What’s the story in SD10?
(Left to Right): Insurance Commissioner Navarro, Senator Nicole Poore, Stephanie Hansen, Former State Rep. Rebecca Walker and State Rep. Helene Keeley.
So last week, the state Democratic Party held an informational meeting in New Castle regarding the upcoming special election in the 10th Senate District to replace Bethany Hall Long. During this meeting, several candidates spoke announcing their candidacies. They are:
Jim Ryan – Retired CWA
Debbie Harrington – Retired Military, DSU Trustee
Dave Woodside – 27th RD chair
Stephanie Hansen – Former County Council president
Maggie Jones – Campaign manager for John Walsh
Harry Dudlek – Committee member, IBEW member
One name stands out among all the rest, and that is Stephanie Hansen, who is currently an environmental and land use attorney at the Wilmington law firm of Young Conaway. She is also the former President of New Castle County Council from 1996 to 2001, who had previously considered primarying County Executive Tom Gordon last year before deferring. As you can see from the picture above, she is friendly with many former or current members of the General Assembly. Out of that list above, she is obviously the Party’s pick and can be expected to win the Executive Committee 10th SD Committee vote on January 3 this Wednesday.
It is curious that many of the rumored candidates for this open seat did not pursue it, namely Representative Quinn Johnson and Earl Jaques and Ken Boulden, the New Castle County Clerk of Peace. I have heard that the three of them made the rounds but did not receive positive reaction from the necessary parties.
The GOP for their part have already chosen 2014 nominee John Marino, who got 49% of the vote in a GOP year when Hall-Long was dogged by her husband’s sign stealing scandal. I tend to think that was his high water mark.
Let me please make just one correction. The NCC Democratic Executive Committee is not the body that will make the selection. The candidate for the special election is chosen by the committee people serving in the 10th Senate District.
Point of clarification, I believe the selection date has been moved up to this Wednesday. I guess the Party just figured out that Marino has a big head start, and maybe the should try and play catch-up as soon as possible, rather than just sitting on their thumbs.
That being said, I was at the meeting last week and got to hear all the candidates talk, and I have to say it was an eclectic bunch:
– I probably like Jim Ryan the best out of all of them, down to earth and humble, a white working class union guy that the Democrats just lost in droves this past election, kind of in the vein of Bernie Sanders (who I’m told he supported in the primary).
-Debbie Harrington came off extremely well, especially considering I don’t think many people anticipated her candidacy. She had a great biography including a well-decorated military career. Unfortunately I’ve been told that her race wouldn’t play well in that district, which is a crying shame.
-Dave Woodside pretty much came off as a stand in for Earl Jacques and it showed. By the end he seemed like he knew that he wasn’t going to get it, even cracking a few jokes about it. I liked him, but I doubt he gets it. He also said he used to write for Delaware Liberal, so I thought he was going to get a lot more attention here.
-Stephanie Hansen is pretty much guaranteed the nom, with backing from both BHL and Carney. She came off very… polished. I’d even say a little too polished, but she was definitely the most confidant of the bunch and came off like a politician, for better or worse.
-Maggie Jones was the one candidate that I was hearing about that I was told could beat Hansen, but it really didn’t play that way in the room. It was very clear that she had never done anything like this before, and she came off looking inexperienced. She has Kim Williams support (and Valarie Longhurst’s for what that’s worth) and the two of them were sitting together at the beginning of the meeting. People that I trust have also talked to Maggie, and they’ve told me that she came off better one-to-one, but I don’t know if that will help her.
-Harry Dudlek was… weird. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and he has a similar blue collar appeal to Jim Ryan, but some of the answers he gave to the questions were very conservative, like prioritizing the deficit and railing a bit against taxes. He also said some stuff about incarcerating addicts that I felt came off very poorly, but I was told by someone who talked to him afterwards that he misspoke so I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Overall I’d like them to go with either Ryan or Jones. Jones seems unpolished, but I think with some more experience she could make a great legislator. Ryan, like I said, had some of that Bernie Sanders appeal that could be helpful in that district, and both have the backing of some unions. I’m not holding my breath though, and I fully expect the committee to pick Stephanie Hansen.
Thanks for that reporting. Hansen is a bright, experienced, hard worker. We all know what that gets you. It rhymes with Foodley–squat.
As for DL alum not getting play here.. who knows what hurts and what helps?
Also… the GOP is going to be diving into the gutter on this one. If you thought the DEGOP couldn’t get any more loathsome, I think the Blevins race sets the table for them to get far more loathsome still.
Real diverse group the Dem’s lined up..
(Left to Right): Insurance Commissioner Navarro, Senator Nicole Poore, Stephanie Hansen, Former State Rep. Rebecca Walker and State Rep. Helene Keeley.
As opposed to, say, Greg Lavelle, Charlie Copeland, John Marino, Colin Bonini and Ken Simpler.
Per usual, your point is that you have no point.
BTW, if I were Carney, I’d set the date for the Special as late as I could–mid March or so. Not just b/c Marino has a bit of a start, which I don’t think will be all that important if Hansen is the nominee, but b/c I think that revulsion of Trump is gonna be a real thing and will grow daily. Could be a special where more R’s than usual stay home.
“As for DL alum not getting play here.. who knows what hurts and what helps?”
I don’t put that on you guys actually. I thought he’d be on here tooting his own horn. I’m not sure he even wanted, only stepping up because of Jacques didn’t run. But that’s just speculation on my part.
Josh – Thanks for your commentary. I wouldn’t refer to myself as a Jaques stand-in. I’m sorry if you got that impression. Once Earl and Quinn declined to run, I decided that I should jump in. I probably would not have done so if either of them had. I may not have jumped in if I knew that Stephanie was going to run.
However, I have committed to seeing this through to the end. And if I don’t win the nomination, I have at least learned a good deal about the process and the skills that I need to work on (primarily public speaking).
Thanks for the feedback. Next time, introduce yourself to me and we can chat.
The specific reason Dave has not “getting play” here at DL is specifically because of who decides this nomination: the SD10 Committee. I was told that when Dave mentioned his DL connection, a certain chill fell over the room. LOL. Remember, the Del Dem Party, starting from the top with Daniello, doesn’t like us all that much.
That chill may also have been a lack of familiarity too — not everyone reads us or knows about us, you know.
But kudos to LG for stepping up for the work!
Woodside would make an excellent State Senator.
Delaware Dem: I don’t know where you get your info, but I didn’t make any rounds. I was asked by most of the Dem leadership to run – more than once! I declined because of family and wanted to do some Education legislation which would be more difficult in the Senate. Dave Woodside isn’t a stand in for me and would be a great senator!
LG, I shouldn’t have said you were a stand-in. That was an unfair assessment. If I were making excuses for myself I’d say that it’s because I got most of my information that very afternoon, and it was not a full enough picture to understand what exactly was going on. I did get the impression that you were only there because Jacques and Quinn weren’t running. I should have made that more clear in the post.
Thanks. Literally, I think all of us were there because neither Earl nor Quinn were running. Either one would have cleared the field.