Comment Rescue Question — How *Do* We Get Better Democrats Representing Us in Delaware?
This is from a comment made by Steve Newton last night in the John Carney thread, and it is a damn fine question. He lays out the state of the board pretty well and takes more time to ask something I’ve been asking here for awhile — if we’re a Blue State, how come we don’t have representation that represents that? Mostly the answer I get back is some testy version of needing more blogging or some such, but blogging is not voting or organizing really — the reach is much too limited.
I am going to object to Steve’s representation of Matt Denn here as “hiding out” for the past 5 years. He’s certainly out and about in the usual Delaware politician way, but he’s been involved with promoting foster parenting for special needs kids, he’s running a Small Business Task force, ran the Justice Reinvestment Task Force and was tapped to help fix the Workman’s Comp problem since KWS wasn’t capable of it. I’m sure I’m missing something that he’s working on, but for a job that has fairly limited duties, I do think that he’s been using his time to work on issues that are important to him.
So what do you think Democrats? How do you look at this field and change it to represent you and your neighbors alot better than this?
Here’s the issue for Delaware Democrats
You have a Congressman who doesn’t vote for Democratic issues, and yet who is basically invulnerable to a primary challenge.
You have an Attorney General who won’t come clean about his health, and yet who is basically invulnerable to a primary challenge.
You have an Insurance Commissioner who is blatantly anti-consumer, who has already survived one primary attempt and will probably survive the next one.
You have a State Treasurer who [well, fill in the blank here] actually got his job by successfully primarying the incumbent and who (I’m taking bets here) has a good chance to survive a primary ala KWS.
You have a Lieutenant Governor who is a good guy and has done a lot of good things, but has spent the last five years being invisible and never really taking a public stand on anything. So there isn’t a lot of evidence he has the stones to take on the corporate/corrupt establishment.
You have a Governor who is immensely personally popular, but who consistently stiffs State Employees, rules by secret AG opinions, doles out tens of millions in corporate welfare, and has done about as much for DE education as Dubya did for the nation with No Child Left Behind, and he could nevertheless easily get elected for a third term if such were legal.
You have a Mayor of Wilmington who has no clue how to combat crime in the city, and yet who will pretty easily get re-elected when the time comes.
Your potential nominees for Progressive MVP in the other thread include Trey Paradee (who voted against marriage equality, IIRC) and Patti Blevins (who brokered the deal allowing Highmark to come to DE and be exempted from $145 million in reserve requirements and severely limited any power of the AG’s office to oversee their operations).
I will spare you talking about Senator Carper’s record, but no matter how he votes he is basically invulnerable.
The premise of one-party rule is that you’ll actually primary and drive out the people who are pretty much DINOs, except … at the highest levels of office the DINOs and the corrupt seem to flourish instead of going down in defeat. I will grant you that in the freshman and sophomore levels of the GA you’ve actually got a few of what you consider “real” Dems or Progressives in there, but it’s gonna be awhile before a Bryan Townsend or Karen Peterson is ready to take on your corporate shills and cronies, if only because all the people mentioned above have gazillions in their war chests.
So what’s your plan for taking back control of your own party?
(Note: this is a serious question.)
Tags: Delaware Democrats
There was a lot of excitement around Markell’s campaign because there was a sense that this was a move toward making sure Delaware’s politicians were more like what you’d expect in a liberal northeastern state like Delaware. I’m still excited about that for Matt Denn even though I know from bitter experience that my heart will be broken.
So, the problem seems to be that we put too much faith in humans to do the right thing once they get elected.
I’ve been blogging for 8 years and if I’ve learned one thing it is that progressive change doesn’t come from electing people who you think are progressive.
How does progressive change come? It’s like “how do fish breath?” we may never know the answer.
Lol… Matt Denn, the savior of the Progressive Movement? Hahaha, sounds pretty hopeless. But hey, you guys thought that my boy Markell, who Republicans switched parties to vote for, was going to be your liberal star. Smh.. So I’m sure believing in Denn won’t be hard for you.
P.S. I don’t think Townsend is as liberal as you all think. Just because he took out your enemy does not mean that he’s lockstep with all of your issues. Maybe you can get Peterson or Kowalko to run statewide?
Can you read?
Sometimes Jason
we may never know the answer.
Really? I still think the Tea Party is instructive. There is a reason why the GOP is cowering here and there is nothing like it on the left. NOTHING. I’m not even talking about money — I’m just talking about energy. Elizabeth Warren didn’t have an easy glide to her Senate seat in very blue Massachusetts. Change does happen — how to capture it for the good side in a place where it *should* be easier than it is.
Cass for Governor
Maybe an elected Third Party Canidate to push for progressive political issues and platforms: 1st Elected Seattle Socialist Party City Councilwoman-Kashma Sawant, Green Party Jill Stein and Liberitarian Ran Paul ect.
Elizabeth Warren for President or Bernie Sanders for President??
Vermont may become the 1st State to pass Single Payer Healthcare.
I thought Vermont already had passed single-payer and was in the lead-up and pre-implementation stage, partly affected by the ACA, but I could be wrong.
A “Tea Party on the Left” is not, I think, an option for Democrats, because if a progressive candidate in DE drives down the corporate Democrat to the region of 40% then what the progressive has done is make the GOP competitive again. In some ways not a bad thing–I personally believe the country functioned better when there was both a liberal and conservative wing in each party–two parties, four factions. But you’d have to be willing to pay the price of, say, losing the Governor’s mansion for four to eight years.
The best summation of the progressive conundrum in Delaware is what I was told (off the record) by someone in the GA (a Democrat) that Daniello would run anybody with D after his or her name if he thought it would pick up a seat, regardless of what they said or stood for. Maybe true; certainly perception.
Vermont did pass single payer, with full implementation in 2017 projected.
I’m not suggesting a Tea Party for the Left — only that the Tea Party offers some lessons in how to get electoral change and response. And the only way the GOP gets competitive again is if they actually abandon their teajhadis. Or if the Ds get too comfy.
Daniello would run anybody with D after his or her name if he thought it would pick up a seat
This isn’t just true for Daniello — this would be true for pretty much every party chair out there. It isn’t often (until you get to the teajhadi districts) that you get any real litmus testing before a candidate can run. Depending upon the Party to provide any progressive leadership is always a mistake. It is progressive candidates who will have to present themselves as the best person to pick up a seat.
It might help if there was a clearer definition of what makes an elected official progressive and if there was at least partial credit granted for certain votes or positions.
If you’re Carper or Carney and read the post about the SEC amendment below, would it be wrong of them to conclude that “well, I’ve pretty much lost these guys over this vote, and it doesn’t sound like I’ll be able to win them back, so when the next vote comes up…”?
I’m not saying they do think that way. But would it be irrational if they did?
It would be irrational. Because that would mean that they aren’t paying attention to those things that we really, really would support them on. Like lifting the cap on Social Security. Like supporting infrastructure spending and stimulus. Like making catch phrases like Circle of Protection mean something legislatively? If what you are doing is voting for banking interests and throwing the rest of us to the Cat Food Commission — why *should* we ever be with these guys?
I hear you, and your point about “what we would really, really support them on…” reinforces my first point above about the need for a more clear definition of what makes an elected official a progressive and what would actually earn them support.
The conservatives used to be pretty good about making clear their most critical expectations of their elected officials and working as a block to try and enforce some discipline around it.
They also framed it in terms of real votes with clear guidelines (don’t raise taxes, don’t expand reproductive choice…).
Don’t vote with the banks isn’t exactly as clear, particularly in a state where so many middle class families rely on non-executive level bank jobs to pay their mortgages.
Don’t vote with the interests of banks vs the interests of taxpayers who are backstopping them all at this point. There is very little about Carney’s recent votes to unwind Dodd-Frank that will effect middle class families relying on non-executive bank jobs to pay their mortgages.
In another way — if Carney’s priorities were the middle class families in your statement, then he should be supporting policies that help *them*, not the executives who are looking for more room to game the system.
Perhaps Democrats just aren’t that progressive in this state. We like our banks, credit card companies and corporate law.
Markell is a moderate Republican in the 80’s suburban Philadelphia mold. Anyone who thought otherwise wasn’t paying attention when he was Treasurer. Sure, he was progressive on some social issues, but he is a numbers guy. His boilerplate answer that public transportation does not even begin to pay for itself with fares collected should be an indicator.
Denn is fairly visible for someone who doesn’t have much responsibility other than calling to make sure the Gov is alive every morning. He is pretty much free for the day and has found things to do with his time.
Unless there is evidence Beau is not performing his duties, questioning his health is a waste of time. Beau is not a A-lister appearance guy. Not showing up at a polticial event is common for him.
If you are silently sitting on the sidelines during a primary challenge or a third party challenge to someone you despise, you ain’t helping. You are silently endorsing the guy you hate by doing nothing.
“immensely personally popular” “he could nevertheless easily get elected for a third term if such were legal.”
So what is he (and the others)? Why do they continue to be elected and popular? Isn’t the progressive problem (question) the same that is asked by the far right fringe? How do you get one of your own in office? Sure there is the predecessor question of taking back control of your party but the penultimate purpose would be gain elected office because if you gain the party and lose the office don’t you mirror the COD experience? The TPers loved COD, with almost orgasmic fervor. Where is she and her party now?
I think it’s not just a question of taking control of your party (resulting in true progressive candidates, who would then enter office and focus on progressive issues). It’s seems to me that the question has to be asked about what the people want. Maybe they are getting what they want or perhaps they don’t care. A lot of people claim to want things like a better minimum wage. The principle of that idea sounds good but when 8 PM rolled around last Thursday, they were banging down the doors at Wal Mart. I think that change occurs when self interest intersects with the general welfare of society. When it is people’s best interest to support progressives, they will. So I would think the challenge is to get people to understand why progressive policies are in their self interest.
How to get progressive government in Delaware? IMO, it starts with an activist, organizing Democratic Party, which it would appear we do not have here. How does this happen? With a progressive takeover of the party leadership positions at the grassroots and state-wide levels. How does this happen? With the Progressive Dems
recruiting party office candidates that are committed to progressive change and values and a significant party building initiative. I am at a loss to understand how my new State has maintained its Blue status with such a moribund party leadership and structure. Looks to me like we’re just leaving things up to luck and some form of innately pro-Democratic Party propensity of the electorate here. I’m open to having the status quo explained to me as the know it all outsider.
If you look at polling on progressive Issues, Delaware is a liberal state. However, progressive and liberal Democrats typically work for a living. In spite of our numbers, we simply don’t have the time and money to take over the Democratic Party in Delaware – or even take over a handful of electoral districts.
Therefor we depend on the goodwill of people who do politics as a job. These people may be good hearted and say the right things, but they know where the money is. As a result, the party remains much more conservative than both the party’s membership and the electorate.