The Purzycki Heat Map

Wilmington.Election.Map.Purzycki As you can see, the potential Mayor-Elect Mike Purzycki owes his victory to the Highlands and the West Side, though he had strong second place finishes in those areas where Eugene Young notched his victories. Interestingly though, in those areas where Kevin Kelley won in the West Side, Purzycki did not finish second, but third or worse. Further, in the north and northeast, where the color indicates that he finished in fifth place, he really finished much worse than that. Like 6th, 7th or 8th place. I just ran out of shades of pink and space in order to express that correctly. So as Purzycki admitted on election night, he has work to there and across the city in Kevin Kelley's home base. Another thing that I found interesting is that Purzycki finished third in the southern Riverfront area across the river. I would have figured the residents of Christina Landing would have put him in second at least.
Charlie Copeland wants you to know that his Delaware GOP is inclusive.

Charlie Copeland wants you to know that his Delaware GOP is inclusive.

Or so this WDEL "story" by Rob Petree would have us know.
As times change, so do political parties--as is the case for the Grand Old Party. Many Delawareans have considered the Republican party to be one of exclusivity, as evidenced in the elections. Delaware Republican Chairman Charlie Copeland wants voters to know his party is "no longer your father's GOP." "In the Republican party, there is active diversity--whether it's African Americans, Hispanics, White, whether it's LGBTQ, I mean the whole gamut--and we have an active discussion about all of those issues, and I think it's good for the party and I think it's good for the country."
Hey Rob, once you dutifully took down that statement as Copeland's hired steneographer, did it occur to you to ask any follow up questions, like, oh I don't know, do you and your party support the Donald Trump and his history of racism?

Open Thread for Friday, September 16, 2016

James Fallows has a must-read piece on the upcoming presidential debates:
“If the sound-off image is of a calm, confident Clinton and a fuming Trump, she will have won the debates and moved that much closer to winning the election. But if Trump can seem easily rather than angrily in command, or if he can lure Clinton into joining him in an insult-for-insult exchange, or if she is beset by some new controversy for which she gives a hyper-legalistic rationalization, then the debates could be a turning point for Trump. … If he seems better than expected, either by throwing Clinton off her game or appearing calmer than a wound-up opponent who gives a dense six-point answer to every question, he might achieve something similar to Reagan’s ‘There you go again!’”
A potential strategy for Clinton:
“Most people I spoke with recommended a picador-like mocking approach, designed not to confront Trump directly but to cumulatively provoke him into an outburst. … When Comedy Central hosted a roast of Trump five years ago, he didn’t seem to object to jokes about his hair, about his weight, even about his lecherous remarks regarding his daughter Ivanka. The one subject he nixed, according to Aaron Lee, a writer for the roast, was ‘any joke that suggests Trump is not actually as wealthy as he claims to be.’ So this is a scab Hillary Clinton should deftly pick.”

Celia Cohen on why Ken Simpler sat out this year

In short: The Dem primary is the election in Presidential years. Team Simpler will be back in two years with the "I'm not really a Republican" theme they used to great effect last time, and will probably give Lisa Blunt Rochester a decent run for her money. Has LBR started fundraising for 2018 yet? Sad to say, but she better get on that.

Wilmington: The Young Future

I have developed a new love of maps, and will be preparing several showing other races. But here is a map of Wilmington showing Young's strength in the city. If my review of the data is correct, Eugene Young either came in first, second or third place in all but one small district of the city. The first place finishes are colored in gold, the second place finishes in yellow, and the third place finishes in a light yellow. It shows you what Cassandra was saying earlier: his campaign was city wide and pretty damn spectacular. Young was competitive in all parts of the city. He will be back. Wilmington.Election.Map_

The Correct Wilmington Election Map

Wilmington.Election.Map Click on the image for the large version. Hey, DOE, where is the missing 14th Election District of the 4th RD? Your raw data reports contain no information concerning this district. I sense a conspiracy of biblical proportions (but given the district's placement, the votes likely benefit Purzycki or Kelley).
234

234

That was the number of votes that separated Mike Purzycki and Eugene Young for Wilmington Mayor by the end of the night on Tuesday. The difference between Purzycki and Kevin Kelley was 415 votes. 12,578 votes for Mayor were cast. But at the end of the day, there were 2,734 votes cast for Eugene Young who made me proud to be a small part of his campaign everyday. Everyday. A quick reminder of where we started -- a year or so back, as Eugene started talking with people to gather up support, the leadership of this city (and its pundits) told him that no one knew him, then that he needed to wait his turn for Mayor, then that he couldn't raise any money. Eugene did, of course, overcome every bit of that and ignored the wait your turn crowd. With is smart and fiercely competitive management team, he ran a citywide campaign with more than 200 volunteers (91 volunteers showed up and volunteered on Tuesday. 91!) and ended up knocking on more than 50,000 Wilmington doors. He ran an honorable and progressive campaign and completely avoided the sideshows that were being run by the more establishment candidates. Eugene Young, his vision for the city and his crackerjack campaign team caught the attention of the News Journal who endorsed a genuine progressive for Mayor. It was a real heartbreaker to come up short by 234 votes.
Open Thread for Thursday, September 15, 2016

Open Thread for Thursday, September 15, 2016

A Washington Post editorial says even Trump's charity is a scam:
“Mr. Trump has cultivated the persona of a generous man, repeatedly claiming on television he would donate to charity “out of my wallet” and accepting honors from groups he appeared to support. In fact, an exhaustive investigation by Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold shows that Mr. Trump retooled his foundation about a decade ago to act as an intermediary for other people’s charitable giving, a racket from which Mr. Trump gained in reputation and from which he may even have occasionally profited.” “Mr. Trump does not appear to have given his own money to the Trump Foundation since 2008, and by then Trump funds had become a tiny slice of the organization’s revenue. Since then, the available records suggest, a charitable group that bears the billionaire’s name has been funded by others. That has not stopped Mr. Trump from claiming credit for doling out other people’s cash.”

BHL win sets stage for SD10 special election(s)

Does anyone know DEGOP Special Election Specialist, Tom Kovach's, whereabouts? Too soon? El Som lays it out in a comment:
I am worried about what will happen in SD 10 once Bethany Hall-Long is elected Lt. Governor in November. Late fall/early winter special elections are not exactly D strong suits. Looks like Quin Johnson and Earl Jaques are in that district, so maybe it’ll be one of them. Which, of course, would necessitate a House Special Election should one of them win…
While I agree Dems have sucked in specials, I think Jaques is seasoned enough to not get caught with his pants down. The ensuing 27th RD special if Jaques moves up, who knows? The district seemed a bit of a toss-up until Jaques started consolidating votes as the incumbent. He got 65% against Republican nominee Jay Galloway in 2010 and was unopposed in 2012.
Comment Rescue: Who Won Where

Comment Rescue: Who Won Where

From commenter Marcellus Wallace, who may need to get a promotion to contributer here at DL after this analysis he just posted this evening:
I believe LBR is a nice woman with legitimate high-level government experience and great potential. But her public performances (and lack thereof) left the impression that she is not ready for prime time, to put it charitably. I wanted to figure out how she won so convincingly. So I made sweet Excel love to the district-level data on the Department of Elections’ web page, so you don’t have to. My takeaways are below. Please note: the data is the data, but the conclusions are mine. For starters, it would be easy to say that LBR won because of strong support in the City and surrounding areas, and that is true. But the real story is that she administered a broad-based, statewide ass kicking. All told, LBR won 28 of the 41 RDs statewide. In 13 of those 28 RDs, LBR earned more votes than Townsend and Barney combined.