not a party endorsed candidate yet and has no access or right to the money. Indeed, the endorsement process is just now getting underway.
But, even if he was the endorsed candidate and even if he did have access to the money, Carney shouldn’t use it on principle if not experience. Indeed, his use of party money in the last contested primary produced negative publicity for his campaign. And who knows, if it wasn’t for that negative publicity, maybe Carney would have won the race, although it is just as likely that Carney’s use of the money allowed him to keep pace with the Markell juggernaut and make it a close race in the end.
The brutal truth, though, is Carney is not very likely at all to use party money against Scott Spencer. He used it in 2008 because he had to. He doesn’t have to now. He already has raised a half million as of the last quarter, while Spencer has not submitted a report likely because he hasn’t raised any money for his campaign. If Carney can’t beat Spencer using what he has already, well, then Carney can’t beat anyone.
But that doesn’t make Spencer wrong. Carney should take the pledge. Spencer has also challenged Carney to return all party funds donated to his campaign as the endorsed candidate in 2008. I don’t know about that one, but I don’t blame Spencer from trying to tap into that progressive anger at the Carney campaign in 2008. I will leave it up to you all to argue over.