Delaware Political Weekly: July 14-20, 2012

1. Karen Weldin Stewart Campaign a Reflection of Karen Weldin Stewart, the Insurance Commissioner.

There are many things a campaign cannot control: unexpected events, unexpected revelations,  bad luck, the quality of its opponents, among them. However, every campaign has complete and total control over every word of communication that goes out under its name. Whether it be press releases, its literature, or its webpage, among other examples, the candidate’s campaign, and only the candidate’s campaign, determines how that campaign is to be portrayed by the campaign itself. By now we know that what passes for the KWS campaign put up on its website information that, to put it as charitably as possible, is untrue. Among people she listed as endorsing her were: State Senators David B. McBride and Bruce C. Ennis; and State Representatives Debra Heffernan and Dennis E. Williams. None of them, in fact, have endorsed her. I can only think of three possible reasons why she might have listed their names:

Intention to Mislead

Incompetence

Pure Delusion.

All three of these factors have manifested themselves in her past campaigns and in what passes for her ‘performance’ as Insurance Commissioner. As one might expect, she was unavailable for comment for the News-Journal story about this huge screw-up. Why? Because she can’t control her responses and/or the criticism that said responses might generate, which generally serve only to demonstrate how clueless she is. Better to take the hit than to open her mouth and make it worse.

Also, while spelling errors are not uncommon on our blog (we are both our own writers and editors, which any newsperson will tell you is not the way to go), they are less common among a list of those endorsing your candidates, for good reason. Even though I pointed out that both Sam Lathem’s and Gary Hindes’ names were misspelled on the KWS campaign website, the errors persist to this day. Whether the phony endorsements are a result of an intent to mislead, incompetence, or pure delusion, the simple fact remains that the campaign created a problem where none existed. Nothing positive can emerge from this on behalf of her campaign. Best/worst of all: They did it to themselves.

2. Schooley Endorses Grant; DSEA to Endorse Bock in 23rd?

Rep. Terry Schooley publicly endorsed Jerry Grant to succeed her as the State Rep. from the 23rd RD at last night’s kick-off event for Grant in Newark. Schooley praised the high level of Grant’s constituent services in her endorsement. Grant has served as Schooley’s legislative assistant during her career in the House. Claudia Bock appears poised to pick up a significant endorsement as well as sources indicate that the teacher will receive the formal endorsement of the Delaware State Education Association. Bock has been active in the Christina Education Association, and taught at the Sterck School for the Deaf for 34 years.

3. Taschner Receives Two Key Public Safety Endorsements.

Sources indicate that candidate for New Castle County Council President Renee Taschner has received the endorsements of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 (New Castle County Police) and the Wilmington Fire Fighters. Both endorsements serve to emphasize Taschner’s focus on the public safety issue, and her past police experience. Since Rev. Chris Bullock, her primary opponent, is counting on overwhelming support in the City of Wilmington, the Taschner endorsement by the Firefighters does him no favors. While neither of these endorsements can be construed as surprises, they certainly are pluses for the Taschner campaign.

4. Alex Pires Blows Hisself Up REAL Good.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvHGW468n44[/youtube]

Let’s talk a bit about the usual arc of a campaign. Generally, once a candidate announces, they spend the first part of the campaign introducing themselves to voters, letting them know of their positive qualities, and generating positive name recognition. After that, and only after that, they begin the compare-and-contrast part of the campaign. Of course, there are exceptions, exceptions that are rarely successful. One example immediately comes to mind: former U. S. Senator from New York Alfonse D’Amato, aka “Senator Pothole”. He was so universally reviled that he never even bothered building up his positives, he just used entire campaign cycles spending obscene amounts of money to tear down his opponents. It didn’t hurt that he often faced two liberal opponents who divided the vote, enabling D’Amato to win with less than a majority. His idea was both necessary and simple: Make your opponents even more despised than you are by relentlessly going negative. And, prop up a weaker opponent so that they split the opposition vote more effectively.

But, I digress. Flamboyant barrister and bar owner Alex Pires kicked off his campaign for U. S. Senate by…claiming that the single most important issue in the campaign is the question of Sen. Tom Carper’s health. Without any substantiation, Pires questioned whether Carper would be able to complete another six-year term. As if, for someone like me, that would be a negative. Memo to Alex Pires: Even if there were questions about Carper’s health, why would we want YOU as the alternative? You see, that’s what the first part of the campaign generally is about. Meet Alex Pires. Unless people are not likely to like Alex Pires. I can only conclude that, like Al D’Amato, you’ve determined that only an unrelenting attack on your opponent will work. It won’t. I’d much rather take my chances with Jack Markell or Matt Denn appointing a successor than having a BFF with Fox News representing me in the Senate. Especially since we already have someone like that in Carper. Thanks for playing.

5. Two More IPODs In Race.

Doug Beatty in the 34th RD (vs. R Don Blakey and D Ted Yacucci), and Catherine Samardza in the 15th SD (vs. R David Lawson). Samardza is about as different from gun range owner Lawson as you can get. She is actually a distinguished choreographer and dancer:

Catherine Samardza returned to Delaware in 1991 after 15 years in New York City. Her dance career has been varied; performer, teacher, choreographer. In 1993 she established ITINERANT DANCE THEATER to provide live, high quality dance performances for Delmarva residents; to provide opportunities for area artists to create and perform in their home region; and to develop a touring company that is responsive and available to all of Delaware and the Eastern Shore.

So, there you have it. Ballet, bullets, and ballots. Unfortunately, this is a western Kent County district. Don’t think ‘ballet’ will gain much of a, pardon the expression, foothold.

That’s it for this week. What did I miss and whaddayathink?