Cohen Throws Cold Water on Spence
We read Celia Cohen because she is the canary in a gold mine. Like a Seven of Nine liberated from the Borg, but still has a direct link to the hive mind. Actually, considering she is sponsored by Pete DuPont and all his Chateau Republican friends, she is really none of those things, rather she is a bought and paid for spokesman for the Castle blue bloods that formerly ran the Delaware Republican Party.
Given that background, her latest piece is interesting, to say the least. Not really for the content, because it really is really lacking in that instance, but for the motivation. First, some background. It has been widely rumored that Former Republican Speaker Terry Spence will seek the GOP nomination for Governor next year, finally. I say finally, because Terry Spence has considered, and let everyone know that he was considered, running for Governor before. Celia puts it this way:
More to the point, in almost every year before a gubernatorial election, there is speculation that Spence will run for governor, most of it stoked by Spence himself. It is like the return of the political locusts. By the time the campaign season really gets going, Spence’s candidacy has died off every time. He is an odd-numbered-year candidate for governor, only to drop down and file as usual for state representative. The farthest along he ever got was a Republican straw poll in January 2000.
He was like the Newt Gingrich of Delaware, always flirting with running for President, but never does it. Except, Newt Gingrich finally did run for President. He is doing a horrible job of it, but that is besides the point. So perhaps Spence will finally bite the bullet and run. He’s got a website up and running, and he has a Facebook page, although the only activity on it in the last several months is from a spammer. Spence would probably do a horrible job of running for Governor, but whereas national Republicans have more (horrible) choices besides Gingrich, Delaware Republicans have….. hold on a minute I am thinking…. hmmmmm… is Lee still alive?……. Charlie Copeland.
Back to Celia, who after informing us of Spence’s flirtations with running in the past, begins to relate a story about Spence meeting with Republican political operative Mike Harkins and Republican National Committeewoman Priscilla Rakestraw at the White Clay Country Club. Observers who saw them all there together were intrigued and dished to Celia, who put on her reporter’s cape and got to the bottom of it.
Spence was there to meet with a businessman, an innocent bystander who has nothing to do with state politics, and invited Harkins along. Rakestraw ran into them in the course of her work for the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, where she is the development director. It was just one of those typical coincidences in a small state where everyone knows everyone else, or at least they think they do.
“I was there for a business luncheon involving the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition and happened to see two friends sitting there. I just went to say hello. I never miss an opportunity to find out what’s happening with Mike Harkins and Terry Spence,” Rakestraw said.
“It’s Delaware. I never expected my table-hopping to be reported back to the other party and to Delaware Grapevine. But it’s a good place to eat.”
That’s it. Celia gets a quote from Rakestraw dismissing her presence at the meeting, and Celia runs with it to dismiss the entire idea of Spence running for Governor.
So Spence is not even an odd-numbered-year candidate for governor. He is an odd-man out.
It does not appear from her piece that she contacted Spence himself or Harkin. She does not quote either of them, and does not tell us that both refused to comment for her story. Not that it really matters, as a Republican politician having a lunch meeting at a country club with a political operative and a businessman is not breaking news. It is standard operating procedure. And even if the meeting wasn’t political at all (although you have to ask why Harkin is “tagging along” for a business meeting between Spence and an still unnamed and unknown businessman), does that mean Spence is not running?
It seems to me that the word came from upon high to quell or quiet Spence for Governor rumors and stories. It is the only reason Celia would have written her piece the way she did. And now I am wondering why? Why does Spence need to be quashed? I would understand if one of Castle’s cronies plans to run for Governor, but so far we have crickets. Indeed, Spence seems like the type that could bring some healing to the Delaware Republican Party. He is establishment enough for the establishment and conservative enough for the teabaggers.
Terry Spence is not, never was, and will never be, a serious candidate for Governor. His only remaining allies may be Brian McGlinchey and his whackadoo Working Families Party.
Spence never stepped into the fray even when he HAD some political capital. He’s now lost two consecutive races in the House district that he had drawn to spec. His political operation is mom and pop at best. He’s old. A lot of Rethug members of his own caucus hate him.
Plus, he’s got baggage. He operated the Speaker’s office like an ATM. He was a profligate spender. We STILL haven’t seen the travel records that have been requested from his time in office. More Delaware Way crap.
Despite what someone said, he’d have no appeal to the teabaggers whatsoever, unless the construction trades have taken over the teabag movement, and he has little to no appeal to the Greenville crowd. He has no R constituency whatsoever.
I suspect that even Brian McGlinchey, with his multiple checkbooks, realizes that he’d be throwing more ‘working families” money down the rathole than he already has.
I agree with El Somnambulo that Spence has no future in any public office let alone governor. If he ran against Markell, he’d get less votes than Bill Gordy got.What I don’t agree with is his suggestion that organized labor still supports Spence. While the carpenters, the electricions and of couple other unions supported Spence in 2010, the AFL and most of organized labor supported Barberi. I just looked at the campaign reports the Laboreers Union, Mcglinchey’s Union contributed to Barberi and not Spence.
Celia gets all of her info from rakestraw as she is no reporter. She is used as a tool to destroy republicans and nothing else.
I agree with DD. This is a puzzle. Cohen is getting the word out that Spence is a non-starter, but for whom? The DEGOP will certainly run some teabag this year. Maybe Greenville is trying to smoke out the eventual teabag so that when they lose they will loose in the plain sight of all registered Rs, and thereby further discredit teabagery.
I don’t think it matters which teabag runs. The only one that might have had a shot is Charlie Copeland. If Copeland had gone the Mike Castle moderate/sane Republican route, he’d be King of Delaware today. But he went with his sour little teabag blog instead. Man, did he guess wrong.
There’s no puzzle. It’s summertime and Celia has to write SOMETHING so that her five, um, subscribers, remain, um, subscribed.
As simple and as pathetic as that.
I still read Grapevine…. a veces….but it feels more and more like a chore with each time.
I just heard the Gallup guy on NPR saying Obama is polling 59% approval in Delaware. So much for the teabag approach to Republicanism in Delaware.
It is really amazing that when you read Delaware LTEs or listen to talk radio or even the kind of people who turn up at Carper/Coons/Carney events – you would think the whole state is teabagger – and Carper/Coons/Carney probably think so too.
But 59% is a true silent majority.
As I said before – they are conservadems because they think that’s what we want. Real Democrats need to speak up against the Republican agenda, even when – especially when – it is coming from Democrats.
wrong. They are conservadems because it pays better.
To the media, which is controlled by conservatives.
They would be worth nothing to their paymasters if we didn’t keep electing them.
Anyway, the point was that with a 59% Obama approval rating, the Delaware GOP is pretty much screwed. Especially if they won’t play Mike Castle’s kind of Republicanism anymore.
Terry Spence is a good person and hard working Legislator.
Terry, Thanks for the input.