SD10 Special Election Update
Democrats:
What is Hansen all about? Is she another co-opted, corporate Dem, or does she have some progressive fire in the belly?
I’m holding off criticizing or praising until I see something from the campaign, which I will get to hear from on Saturday the 28th:
Breakfast fundraiser for Stephanie Hansen at the Burris Lodge
Public Fundraiser Event by Stephanie Hansen
Saturday, January 28 at 8 AM – 10 AM
1133 Marl Pitt Road, Middletown, DE 19734
It will cost me at least $25.00 to find out if she plans a “vote for me because I’m less bad” Clinton type campaign. Oh, I’ll still vote for her but rather joylessly. If she runs a more populist, idea-oriented campaign, I’ll vote for her, donate more that $25.00 to her, and work for her.
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Republicans:
What’s going on with Marino? Well, so far I’ve only seen him “courageously” call for an end to Compensation Commission.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: George Ball, Campaign Manager
302-494-7515Marino Calls For End To Compensation Commission
Middletown, DE – 10th District State Senate Candidate John Marino today called for an end to the Delaware Compensation Commission, in light of the Commission’s upcoming report suggesting pay raises for state officials.
“This process is fundamentally broken,” said Marino, who is running in the upcoming special election to replace Sen. Bethany Hall-Long. “Politicians can get easy press by denouncing the Commission’s report. But if we’re asking these Delawareans to give their time and energy to draft a report just so politicians can get good PR, then it’s unfair to them and the Commission should be disbanded.”
Marino agreed with calls to reject the report, but went one step further in calling for the Commission to end.
“Of course now is not the time to raise salaries,” said Marino. “We can’t afford it, and it would send a terrible message to our everyday state employees to increase salaries at this time, since their pay is rarely increased. In the end, though, this should be a legislative budget decision. We don’t need a Compensation Commission to help pave the way for higher salaries. It’s time for real reform, and if I am successful in the election, I will introduce legislation to end this process.”
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Green Party of Delaware:
I think the Greens are sitting this one out.
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Libertarians:
The Libertarians are running someone who says that he wants to get rid of “regulations” that are hurting business. When he says what regulations and what businesses, I may take him more seriosuly.
I just found an interview with Stephanie Hansen on Youtube, posted on Jan. 15 by Delaware United. I signed up for emails from DU a few weeks ago, but haven’t heard anything from them.
So when Hansen thinks about progressive ideas, the first things that come to her mind are pay equity, pro-environment, and gender equality. All worthy goals.
The middle of the interview is taken up by her response to a preplanned question about addiction and mental health issues, which seems to be a major part of her campaign.
Then a question about renewable energy (she’s for it), which concluding with observations about ecological diversity in Delaware.
Finally, a question about jobs and declining wages:
Then a question about public school funding:
Last, a softball question about safety net cuts:
@jason: Here’s a list of her affiliations, from her page at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP:
MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS
Delaware State Bar Association, Member, Environmental Section, Chair
Sussex County Bar Association, Member
American Bar Association, Member
Delaware Environmental Institute External Advisory Board, Member
Widener Environmental Law Center Advisory Board, Member
Former 9th Representative District Democratic Committee Chair
Governor’s Surface Water Management Task Force, Chair, Governance Subcommittee
Bear Glasgow Council of Civic Organizations, Founder and former President
Wilmington Combined Sewer Overflow Task Force, Member
Planning, Infrastructure, Transportation Task Force of the Delaware Public Policy Institute, Member
Route 301 Major Investment Study Task Force, Member
Route 40 Corridor Transportation Task Force, Member
Statewide Maintenance Corporation Task Force, Member
Stem Cell Go, Inc., Chair
From an online guide to Delaware real estate lawyers:
“Stephanie Hansen has substantial experience in land use work and is noted for her knowledge and understanding of environmental issues affecting real estate matters. She recently represented Green Recovery Technologies in obtaining permits from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources to open a new manufacturing facility.”
That would be this Green Recovery Technologies. http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/06/18/green-recovery-technologies-plans-fornew-castle-plant-criticized/28907979/
I also notice the name of Doug Gramiak, close adviser to John Carney, among those who pushed this project in the Coastal Zone.
She’s about as insidery as they get. Whether you see that as a strength, weakness or both is up to you.
Let’s not slag her just yet. We have an election to win.
@puck: It wasn’t slagging, and I don’t care who wins the election enough to vote for a pig in a poke. I want jason to go to that meeting with his eyes open. The Coastal Zone is more imperiled now than it has been since its passage.
Pay equity and gender equality are worthy goals, but they didn’t do doink to bring white people to the polls for Democrats (53% of white women voted for Trump). The environmental stuff is her area of expertise, along with land use and brownfield reclamation.
There’s no doubt she knows her stuff, and I now know that she’ll stick up for women, the poor and birds. I still don’t know if she’ll work to pull Carney to the left. I’d like to at least get him to the center from his right-wing perch.
Good lord.. I hate that “trying to coax companies to come here” is what passes for “economic development” with Democrats. We’ve internalized such utter bullshit.
Stephanie is also speaking at the Delaware Women’s March on Saturday.
I know that for the first round of voter contacts, they have called thousands of people. Of course, we don’t have a date for the election yet, so they can’t really get it on people’s calendar. They also have people knocking on doors all weekend and some weekdays. I have personally been called and door-knocked already.
I have also seen Stephanie shaking hands outside of the local grocery store and have seen her at several Democratic events.
She is busy and will get busier once a date has been set.
Jason – I prefer her approach of “coaxing” companies with educated workers to coaxing with cash and tax breaks.
Excellent point. I’m on a freak out hair-trigger with the inaugural looming.
Delaware is awash with available educated workers, courtesy of Dupont:
Synergies!!
Has anybody looked up the Trump/Hillary margin or the Carney/Bonini margin for SD10? I’m not really sure how to do that. How do you figure out which EDs are in SD10?
I don’t understand why we don’t have a date yet. The closer this gets to budget passing time, the easier it will be for Marino. The GA Budget Meisters will be writing his campaign material for him.
Puck – It is hard to tease out of the election results. But I think someone did it on an earlier thread.
You’re right – it was Earl Jacques who commented:
“The numbers tell us that Trump did not win a single ED in the 10th SD above the canal.”
That’s something.It would be good to also know the Bonini numbers, and how close it was in each ED. I guess I’ll have to go squint at the map some more to figure out which EDs are in SD10. Somebody must have a list though.
This ought to get me started:
http://elections.delaware.gov/maps/other/EDRD2012_2022v1.pdf
To sum up, Trump won 7/10 EDs below the canal. Hillary won every ED (12) above the canal.
This is the better map to get started.
http://elections.delaware.gov/maps/sd/2012/newcastle/senate_10.pdf
I guess the stat that matters is who will show up, Democrats or Republicans? If the Democrats do not have a good get out the vote campaign, this is over before it even started.
Rufus: This election won’t bleed into budget-writing time. The governor only has so many days to declare the Special, and the length of the campaign is circumscribed by law as well.
I could be wrong, but I’d guess that the Special Election will be held right before the General Assembly comes back into session from the Budget Hearings. Early to mid-March.
The budget itself won’t get final mark-up until late May/early June once the final DEFAC figures are in.
The way I read 15 Del. C. secs. 7101 & 7102(a), assuming the Senate vacancy occurred on Jan. 17, when Hall-Long became Lt. Gov., LG Hall-Long, as the presiding officer of the in-session Senate, then has 10 days from that date (or maybe Jan. 18) to issue the writ of election for the special election. She must choose an election date which falls within 30-35 days after the date such writ issues. This seemingly makes the special fall in the last week of Feb. or the first week in March.
Yep, which makes sense. The vacancy would be filled by the time the General Assembly returns from JFC hearings.
“I guess the stat that matters is who will show up”
And that stat won’t be available until after the election. Unfortunately Repubs usually have the turnout advantage in special elections.
Dems will need to do traditional GOTV but that is not enough. The candidate also needs to articulate a message that resonates with the voters in the district, and with urgency. And that message needs to get to each voter. It’s great to knock on the door, but when the door opens, are you saying something the voter wants to hear?
Since Puck already posted our video I don’t have much to add, but I will say that some of the more hardcore members of Delaware United were very impressed by her, which I did not expect.
I’m probably the squishiest member they have and would have canvassed for her regardless so one may want to take what I have to say with a grain of salt, but I was really impressed by some of the stuff she had to say, especially about drug rehabilitation.
Of course she has good ideas (which I agree with) about mental health and substance abuse treatment, and about ecological diversity But are those really the big issues to win an election on? The DU interview was an opportunity to say whatever she wanted with a friendly interviewer. I don’t know if she used the time effectively to address voter concerns. She is reportedly doing a lot of doorknocking, so I suppose she will be listening and has time to adjust her message if necessary.
And I think she needs to sound more appreciative of the Amazon jobs. I know the jobs sort of suck, but it beats a chicken packing plant, and the warehouse can become part of a healthy mix of jobs up and down the salary scale.
Let me extend an invitation to anyone interested in helping to come down to see what’s happening. I heard Erik Razer-Schramm talk about what Stephanie’s campaign plan is, and it is aggressive and well thought out. Honestly, better than most full-blown 12 month campaign plans that I have been involved in.
Last night I made phone calls for Stephanie. Granted, the list was likely supporters (although not particularly reliable voters), but I spoke to several people that knew what was going on and were truly interested in the outcome. One home that I called, the woman that I was seeking wasn’t home, but her unaffiliated husband was. He was livid at the Republicans. He was fired up and stayed on the phone for almost 10 minutes with a guy that had just cold-called his wife to read a script (me). That dude is going to be knocking on doors for us.
I’ve been making calls like this for about 30 years. Last night’s session was the most positive experience that I have ever had. If you have the time, come out and help. We can use it.
Hansen could benefit from a wave of revulsion at the GOP as their legislative agenda gets underway.
Puck, I’ve been door knocking for Stephanie for the past two weekends and the one issue that keeps being brought up on a lot of those doorsteps is substance abuse, how it affects the area and how it can be treated. Now, whether or not that’s a winning issue remains to be seen, but I think Stephanie is more tapped into what SD-10 is thinking than you give her credit for.
I will also say, I’ve been seeing a lot of the anger at the GOP that LG was talking about as well. The canvassing crew (along with a certain nearby State Senator who shall remain nameless to protect his identity) has slowly started crafting a message around that theme, that the first fight against the Trump administration is right here in Delaware. Will it work? Who knows, but we’re doing it anyway.
Good points Josh. I should be careful not to assume what SD10 voters are thinking.
She could well benefit from that Trump revulsion. And I do think that the oxy/heroin epidemic could well be a galvanizing issue. Erik has experience with special elections, so we shall see. I’m more confident than I was before I read this thread.