1. Keith Spanarelli Finally Surfaces.
And on the surface, he could, could, be a reasonable alternative to Tom Carper. Sure as bleep wish that these guys could avoid typos in their campaign announcements, though. Anyway, here is the official announcement of Spanarelli’s run for office. And here’s his bio. For all that was said, in quite a flowery manner, I might add, there’s a lot left unsaid. What’s of keen interest, at least to me, is that his proposed transparency would prove…intriguing, to say the least:
The American people like to see; like to view what it is they’re paying for. So I will be placing in my Senate office a live television camera (KSPAN) to broadcast the meetings with the who’s who of the special interest lobbies, corporate heads and banking officials… anyone who believes in blank check-book power pedaling. Think 60 Minutes and Mike Wallace. A place where there is a hot seat of accountability.
I like that, I really like that. It’s awfully late in the game, but I’d love to see Spanarelli publicly challenge Carper to match his pledge. Might at least force Carper to have to defend himself for once. You know, “I represent the people, and the people have a right to know what I’m doing. Tom, who do you represent? Prove it. Let us see for ourselves.”
2. Williams Taking Control of Wilmington Mayoral Race?
Signs (literally and figuratively) point to ‘yes’. This week, the black clergy (20 in all) endorsed Williams. This followed previous endorsements by the Fraternal Order of Police and Wilmington firefighters. A recent drive around the Broom Street/Baynard Boulevard area revealed not only a lot of Williams signs, but many lawns sporting both Williams signs and/or Gordon and Potter signs. Meaning that Williams has, at the least, developed synergies and perhaps working alliances with these candidates. The Montgomery campaign appears to have become dependent on former Republicans (Hal Haskell? Really?), and I’m not sure what’s happened to the Kelley campaign, which had lots of energy a couple of months back. All I see is that, in the case of Williams, the trend is his friend, and that’s not the case for the only other electable candidates. Yeah, yeah, I know, ‘endorsements don’t vote’, but many of the endorsees do, and they talk to a lot of people who do. To me, the math seems obvious. If both Montgomery and Kelley stay in the race, Williams will almost assuredly win. And, yes, race plays a part in that, let’s be honest here, but it’s only one part. Williams is the only one of the three who has expanded his appeal beyond his geographical home base. Montgomery still has the the upper-middle class Trolley Square yuppies and that area’s Irish D’s, and Kelley has the Browntown/Hedgeville blue collar voters. I don’t know which of the two is likely to come in second. Doesn’t matter. Only first place counts. If you think I’m wrong, bring it!
3. Gordon Taking Control of County Executive Race?
I’m inclined to think so. This is one case where the AFL-CIO endorsement helps. I think that, in part, it reflects dissatisfaction amongst county employees who swallowed a 2.5% pay cut while Paul Clark was adding on an army of ‘executive assistants’, at least one of whom also acts as his chief fundraiser while deciding which projects move forward and which ones don’t. So Clark now has 14 executive assistants, almost all of them with extensive political experience. I’ve concluded, however, that there’s one thing Clark doesn’t have: a constituency. Think about it. I have. Who, other than executive assistants, developers, and maybe a couple of county council members, would be motivated to vote and/or campaign for Paul Clark? For all of his well-deserved negatives, Tom Gordon indeed has constituencies within the Democratic Party and numerous people who will vote for him. While I won’t be one of them (I’m leaning towards Shahan by the process of elimination), neither of the other two candidates have gained any traction nor appear to have any visibility. Since the Clark campaign has come across as politically tone-deaf (h/t to Nancy Willing), heavy-handed and amateurish, I’m hard-pressed to see how Clark tops Gordon in the primary. If you think I’m wrong, bring it!
4. Hmmm. This Seems Misleading.
Did I miss something? Has Pete Schwartzkopf suddenly ‘unendorsed’ Andy Staton in the 6th SD? Has Jack Markell come out with an endorsement for Bob Frederick? I don’t think so. But, check out what the Friends of Bob Frederick posted in the Cape Gazette. Something tells me that neither Schwartzkopf nor Markell are gonna allow the deliberate misimpressions created by this ‘story’ to stand.
That’s it for this week. What did I miss and whaddayathink?