The Most Important Delaware Race of 2016…
…will be the primary for US Congress between State Rep. Bryon Short and State Senator Bryan Townsend.
It is a battle of the present (and, one hopes, the past) of the Democratic Party vs. a more progressive future.
Make no mistake: Bryon Short is the chosen heir to the mantle of middle-of-the-road mediocrity personified by Tom Carper and John Carney. He, or more likely Ed Freel and his ilk, have chosen ex-Carper staffer Mat Marshall to run his campaign. Carper’s ‘Brain’, Ed Freel, is calling the shots from his UD bunker. Short, of course, served in Carper’s congressional office, and has made no bones about his friendship with Carper and Carney. You may also recall that Bryon Short bottled up a minimum wage increase in his House committee until the bill was essentially emasculated. Although strong on social issues, Short’s principal legislative focus has been on cutting yet more ‘red tape’ that, according to the Chamber and its allies, hobble businesses in Delaware. In fact, Short essentially had a committee created just for him with this run in mind: The (get this) House Economic Development/ Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee, aka The Business Lapdog Committee.
BTW, some people in the Party have suggested that Carney’s delayed announcement was designed to give Short a head start while the congressional race was officially frozen. As in forcing Townsend to wait until Carney made up his mind on which office to seek while Short, with Carper and Carney’s clandestine blessing, plowed straight ahead.
The good news is that Bryan Townsend was not buying Carn(e)y’s third delay. First, John was waiting for Beau, then, he delayed due to a death in the family, and now he’s delayed his announcement yet again due to a hip operation. Bryan Townsend has reportedly snagged Delaware’s best political operative to run his campaign. Erik Raser-Schramm has agreed to be Townsend’s campaign manager, and there is a strong rumor out there that he will soon be joined by another top Democratic operative. In only three years, Townsend has amassed one of the best progressive voting records in Dover, and has successfully sponsored (as in ‘passed and signed into law’) some real substantive legislation. While both he and Short are equally strong on social issues, Townsend has been a much more forceful advocate for economic equality and progressive education reform than the go-along-to-get-along Short.
This is why the same party insiders who campaigned en masse for the ethically-bankrupt Tony DeLuca against Townsend are working hard behind the scenes for Short. In order to control the Party and its corporate donors, they need to control the elected officials. Short is perfect for their Corporate Carper/Coons/Carney vision for the Party. Townsend, OTOH, appeals to the rank-and-file, the traditional Democratic constituencies who have been cast adrift by the putative Democratic leaders. He’s also really smart, so he should appeal to people who like their officials to be more intelligent than the average bear.
It’s gonna be an epic battle. The choice is clear: More Carper-Carney DINOism, or the best chance for progressive change that we’ve had in, like, forever.
Tags: Bryan Townsend, Bryon Short, El Somnambulo, Featured, John Carney, Steve Tanzer Delaware
Part of me is excited to support a real progressive, and part of me remembers supporting Markell over Carney and I throw up in my mouth a little bit. Hopefully Townsend stays true.
Anyone Delaware sends to Congress will disappoint progressives on banking. Apart from that, we can hope for for better votes everywhere else, and an end to Carney’s endless blather about bipartisan austerity (at least as a Congressman). Carney has worked across the aisle so much he has forgotten where his own seat is.
Don’t forget. That’s been Carper’s mantra forever. Where do you think Carney learned it?
Also, don’t forget that Carney was Carper’s Deputy Chief-of-Staff and Finance Secretary.
Carper forced Carney onto Ruth Ann Minner’s ticket in exchange for Carper’s active support in what was expected to be a close election. He did it b/c Carney precisely fit Carper’s corporate DINO vision, and the Carperites had and still have plans for Carney.
Ditto with Sean Barney, and ditto with Bryon Short.
Since the Dem primary is the election, this one is winnable. Where do I sign up to donate to and work for Townsend?
Bryan Townsend has a reputation as a progressive, but consider his bio from his employer Morris James LLP where he is an attorney in their Corporate Law unit:
“Bryan Townsend focuses his practice on litigation involving complex corporate, commercial, and fiduciary matters in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where he served as a law clerk to Chancellor William B. Chandler, III. Bryan also represents clients involved with business litigation in the Superior Court of Delaware and the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.”
So how does this bio contradict Bryan’s already pretty progressive track record in the legislature?
Because if we are doing the Purity Police thing here, I’m not having it.
FMD, they both have records. Bryon Short has been an enabler for corporate priorities, such as holding minimum wage hostage and declining to assist Beau Biden in holding up the BC/BS merger with Highmark. His quote?:
“There’s nothing I can do.”
Leadership at its best.
I’ll take my chances with Townsend because experiences with Short have been unsatisfactory. When my wife called him re concerns related to her home-based business, he listened but never got back to her.
I’m wary of Townsend because my gut tells me not to trust corporate lawyers but he has aligned with progressives on education issues, so I can hope he shows more progressivism across the board and doesn’t become too comfortable with the conservadems in the corporate bar.
Alot of support for BRYON SHORT here in 38th and Sussex county in general . He has attended events for years here. We have been proud to support him .Might be closer than you think in Statewide race.
If the Purity Police show up, then everyone is in trouble. No candidate (or human being) can live up to that test. However, Corporate attorney is not just something Townsend does on the side, it is also the basis for some (but not all) of his legislation. For example, I give you Townsend’s SB 236 (if Forbes likes it, Progressives ought to be wary):
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2014/06/10/is-delaware-law-a-favor-to-plaintiff-lawyers-or-protection-for-capitalists/
Russ: I think you may have Bryon Short and Dan Short confused. Other than the Jamboree, don’t think Bryon’s spent much time in western Sussex. Although you can look forward to meeting him going forward…
I guess that’s gonna be the meme of the candidate who has the corporate backing: You can’t trust Bryan Townsend b/c he’s a corporate lawyer. A perfectly phony and cynical meme.
It’s Delaware people, if a candidate is not a corporate lackey they will become so at some point. The trick is to get the best deal on other issues and as far away from the Carper-Carney Connection as you can.
While I’ve got some misgivings about Townsend, I’m more trusting of him than of Short, the purported small business advocate who could try to position himself as (pardon the commercial) the “Grassroots” candidate.
Bryon Short has been to many events in Sussex since he was elected. He shows regularly at the Jamboree, at some District meetings, at the annual Stonewall event. Russ is not confused between the two Shorts
Grassroots is a great store. Not sure if Kristin is gonna have the same Brandywine Hundred pop-up location this year as its new next-door neighbor would be…a survivalist guns & ammo store.
Agreed that Grassroots is a great store, but its name would not be an accurate synonym for Bryon’s candidacy.
No, not this time. But his first campaign against, I think, Jim Bowers, was pretty grass roots, and a lotta fun.
Just as Bryan Townsend’s campaign against Tiny Tony was a great grass roots campaign and loads of fun. Especially when the results came in.
Carper and Carney love coming to Sussex, too. That doesn’t mean they would be good for Delaware.
Bryon “choosing” a Carper staffer to run his campaign should tell you all you need to know about his leanings.
Both FMD and MW are long-time posters, and not Short trolls, so I’ll suggest that suspicion of Townsend, because he’s a “corporate attorney” reflects an honest misunderstanding.
In Delaware, a corporate attorney unravels, advises and sometimes litigates on how corporations or LLC’s should structure their internal governance and financing. Bylaws, valuations, tender offers, mezzanine financings, derivative actions, non-consolidation opinions, and other eye-glazing frolics. It’s an honorable, and frequently lucrative, calling. It doesn’t involve cheating consumers or tenants.
“Corporate attorneys” are prodigious in their social activism, generally in quite progressive ways. Corporate attorneys founded the legal aid society and ACLU-Delaware. [Check out the folks who’ve chaired ACLU for the past quarter-century.] They’ve been leaders in time and treasure for marriage equality, human rights, NORML, multicuturalism, women’s reproductive freedom, sentencing reform and a host of other important causes, often in face of public hostility.
Bryan Townsend has much to offer, and he’s walking away from a huge private-sector payday to do it.
One of the two posters you mentioned IS a Short troll. Which is OK.
I know it, and he/she knows it.
This election will hinge on who will tax more.. The winner being the one who can convince us he’s the most likely to raise taxes on the top 1%….
Ok… i’ll bite… how tall are short trolls?
That’s so bad that you just might qualify to be a DL contributor.
Mat Marshall is a brilliant guy, why wouldn’t they pick him to run a campaign? I really think you should look at the person instead of seeing them as a Carper bot which I don’t understand either because he’s a pretty great senator for DE but that’s for another day
Uh, the point is that it’s Carper and his inner circle calling the shots here b/c they view Bryon Short as someone who will carry on Carper’s corporate DINOism.
You have a right to believe Carper’s a ‘pretty great Senator’, and his corporate benefactors agree. As a progressive, I think Carper’s pretty much a disaster, and I don’t want another generation of his hand-picked corporate servants to carry the banner for the Democratic Party.