A Republican for the 9th? [Updated with my call with Speaker Schwartzkopf, and responses from Andye Daley]

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State Representative Rebecca Walker (D) has represented this district for four years, first elected in 2010. She has risen quickly in the committee structure of the House, chairing the House Judiciary Committee (and thus bottling up some more progressive legislation like death penalty repeal) in the last term. She has a reputation for being overly cautious politically (like not going for her rematch against the forever vulnerable former Republican Majority Leader Dick Cathcart in 2010, to whom she lost in 2008, until Cathcart dropped out) and not being an overly good campaigner. This year, while some of us expected her to retire and not run, she surprised us and refiled to run. And then, two days after the filing deadline, she announced she was withdrawing and not running for reelection. The reason she did this was to not allow the voters in her district any control or any voice over who their nominee was going to be. For you see, after the primary filing deadline passed on July 8, the RD Committee for the district gets to decide who the nominee is, usually under severe pressure from higherups in the party. Well, that is what is happening. The candidate being pushed directly by Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf is Jason Horitz.
Delaware Political Weekly: July 12-18, 2014

Delaware Political Weekly: July 12-18, 2014

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The Democratic Party endorses neither candidate for the State Treasurer primary. Kremlinologists no doubt will enjoy parsing the following sentence:
Given the Committee’s perception of quality both Democratic Treasurer candidates possess, the committee failed to reach consensus on the endorsement of either candidate.
Might I suggest that this is one endorsement that neither candidate really wanted? How could Chip run as the anti-establishment candidate if the establishment endorsed him, and how could Barney run as someone not beholden to the Carpers and Carneys of this world if he got the endorsement? My vote will ultimately come down to this: What can we least afford? A self-delusional narcissist who has had his hands effectively tied, or the next Carper or Carney?

The President in Delaware

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We have the President's full remarks at the Port of Wilmington inside. I worked from home yesterday, covering some conferences and a deposition over the computer and the phone. But around lunchtime, I headed down Concord Pike to hit M&T Bank to deposit some checks, and I had just passed the Charcoal Pit and was coming up on the light at the old Rollins Tower, when the President's motorcade came barreling up north on Concord Pike. That was unexpected. I knew the President was in my lovely state, but I expected him to stay south. After a delay of a few minutes that allowed the President to pass, traffic south of the Charcoal Pit was allowed to move again, so I was only slightly inconvenienced, not that I care. I thought it was pretty cool. Here is something that Cassandra saw yesterday that was hilarious. If you have any stories or pictures from yesterday, share them here.