Despite Anonone’s adnomitions to the contrary, how can you not view these Delaware results as nothing more than the complete and total destruction of the Delaware Republican Party? In a Republican tsunami year nationally where the Democrats are getting creamed nearly everywhere, the Delaware Republican Party lost the following:
* A near certain pickup of the State Treasurer’s race. At the beginning of the year, when I heard Bonini was going to run for the Treasurer’s job, I figured the GOP would win this race easily. Bonini is an amiable enough guy on the surface, until you dig deeper and realize this guy has done nothing but collect paychecks for NO work for decades. I thought he was a shoo-in.
* The U.S. Senate seat, once held by Vice President Biden. This seat was a GOP lock, and it would have been a very symbolic repudiation of the Vice President if the GOP had won it last night with Mike Castle. But the racist teabaggers in all their uneducated ignorant might defeated Castle due to his daring to compromise on a few issues and due to his wanting to govern responsibily and work with Democrats to do so.
* The U.S. House seat. Now, I think once Castle decided to seek a promotion to the Senate, this seat was going to be in Democratic hands no matter what. Even if the teabaggers did not defeat Rollins. Indeed, imagine if Rollins had been the candidate. First, she is a horrible retail candidate, worse than John Carney in delivery and style. Second, her service on the board of Wilimington Trust, whose sale to a Buffalo, NY bank was announced on Monday, would have doomed any chance for her to win. So this seat was going to go Democratic. Still, it smarts for the GOP to lose Castle’s old seat since 1992. And without Castle now, and in a non-Republican year like 2012, how does the GOP win this seat back? And with who??
* The Delaware House. The GOP entered this year hoping, and almost expecting, to win back control of the state House, or at the very least make significant gains. Instead, they lost 2 seats. Only one vulnerable Democrat, Bob Walls, went down to defeat, while Dennis E. Williams in Brandywine and Daryll Scott and Brad Bennett, both in Kent County, survived. Meanwhile, a rising star in the DE GOP, Tom Kovach, lost. Democrats Rebecca Walker and Ed Osienski won two long held Republican open seats. Democrats have regained their supermajority in the House that they lost with the special elections in late 2008 and 2009.
* The Delaware Senate. Control of the upper chamber was never a realistic goal, though the GOP had hoped to make Blevins and Ennis sweat a little more than they did. Still, the Senate is probably the only bright spot for the GOP tonight, as they successfully defended Cathy Cloutier, again, from a serious challenge, again. And they knocked off Nancy Cook, a long time (too long actually) Democratic incumbent from Kenton. Progressives in the Democratic party are not sad to see her go, so this is a bright spot for us too. However, the GOP is still a 2-1 minority in the Senate, with the Democrats leading the chamber 14-7.
* State Auditor. Well, they actually won this, but even this victory must taste bitter. How can Wagner almost lose in a Republican year? Wagner barely BARELY beat back Richard Korn. Now, Richard Korn is a friend of mine, and a great guy, but I never thought he stood a chance to win. I thought he would go down to defeat by at least 10 points or more. And yet, in this supposedly Republican year, Tom Wagner wins by only the slimmest of margins. That makes him incredibly weak, and this will probably be his last term as a result. And yet he is the only Republican left statewide. Horrible.
Going forward, the lesson the GOP should learn from this night is that the Greenville establishment actually does have the party’s best interests at heart. They are the ones that know how to win in Delaware. What the racist teabaggers failed to realize is that their bullshit does not play up here in New Castle County. You have to be a moderate, and you have to be winning to compromise and work for solutions while in Washington for you to win in New Castle County and in growing parts of Kent County. And unless you win there, you cannot win a statewide general election.
The teabaggers can always win a GOP primary, as they have shown, and I hope they continue to win GOP primaries going forward. But if you are a reasonable moderate Republican in this state, they cannot win another election if you want your party to ever win a statewide election again.