UD College Democrats’ Democratic Debate for Congress – Blunt Rochester no show
The UD College Democrats’ did an excellent job with this Democratic Debate for Congress. It is definitely worth taking a look/listen before the polls open next week.
Also, please notice Lisa Blunt Rochester’s absence. Multiple sources substantiate the fact that in mid-February, Blunt Rochester confirmed that she would appear, then backed out less than a week before under the pretext that the UD College Dems and the debate moderator, Jordan McBride, were not qualified to host a debate for this office.
All you need to do to know that Lisa Blunt Rochester was dead wrong on that point is watch the video.
If she refuses to debate in a professional setting, she’s not worthy of my vote.
All of those kids are with Townsend… everyone knows that… honestly, I don’t blame her.
These fucking millenials are so entitled. I’d vote for Lisa is she promised to ship them all to Gitmo.
How sure are you that that particular reason is the reason she didn’t debate? I still am willing to vote for her; although I think the moderator did a great job
She’s probably winning so why would she do a debate moderated by a group where most are being paid for by Bryan Townsend’s campaign? What’s in it for her?
This faux outrage from groups that don’t get their rings kissed is not one of Delaware’s more attractive qualities.
In JTF’s world, those ‘fucking millenials’ are not entitled to hear from a candidate who committed to a debate. Even though said candidate is a UD grad, and even though the audience was not merely comprised of ‘fucking millenials’.
Excellent punditry as always, JTF. They should really give you a spot on one of those wonderful CNN politics panels.
How many members of the UD College Democrats are being paid for by Bryan’s campaign? I’m serious. No one addressed that.
And the Gitmo statement stands and that’s something both parties can agree on.
The more I think about it, the more I think that someone should appropriate “The Fucking Millenials” for the name of their next band. PLEEZE WELCOME…FROM THE LAND OF ENTITLEMENT…THE FUCKING MILLENIALS!”
Yes! The campaign is rigged by the almighty UD college Democrats! This scandal is about to break WIDE open JTF. Man, you’ve done it again.
Yo, JTF, this event took place BEFORE a lot of UD kids became involved with the campaign, almost all of them as volunteers. Most likely b/c Lisa didn’t even bother to show up.
But don’t let me steal your shovel. Keep digging. You’re really winning your side a lot of votes, so ‘as you were’.
It’s pretty rare that a candidate that refuses to debate is the best candidate. Usually the opposite
El Som, despite our differences, I’d like to be a part of the band.
The UD College Dems have been, since Townsend ran for State Senate, very involved with his campaigns. Everyone knows that. They know that because he won’t ever stop talking about it. To pretend that in February “the children” just came to him, as was foretold in Luke 8:16, is opposed to the narrative he’s been talking about since 2012.
Also, one needs to only look at the FEC reports and compare the names to active UD College Democrats to see the overlap. A point even you, El Som, appear to begrudgingly admit.
Beyond all of that, my point, is a political one. What was in it for Lisa? This is a larger issue I have with any number of groups in Delaware where they feel this deep sense of entitlement to have every candidate come and kneel in fealty. And with the ties to Townsend, frankly, it would have been political malpractice IMO to do it. Good staff work.
And to be clear, I don’t think Lisa is the best candidate or even a good candidate. I’m underwhelmed by this whole election. I’m just making a political point. And also trolling.
JTF, you never fail to expose the truth. What is Townsend thinking? Hiring recent college grads from a Democratic activist organization to be field staff? Organizing volunteers to knock on doors? What is this, communist China? I’m sure all of these sinister millennial types are making a killing, too.
This campaign should be won the old-fashioned way–by ignoring voters entirely and running a few TV ads. Love it, JTF. Keep it up–we need your well-reasoned viewpoint and investigative prowess!!!
PizzaStuffedCollegeKid, this loss is going to be a tough, but important, lesson about politics and life. One which you can reflect on in the C130 on the way to Cuba.
Your point makes no sense. But thanks for trolling.
https://media.giphy.com/media/xsHE3FewYt4NW/giphy.gif
Regardless of who didn’t show up at a debate, none of them have been door knocking in my community so I’m kind of disappointed in that sense
Her problem is she has no game. She’s as empty a suit as her old man. Someday someone is going to have to explain the appeal of the Blunts to me, because I sure as hell can’t see it. Tits on a bull hog, the whole lot of them.
Not showing up to a debate that you agreed to sounds a lot like Trump
AAuen – word.
Is this the debate that was held months ago? I thought she blew that off because she had an Emily’s List event. Financially, that was the better choice.
I saw her at a forum a week or two later and she was grossly unprepared for that event. I can’t imagine that she would have fared well a few weeks earlier.
Why aren’t you blasting Scott Walker for not showing up? But seriously, this debate was last Spring. An important debate, yes. But a defining moment for LBR in not attending the debate? Hardly. I think the BT supporters are getting desperate. They are willing to find anything and everything to paint LBR as a bad choice. Meanwhile, LBR is out there and she is having fun with this campaign. If BT wants to win this, he needs to get out there with more enthusiasm and vigor than he is currently showing. Cause LBR is kicking his ass in that category. I’m not saying his supporters don’t have that, it is more than obvious they do. But BT, in my opinion, does not. Personally, I can’t endorse either of them for a multitude of reasons and I can’t wait until this primary season is over.
JTF just can’t stand the Townsend love, and has no real idea who will win. A troll indeed.
Let’s put it this way: She can’t even count on the whole city voting for her, because crabs in a basket. I’m sure some women will vote for the one woman of the bunch, but abortion politics hasn’t affected voting in Delaware in 40 years, unless you think O’Donnell’s win was about Castle’s position on abortion (it wasn’t), so I’m puzzled by Emily’s List’s involvement here. Don’t they have candidates to back in places where abortion rights are actually being restricted? The donations from my household to Emily’s List will be curtailed forthwith.
In 2012 about 50,000 Democrats voted; it might not reach that level this time because there’s no major office in play, but it will still take at least 18K votes to win. About 10,000 of those votes will come from Wilmington. My guess is she only gets about half those votes. If she gets a third of the rest of the votes, she’ll win, but that’s a lot of hope to pin on someone who’s running on her name alone — a name that opens no doors outside the city.
So, JTF, if you’re taking Blunt against the field, I’ll take that bet.
This is silly. The UD College Dems endorsed Townsend a long time ago. From what I understand, most of the past and current leadership work for Townsend.
It would be strange for the Urban League, which is extremely tied to Lisa, to be a prime host and moderator for a debate for Congress.
In fact, where was this outrage when the Coalition of 100 Black Women hosted a debate and only Mike Miller and Lisa showed up. I heard that Townsend dropped by, spoke some and left early, and Sean Barney was a complete no show. So let me get this straight, she can’t blow off his white supporters, but they can blow off black supporters?
Black Debates Matter
“Emily’s List’s involvement here. Don’t they have candidates to back in places where abortion rights are actually being restricted?”
Emily’s list isn’t about abortion, but wholly concerned electing women to office. I would think a donor would know that.
WHOOPS!!! Nevernmind.
“OUR MISSION
We elect pro-choice Democratic women to office.”
Carry on anonymous
“JTF just can’t stand the Townsend love”
This is why ya’ll are so fun to troll. Because there is this bizarre cult of personality that has developed around this guy that has created a very insular campaign and way of thinking and a self perception that is bizarrely out of touch with reality. This, in part, is why you’re going to lose. Also partially why you guys burned so much money on consultants and couldn’t do a real campaign.
The truth is there is no Townsend love. No one outside of Newark knows him and, honestly, most people who do know him (like his colleagues in the Senate) actually don’t like him at all.
But, do what you want, I guess we’ll see on the night of the 13th who has the love and who doesn’t. My guess is the only winners on the Townsend campaign will be the consultants.
WHAT?!? Those in the Senate have said that they enjoy working with Townsend… Now you’re just grabbing things out of thin air
AAUEN,
That’s because they know he’s coming back. Wink Wink
Way to cut through the BS, JTF. I bet all those Townsend folks’ entitled millennial minds will short-circuit when they lose.
You know what I admire about you, JTF? It’s that you speak with authority. Even when the data doesn’t exist to back up your statements you look past that to give us the cold, hard truth, whether we can handle it or not.
“That’s because they know he’s coming back. Wink Wink”
There is more truth in this statement than anything else on this thread.
(Current) vice president of UD College Dems here. Our executive board at the time was about half Townsend supporters, but everyone who worked on organizing the debate and writing the questions were prohibited from volunteering or working with any campaign. The moderator, Jordan, had no affiliation either to us or to any of the candidates, and when planning the debate, neutrality was our guiding principle. Our endorsement of Townsend, democratically decided by our membership, purposefully happened a week or so after the debate.
Lisa Blunt-Rochester was a guest at our meeting the night before the debate, and Sean Barney was a guest earlier in the year. We gave every candidate in the race at that time equal opportunity to present themselves to our membership, and the conversations we had with each candidate were friendly and enjoyable.
If Lisa cant handle a bunch of college kids, then we are in trouble. She’s spending all her time schmoozing big money donors for contributions anyway.
She’s just like the old man — all flashy detailing, nothing beneath the hood.
@jason: Emily’s List, as you noted, is about pro-choice women (why pro-choice men are ignored you’ll have to ask them). We donate to Planned Parenthood, too, but redirected some of that to Emily’s List to cover more bases. We’ll go back to giving the whole amount to PP now, because I had no intention of donating money to LBR.
It’s quite salty in here.
A lot of shade on this thread. I will say that Lisa’s team does seem way more fun. This group, in comparison, comes off salty as hell. That comes from the top.
Speaking of debates, WDEL just wrapped one up a few hours ago. I wasn’t able to listen, and there’s no transcript anywhere, but I’ve been able to piece together a few things from their Twitter feed, and this stuck out to me:
#DemDebate #USHouse…On healthcare marketplace, @BryanTownsendDE: “We need to move as far away as possible from single payer.” #NetDE
What exactly DOES Townsend support RE: healthcare reform? He’s kind of mealy-mouthed in this respect from what I can tell, with few structural reforms to the healthcare system on his platform.* I get the impression that he doesn’t actually know a whole lot about this subject.
Not a reason to not vote for him, but certainly something to push him on.
* I’m talking about stuff like blocking hospital mergers, breaking up huge healthcare systems (eg Christiana Care), scrapping the asinine and abusive coupling of employers and health insurance, etc. The first two could go a long way to slowing health care cost growth, and the last would funnel a lot of healthy people into the exchanges (and make Burwell v. Hobby Lobby a non-issue).
@Aurochs, I listened to the debate and that is a misquote. I don’t remember exactly what Bryan said but the meaning was the opposite of what WDEL tweeted.
@Aurochs just watched that portion of the FB video WDEL posted. Bryan actually said “we need to move as far as we can TOWARDS single-payer coverage.” FWIW
@NCCDem, thank you for the clarification. I suppose a transcript of this thing is a tall order. Luckily I didn’t think he actually said that, but it did prompt me to have a look at his health care platform and I find it a bit underwhelming. I’m happy he supports letting Medicare negotiate drug prices though– my only issue is, that’s a very old idea and further reform beyond that is needed.
Look, I don’t see what the big deal is. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was a Hillary campaign person, she still got to be DNC chair. she only got in trouble when it was clear she was biased against Bernie. I don’t see any evidence of bias in this debate, everyone got to answer the same questions and personal attacks got shut down. There is another organization, Delaware Council on Global and Muslim affairs, which hosted a fundraiser for Townsend and then hosted a debate for congress! Blunt and Barney still showed in that August debate. A fundraiser is basically an endorsement yet they still went. Lisa probably realized that this was university green-lighted and the 23rd RD is involved and this was serious. So she dodged a bullet because she bombs at forums and debates. I don’t think she really respects the UDems, considering she met with them privately the DAY BEFORE THE DEBATE. And still didn’t debate. That’s not cool.
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PLEEZE WELCOME…FROM THE LAND OF ENTITLEMENT…THE FUCKING MILLENIALS!” and up next “THOSE G’DAMN HIPSTERS”