Delaware Political Weekly: March 22-28, 2014
1. Two Key Legislative Primaries Set.
Sen. Bob Marshall has filed for reelection in the 3rd Senatorial District. This sets up a primary with Wilmington Councilperson Sherry Dorsey Walker. Walker may well be qualified, but, when you look at what Marshall has accomplished during this last term alone, I’ll be interested to see what Walker’s rationale for replacing him will be. I mean, he got minimum wage enacted, he stopped the giveaway of the Port of Wilmington to the Enron expatriates, and he pretty much voted the right way on every issue. I’ll be honest, I’m not objective on this. Marshall is by far one of my favorite legislators I’ve ever worked with. I’m just being upfront so that others will be able to make the case for Walker since I will not be that person.
House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst has filed for reelection. She’s facing James Burton, who has not exactly hit the ground running. He didn’t last time either, and he pulled well over 40%. I’ll be honest, I don’t like Valerie Longhurst. I think she’s been inept in her leadership role, and she is a bully. If I could rid the General Assembly of only one member, it’d be her. I’m being upfront so that other will be able to make a case for her since I will not be that person.
Just so you know where I stand.
2. Carney Gets An Opponent!
Granted, he’s a Libertarian. Scott Gesty. Unfortunately, he’s not a Steve Newton Libertarian. More like a ‘they’re taking away our freedoms’ Libertarian. He congratulates himself on predicting that ‘Obamacare is destroying the healthcare system’. Man, can’t at least one of these third party types not make you unclean when considering casting a protest vote for them? Paging the Green Party…
3. R Files in 17th Senatorial District.
Kim Warfield has filed in the district currently held by Brian Bushweller. She is the Chaplain for the State Republican Party. And head of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of Delaware, which has utterly perverted the ideals of Frederick Douglass. The foundation is described by itself as “”The Largest Christ-Centered, Multi-Ethnic and Republican Ministry in America”. And there’s more. Again, from the website: “Values, Morality, Truth. We are Christians, Americans and Republicans that believe and forward pro-life issues as well as traditional marriage (between 1 man and 1 woman). Douglass said, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.” Guess that doesn’t include, you know, teh gays and teh women.
4. R’s Get Quality Candidate in 31st RD.
A young and energetic candidate in Sam Chick. Looks like he’s running mostly on his military service and his family business experience. Even though this is a strong D registration district, if the D’s nominate an uninspiring candidate, this could present a rare opportunity for an R to slip in. Not likely, but not impossible.
5. Kim Williams Gets R Opponent in 19th RD.
James Startzman, apparently a realtor. No website as of yet. At least the R’s are finding some candidates. Don’t think it will help against Kim Williams, though. Wouldn’t hurt to send a few bucks her way. She’s been an outstanding freshman legislator with some real progressive positions.
6. Filings.
Rep. Jeffrey Spiegelman (R-11th RD); Rep. John Kowalko (D-25th RD); Rep. John Viola (D-26th RD); and Gregory Fuller, Sr. (running for Sussex County Register of Wills). Fuller has run for row offices in Sussex County previously, and has lost each time. However, he did serve as Register of Wills from 2008 to 2010 after Register of Wills David Wilson was elected to the Delaware General Assembly. Here’s how he became Register of Wills. Appointed by Governor Minner to fill out the remainder of Wilson’s term.
Did I miss anything?
Tags: Featured, James Startzman Delaware, Kim Warfield Delaware, Rep. Valerie Longhurst, Sam Chick, Scott Gesty, Sen. Bob Marshall
Unfortunately Dems seem to primary good people like Bobby Marshall while people like Carper and Markell are left alone.
It would costs $10,000 just to file to run a primary against Carper. Add that to the fact that he is sitting on a campaign war-chest of $10,000,000 (give or take 7 million) and has a black ops unit that can make it look like you died of auto-erotic asphyxiation while perusing goat porn, and I don’t blame anyone for not primarying him.
But seriously folks, the Senate seat in Delaware is now a lifetime sinecure. It is for Coons and is for Carper you have to quit, die or collapse while campaigning to lose it. I thought we were getting a better deal with Coons, but that didn’t last long.
I know its hindsight but Carper has been who he is for a long time. We are paying for the past sins of the party faithful in this case
Carper, Markell, also did most of the work to actually make this a blue state. They’ve certainly done more than anyone on this blog.
Go soak your head. Tom Carper can shove his contribution to this being a blue state up his red pyloric colon.
Fuller is a pleasant guy, but not all that compelling of a candidate. Pops up every few years to run for something, and then vanishes. He’s also a black man running against a Tea Party favorite, Cindy Green. Doesn’t stand a chance.
Councilwoman Sherry Dorsey Walker is progressive and energetic. She is actively involved in her community.
Senator Bob Marshall has been there for a long long time (since 1978!). He is quite hard to get ahold of and is somewhat old-school in how he plays politics. Yes, he votes right, but he is also in a progressive district where he should vote right. He voted right on death penalty repeal, but his speech before his vote was scary.
Carper had a primary and a 3rd party challenger last go round.
Nary a peep from this blog about it.
If by “Carper and Markell did much to make DE blue” you mean invited business interests to have more of a voice within the party – Mission Accomplished.
Nary a peep from this blog about it.
This would be Bullshit, right here.
Uh, ‘Marshall vs. Walker’, one handle please.
Interesting that you say that he’s hard to get ahold of since you don’t live anywhere near his district.
Too bad no one is stepping up to primary the State Rep in my district.
El Som: about Scott Gesty.
Three thoughts:
1. Scott’s considerably more of a Ron Paul Libertarian than I am, and he’s been an opponent of the ACA from the word go, as well as a strong believer in deficit reduction and in gun rights. I get it that those aren’t popular stands for most readers here. On the other hand, Carney is also a strong believer in deficit reduction and has voted in many cases to go along with reductions in benefits for social programs. But on the gripping hand (any Niven/Pournelle readers out there?), a vote for Scott is also a vote for reducing the defense budget, fewer military interventions, greater protections for civil liberties, reducing NSA surveillance, and ending the drug war. Where’s Carney on those? Scott’s education positions won kilroy’s endorsement last time around and they haven’t changed. No candidate is going to give you everything you want to vote for, but as a protest candidate you could have a lot worse choices. The Greens are running Andy Groff against Coons, by the way, although he hasn’t filed yet.
2. Scott, as Libertarian Party of Delaware Chair, has committed to supporting a wide array of candidates, including me, with whom he may have differences on issues. This is the party that, as a party, supported and worked actively for marriage equality BEFORE the Dems (I can remember handing the petition for signatures to multiple Dem candidates three years ago at the State Fair, and none of them would sign it); this is the party that has supported marijuana decriminalization and legalization long before the rest of the state and the country came around to holding those as majority views.
3. As a protest candidate, what do you want? Nobody’s going to actually beat Carney this time around, and a vote for Scott is definitely NOT a vote for an overall GOP agenda, even if the DE GOP gets around to nominating a candidate. If you want to conceptualize it this way, vote AGAINST Carney, not FOR Gesty. 10-15% of the vote for a third party candidate despite spending a million bucks would send a message to John Carney, I think. Think of it as a vote (Libertarian-style) of no confidence or “none of the above.”
Final note, if thinking about voting for Scott Gesty makes you feel unclean, that’s a pretty interesting standard from Delaware Democrats who have given us Karen Weldin Stewart (twice!), Chip Flowers, Tom Carper, John Carney, John Atkins, etc etc ad infinitum ad nauseam, isn’t it?
Who said those others didn’t/don’t make me feel unclean?
The issue isn’t whether I’ll cast a vote for Carney. I won’t. The issue is, will I cast a vote for someone else. Gesty may not be that someone else.
BTW, I take AT LEAST one to two showers a week.
At this point your “someone else” is probably going to be either Hans Richter or Rose Izzo.
If you don’t vote at all, Carney gets to write it off as poor turn-out in a mid-term election.
I’ve always thought voting booths should have the same kinds of “wash your hands” signs that we put up in restaurant restrooms.
Carney doesn’t GIVE a shit.
Only thing that might wake him up would be a progressive challenger in a primary.
Only thing that might wake him up would be a progressive challenger in a primary.
Then you’re toast, progressives. Nobody has the bucks to pay the filing fee and run even a nominal campaign against the presumptive favorite just on the off chance that you’ll “wake him up.”
In Delaware we get exactly the congressional delegation that the insurance, banking, and health care industries paid for. That’s been true for a long time.
Right, Cass, this blog was ALL OVER the primary and 3rd party candidate.
My mistake.
If by “Peep” you mean, cynically comment occasionally and do nothing else to unseat someone you hate so much, then yes, you are correct.
Don’t complain about the guy in the office if you do nothing but bitch and complain about said guy and do nothing at all to help unseat him. Unless, of course, that is your whole purpose.
Steve,
So by Ron Paul Libertarian do you mean he is “strongly pro-life” and that the answer to affordable healthcare in America is more free market?
Not sure “more free market, cutting the gov’t social safety net, and more guns” is going to win over many democrats.
Or by Ron Paul Libertarian do you mean getting enough time in gov’t to qualify for gov’t healthcare and pension? If so, that’s the kind of honesty I could support.
“In Delaware we get exactly the congressional delegation that the insurance, banking, and health care industries paid for. That’s been true for a long time.” – regardless of party affiliation.
Spot on.
Sussex Anon
I don’t honestly know what Scott’s feelings about abortion are–it’s never come up. He does believe that the State shouldn’t tell a woman to do with her own body.
I won’t answer for him on health care, not because I don’t have an idea of what he thinks, but because he’s getting ready to publish a page on his website in the next week or so that tells what he would advocate instead of ACA, so I’ll let him speak for himself.
My original point is that you don’t currently in John Carney have a candidate who isn’t for cutting the social safety net, so that doesn’t strike me as an incredible distinction, even if I’ve never seen Scott advocate for such. Most of his “deficit reduction” would come in reductions to military spending.
I’m not suggesting by any means that he’s a perfect fit for your views, but as a protest vote against Carney he doesn’t have to be. That was the context of the original post by El Som.
Val Longhurst is my mentor. Everything I know about leadership, I learned from her.
Google is your friend here, Sus. Alex Pires got plenty of ink here and KSpan got more here than he generated himself. Blogs don’t unseat incumbents, great candidates (and campaigns) do.
The Green Party will be fielding candidates for the US Senate, US House and local positions. The GPDE annual meeting is this Saturday when the nominations will be finalized. For those desiring true Progressive candidates rather than corporate bought and paid for wonks may want to begin a conversation with the candidates put forth by the Greens.