The RNC hands Charlie Copeland a golden opportunity
As Delaware Dem reported, the RNC voted to shorten its primary season in order to try and freeze out the whack jobs. What I recently learned is that the rules changes could put Delaware Republicans in the drivers seat when it comes to picking the party's next Mitt Romney.
Iowa and New Hampshire have traditionally enjoyed the "first in the nation status" when it comes to primaries and caucuses. They get all the media and candidate attention, as well as the economic benefit that comes with hosting the circus every four years. However, Charlie Copeland, in his position of Acting GOP Chair, has a golden opportunity to jump in front of New Hampshire and make sure Delaware Republicans get a voice in the process and Delaware citizens get the $264 million that flows into New Hampshire every four years.
The reason Delaware has this opportunity and other states don't has to do with the way the penalty for jumping to the front of the calendar is structured.
Saturday Open Thread [1.25.14]
So the RNC has voted to shorten its primary season in order to make it easier for an establishment candidate to win quickly and easily without being tarnished by the crazies that he or she must debate. Further, it would make it easier for the candidate with the most money to swamp his or her lesser funded tea party upstarts and underdogs. Unfortunately for the Republicans, I don't think they thought this through. The plan is obviously meant to benefit Christie. But think about this. The first two contests are still the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary.
Does anyone really think Chris Christie is going to win the Iowa Caucuses against Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, or even Rick Santorum. Lets assume Rand Paul wins. That sets him up for another quick victory in New Hampshire (remember, his father came in second there in 2012). And then after that he is a run away freight train. The same logic applies for Cruz, though I don't necessarily see him winning New Hampshire. And now with a tighter and shorter primary calendar, there is less time for the establishment candidate to smash these upstart underdogs down in a debate, for there are going to be fewer debates.
Senator Tom Carper’s Greatest Hits: The DL Guest Posts
From 2007 to 2009 we got some great guest posts from Senator Tom Carper. I always enjoyed the saltiness of them even though I was routinely threatened with dismemberment. Anyway, stumbling over one of them yesterday made me nostalgic, so I went and dug up TC's greatest hits. This was the first one. In it, he was trying to explain to the DL audience why he voted to give George W. Bush the authority to bug every phone, and read every email in the country without probable cause.
The Weekly Addresses
President Obama
Governor Markell, whose Weekly Message this week was his State of the State Address, which I am posting here.
Senator Brian Pettyjohn (R) of Sussex County posted a response to Governor Markell's State of the State address, but he filmed it using an iPhone, which might be fine if he didn't film it vertically. Amateur mistake.
Helping Progressives in Kent County!
Assignment time -- there is a solid effort by Kent County Progressives to network and share ideas and they have a spanking new Facebook Page here.
Friday Open Thread [1.24.14]
It's been a bad week for conservatives and indictments and subpoenas. Violent Conservative Dinesh D'Souza has been indicted for campaign finance fraud. He allegedly funnelled contributions to Wendy Long, the 2012 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat and then reimbursed the donors, which is illegal. Governor Christie's campaign team has been subpoenaed. And former Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife will be appearing in Court this morning after being indicted for fraud, corruption, making false statements and obstruction.
And now Mike Huckabee wants to talk about women and their reproductive choices again, despite all the evidence that Republican men have a very difficult time hiding their completely 1650's attitude about women and their rights.
Delaware Political Weekly: Jan. 18-24, 2014
Marie Mayor has filed to run for the 20th RD seat currently held by the odious ex-state cop Steve Smyk. You may recall that Mayor ran a superb campaign, handily won a primary for the seat, and was poised to win until...a two-week blitz of fear and hatred stirred up the local yokels.
Meanwhile, in the absence of any other breaking political news this week, I'd like you to predict what comes next politically for the following Delaware figures, especially considering that Gov. Markell is term-limited...
Those Republican Classes On How To Woo Women Aren’t Working
After the 2012 election, Republicans announced that they would be changing their ways. Call it outreach, sensitivity training, whatever, they knew they had female problems. They also have minority problems, immigration problems, LGBT problems, 47% problems, but I'm going to focus on their female problems for this post. Let's start with their latest example. Mike Huckabee.
On this day in blogging history
Six years ago today, We got our first (and probably still best) guest post from Senator Tom Carper. Five years ago tonight We had a victory party at Deerfield Wines. Four years ago today, Beau Biden said that he wasn't going to run for the US Senate. Three years ago today My three part plan for creating jobs in Delaware by raising taxes on Charlie Copeland (part 3) was one day old. Two years ago today GOP Clown, John Sigler gave a whack-ass response to Markell's state of the state address. Last year on this date SB 3 was on its way to putting the kibosh on the Markell plan to privatize the port of Wilmington - therby proving that "elections matter."