Year: 2016

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?

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.”

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.

I purposefully did not make any projections or predictions myself before the election this year, because in three of the races we had 6 or more candidate fields, and in the other races I cared about we had entrenched corrupt incumbents who have won against all odds before. So at least I don't look like somewhat of a fool today for making a wrong prediction. LOL. Still, I am disappointed that Townsend did not win the Congressional race. I am disappointed that Young did not win the Mayoral race in Wilmington. At least, with both races, there are some consolation prizes available. Bryan Townsend is still a State Senator, a leader of progressive policies in Dover, and has a bright future. Hopefully Tom Carper retires in 2018. And I have no problems with voting enthusiastically for Lisa Blunt Rochester. She has my full support. In Wilmington, at least Dennis P. Williams, that arrogant yet ignorant Mayor-King, is gone. And Eugene Young will be back. Indeed, perhaps, in his admitted need for outreach to the communities, the potential Mayor-elect Mike Purzycki can bring Young into his administration. So enough of the disappointments. Time to celebrate. Tom Gordon is gone, praise Jesus. And we are replacing him with a honorable man devoted to public service. I cannot wait to see how Matt Meyer does in office. Karen Weldin Stewart is gone! Hopefully we get a true consumer advocate in the office in the form of Trinidad Navarro. And we get a chance to wipe the slate clean at both the county and city level. And we get to do it on Democratic terms. For decades, it has been the same old faces. And I worried that those same old faces would eventually hang around long enough and screw up enough to hand the county and state to the Republicans. We don't have to worry about that for now. The One Party State has been saved because the Democratic Party, internally, took care of its business. Pay attention, John Daniello. That is why primaries are important. Sometimes they are needed to clean out the stink.