Hansen is the Democratic Nominee in SD10
As expected, the Democratic Party nominated former New Castle County Council President Stephanie Hansen to be the party’s candidate in the 10th Senate District’s special election to succeed future Lt. Governor Bethany Hall Long. From the News Journal:
A former environmental scientist for the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Hansen started and led the Bear-Glasgow Council of Civic Organizations. She served as county council president from 1996-2001 and had a hand in writing the unified development code that governs land-use matters.
Hansen is currently an environmental attorney at the powerhouse law firm Young, Conaway, Stargatt and Taylor, specializing in legal matters concerning environmentally-degraded properties.
The Democrats enjoy a registration advantage in the district. There are 15,854 Democrats, 9,925 Republicans and 9,183 voters of other parties, according to totals from the Department of Elections.
But Republicans say Marino is competitive, pointing to the 49 percent of the vote he got against Hall-Long two years ago and the 49 percent he got in a 2010 House race. […]
“The possibility that we could lose control of the Senate, that’s a concern to me,” Hansen said. “I believe we’re the party of working families, a clean environment and a great public school system, and I want to make sure that I’m doing what I can to defend those ideals.”
The real news last night though was an attempt to embargo the news of this nomination until a press release was published this morning. The Democratic Party held a public meeting and announced the candidate by unanimous vote, and expected the news to stay secret until a press release had been prepared? Why wasn’t one already drafted and waiting to be released? Everyone knew it was going to be Hansen, no disrespect to the other candidates. We desperately need a Party Chairman who knows that technology and press relations have advanced since the 1970’s. We desperately need party regulars who populate the committee who understand this as well.
“We desperately need a Party Chairman who knows that technology and press relations have advanced since the 1970’s.”
How does one replace a party chairperson? I’m guessing it’s not as easy as “Townsend takes on DeLuca”.
“We desperately need party regulars who populate the committee who understand this as well.”
Amen. To my knowledge, there is some new, younger blood on the committee and hopefully they will not be dissuaded from pushing towards District committee leadership positions.
[rhetorical question alert] So how quickly does Marino plunge this one into the gutter? How quickly does he adopt the Trump strategy of railing against some aspect of his opponent’s CV or record, yet completely deflect or ignore the fact he has the exact same issues on his own CV?
I’ll answer my own question… Marino will make this dirty fast and furious. He’ll dredge up anything related to people from her personal life and project that onto her (e.g. the “Hillary couldn’t control her man” strategy).
I find his entire bio fishy, but I love conspiracies. It says he is president (or something) of J&J Homes, but try and find something related to that business entity online and tell me if John Marino is tied to it. Is it a house-flipping business? Is it a legitimate builder/developer? If it is a legitimate developer entity, has J&J paid taxes or are they like Capano & Odessa National, owing the District a fair amount of back taxes.
What I’d love to see happen is for some deep research or PI type shit to be put in play tracking down as much info about this guy as possible, from his NYPD (?) past and reasons for leaving the force to his less-than-transparent developer profile…
Yeah. The GOP is going to be living in the gutter on this one. Why mess with a winning formula?
As much as I wanted to donate again to Planned Parenthood to try and win the Hamilton Super Prize Pack, I may have to put that on hold and turn the checkbook towards the 10th race instead. That and reorganize my schedule, replace my sneakers and winter gloves, in preparation for what had better ‘effing be a helluva lot of canvassing, meet/greets, etc.
Heard from some committee acquaintances that some expectations have Marino’s campaign getting mid-six figures in donations from in-state heavies and out-of-state asshats.
Re: The chair… it’s up for election in the spring. He’s not running.
Well, if he’s gonna take the race into the gutter, we’ve probably nominated the person who has the most baggage. Sound familiar?
I’m sure she can raise the most money quickly, but we should have learned that that isn’t exactly a guarantee of victory.
BTW, could the campaign at least keep pictures of BHL with Stephanie Hansen to a minimum? I don’t think the ‘It’s Her Turn’ strategy is a winning one right about now.
As to the ‘replacing the chairman’ meme, it’s pretty much gonna be Carney’s call. Prepare to be underwhelmed.
I am perpetually underwhelmed… The choices I’ve come to expect are like the seasoning level of hospital food given to people in Cardiac ICU
The voters are perpetually underwhelmed. I’ve always liked Stephanie Hansen, but I don’t see her as being someone to inspire voters to get out for a Special. An underwhelming choice in an election where inspiration was needed.
Maybe someone in the D caucus should be talking to Cathy Cloutier…
sheesh. What a freakin’ crock we have here.
We did not know that. There wasn’t a vote until last night. The press release should also probably be reviewed by the actual candidate and have the candidate’s bio inserted. If there was a press release ready to go with Hansen’s name, etc. there would have been screams about back-room deals and cronyism (which I have already seen).
I sat in the room. There was a frank discussion with honest and concerned voters. Those people selected the best candidate from the pool of people that had thrown their hat in the ring. The state chair served no role in the process, and the county chair was admirable in her dedication to a fair process.
Stephanie is a great candidate with TONS of relevant experience who will run a professional campaign that will get voters to the polls.
FWIW, Marino is on the campaign trail keeping his party affiliation quiet and implying that HE is supported by BHL. Having your picture taken with the person that has won every campaign that these voters have voted in is not a bad thing.
I know I will do what I can to help Stephanie… I hope others do so as well because counting on Cathy Cloutier to be a bulwark against GOP legislation, while ignoring this race or lamenting the fact Hansen isn’t inspiring enough… Well that’s just idiotic.
I am getting pretty tired of hearing people here say they need to be monumentally inspired by a candidate to vote. That they must be moved by the spirit in order to be civically involved. Whenever I hear a supposed purist liberal or progressive say this, I immediately write them off as a piece of shit unreliable traitorous “ally.”
There are issues at stake in every election. You vote for the candidate who 1) most closely matches your stances on the issues and 2) can win. In every election. You have to be a sociopathic narcissist to do otherwise.
So I was there again at the meeting (Delaware United represent), and it was pretty interesting. The committee meeting took much longer than I thought it was going to, at least a half an hour, if not more. Talking to some of the candidates, it was pretty clear to them the choice was going to be Stephanie. Nothing much more to say, since the outcome was pretty predictable, I just hope that Stephanie appreciates how much shoe leather I’m going to be sacrificing to get her into office.
Also, LG it was great to finally meet you in person. It’s nice to put a face to the someone I’ve been seeing online for so many years, though you weren’t quite as Hunter Thompson-esque as your profile pic would imply. I swear my 2017 new years’ resolution is to finally meet all the Delaware Liberal big-wigs in person and between LG and ‘Bulo I got two down already before the year even starts.
Stephanie is an excellent choice. She’s run countywide and won. She’s smart and hardworking. What I most hope is that they don’t make it a coattails election. People aren’t feeling it. Stephanie is a strong enough candidate that she can win on her merits and her understanding of what’s important to the voters in the district.
Ideologues need to stop being so pure and get off their butts and vote. This election is the difference between keeping control of the Senate in the D column. Copeland and company are going to pull out all of the stops here and trash the hell out of any candidate we have. I expect every sitting legislator to max out on contributions and anyone else who has even a modest amount to offer to chip in. Time is of the essence. It’s a short sprint to the finish line. If we value the rights afforded to us through legislative action, we have to commit ourselves to winning the seat.
” If we value the rights afforded to us through legislative action, we have to commit ourselves to winning the seat.”
Can I get an amen? Amen!
I’ll see your amen and raise you an Hallelujah.
Great meeting you too, Josh!
What happened to Kenny Boulden? I thought he was in the mix..
He decided not to run. I don’t know the back story.
DD wrote:
“I am getting pretty tired of hearing people here say they need to be monumentally inspired by a candidate to vote. That they must be moved by the spirit in order to be civically involved. Whenever I hear a supposed purist liberal or progressive say this, I immediately write them off as a piece of shit unreliable traitorous “ally.”
There are issues at stake in every election. You vote for the candidate who 1) most closely matches your stances on the issues and 2) can win. In every election. You have to be a sociopathic narcissist to do otherwise.”
That, of course, is obviously not the point. The point is that getting voters out for a special election is a challenge in any environment. The Democratic Party has now chosen the battlefield upon which the election will be contested. We will run a battle-tested veteran who has not held elective office since 2007. One with baggage, albeit not all of it of her own making, against a motivated Party trying to take over the Senate.
The Special Election is taking place b/c an incumbent chose to vacate the office. Whether any one wants to admit it, that’s an additional challenge. Having been involved in both the special election after Wayne Smith resigned, and the special election after Diana MacWilliams resigned, I can tell you it’s really tough for the party defending the seat to rally the troops. So, what’s gonna bring out the winning majority? Well, both Bryon Short and Tom Kovach parlayed incumbent fatigue into winning races. Which is why I think Marino starts as the favorite. R’s are inspired to take over the Senate. D’s are forced to defend a seat that the incumbent chose to vacate.
What will inspire D voters other than a sense of duty? A minimum wage increase they’re not going to get? Jobs that won’t go to them?
I’m not saying that Stephanie Hansen can’t win. But the Party has made the safe choice. It does not appear, at first glance, to be a choice that will inspire D’s to go to the polls. So, DD, I don’t need to be ‘monumentally inspired’ to support Hansen, which of course you knew. You just wanted to call someone a ‘ a piece of shit unreliable traitorous “ally.” Mission Accomplished. But, if you don’t think that D voters will require inspiration to make them want to get out and vote, then I think you’re mistaken.
I just want to add to thoughts, mostly centered around the press release:
First, those of us at the meeting were told to not say anything about the announcement until they had made the press release, but they only told us after everything had been announced. One would think that if not having the information out before the press release was so important then they’d have told us at the *beginning* of the meeting.
Second, I fail to see why a press release couldn’t have been made for each of the candidates ahead of time and have each candidate approve it before the meeting. It can’t be that hard to make a generic statement about democratic values and party unity and then sandwich the bio in there somewhere. Would have saved some time and aggravation at least.
Well said El Som.
I’m bored with reading this but I’ll say that the comparisons between the national election and the 10th Senate District of Delaware are a bit precious and strained.
What will inspire D voters other than a sense of duty? A minimum wage increase they’re not going to get? Jobs that won’t go to them?
Frankly I don’t think that you can know this. This need to “inspire” Dems makes us all sound like a reality TV audience. “Inspiration” is the job of the candidate and the candidate’s campaign — connecting and messaging in order to drive people to the polls. The Rs are in the same place, but they can count on some fealty to get them part of the way there. And they have a prize to get too.
I’m pretty amazed that people who weren’t even in the room could make judgments on “inspiration”. I didn’t have a candidate preference here, but since the people who need to replace their representation in the Senate have done their job, it seems time to let the candidate do hers and support her or not. One thing that I do hope is that she taps into the pretty amazing team of young campaign support here. There is ALOT of talent out there that could hep her run a sharp campaign.
Hard to tap into automatic fealty when nobody really knows what it even means to be a Democrat. That’s where we fall down in the inspiration job. Not on the candidate level. Maybe Stephanie will be able to help Delaware Democrats with that type of branding. Even if she doesn’t I’ll be donating and seeking ways to help out.
Fealty doesn’t depend upon inspiration. That is how you can count on every R to vote for Trump. And while the locals may not be operating at top form, Rs change their registration to vote for Ds pretty routinely here. That isn’t about party, it is about individuals to govern. And I think that there is a message in that.
And yet Republicans default to culture and democrats prefer strategy. That’s what gives them the fast start and the automatic edge.
An occasional Dem might have a good strategy, but republican culture is always on, applying constant force.
Republican culture is basic tribalism. It is why they are now so delighted with Putin and the current culture of ccorruption surrounding their new leadership. Whatever their leadership signals is OK, is OK with them. Ds are not built that way.
I agree to some extent. But we aren’t going to get very far if we shred and say culture isn’t important.
“Ds are not built that way”. What a croc!! Hillary was corrupt and the people spoke loud and clear!
Even locally, hopefully, the Republicans will start to take over. No more money to corporations, that don’t follow what they said that they’ll do!
Fisker, Bloom, Sevone………ENOUGH IS ENOUGH OF WASTING THE TAX PAYERS MONEY!
The Dem’s don’t want to work together!
Bottom line: Whoever runs the strongest campaign against the Delaware Way will win this special !!! the Blevins defeat should have sent a loud enough signal.
Let’s remember that Marino has lost twice so he isn’t the immoveable force that some of you portray him to be. He is the one who had a road rage incident not his spouse such is in Stephanie’s case. I know a lot of democrats who voted for Trump who just didn’t like Hillary so I don’t think you can count that every Trump vote will go to Marino. The numbers tell us that Trump did not win a single ED in the 10th SD above the canal. We are going to have to work hard!! A Republican organization called “American Rising” investigated me in every way, when they thought I was going to be the candidate. They even when to my birth state to be sure I had a legal birth certificate. This only shows that they will do anything and everything to win this race. So we need to do the same!!!!!
America Rising is an oppo research/propaganda PAC originally growing out of the Mitt Romney 2012 campaign:
https://www.americarisingpac.org/about/
Anyone know where Ms. Hansen stands on the legalization bill Senator Henry is likely to introduce in the next session?
Asking for a friend.