In the liveblogging thread about the JCC Forum last week, several people offered advice for Chip Flowers for taking on Colin Bonini. This is going to be tough because the most common thing I hear people say about Bonini is that he’s funny. Here is the advice from commenter kurward derby:
>> Bonini spent the evening joking around, about having snacks afterwards and other things. < < Don't concede the race to Bonini; as this behavior demonstrates, he's a profoundly unserious politician. His attendance at legislative committee meetings is terrible. Somebody in the Flowers camp should do the research. Particularly for a legislator who lives close to Dover, he misses a lot of committee meetings, where the real legislating takes place. "I've never voted for state budget." This is a disgrace; we don't send our legislators to Dover to perform symbolic acts, we send them to negotiate with their colleagues to produce practical solutions to serious problems. To vote against a budget one time might properly draw attention to an issue; to vote against it regularly is an abdication of responsibility. Zero political courage is required to vote against something that you know is going to pass. As a wise Legislative Hall veteran once explained to me, if you've never voted "yes" on the state budget, you've never voted to pave a road, or build a school, or protect our drinking water. Flowers should hammer Bonini on his failure to perform the minimum requirements of his present position.
During the debate Bonini bragged that he had been a state senator of 16 years and that he had never voted for a state budget. He said he was running because of “spending” and he wanted to be accountable to the people. That’s it. I couldn’t figure out what Bonini wanted to do other than put the state checkbook online (which it already is). As far as spending goes, how is he going to affect it – not sign checks? El Somnambulo takes on Bonini in another comment:
The Other Geezer is so clueless as to legislative procedure that it’s embarrassing.
‘Vote for me b/c I never bothered to do my job in Dover’ is hardly a justifiable argument for winning votes. Especially since the Treasurer’s job is to make sure that money is disbursed properly. The Treasurer HAS to do their job. It is perhaps the worst place imaginable in government for someone who claims to ‘hate government’, but who has cashed his Senate paycheck for a dozen years. A paycheck the treasurer makes sure he gets.
Bonini used to be on the Budget Committee, yet always voted against the budget he helped craft. He is nothing but a Gingrichesque blowhard with not a single legislative accomplishment to point to in his entire career.
By TOG’s admission, he couldn’t be bothered to do his job:
“Legislative committee meetings when you are in the minority so badly don’t matter, GOP matters get no attention in the State Senate so why bother with the pre canned meetings which produce nothing?”
He is as unqualified to hold this office as O’Donnell is to serve in the Senate.
At least we know that TOG is a Bonini plant (‘plant’ perhaps in two senses of the word). In no way should he/she be compared to the one and only Geezer.
‘Bulo gets very serious:
Let me put it in terms that loyal readers of DL should understand–Bonini is as unqualified to be treasurer and perhaps even more dangerous…than KWS is to be insurance commissioner.
Wanna play games with the state’s Triple-A bond rating? Elect this guy who hasn’t bothered to do the one job he’s ever held for any period of time–and brags about it.
There’s a lot of material for Chip Flowers to go after but he needs to do it skillfully. It’s really hard to run against an affable nice guy. At one point in the debate Flowers actually took Bonini to task for not seeming serious. Flowers needs to take that tactic more without coming across as a wet blanket.