The 18th RD
Where is the 18th RD?
It’s here, the area is yellow.
If you want to zoom in, you’ll see that the district is basically the dead center of New Castle County. The northwestern border of the distric is the railroad tracks between Route 273 in the west and Route 58 in the east. The northeast border of the district is Rout 58, running from Christiana Hospital down to the intersection with Rt. 37 and New Castle County Airport. The Eastern border of the district is Rt. 37 down to 273, and then down Appleby Road down to Rt. 40. The Southern border basically follows Rt. 40 from Appleby Road over to Rt. 7 (though it includes some neighborhoods between Rt 40 and the railroad). Finally, the western border follows Rt. 7 up to Newtown Road and then over to the Christina River up to Rt. 7 and back over to Rt. 273.
The 18th State House District includes suburban and commercial areas. It has a mixture of older and newer residential developments, apartments, and shopping areas. The resident population is mixed in age, and middle income blue collar. It normally votes strongly Democratic.
Here is a close up view of the district and you can see the major features and highways, like Christiana Mall, Route 1 and I-95.
For years, the 18th Representative District was represented by the Republican Speaker of the House of Representative, Terry Spence. Spence was first elected in 1980, and he was reelected over Democrat Ronald Queen with 62.5% of the vote in 1982. Spence won two other easy reelections in 1984 and 1986, and then ran unopposed in seven of his thirteen reelection campaigns. Even though his district was becoming increasingly Democratic.
Until 2006.
The district, by then, was 49% registered Democratic, with only 26% registered Republican. So the Democrats finally decided to actually run a credible candidate, and they found Mike Barbieri, a behavioral health professional Mike Barbieri to run against Spence. Barbieri came close, but he lost by 12 points.
In 2008, Barbieri defeated Spence 52% to 48%. In a rematch in 2010, Barbieri won 53% to 47%. And he has been unopposed ever since, save for a quixotic primary by Christopher Piecuch. Piecuch is a young man, the owner of Owner of PQ’s Landscaping LLC. He garnered 18% of the vote against Barbieri’s 82%. In real votes, due to a low turnout primary, the votes were actually 577 to 123.
Christopher Piecuch is running again, having already announced on Twitter:
Looks like we are going to have a new hashtag trending #TeamPiecuch2015 https://t.co/jIm6Dpwv43
— Chris Piecuch (@ChrisPiecuchDE) July 14, 2015
So who is Mr. Piecuch? What does he stand for? I look forward to finding out. And I look forward to finding out if any other Democrats are running. And how about any Republicans? Yes, the election date will not be announced until early August, but the date for the election has to be between September 2 and 16. So time is short.
It’s a Special Election. Ain’t gonna be a primary. Parties select the candidates, so the 18th RD Committee will choose who will run in Barbieri’s stead.
Assuming that the committee is full of Barbieri supporters, I think there’s a solid chance that there will be some pretty good choices.
Will they choose Piecuch?
BTW, this brings up a pretty cool reapportionment story. For a time, (the 2002 redistricting), there was a district boundary drawn down the middle of a street in the development of Stratford.
It’s highly unusual, and contrary to redistricting guidelines, to do such a thing. So why, you may ask, was it done?
It was done b/c Terry Spence lived on one side of the street, and State Rep. Bruce Reynolds, who had moved to Stratford, lived directly across the street from his friend and leader. Reynolds represented the 15th. Two reps, living right across the street from each other. Redistricting at its best.
DD-I highly doubt it. Why would a committee loaded with Barbieri people endorse the guy who primaried him?
Since it is a special a Republican will run, I assume. A follow up if I may…? Does anyone know if Tom Kovach has moved into this RD recently? Just askin’
LOL.