One frustrating thing for me the election year has been the lack of coverage on the local races by the News Journal. Or should I say the complete lack of interest in Democratic candidates? The NJ has covered 3 Republican candidate forums and 0 Democratic candidate forums. The last Democratic candidate forum was Monday night, sponsored by the Newark Area Democrats. The NJ didn’t bother to show up, even though they were invited.
I found it interesting that yesterday, Ron Williams, after getting his normal bash at Chris Coons in, reacted with puzzlement to the primary for Sheriff. Williams:
What’s going on here anyway?
Mike Walsh, the New Castle County sheriff since the days of Robin Hood, is facing a Democratic primary against Trinidad Navarro, a county police officer.
Navarro recently received a 10-0 vote of support in the 22nd Rep. District.
Perhaps if the NJ showed any interest in the candidate forums they would know. Walsh talks about what a great job he’s doing and Navarro talks about renewal and modernization. One devastating point made by Navarro re Walsh is that Walsh doesn’t know how to use a computer. It certainly doesn’t help Walsh that he doesn’t have an email contact or a website.
As far as endorsements, I think (I’m not quite sure) that Navarro has gotten the endorsement of 4 other committees, to Walsh’s 1. I know for sure that Navarro was endorsed by the 24th RD Democratic Committee (5-0).
Williams also comments on the Treasurer primary, but doesn’t add much to our knowledge:
How did this really happen?
There’s also a Democratic primary for state treasurer, Gov. Markell’s old office, between appointed treasurer Velda Jones-Potter and Chip Flowers, a Middletown lawyer.
Word is that Flowers got in the race after Jones-Potter had announced she wouldn’t seek election. That’s because former deputy finance director Tom Cook was about to lose his job with elimination of the Department of Finance and he was promised the nomination for treasurer. But the decision to eliminate the agency was reversed and Cook became finance secretary.
That allowed Jones-Potter to change her mind. Word from the Jones-Potter camp is that Flowers never told them he was running.
Readers of this blog know that this is one of the more hotly contested primary races. I wonder if the NJ will even notice? There was no mention at all of the primary for State Auditor either.