Sen. Colin Bonini (R-17RD), having won reelection yesterday essentially unopposed, has announced that he is running for Governor in 2016, as was speculated here earlier this week. Indeed, it fits into Colin’s practice of running for higher office during the off year between his Senate elections.
And thus the musical chair game begins. Outgoing Attorney General Beau Biden (D) has already announced that he plans to run for Governor, though many wonder about his health and whether such an premature announcement last summer was just a smoke screen to preserve his political capital and options. It also seems clear that Congressman John Carney (D) will run, and that power-mad New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon (D) will run.
“In the short term, we need to focus on the winners in 2014,” Bonini said in an interview with The News Journal. “But I am running for governor. Delaware needs fixing. We face some significant systemic and fundamental problems. We need a more effective state government.”
The Republican has served in the state Senate for two decades, and he has experience campaigning statewide. In 2010, Bonini lost by just two percentage points to Democrat Chip Flowers in a race for state treasurer.
“I realize that I’ll definitely be the underdog, but I think that Delaware has some significant issues to resolve,” Bonini said of a governor’s race, referencing an imposing voter registration disadvantage facing the GOP.
I am very curious as what he thinks Delaware’s issues are, and what specific solutions he proposes. The most pressing state issue right now is education. So I am curious how Bonini’s education plans differ at all from Governor Markell’s. Is he going to be for full and total privatization? Does he plan to eliminate public education all together?
Meanwhile, Mike Castle, along with the du Pont big money crowd, wants Treasurer-Elect Ken Simpler to run for Governor.
Simpler’s campaign benefited from the backing of former Republican governor and congressman Mike Castle, who greeted voters and did media interviews throughout the day on Tuesday wearing a Ken Simpler campaign sticker.
Castle, who was Delaware’s governor from 1985-1992 before being elected to nine terms in the U.S. House, on Wednesday called Simpler “very well qualified” to run for governor.
“Clearly, if you ask me who is the best candidate for governor in the Republican Party right now, the answer is very simple: It’s Ken Simpler,” Castle said. “Should he do it? I don’t know. Would he want to do it? I don’t know that either.
“If at some point he decides to run I could be very supportive. But that’s a decision he has to make.”
But those closest to Simpler say a bid for governor just two years into his first term as treasurer isn’t going to happen.
Simpler himself pledged to serve a full term back in September, when he was facing Milford businesswoman Sher Valenzuela in the Republican primary.
“I know this office has been a destination for political opportunists for a long time,” Simpler said in a statement then. “It may be a new concept, but I’m running to serve.”
Simpler adviser Dave Burris said Simpler’s pledge stands.
Yeah, we will see how long that lasts. The GOP needs candidates for Congress, and with Carney possibly returning home in 2016, we might have an open seat election, and the GOP will need someone to match up with Governor Markell, who is rumored to be running for the position in what will be the second Great Gubnatorial-Congressional Swap in Delaware history.