Could a low turnout primary shock Schwartzkopf ?

Could a low turnout primary shock Schwartzkopf ?

I rather doubt Schwartzkopf will be caught with his pants down. But primaries are tricky, (just ask Mike Castle). Sure he won his last elections with 89.9% of the vote, but who has he faced? The GOP doesn't even both to run against him, so the 89% was against a fringe party. Have the gaudy vote totals made him soft? I know Mitch Crane talks up Pete as a solid door knocker, but that door knocking seems to have been on behalf of other candidates. Has he lost touch with the district? That he is facing a primary opponent suggest he may have.
Rehoboth Beach — For the first time in Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf's political career, he will have to face off against an opponent in a Democratic primary for the District 14 Representative seat. Rehoboth Beach resident Nelson Warren filed his nomination paperwork with the Sussex County Department of Elections in Georgetown July 8, the day of the filing deadline. ...
An armed society is a polite society

An armed society is a polite society

(...except, not really.) A man shoots his son, then is subsequently shot and killed by his grandson. FREEDOM!! Also, this...
VALDOSTA — On the first day of the new Georgia Safe Carry Protection Act, a misunderstanding between two armed men in a convenience store Tuesday led to a drawn firearm and a man’s arrest. “Essentially, it involved one customer with a gun on his hip when a second customer entered with a gun on his hip,” said Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress. At approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday, police responded to a call regarding a customer dispute at the Enmark on the corner of Park Avenue and North Lee Street. A man carrying a holstered firearm entered the store to make a purchase. Another customer, also with a holstered firearm, approached him and demanded to see his identification and firearms license, according to the Valdosta Police Department report. The customer making demands for ID pulled his firearm from its holster but never pointed it at the other customer, who said he was not obligated to show any permits or identification.
Delaware Could Do New Breakthrough Voting Tech

Delaware Could Do New Breakthrough Voting Tech

Delaware is currently using very outdated and insecure voting technology as I have recently observed. I gather from local media the administration of voting here is being restructured. Developments, probably known through voting administrator professional groups, provide a potential breakthrough opportunity for Delaware. And a cost saving opportunity.
Wednesday Open Thread [7.9.14]

Wednesday Open Thread [7.9.14]

The GOP decided yesterday that they will hold their 2016 convention in Cleveland. Some say it is smart and may help the Republicans win Ohio, which they have to do in order to win the Presidency. I say the reverse is true: it will give Ohioans, especially those in the Cleveland collar counties that may think about voting GOP, a close up and personal look at the freak show that is a GOP convention, especially when you consider that the most likely nominee will either be Rand Paul or Ted Cruz. Meanwhile, Politico tells us that the Cleveland convention for the GOP will be held much earlier that usual this time, like at the end of July or beginning of August. Well, actually, that is the way it used to be. Conventions were not held back to back at the end of August or beginning of September. The person who started that tradition was none other than George W. Bush, who wanted to move the 2004 convention to the week of September 11 so that he could fully and cravenly politicize the terrorist attack that he allowed to happen on his watch. Such a late convention for the GOP forced the Dems to move theirs up to late August so that it would not be three months since their convention. And that pattern stuck around in 2008 and 2012. Normally, the opposition party held its convention in July, and the incumbent party held theirs in mid August.
Delaware Republican Senate Primary: Wade v. Smink

Delaware Republican Senate Primary: Wade v. Smink

In a fairly surprising move the Delaware Republican party will have a primary in September between former Senate candidate Kevin Wade, who did phenomenal in 2012 with a whopping 29%, and Carl Smink, who is an 81 year old conservative from Sussex county. It's likely that Kevin Wade has the Delaware Republican party's backing, but simply wasn't going to file to avoid the $10,000 filing fee. Unfortunately for him, when Carl Smink filed, the party was no longer able to simply put up any candidate it wanted after the deadline, so there goes 10 grand for Wade in what looks like an interesting primary. I'm hoping for a fun debate.
Charlie Copeland’s DEGOP now 20% more reality-based ?

Charlie Copeland’s DEGOP now 20% more reality-based ?

After years of trying to woo Sussex County teaparty lunatics with his aw-shucks appearances at angry spittlefests, Copeland seems to have called it quits. Here is the nut-graph from Celia.
Charlie Copeland, the Republican state chair, all but conceded the party is punting on the statewide races in the hope of making gains in the future from the bottom up. "Since 2010 the Republican Party has worked to undo the effects of a brutal and divisive primary election that wounded our party both politically and financially. At the top of the list . . . is the creation of a back bench of elected officials that can later go on to run for statewide federal and state offices," Copeland said in a statement.
Can this mean no more waving the bloody shirt and railing against the Kenyan Usurper's socialism from the DEGOP? I'll believe it when I don't see it.

Tuesday Open Thread [7.8.14]

New York Magazine presents a piece noting that the longstanding alliance between Teacher's unions and Democrats may be close to over. That might make some sense, really -- Democrats have been at the forefront of initiatives that specifically work at dismantling the public school system and also scapegoating teachers for a multitude of longstanding problems in schools. I'm a fan of unions exercising their political power -- especially since it looks like even that is under threat. I'm not sure about the best way to go about that, but it is time to stop accommodating AND providing contributions and boots on the ground while getting nothing in return:

Monday Open Thread [7.7.14]

Think Progress has the take down of Governor Perry and his lies about immigration by ABC's Martha Raddatz. Indeed, during this current refugee crisis on the border and how it informs the immigration debate, every single conservative and every single Republican must answer this question: if our border is so insecure, then how is it that we have captured all these children and teens trying to cross it? If the border was as insecure as Republicans describe, we would not know about all these kids because they would stream across the border undetected.
My Anger With Stalling Immigration Reform

My Anger With Stalling Immigration Reform

We’ll start with the simple popularity of immigration reform. This issue is the epitome of how entirely feeble America’s Congress is right now. By broad margins, Americans support the idea of immigration reform, easier pathways to citizenship, stronger border enforcement, and more. Unfortunately, because it’s an issue that people usually believe doesn’t affect them, why vote for candidates who have anything to do with it? Jobs, healthcare, the budget deficit, education, and security all rank higher than the only issue congress ACTUALLY has a semi-bipartisan proposal for. Congrats America.