Last night the Progressive Democrats for Delaware held a forum for Democratic candidates involved in primaries. The featured primary races were Treasurer, Auditor, New Castle County Sheriff, 24th District Representative and 27th District Representative. I’ve seen most of these candidates in previous forums and all of them are definitely improving in their 5-minutes speeches. Velda Jones-Potter was the best I’ve ever seen her.
The drama occurred in the Q&A period at the end of the speeches. The NCCo Sheriff candidates were asked if they would each support the other candidate if they were unsuccessful in the primary. Trinidad Navarro said yes, Mike Walsh said no. It certainly changed the mood in the room. Most of the questions of the evening were for the sheriff candidates. During the Q&A period Walsh accused Navarro of lying about his record, highlighted Navarro’s lack of advancement in the police department and gave himself all As if he had to grade himself. Navarro defended himself as being truthful about Walsh’s record and denied that he’s a candidate of Tom Gordon and Sherry Freeberry.
The last question of the night was a rather bizarre one: say something positive about your opponent. First up was Mike Walsh. His answer (my paraphrase) was that Navarro had a lot of courage for challenging such a great person like Mike Walsh. The moderator cut off Walsh’s answer before he could put his foot much further in his mouth. The best answer of the night belonged to Chip Flowers, who said that Velda Jones-Potter has challenged him to be a much better candidate.
If you had asked me months ago which race would be nasty and which would be clean I would have named the Sheriff’s race as a clean one and the Treasurer’s race as the nasty one. The Treasurer’s race is really turning into a political junkie’s dream race. Two qualified candidates, both very appealing but with different visions of the role of the Treasurer’s office.
The Sheriff’s race on the other hand should have been a cakewalk for Mike Walsh. He’s a longtime incumbent and quite popular in the county. He seems, however, personally offended that someone is challenging him. In my opinion, if you’re a long-serving incumbent you have the luxury to be polite but dismissive of your challenger, but that’s not the route that Mike Walsh is taking. Navarro, on the other hand, has made a lot of mistakes. He was overly negative when the race began and he’s suffering from a perceived link to Gordon/Freeberry. Walsh can’t seem to close the deal in the forums I’ve seen him in because he suffers from a lack of vision, perspective and needed humility.