‘Bulo On Al’s Show Today at 10
All primary results, all the time, with trenchant and perhaps morbid analysis. Including a post-mortem into why I think Mitch Crane lost (it’s probably not what you think), dissection of all the key races, including the ouster of two incumbent state senators, and some rasslin’ talk, featuring an update on Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.
10 am to 12 noon, WDEL-1150 on your am dial.
Ok, guys, stop talking about wrestling. For the love of God.
Take up crocheting. Basketball. Small-dog juggling. Anything but more wrestling…
Link to WDEL streaming
Small-dog juggling? Where on the TV dial can I find that? ‘Cause I’m so there.
El Som, I’m not blaming those people (Spivack, Markell, etc) I’m saying that if they were not in it, KWS would have lost badly.
So, yes, I guess they get some share of the “blame.”
El Som makes some good strategy points. I hope Crane stays in politics and runs a better race next time.
You are right about endorsements. Crane, Clark, Taschner, DeLuca all lost. In 2010 Velda lost. In 2008 Carney and Reed. When will this endorsement stuff stop? It almost is a joke now since they always lose.
Gallagher ran a good campaign and got 20% with no money, no press, no endorsements.
The caller Jeff makes an excellent point: Markell’s endorsement record is abysmal and he should stop meddling in primaries, especially considering how he got elected Governor in the first place.
At what point do the “leaders” who keep picking losers get the boot? If you lost this much at the track, you’d eventually run out of money and go home.
I think, regrettably, El Som is correct re the Crane campaign.
Well, Geezer, I’m not going to run to Jeff Cragg and vote for him.
DD can’t listen to radio now–what did El Som say about Crane campaign?
Re Gordon-KWS — remember that after KWS was elected four years ago, she put Gordon on her transition team, and there was talk of him getting a fulltime job in her office
The Dems didn’t work their districts for their candidates. For many of them it doesn’t even occur to them. How can the endorsement process work unless the committee members do?
Steve, he said the main reason Crane lost is that he did not run a true grassroots campaign.
El Som says, Crane was a virtual no show in NCC, and he pivoted from an insurgent campaign to a “endorsed” campaign – leaving a vacuum for people who wanted to vote against KWS.
Crane came in 4th in Wilmington and did poorly in NCC when he should have spent 5/7ths of his time building up grass roots in NCC.
jason, I would agree with that assessment. I was in the city several times last week, and talking about the primaries people were completely unaware of the Insurance Commissioner position even being contested, and of nine or ten people I talked to, only two even knew who Mitch Crane was.
Pretty much the same in New Castle County.
On the other hand, everybody in town (and everybody in Sussex) knew who KWS and many people had seen her.
Mitch Crane for Insurance Commissioner campaign reminds me of what Fred Thompson said of his own abortive campaign for President, “I wanted to be President very badly, and that’s how I ran for the office.”
Thompson borrowed that from someone else. McGovern and Udall have both been quoted on variants of “I wanted to run for president in the worst way, and I did.” C’mon, history prof! 😉
Which I think is derived from Mary Todd Lincoln “Abe wanted to dance with me in the worst way, and he did.”
Wow so quick to blame the guy you supported…..mmm
“Well, Geezer, I’m not going to run to Jeff Cragg and vote for him.”
I was talking about Daniello, not Markell.
JP: I don’t think you understand the concept of analyzing without cheerleading.
Everyone is entitled to Monday morning quarterback. However, I think it’s inaccurate to state that Mitch had no presence in NCC. He ended up with something like 50,000 miles on his car to prove that he did in fact drive up for events almost every day. I think it’d be more accurate to state that Spvivack and Gallagher were both regional candidates who only had a presence in NCC and Wilm. Mitch, on the other hand, needed to carry Kent and Sussex to make up for Wilmington and so wasn’t able to only concentrate on NCC like the other candidates. As for grassroots support, Mitch was always strongest in Eastern Sussex and Kent Counties. In NCC, he was vying for attention where most people and certainly the News Journal were more interested the County Exec race.
The McDowell strategy worked this time and Delaware is worse off as a result.
When one-third of the turnout is in the city, that’s where Crane needed to be. He finished fourth in the city.
@Idealist– Understand your point, but when the goal is to pick the most apples, you pick in the orchard, not from a single tree. You’ll fill more baskets with half the apples in NCCo than if you gather every last one in K&S.
Gallagher and Spivack understood this — and if only one of them had been in the race, and could have picked all that low-hanging fruit, he might be the next insurance commissioner.
From my seat Mitch was a formidable opponent who capitalized on his strengths and the endorsement. I find it interesting that those that were telling me that on 9/10 have such a different take on 9/12
It was both Mitch AND his campaign. I saw no evidence of any sort of grassroots effort for Mitch up here. I would have been happy to help, but the only contact I got from the campaign were cell phone calls, often from Pa, and they were for election day only.
I would have volunteered at a local HQ but, as near as I can tell, there WERE no local HQ’s. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I was never asked to volunteer at one, and I was both a supporter and financial contributor.
On Election Day, there was absolutely no evidence of a GOTV effort in NCC. None. It was in that vacuum that Spivack and Gallagher got something like 37% in the vote.
Look, it’s over now. But we were told way back at that first event at Firestone that this was going to be a grassroots campaign. He would have won if this had been a grassroots campaign. But it wasn’t, and he lost.
I wish Mitch well and hope that he is able to somehow serve the citizens of our state in a capacity that enables his progressive plan to place the insurance consumer first to come to fruition. That will make me feel much better.
Agreed, El Som. I got nothing from his campaign, even after endorsement. A candidate in Delaware, I don’t want to see miles on their car. I want to see miles on their shoes. If he doorknocked in any neighborhood around here, I’ve yet to hear of it.
JP: How’s that old saying go? “Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan.”
Not directing this at those who were endorsed (I supported some but not all of them), but the Democratic Party’s endorsement process has only done damage to the Party.
Yes, the party should stop endorsing. And so should all local RD Committees and … pay attention Jack….. Governor Markell.
The point isn’t that they back the wrong candidates. The point is that they can’t help their chosen candidates, whoever they are, to electoral victory. If they can’t help, why are they still in their jobs?
A party that can’t dislodge an unpleasant, unintelligent and unhelpful turd like John Daniello from his throne is one not worth supporting.
They’re still in their jobs — at the RD level — because so many of them have been able to back candidates who run uncontested every other year in gerrymandered districts. They’ve got their committee posts and they don’t have to work at it. This inbred laziness up and down the state manifests itself in an over the hill “leader” more concerned with self preservation than with promoting a new core group of talented young candidates.
How did the PDD-endorsed candidates do? I ask because I suspect they were right along with the party in their level of success.
RD committees do their research, listen to candidates, cast the first votes for them and support the candidates to varying degrees. It isn’t necessarily an issue with party endorsements. I suspect that some of it is whether campaigns can leverage that endorsement and the supporters that come along with it.
The winners yesterday were able to engage supporters and constituencies in a coordinated way both prior to and on election day.
Do supporters come with the endorsement? Sure doesn’t look like it. Face it, running as an outsider is a heck of a lot more interesting than running as an establishment candidate.
As for the primary races decided yesterday, here are the PDD endorsements and outcomes:
We were 3-6.
That was quick! She wasted no time informing her core constituency.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2012/09/12/262789.htm#comment-237732
SW – Sort of. But not in an organized, coordinated way. It can act as a conduit for a candidate to reach out, but the party took a lot of heat for leveraging monetary and organization might in the Markell-Carney race. So now the party structure is largely hands-off once they make their endorsement. However, an endorsed candidate may get help from “HIGH DEMS” if the HIGH DEM wants to personally support them.
I should also say that a HIGH DEM could also support a non-endorsed candidate. I know one official that helped two endorsed candidates and one non-endorsed candidate. I suspect that many people did that.
Unfortunately, the Party gave money and resources to some endorsed candidates this time as well. It was not hands-off. They were trying to validate the value of their endorsement process. Instead it was a repeat of 2008.
My problem is less the endorsement process than how the Party prioritizes once it’s made the endorsements.
The Party and its leaders circled the wagons around Tony DeLuca while ignoring other winnable races. I’d like to know who made that decision and why that decision was made.
There were more than 10,000 voters IDed by the Crane campaign, the vast majority through phone calls working out of the coordinated office in Brandywine. On election day, there weren’t many poll workers in NCC because most of the assets were used to make GOTV calls out to identified supporters. I’m sorry you weren’t able to help out.
Really? OK. Then why weren’t ID’d supporters and contributors even informed of this? It’s up to the campaign to put out the call, not for would-be volunteers to play detective.
I can well understand your defense of the campaign. And this frustration on my part will pass. I hope. My point is I WAS able to help. And I’ll bet a lot of other people were as well. But the lack of campaign outreach kept us from helping.
How interesting. I remember once arguing on Delaware Watch that the Dem Party should stop endorsing candidates and getting my head taken off for it. What’s next? Progressive Democrats supporting Republicans in some races? Vindication feels sooooo good.
They already said they were considering supporting Blake Delaware hypocrite;)
I think the party endorsement made the difference in the RD19 race. Money and resources probably made all the difference.
Why is it hypocritical to support Blake if you believe in ethics and integrity. Gordon has neither.
I think Markell and co. are more interested in the big business connections and campaign cash that Deluca had then promoting good progressive candidates. My .02 on that one.
In all honesty I don’t think the support Karen’s opponent received from the party came anywhere close to the support expended on DeLuca….. Unless I missed something.
City Democratic Endorsement
5 for 5 –
K Stewart- won
Chris Bullock- won
Harris McDowell- won
Bob Marshall- won
Stepanie Bolden – won
MAYBE THIS POST WILL BE POSTED
Yeah. All the losers won. Well done Liberals!!
Laides and gentleman,
The reason KWS won was because she got the endorsement of the Wilmington City Committees. The candidates had 0 to do with it.
Jpconnorjr
You missed nothing. The illustrious “progressive” Governor publicly weighed in not at all on Crane’s behalf. In fact he reacted in that same spiteful and vindictive way that he showed when he spent a large chunk of money on his own self-promotion (even without a challenger in the primary); money that he was given at the national level due to his influential position as chairman of the national governors’ assoc. Feeling abandoned by the Del. Dem. Party in his primary against Carney he would (as is his personality) exact his revenge and spitefulness on the party. Who’s the boss now”.
You think Crane was going to be favorably viewed after challenging the “Highmark” money grab or his favoring of a “single-payer” option. Jack “the punisher” didn’t give Crane the time of day let alone a public endorsement and help.
El Som totally on target with Crane defeat. Crane lost this race by coasting after he got endorsed and not running hard outsider theme as true consumer adovcate. No grass roots ground effort and too much time in Sussex, and not New Castle where votes are. That’s what happens when a campaign loses sense of urgency…and Spivack and Gallagher were even hitting KWS in mail and radio…Stop blaming others and conspiracies and look at poor execution by Crane campaign. It was his race to lose and he lost it. He had all advantages teed up, big $$. No excuses.
Celia weighs in on “Markell’s losses”
Jack Markell had a stunningly lackluster showing Tuesday at the polls, even though the governor’s name appeared nowhere on the Primary Day ballot.
With a little gubernatorial muscle, Markell tried to assert himself on behalf of some favored fellow Democrats in a selection of races throughout Delaware and largely came out the worse for it.
None stood out as much as the do-or-die slugfest that had Tony DeLuca battling to return to the state Senate, where he ruled as the Democratic president pro tem in such a roughshod manner that it made him a marked man for a primary.
DeLuca went down, losing resoundingly to Bryan Townsend, a lawyer who stepped up to take him on. This was unmistakably one of those races, as it is said in political circles, if you go after the king, you had better kill him. Townsend did.
Townsend is all but on his way to Legislative Hall. The senatorial district south of Newark was expertly crafted in redistricting to send a Democrat to Dover by none other than DeLuca, a gift he meant for himself.
http://www.delawaregrapevine.com/9-12primaryday.asp
From TNJ: “Four candidates bearing the official endorsements of the party were beat by their primary challengers …”
I weep not for democracy, but for literacy. Beat??
Weeping for fact-based reporting, as well. The article says KWS was elected in 2010. Incredible.