Ugly in the 9th
I live in the 9th RD which makes up about half of Middletown and some of Bear and Delaware City. When Dick Cathcart announced his retirement all hell broke loose.
On the Democratic side, Rick Griffiths was the endorsed candidate for the ticket. He was gearing up his campaign for a hard slog against Cathcart when Dick announced his retirement. Rebecca Walker (who had actually endorsed Griffiths as a member of the 9th Committee) jumped into the race that she had already unsuccessfully run twice before. She has some advantages, since she only had to dust off the signs in her garage and already had some ties to traditional Democratic constituencies. She quickly gained some endorsements from a few unions and groups.
In the few months since then, Walker has been increasingly daring in her claims. While all of the local Democratic leaders have been officially uncommitted to either of the candidates, Walker has claimed to have won the endorsements of many of them. Of course, she did win those endorsements in 2008, not 2010. In her latest lit piece, she has a picture of herself with Senator Bruce Ennis. However, Ennis has not endorsed her (nor has he officially endorsed Griffiths), but Ennis has given money to the Griffiths campaign.
Griffiths has been hesitant to strike back. He has quietly walked the neighborhoods of his district knocking on doors, shaking hands and asking for votes. In their only joint appearance (at the Blackbird Democratic Club meeting 2 weeks ago) both got up to speak and Walker was reportedly outclassed. During that meeting, several local politicians stepped up to talk about a project that Griffiths had been heavily involved in with the county.
But here’s the thing, the Democratic contest is the relatively clean race. John Marino and Tony Mirto on the Republican side have been battling on a lower level. Marino is the Cathcart-selected candidate and the local committee has endorsed him. Mirto is a newcomer/outsider that has been going for the jugular.
On Saturday, I got a lit piece from him with the question, “Convicted Criminal or Proven Hero?” The piece is complete with a copy of the docket showing a conviction for reckless driving by John Marino. And on a side note, who calls themselves a hero? Seriously?
Among the assertions on the mailer was that Marino (besides being a convicted criminal) is a carpetbagger, a guy fired under mysterious circumstances and unendorsed by the Republican party. Mirto, on the other hand, is a hero because he “provided security to Air Force One”. He claims to be a military hero, but there is no evidence that he ever served in combat, so I’m not sure how exactly he earned his hero status.
As for carpetbagger and unendorsed status, I can’t confirm Mirto’s claim that he has lived in Delaware most of his life, but it appears that he hasn’t lived in Middletown as long as Marino. And as I said, he was endorsed by the only Republican party committee that does endorsements.
If nothing else, these contests have produced a lot of heat in the local area and will be an interesting sideshow to the Castle/O’Donnell sideshow.
Tags: local Dems, Local Politics, local R's, Local Races
I’ve seen very few Griffiths signs and received no mailings from him. It’s a shame to hear that he might be the better candidate because given her name recognition advantage, Walker will probably win.
I agree w/ you geek, the 9th is going to be the one to watch–after the national/state stuff.
Why the ugliness? I’m seeing the same trend over the entire primary process.
If you have ideas to discuss, the fights are clean and productive.
If you are bankrupt of ideas, the fights are dirty, personal, and basely stupid.
I’m not going to say that most of the negativity comes from the Republican side, no matter which race is being discussed, but… I’m sure most readers will automatically draw their own conclusion it is so…
Is it Wednesday morning yet?
LG,
Not taking sides or commenting on anything between the two Democratic candidates, but it should be noted that Bruce Ennis has donated to Rebecca Walker this election cycle as well: http://cfis.elections.delaware.gov/COE/cfishome.nsf/vwElectionData/WALKERR!-10-CAN-PRI-8DAY.pdf/$File/WALKERR!-10-CAN-PRI-8DAY.pdf?openelement. (Sorry about the bad link, either cut and paste the full link or go to the Elections site and check Walker’s 8-day report.)
If you compare the 30-day and 8-day reports for both candidates, you’ll notice that Val Longhust also donated to both. In both cases, the donations to Griffiths came well before Walker got into the race.
Again, not taking any sides here, just pointing that out.
Thanks, Scoop. I didn’t realize that.
Griffiths or Walker will be great candidates and will handily beat any of the very flawed candidates the GOP will put up in the 9th
JTF…
Don’t you consider any GOP candidate “very flawed” every time? Just checking the consistency meter.
Well, they are flawed, that’s just a fact, Rsmitty. Why don’t you allow comments on your blog, by the way? Republican way?
Steaksauce
I met Rick at a few candidate training events, and I’m very impressed with him. He was willing to step up and try to bring down the house minority leader, with little more than energy and ideas. I asked him once why he’s running, and he said, “Somebody has to step up and do something.” For all the reasons I’ve heard, I think that’s the most honest, and the most persuasive. I have not met Ms. Walker, so I can’t say who would be better. Just wanted to pass on my impressions of Rick.
–Jim
Why don’t you allow comments on your blog, by the way? Republican way?
Steaksauce
Ah, “Is it chopped ham or is it chopped steak”, lemmee tell you a little. I don’t own that blog and am just a contributor. There is more than one reason why and both were mentioned elsewhere on this blog today. Both legit and one of ’em far more real than I’d like to think possible, but to close to home. So, I guess you can say the neo-con way had something to do with it, but not in the way I think you hint.
is steaksauce a polite way of saying bullshit? never mind. I’ll do the google. Oh, my. Take my advice: don’t google steaksauce because it may or may not mean anything but steaksauce.Tho’ if you’re hot for Barney then there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean Barney as in Doogie not Barney as in Frank, because there is certainly something wrong with that.
so delaware tomorrow is bullshit. Put that on your sauce, steak.
@RSmitty uhm, because one is a convicted criminal and the other is obviously an idiot? Tbat’s why they’re flawed.
Its your party. Claim it. Own it.
Whoever wins the D primary will win the election. Cathcart was the only one with a chance to hold it. Neither of the R’s have distinguished themselves, and the registration deficit will be next to impossible for the R’s to overcome.
Along with the 24th, these two flips virtually guarantee continued D control of the House. And, if the wingnuts win tom’w, cataclysm awaits for Monsignor Lavelle.