Day: July 22, 2015

Ryan Lizza:

“Republicans almost universally acknowledge that, over the long-term, their Party needs to increase its appeal to Latinos in order to win the White House. The first step down that path is to talk about immigrants from Latin America in a respectful way and to marginalize prominent politicians who attack immigrants.” “However, what is good for the Party over all is not necessarily good for individual candidates. One can laugh at Trump and his absurdities, but it’s wrong to say that he doesn’t matter. He has exposed and exploited the Republican Party’s two great weaknesses: the fact that many of its voters don’t agree with Party leaders on immigration and the fact that the Party is powerless to do much about it.”

A conscious choice has to be made. Courageous Republican party leaders need to cut the rope to that anchor dragging them down. That means standing up to their base, and not supporting candidate who play up to the base's racism. But that means losing elections after election, and control of the House and Senate and State legislatures. It means giving up power. The only thing giving Republicans the opportunity for power right now is the laziness and fecklessness of Democrats and Independents in off year elections.

As you know, State Representative Mike Barbieri has resigned to become the new director of Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health under the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS). His resignation shall be effective on July 31, 2015, though it was earlier reported that his resignation will be effective on August 3, 2015, which is the Monday following the Friday of July 31. Delaware law requires a special election be held between 30 and 45 days after the date of the vacancy (i.e. the effective date of the resignation, which is why whether the date is July 31 or August 3 is important). If it is the latter date, the election will be held between September 2 and September 16. If it is the earlier date, then the election will be held between August 30 and September 14. The state Democratic Party has announced that there will be a meeting this Thursday night (i.e. tomorrow), at DelDems headquarters, to select the candidate from the Democratic Party. That's a lot of notice!