Another Lt Gov thread
We’ve gotten a couple nudges on the tip line to discuss the Dem’s Lt. Gov primary race. For what it’s worth, I’ll probably vote against Pete’s play for getting a lackey installed on the Dem bench by running a Republican named Kathy McGuinness, by voting for Bethany Hall Long.
This isn’t a DL endorsement. It is my rationalization, and like so many reasons people vote, it is idiosyncratic and probably deplorable, but there you have it.
ALSO – PS, I owe Pete an apology because I saw a BHL sign in the same front yard as a Trump sign this weekend, so using the transitive property, that says all you need to know about BHL.
What’s your reason for voting for your person? 
I’ve narrowed it down to her and Eaby. I actually like a lot of what Eaby has to say, but I think she has the most realistic chance and I’d rather one of my top two get in than someone else. Still undecided as to who I’ll actually vote for, but I have received a ton of direct mailings from her, so I know she’s trying and she’s been endorsed by a number of groups I can get behind. Not DL though; I saw Townsend actually was touting that on a mailer I received!
Yeah. This is a breakthrough year for DL on that score. With primary election being the election, I think we have a little more juice this year. If it actually moves some people to vote, than perhaps even a little more next time around.
Still just blows my mind that we have a number of decent candidates for Congress, even Lt. Gov., but no primary for governor. Frustrating.
I tried to talk Bernie August (a well established name among Greens) to switch party affiliations and run in a primary against Carney. It could have been electric, and really moved the dialogue to the left. Alas, August is one of those dunderheaded know nothings on the far left who doesn’t understand how the world works.
Have there been any insights as to who to vote for for the president of New castle county council and the Wilmington council president and atlarge? I feel those are key positions as I want to vote for the people that will help Eugene Young(should he win) inact his agenda.
Kathy is the only candidate with experience in the private, public, and non-profit fields. She’s helped create Rehoboth Beach Main Street; she has also been a successful RB commissioner. That’s why I’m voting for her
“Kathy is the only candidate with experience in the private, public, and non-profit fields.”
So she can’t keep a job. She’s also the only candidate with experience as both a Democrat and a Republican. She’s a weathercock, all right.
“She’s helped create Rehoboth Beach Main Street”
Yeah, Rehoboth would be lost without her. Its business district was dying, right?
“she has also been a successful RB commissioner.”
So now the bar has been lowered to sea level.
Too bad Ernie Lopez’s wife is registered Republican. That would be one certain vote against Park City.
^^^ she is also a really a republican, which is why non of us are.
I’m torn between BHL and Ciro. The point with BHL is that she is running for a position where she will have far less influence than in the position she holds now.
I think Ciro does have a chance to win, and I don’t think that the Register of Wills office has much influence, so I’m leaning towards him, I think. Although, if I thought it was only between BHL and Park Slope Kathy, I’d vote for Bethany. I frankly haven’t seen anything approaching a groundswell for Kathy up here, so I find it hard to figure out how she wins. Ain’t enough D’s in Sussex to carry her.
Can we just stop with this constant talking point of “Kathy is the only candidate with experience in the private, public, and non-profit fields?”
Ciro has been elected to county-wide office twice, has sat on the boards on more than one nonprofit, and has worked in the private sector, including his own legal practice.
I can make similar claims for Bethany and Brad. Kathy’s claim to stand alone as the master of all three domains is not just puffery — it’s an outright lie.
So far there aren’t any actual points against Kathy, just petty personal attacks
I like Ciro, but I don’t think he can win. I don’t care for BHL, but I think she can win.
Right back atcha, AAuen. As I showed, there are no reasons to vote for her; your claims for her qualifications are pathetically modest — you lowered the bar to sea level.
The fact that she has no relevant experience, despite your claims, is an “actual point.” The fact that she lived in Utah while claiming to live in Delaware is an “actual point.” The fact that she is actually a Republican is an “actual point.”
Also, some of us find her dalliance with Ernie Lopez beyond the pale, and not because he’s a Republican.
Popcorn
Dickhead
all a bunch of crooks!!…bethany hl the only good choice. smart for delaware!
Over at Exceptional Delaware, BHL is leading the poll for “likely to win” and Ciro is leading for “deserves to win.” (And sad that those two aren’t the same.) Kathy barely registers.
It’s starting to look like a two-way race.
Again, different anonymous. The readership of ED hardly constitutes a representative sample.
So who am I supposed to vote for dammit? Who will best represent the interests of average people? Who will support in later office the protection of coastal resources and ask the 1% to pay a progressive income tax
How can anyone even say that BHL isn’t the most qualified person in this race? Look at her body of work as a legislator and a nurse. It’s not even close
Kathy is, by all accounts, a terrible person. She’s unstable. She lacks moral fiber (and that’s being generous). She’s a Republican. If the Dept of Elections or Matt Denn ever grew a pair she wouldn’t have even been eligible to run considering she doesn’t meet the eligibility requirement.
She’s just a vapid, bad person who isn’t qualified to do anything except bop around to cocktail parties with that manatee looking friend of hers, Valerie Longhurst.
Good for both of them they’ll have plenty of time to gargle vodka martinis at the beach after Tuesday and hopefully after 2018, Valerie will have even more time on her hands to post and delete stuff on facebook. That’s such an inspiring sign of a true leader.
Is it proven that Lopez and McGuiness had an affair? I’m not voting for McGuiness – just curious since I live in that district.
As a mostly-educated voter who has not yet done the last of my research, I’m torn between Hall Long and Eaby. Both seem sufficiently liberal and also to have the right attitude toward public office. I would pick BHL on the chance the race is close between her and Ciro or McGuiness, but I cannot get over her husband’s misadventures. I try to tell myself that she is not responsible for her husband’s actions, but they bother me so much I find it hard to get past them. Can a person really be THAT different from her spouse? And could she really have been unaware of everything he did?
Can a BHL supporter convince me otherwise? Has there been a good response from her campaign? The BHL volunteer who called me last week had no response to it. Is there a reason not to vote for Eaby?
Can you give me some specifics? She’s an attractive woman and lives at the beach. I don’t get much of that
I voted for Ciro.
I like that his running platform (in the main) is not meant to be all things to all people. He has largely adopted a set of things he’ll champion that seem appropriate to the job. And I think that should he win, he will focus on this stuff.
two words about BHL -Port Penn ….. and drop the Lopez gossip..it’s her sister who lives in Lopez old neighborhood…never even met him before.
What a bunch of old bitty clowns
McGuiness has my Vote 100%
http://delawareliberal.net//wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Kathy-McG.jpg
JTF back at it again with the sick content!
Following the #1 rule of reasoned political discourse: if you don’t like someone’s policies or campaign strategy attack them with sexist language!
Everyone on DL could learn from you, JTF. I gotta give you props for this one–and I know the one thing everyone’s wondering: what golden thread of prose will you weave next! Looking forward to it, pal. 🙂
Andrew: Other than the fact that I don’t see him winning, I can’t think of any reason not to vote for Eaby. I’ve met him twice. He’s sincere, well spoken, and he knows what he’s doing.
PSCK, thank you for recognizing my role as premier content creator on this web log.
Andrew, you wrote exactly what I’ve been thinking with this race. The problem with Eaby is all I’ve seen about him are road signs. I’ve found good stuff with a bit of searching, but no outreach from the candidate to me and I’m only in Milford. Don’t know if he’s tried up state at all either.
I voted for Sherry because she shares my values.
I just have to ask how does an undistinguished Rehoboth Beach City Commissioner suddenly out of nowhere get to be a contender in a statewide race? Where did all that fundraising muscle come from? I hear it is all real estate interests but I don’t know anything substantive. Is it Simpler cash?
The Simplers have a lot of money, but the simpler answer is from Pete’s endorsement/arm twisting.
Kathy should have run as a Republican. She could have won.
Emma makes a fair point. She could have been this year’s Ken Simpler if Sneaky Pete didn’t have to be so sneaky. But that’s like asking a scorpion to not be so stingy.
How is Ciro not going to move right when all his relatives and Eyetaliano friends want him to pay up for their votes?
@Jason330: Endorsements are one thing but generating the barrage of direct mail pieces and TV spots she has produced takes serious resources. She has to be someone’s great white whatever.
Someone is making some ugly claims for the Gordon/Meyer race, is it possible for someone from DL can verify? It was on 1150 rick Jensen show I think, I do not want to post or repeat just in case its false
Sherry Dorsey Walker supports Mayor Williams……………….that’s enough to disqualify her in my opinion.
It is hard to verify claims when we don’t know what they are. You could email the Tips Line if you don’t want to publish it here.
But I’ve definitely seen some ugly ones from Gordon supporters towards Meyer, that’s for sure.
@MarcoPolo — AmenAmenAmen!
It blows me away that progressives supporting her have been completely blind to the fact that she hasn’t done one progressive thing in the city. Not One.
I would like to see some more evidence against McGuinness besides she comes from money?? I’m totally undecided and trying to make an intelligent decision
She is Schwartzkopf’s cat’s paw. Isn’t that enough?
Kathy supported Lopez in 2014.
I don’t know about her money, if any. I do know that the foolishness around the residency requirement is a disqualifier for me.
Mouse, what about McGuinness would make you consider her? I fail to see anything she’s said or anything she offers that makes me think she should be elected to any position let alone to be the Democratic Lt Governor?
Bethany – Port penn scandal, voted twice to keep the death penalty, voted to double the amount individuals could donate to campaigns, her husband was caught stealing signs, and she has used her inside influence to broker deals to have department of elections workers out volunteering for her at the polls with tom gordon, also has paid of makieb booker along with tom to have booker endorse her 1 day after booker endorsed Ciro because of the naacp endorsement.
Ciro – Endorsed by the naacp for his pardons clinic, runs a clean campaign without tons of insider funding, and has been specific about what he will do with the duties of the office.
Honestly, I’m surprised DL hasn’t been leaning toward Sherry or Ciro for months now.
DL endorses townsend for his progressive agenda but also is on the fence about a candidate who has worked to do the opposite of him??
Even if you do just genuinely like what she has done, why vote to give her less power?
Wouldn’t you like to see her continue her good work in a more powerful position?
Seems like an obvious choice to vote for an honest man.
When you collect all of BHL’s baggage on one train platform it does look kind of off putting.
Not knowing anything about her, reading her position statements and the fact that she lives at the beach makes her seem reasonable. I’m not in her camp or anything, I’m just wondering why people are dumping on her?
Ciro – brings Dave Grimaldi to Delaware and then uses him to put out bullshit negative stories about BHL, so that he can be the jovial little man clown.
You’re right, Ciro didn’t get any “insider funding”. He didn’t get any outside funding either. He didn’t get any funding because he’s not a serious person and no one respects him. He’s pretty pitiful. Oh, and he had his county workers doing campaign stuff for him on the taxpayer’s dime. Just read their tweets.
Honestly, I probably have more words in this comment than he is going to have votes tomorrow. What a nothingburger he turned out to be. Very sad.
The last hours of a campaign are tough, I know. Especially when you’re on the long conveyor belt to the slaughterhouse, but try and die with a little dignity, please. It’s embarrassing to have to read.
@mouse call Ernie Lopez’s office and he can help you out.
Damn, @JFT! #burn
Great line..Ciro turned out to be a “nothing burger.”
Where’s the beef??? Nothing there.
McGuiness or Hall Long will win this thing!!
PizzaStuffedCollegeKid + Heather = Sarah
Senator Bethany Hall-Long is the only Lt. Governor candidate with any elected legislative experience, serving in both the Delaware House and the Senate for 14 years! She is one of the hardest working titans in Leg Hall, and much of her work improves lives all over the state. Where the other Lt. Gov candidates are asking to try to do the job, Bethany has done tremendous work, and it is recognized. She is endorsed by these organizations:
Barbara Gittings Stonewall Democrats
Progressive Democrats for Delaware
New Castle County Democrats
Delaware State Education Association
Delaware State Troopers Association
Delaware Building and Construction Trades, AFL-CIO
Delaware Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Delaware Council on Global and Muslim Affairs
Rev. Sam Latham, former President, Delaware AFL-CIO
Plus her Legislative Colleagues:
Senator Patti Blevins, Senate President Pro Tempore
Senator Bruce Ennis
Senator David McBride, Senate Majority Leader
Senator Nicole Poore
Senator Dave Sokola
Rep. Paul Baumbach
Rep. Gerald Brady
Rep. Bill Carson
Rep. Earl Jaques
Rep. Quinn Johnson
Rep. Larry Mitchell
Rep. Mike Mulrooney
Rep. Ed Osienski
Rep. Melanie George Smith
Rep. John Viola
C’mon folks, there really is ONE CLEAR CHOICE! For those considering how Sussex might fare with a ‘local’ (recently Utah-resided) candidate, Bethany sponsored the bill to have the new mental health hospital built in Georgetown, which will bring 160 new jobs next summer. She is one of the most active leaders working to solve the Sussex County heroin epidemic. Bethany is a ‘local’ in each of the counties, and tackles issues others shy away from. Bethany is going to be here and work to make Delaware proud of itself. Stick with your winners, Delaware! This is getting very exciting!
Well, she’s certainly the insider candidate, I’ll give you that.
There are no “outsider” candidates. If you’re running, you’re running to be on the inside. You can’t govern from the hallway. Personally, I would prefer someone with experience and knowledge on how the system works. Anyone else is just barking at a locked door.
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to DE politics. Nowhere does anybody (and I mean the candidates as well as the media) talk about where the candidates stand on the ISSUES!
The winner of this primary will, more probably than not, be the one who will be a heartbeat away from the Governor’s chair, and, with few exceptions, I have no idea where most of the candidates stand on issues like reinstating state sanctioned murder (aka, the death penalty), increasing the minimum wage, controlling crime, improving and advancing human rights, etc.. Pretty sad.
I know that Hall-Long supports the death penalty, so that’s a real problem, especially for this office. I also got a flier recently from the NRA supporting Eaby, so that raises some real red flags. Otherwise, I haven’t a clue where the rest of the candidates stand on the REAL issues.
At this point I’m leaning toward Poppeti as the least offensive, which is a terrible reason to vote for someone.
At the risk of repeating myself for the umpteenth time, the Lt. Governor presides over the Senate but can’t vote unless there’s a tie, which hasn’t happened in over two decades, and chairs the Board of Pardons.
That’s it. If only one of the candidates had said, “I’m running b/c it pays $79K for about sixty days of work a year”, I’d vote for them. Because that is a truthful statement.
El Som is right…none of these folks can create jobs or do a whole a lot except be a cheerleader…Frankly, they should eliminate the job and the state should save 600K a year for the office. 5 states don’t even have LT Governors. Lets be number 6!!!!!!!
Brad Eaby is a good man, but has no chance of winning (sorry to say). Of all the others, McGuinness is the most faithful to the ideas which this website espouses. All of the criticisms about her residency and party affiliation are bullshit. She is the one candidate who can unite all elements and make things happen. BHL is tainted by corruption (Port Penn land deal being the least of concerns). Ciro is a bright guy, and worthy of consideration, but too goofy and ambitious to be trusted. I’ll be casting my vote before McGuiness.
“Of all the others, McGuinness is the most faithful to the ideas which this website espouses. … She is the one candidate who can unite all elements and make things happen.”
Bullshit on both counts. To take the second one first, “uniting all elements” would require people to listen to her. The office is punchless and she has no constituency in Delaware — unless someone (cough…Pete…cough) makes it clear that she has muscle behind her. She is so clearly a cat’s paw that it insults people’s intelligence to pretend she isn’t.
How do we know if she’s the most loyal to an unspecified liberal agenda? She was a non-resident Rehoboth Beach commissioner for a while and ran a small business there along with the Chamber of Commerce-approved Main Street program. She then resigned to play chauffeur to her kids’ ski-slope pursuits.
Maybe your olfactory organs are malfunctioning, because this smells a lot more like bourgeoise Third Way elitism than liberal advocacy.
She says she’s progressive. She doesn’t know what that means, but she knows it’s considered good.
A) in my next bid for office, all my shirts will say, “you can’t govern from the hallway.”
B) I hope, ElSom, that I have a better reason to do so than the paycheck, although I certainly wouldn’t kick that out of bed,
C) personally, I gave this race a lot of thought. I started by liking Eaby, because he was so excited about the board of pardons. I mean, that is actually part of the job description, which is a nice change. But he lost me on legalization. I already saw us throw good money after bad when gambling didn’t turn out to be the magic potion to solve our financial woes, and I just don’t think we have the muscle to manage legalization any time soon. Let’s get medical marijuana actually working, and then talk. So I started thinking about the personal skills that would be (or had been) valuable in the lg role. And that’s why I wound up with BHL. She has a proven record of getting people to get things done in the legislature. Well, that’s kind of amazing, to me. I can be persuasive, but I’m not sure I’d be able to get 20 of those divas to agree on a takeout menu, let alone a piece of legislation. That’s a skill, and a skill the executive branch will need.
For what it’s worth.
Ciro Poppiti is a nothing burger with a side of tortellini.
Bethany Hall Long is a plate of Flip Flop flap jacks.
Cathy McGuiness will be singing the Bethany Blues Tuesday night.
One of them will be our next Lt Governor— I think its time to either fast or turn vegan!
I sort of knew what “cat’s paw” meant but to be sure I looked it up. The derivation is interesting. I didn’t know it was related to the phrase “pull your chestnuts out of the fire,” which itself means something different than what most Americans think today.
I’d like to vote for Poppiti as the least offensive but I don’t want to throw it to Park City. It’s a dilemma, or maybe a tri-lemma.
Here it is. Brad Eaby might be great, but you don’t win jumping from Levy Court to statewide without having built up a statewide base. He hasn’t. Same for Dorsey Walker and even, to some extent, Poppiti.
That leaves McG and BHL. McG’s statewide base is AstroTurf courtesy of Sneaky Pete. BHL has been putting in the leg work. I think she takes it.
But she lives in Henlopen Acres and that’s where I want to live. If I vote for her, I may get to live there too. That’s how conservative working class republicans think lol
I wonder if she needs a new boy friend? I like cocktail parties in the Acres.
Besides Dorsey Walker’s support of the Wilmington mayor, are there any other negatives? She seems pretty outspokenly progressive…