Yard signs don’t vote. But I’ve seen more Lafferty signs than Bonini signs, and that signals something. What exactly are these people trying to advertise? That their property is protected by Smith and Wesson? That they know a Republican isn’t going to win, so they want to “send a message” to the DEGOP Pharisees?
It is impossible to know for sure what goes on in the bat-filled belfry of your wingnut neighbor. It is reasonable to assume some things about this upcoming GOP primary though. Let’s start with the fact that Trump is at the top of the ticket. Trump makes it is safe to assume that insane Republicans will be fired up, and any remaining sane Republicans may have already concluded this isn’t their year. Why should they work hard on a primary campaign only to place Bonini, a candidate who doesn’t exemplify “fire in the belly,” on the bench of a carnival dunk tank? And who are the Delaware Republican primary voters these days anyway? We know a significant number defected to vote in a primary for Jack Markell… have they returned, or have they ceded the party to the nuts?
The last contested statewide primary on the GOP side was the Delaware Treasurer Republican Primary in 2014 which pitted Ken Simpler against (semi-nut) Cheryl Valenzuela. Greenville was very invested in the outcome of that one and Simpler walked away with a comfortable 54% (13,491 votes) to Valenzuela’s 46% (11,549 votes). But has anyone seen the Hunt Club set act as invested in Bonini as they were in Simpler? I haven’t.
The only poll on the race was conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson & the Delaware News Journal in July. That poll gave Bonini an edge with 29% to Lafferty’s 22% with a whopping 42% undecided. What on earth, I wonder, are these 42% waiting for? The election of 2020, I suspect.
