Hardly a week goes by without someone at Delaware Liberal taking a well-deserved shot at an elected Democrat. This puts the lie to screams of partisanship at us. But further, the Democratic party has tried to be the police of their own excesses. Over the past few cycles, the Democrats have been able to put real effort into primaries with serious discussions, debates and finally elections. Recently, a New Castle County sheriff of 30 years and a Treasurer of 2 years were sent packing in September. In 2008, the anointed Gubernatorial candidate was derailed by a politician that successfully utilized voting blocs that hadn’t voted in Dem primaries before.
Sure, these battles opened wounds that haven’t healed in some (and are even festering in others), but Delaware is better off as a result of this process of self-cleansing. It reinforces the feeling that Dems are the adults in the room here in Delaware.
The need to purge our party of people that don’t take their responsibilities to the people of Delaware is an unending job and it takes a concentrated effort. We have to often choose our battles so that we can win a few rather than lose a bunch of them. In 2012, we will again be in a target-rich environment. It is coming close to the time that we have to start picking our battles.
Up this time will be Tom Carper, Paul Clark and Tony Deluca. I doubt that we can get all three (especially since we don’t have any obvious opponents yet), but I wonder who you think we should target to clean our own house of the stench of incompetence?