Why Lt. Gov Matters
I realize the the post itself is useless, and the job is a meaningless waste of tax money. but I’m going to play Nate Silver for a second and use statistics to tell you why winning the Lt. Governor’s race matters. Three out of the past six Lt. Governors went on to be Governor. [Matt Denn is going to be Governor, so that is really 4 out of 6.] That means there is a 66% chance that BHL, Ciro, Park City, or the one of the others will eventually be governor.
Michael N. Castle
New Castle County
1980
S. B. Woo
Newark
1984
Matthew P. Denn
Wilmington/Newark
2008, 2012 5
Dale Wolf did serve as Governor for the brief period between January 3, 1993 and January 20, 1993. Only poor SB Woo is left out.
5 of 6.. that means BHL has an 83% chance of eventually becoming Gov.
Science !!
I think it’ll be McG. She’s built the largest organization, has been motoring all over the state, and has Pete’s backing (which means Jack’s, tacitly). BHL is tainted by her husband’s stupidity and Gordon’s tapes – even if there’s nothing there and she’s squeaky clean, it smells bad. Ciro might stand a chance if he can cut into the NCCo vote enough, but I’m not feeling it.
Carney’s going to freeze out whoever it is like he was frozen out of Minner’s team – remember Carper forced him onto the ticket – so it won’t make a difference for eight years anyway. And for Denn to take over after that would mean the path for the next LG would be Congress (though unlikely that BT or LBR will give that up unless they’re running for Carper’s Senate seat), or Treasurer, IC, Auditor or AG.
McGuinness has her own dirty laundry that she is directly involved in. She would be wise not to attack BHL about what her husband did.
Could someone please explain the whole Kathy McGuiness/Park City thing? I see it mentioned on here constantly but do not know what happened exactly. DelawareDem – does she have any other “dirty laundry” besides that?
SussexWatcher those things are pluses for Park City, but here is the thing… the voters in the Democratic Primary are going to be Democrats who are somewhat more engaged that run of the mill voters. BHL has been working this soil for years. Unless Ciro cuts deeply into BHL’s total, I think she wins it.
Park City Kathy
A couple internal polls I have heard about Ciro in the lead….BHL better deal with that possibility that he might be, after her issues with her husband sign stealing, etc..
Minner was a puppet for the downstate Democrats, particularly Vaughn, who was Delaware’s version of Dick Cheney. They stamped their feet and screamed “our turn!” so much the party gave in. No man would have won on her platform, but it was time for a woman so she won.
Carney, in case you forgot, lost a primary in which he was the odds-on favorite. He eventually got the job because his backers couldn’t find anyone else to back, and he had nothing else to do.
Park City Kathy is not part of any machine except the one Pete is trying to build, and while he clings to power in the House, I don’t think he’s competent enough to pull it off. Evidence: His failure with the Millsboro casino; his infuriating pussy-footing with John Atkins. The first shows inability to achieve unpopular goals, a necessity for anyone who wants to control others, the second a glaring lack of judgment. Besides, the way to build a machine is by controlling votes — citizen votes, not caucus votes — and when has Schwartzkopf shown any ability to turn out voters?
Anyone can win with so many people in the race, though the smart money would be on the person with the most name recognition (quite possibly Poppiti, because of his relatives) and I don’t think that’s McGuiness. The mailer I got from her the other day was generic and pitched too conservative for a Democratic primary, so while she could win, I see nothing that points that way.
If a future governor’s race comes down to whoever wins this vs. Matt Denn, well, the choice there should be clear, but never underestimate the stupidity of the Delaware electorate.
Ciro looks like a sad French clown without the makeup.
Someone should go check out his office and see if any of his cracker jack staff, taxpayer paid staff is actually working today or if they’re out on the “Campaign Trail” for their boss.
And the Kathy McGuinness park city thing is she lived and voted and Utah. But then told the Election Commissioner here she was a Delaware resident the whole time. Not sure how you can be a resident of one state and vote in another, but leave it to the pussies of Delaware State Government to never actually make a tough decision. That’s why things are going so well, obviously.
Is there evidence that Poppiti is using state staff in his campaign?
Jordan Hines has been going around announcing that he is Ciro’s field director, as well as a legal aide in the wills office. He did it just last week at an event in Dover on a weekday morning. In addition, he has two part time seasonal employees and two seasonal interns who do double duty. Well, I mean, what does a register of wills need with seasonal employees. Is there a “will season?” If so, that’s a little terrifying. There was also a facebook post a few weeks back from his new Kent County “director” which flat out promised fellowships for those who volunteered on his campaign. Don’t ask me what a Lt. Governor fellowship does, because I couldn’t tell you, but it is still promising positions for political support.
Of course, none of this will ever be acted upon, because the county has shown us that this is no longer frowned on.
This came through email from an anonymous tipster:
Rumors have been swirling about Ciro using county staff to campaign…..not a shocker coming from a county row officer!! More of the same Delaware Way!!
Yes, Ciro is using county staff on his campaign. Really sad that nothing has been done about it, despite the fact that it has been reported. Will WDEL look into it? Probably not. As for Park City, not much more I can say that hasnt already been said on here.
School Districts around the state have received offers from Ciro’s office to come in and do group informational sessions on wills and such for teachers and other district employees. The interesting thing is that they want to come in before the primary. Hmmmmm….schools have never received those offers in the past, but now they do and they want them scheduled BEFORE the primary.
Kind of a morbid subject for schools. Weird.
Maybe Poppiti v Hall Long is closer than I thought, and Park City is the spoiler?
I’m going to ignore Dem19703. Why would you bring “morbid” into it? So tired of it. I am not a BHL supporter, but I do know that she is leading in a couple of internal polls that were leaked. I’m not hearing much from the other candidates. Ciro is a phony, and Kathy is a republican. Not even sure why they are being considered.
Response from the Poppiti campaign:
Jordan Hines is indeed working on the campaign as a field director, while on an official unpaid leave of absence from the Register of Wills office. Ciro is sensitive about discussing county personnel issues, but he worked carefully with the county on the transition and is confident that it was handled the way it’s supposed to be handled.
On another point, yes, one of our younger staffers said some things she should not have on her personal Facebook page, in her energetic attempt to round up volunteers. As soon as a more experienced campaign staffer saw it and spoke to her, she took it down. She made a mistake, but we accept it as a learning experience. She’s still with us and is one of our favorite people.
As to the “seasonal interns,” we’d respond but we’re genuinely unsure what that’s all about.
The only reason we’re responding at all to anonymous accusations is because they attack two young people inside our campaign. If anyone would like to follow up, or – and this would be a novel approach – actually ASK us about things before posting them online, you can reach us at info@cirofordelaware.com. But we won’t be responding to anonymous follow-ups to this post here.
Thanks for commenting. As election day draws nigh, the level of crazy bullshit typically ramps up. 10x so for races BHL is involved in.
An answer does t always mean it’s true. If Jordan was on leave the whole time, he probably shouldn’t have blasted out on his Twitter feed how he was doing campaign mailings from the wills office. Just sayin’.
“said some things she should not have on her personal Facebook page”
Either meaning that the volunteer-for-job deal didn’t exist and she misunderstood something, which was the mistake
– or –
That the volunteer-for-job deal exists and she talked about it publicly, which was the mistake.
Who you hire and how you manage them in a campaign reflects on your ability to manage an office or staff or agency. This doesn’t give me much confidence.
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Hey, El Som or others: Can the LG be appointed as a cabinet secretary as well, making the gig full time? In some states the gov does do that (like Ohio). Is that even possible here?
No, it would be a conflict. Can’t hold an elected job and an appointed job at same time. Both are paid gigs. Double dipping….though that wouldn’t really bother anyone down there! Ha!
Chris: Lt. Gov. is officially a part-time job, which means the office-holder certainly CAN hold a full-time job. All the members of the GA are part-time as well, which is why legislators can be rewarded with jobs in the Dept. of Labor, etc.
Anon: He or she could clearly hold another job in private sector , but not a cabinet secretary job. The question was about cabinet secretary position. It seems unclear about a state job which was lower level I think.
It’s not unclear at all. Several members of the General Assembly hold positions in the Dept. of Labor.
“which means the office-holder certainly CAN hold a full-time job. ”
Heck, I would guess that they would almost have to hold a full time job. Still that seems, well unseemly that a Lt. Gov would be part time. I can understand legislators but executive branch folks are supposed to be, you know, executing – and not just part time. I suppose since the LG doesn’t have any real responsibilities……..(trails off into silence).
Wait what the difference between VP USA and LG DE? Biden has no real job either right? He is full time. Why wouldn’t LG be?
As with the General Assembly, the “part-time” jobs pay more than the median salary of all Delawareans, AND come with a generous pension.
Since all of the “front runners” seem a bit controversial, are the other three any better? There is still time to move things…
This race has shaken out and is now between Hall-Long, Poppiti and McGuiness….one of them should win it! These three have the financial resources for the final push…Unfortunately, we could have a winner with 33% or less of the vote.
Other three: Eaby’s support is mostly Kent County. Fuller has some pockets in city of Wilmington and some Sussex. Dorsey Walker will do very well in city Wilmington and post a decent number, but not enough resources to be a major threat in the final month.
I’m in Milford and we’ve seen nothing from Poppiti…I had no idea he was even competitive. I know we’re mostly Trump signs down here, but in a fractured race, every vote matters.
@ciro – good response and clarification, except for the slam on anonymous (pseudonymous) comments, comments which happened to be accurate tips by the way. Welcome to blogging.
A slam on pseudonymous comments accompanies with a request for questions to be directed to an anonymous email account.
I was just about to post that Ciro was the best choice by process of elimination. Needs to work on social media skills though.
I am so bleeping sick of campaign flaks pretending to come over here with information which, in fact, is innuendo. Makes some threads as unreadable as the Hillary/Bernie threads were.
Why anyone would want to flak on something as pathetic as the LG race is beyond me…unless someone is angling for a job. Oops, asked and answered.
The only candidates for Lt. Gov. who address education on their websites, the biggest part of state government, are Dorsey Walker, Hall-Long, and Eaby. The others do not even acknowledge that it matters that I can find. Fuller has no issues at all, McGuiness reads like a “moderate”…almost Carney-like, and Poppiti doesn’t have it is as a listed issue. Again, I get that Lt. Governor doesn’t have any real say over things, but one would think that the #2 person in the state should at least have some thoughts on the biggest part of the state budget.
Why do I give BHL the edge? It seems to me that she has been the best at creating a network within the party and has given then an interest in helping her out. It is politics 101. Nobody is going to win or lose this on “policies”.
There’s six, maybe seven jobs in the LG office, at best. I’m guessing each candidate already has an idea of where all of those are already going. Most of those don’t usually go to the campaign grunts. They go to the policy folks, who may, or may not be on the current campaigns. It’s the way of politics, unfortunately.
Three strikes and BHL is out for me. Her votes against the death penalty repeal, two votes for SB 290 on the last day of the legislative session (doubling the amount of money PACs and parties can donate per year by allowing them to donate for primary election as well as general election instead of once a year) and accepting NRA contributions are problematic.
Six candidates, none of them deserving of the job. Delaware in a nutshell.
Celia’s take on the recent WDEL forum
AN OLYMPIC DEBATE FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
http://www.delawaregrapevine.com/8-16ltgovdebate.asp
I think Ciro will win. I also think he is qualified, although they may al be. I mean, what are the qualifications. He’s a genuinely nice guy too.
Genuinely nice and qualified guys always throw their college female interns under the bus. Profile in courage that Ciro.
Yes, real sweetheart Looks like Ciro really backed over the poor intern with the bus!