Mo’ Better Democrats: RD 7
The incumbent: Bryon Short.
The district: The 7th RD encompasses some of the more Democratic areas of Brandywine Hundred. The district includes the Ardens, much of Claymont, Radnor Green, Ashbourne Hills, Holiday Hills, Graylyn Crest and Darley Woods, among other communities. The current registration is 8289 D; 4482 R; and 4203 I. Almost, but not quite, a D majority. The district was made R-proof in 2012, when more affluent communities were excised from the district, with Foulk Road becoming the westernmost boundary for the district, which eliminated Foulk Woods, Chalfonte and Brandywood from the district.
Bryon Short broke the R stranglehold in northern NCC in 2007. Recently-reelected Wayne Smith (Delaware’s Newt Gingrich) had been angling for a big corporate job, and he got it with Christiana Healthcare just after the election. He handpicked, wait for it, his next door neighbor Jim Bowers to run for what was a swing-R district. The D’s chose Short over Carl Colantuono after both Dave Brady and I (yes I once ran in this district, once was enough) withdrew from consideration and endorsed Bryon. It was a real fun race, and Bryon edged Bowers, then defeated him handily in 2008. A breakthrough for D’s in Brandywine Hundred.
So, why challenge him? There are two Bryon Shorts. There is the man who has been great on social issues, supporting gay marriage and rights for all LGBTQ citizens.
The problem, and it’s a major problem, is that Short has used his position to, in almost every instance, place the interests of the Chamber and the moneyed class over the needs of those who have been routinely screwed by, well, the Chamber and the moneyed class. You name it. He was first given a committee from which he could collect massive campaign funds should he ever decide to run for office. A newly-created (back in 2009) committee called the House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee. That about covers Delaware’s avaricious. To this day, he has been the only chair of that committee. From that perch, he has buried minimum wage legislation; enabled the Highmark/Blue Cross-Blue Shield merger that Beau Biden begged him to stop (operative quote from Short: “There’s nothing I can do.”); sponsored and, wait for it, now serves on, the top-secret Public-Private Partnership scheme that Short helped to ensure is exempt from FOIA. He also voted to eliminate the Estate Tax, which only impacts, wait for it, 0.2% of the population. He also opposed John Kowalko’s attempt to increase fees on LLC’s, largely because Bryon Short, wait for it, creates LLC’s all the time in his business. He funded his issues-free campaign for Congress largely from the political insiders who raised $$’s for Carper and Markell along with those for whom he did favors from his Business Lapdog Committee perch. He didn’t count on there being three Carperites in the race. One of whom got elected solely because she is a ‘Woman of Color’. But, I digress.
Dave Brady got 36% of the vote against Short in a 2014 primary, which took place after Bryon ‘big-timed’ the three candidates who had announced in good faith for the seat when Short said he wouldn’t seek reelection. As much as I personally like Dave Brady, he’s not a mo’ better Democrat. He continues to run b/c he can’t get over having gotten screwed out of his House District back in 2002. I’m not making that up.
But Short now has some enemies. In the past few years, he has been far less visible around the district than before. He has let it be known that he doesn’t enjoy being in Dover. His constituent services are not as strong. And he has that voting record. I think someone running as a real Democrat, and contrasting their positions on minimum wage, the social safety net, the Estate Tax (were I a candidate, I’d run to restore it), and the secret corporate giveaway that Short helped to engineer, can win. I think Short’s ready to be taken down. If only a progressive candidate will step forward to challenge him.
The campaign theme could be:
Bryon Came Up Short for the 7th District!
I have to think that Delaware United and Network DE are strong(ish) in that district. I’m not pessimistic.
“One of whom got elected solely because she is a ‘Woman of Color.”
Not only is that a disgusting thing to say, it’s also wildly untrue. Look into how heavily both her and associated c4s completely outspent the opposition in that race.
Your disgust is misplaced. She spoke of it constantly in the campaign.
She made it an ‘identity politics’ race. Which is fine.
But don’t shoot the messenger. I just pointed out what she did.
Yes . Bryon Short needs to go. We need more luminaries like Kim Williams and John Kowalko. That is the true path to power.
I, for one, hope Ken Simpler and the GOP are benevolent rulers when they clean our clocks over the next 5-8 years. And we will deserve it.
Concern trolling… so 2008.
If only you didn’t hold grudges against people for your past. If only you posted factual information about Short, like the fact that he always votes for a minimum wage increase, instead of spreading misinformation and lies. If only you spent half the time you spend attacking Dems. attacking Rs, trying to flip those seats instead of creating a schism. In addition, saying that LBR only won because of the color of her skin makes you lose all credibility, not only are you angry and sour, but you are bordering on race baiting
What about the CCC? I mean I suppose it is possible that the crony capitalism committee could be great. Trump could still pivot toward being Presidential too I suppose.
You mean LBR DIDN’T emphasize that she would be Delaware’s first ‘person of color’ elected to Congress? Pointing out that she was running a campaign based on identity politics should be no more controversial than pointing out that Sean Barney never missed the chance to point out that he was wounded in Iraq.
I agree with you, though, that what I intended as an aside has taken over the thread.
Did I write anything about Bryon Short that you consider inaccurate? If so, what is it?
Obviously she spoke about about being a woman of color, how would she be able to avoid that? But to say she only won because of that is ignorant at best.
El Som- Maybe cause she is proud that a black woman actually got elected to Congress, something that probably should have occurred years and years ago. As aforementioned, she out raised her opponents, and she had a spectacular campaign team. You said he buried minimum wage, which is just false. You act as if he could stop the merger between BCBS and HM, and you know that is a bad faith argument (he definitely could not have stopped capitalism from happening). Anything more?
OK, I’m home now. I want to apologize for what I wrote, specifically :
“He didn’t count on there being three Carperites in the race. One of whom got elected solely because she is a ‘Woman of Color’. But, I digress.”
I don’t in any way believe that she got elected solely b/c she is a ‘woman of color’. I wish I could edit my copy from work but I don’t have the type of job where I can do that. What I MEANT to emphasize was that the reason that Bryon Short dropped out of the race was b/c, with three Carperites vying for the support of the Carper Dems, Short was the only one who didn’t have some sort of identity politics to fall back on. ‘Amiable white guy with not much going on upstairs’ could be an identity, but it’s not one with much political upside. Which is why the one-time perceived frontrunner fell by the wayside first. I was frustrated that NONE of the Carperbots discussed the issues in any detail. So, that’s what I meant, and I hope that my apology is accepted. I apologize directly to LBR, who was my second choice after Bryan Townsend.
Now, as to Dante’s Inferno’s representations, Bryon Short did indeed bury minimum wage in his committee. Twice. He couldn’t do it all by himself, but, with both Quin Johnson and Andria Bennett joining him, he kept minimum wage bottled up. He quoted Chamber of Commerce talking points. We’ve written about this extensively on this blog long before today. Feel free to scope it out. In fact, Pete put the bill in Bryon’s committee precisely to bury the bill. Wage increase legislation traditionally went to the Labor Committee, which would have voted it out right away. Markell didn’t want that, and Speaker Pete did what Markell told him to. So it went to the Business Lapdog Committee instead.
And as to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Highmark merger, Bryon (and Patti Blevins) were faced with a choice: Work with Beau Biden to protect the public’s interest in the merger, or side with Karen Weldin Stewart and the big players behind the merger proposal. Short sided with KWS and the insurance companies. Again, this has been written about ad nauseum on our blog.
Ahh Jason. I’m surprised you remember 2008. You and many of the folks here spent that year with your faces buried in Jack Markell’s lap. That worked well.
Yeah, well, we believed what he said. In hindsight, he was feeding us BS. Oh, and the alternative was John Carney. We see how well that’s working out now.
@JTF they have their faces buried in bryan townsend’s lap these days.
It seems that other obscure legislators from safe districts who have never or not recently had a real race considering statewide runs might learn something from B-Short’s experience.
As passionate as El Som’s critique is, they will never take this guy out. No way. Not happening. A kid’s bake sale could raise more money than the supporters of this blog.
Short would clearly have the money edge given his pro chamber sensibilities. And yet This post is getting a ton of views, so that tells me something.
LBR didn’t win because she was a woman of color. She won because she was a woman running against two men.
Instead of parading your morality, try using your common sense. How did KWS win? Two men split the rest of the vote.
I talk to real people, not political junkies. I wish I had a dollar for every woman who has admitted to me that in down-ballot races, where most people don’t even know what the job entails let alone the people running for it, they vote for the woman.
Her color worked against her, not for her.
Let’s also remember that LBR never did anything before this race and has done nothing since election to bring on the enthusiastic support shown by two commenters above. She laid out in the campaign exactly what she would be — a woman of color in Congress. That’s what she touted herself as, and it’s all she’s been.
That’s not a complaint. Most of the white men we’ve sent to Congress have been nothing but a white man in Congress. Right, john Carney?
This should surprise nobody. Her father was one of the most useless politicians in Delaware for decades. While idiots like Theo aspired to things they couldn’t achieve, Ted Blunt aspired to nothing more than looking good in a suit and reaping the rewards.
For you identity-politics lovers, I suppose that’s enough. One of you idiots even pointed to her raising a lot of money as a GOOD thing. That just means a lot of corporate players looking for a good time found one. Whores, the entire lot of you.
I, for one, am sick and tired of the Democrats of this joke of a state pretending to be worth the money we pay them.
But yes, the Republicans are worse, so you can stay smug.
It would be nice to think our Congressional rep could make a difference in DC on national issues but the reality is if she makes waves down there Dover AFB goes away. One of the reasons I think Congress is broken is that we have no At Large representatives with nothing to lose by doing what’s best for the country as a whole.
At the risk of a stinging rebuke from Alby, I like LBR. I wish she could have stayed local where I think she could have made a difference. As it stands, at worst she’ll do no harm. I don’t think we’d have done better with Barney or Townsend.
I think Rep Short could be vulnerable, but whether it’s worth it to a progressive to run is a big question. The district is a lot like your description of Rep Short…socially progressive and interested in money. Even community activists tend to concentrate on who brings in the grant money, etc., and that is mostly not on the Representative level, so they don’t much care who holds that spot, as long as they aren’t filmed endorsing Cheeto. I’ll be interested to see how much constituent service can fall off before a little grumbling becomes something more. I’d bet pretty much, as long as the county reps and senators take up a lot of the slack, which they mostly do. It discourages me. I thought, with all the strides made in filling seats, we’d see more progress on bread and butter issues, but Dover seems happy to play limousine liberal while families take second and third jobs, if they can get them, to pay for security and rehab in a sea of addiction.
Real good analysis. However, there aren’t a lot of limousine liberals in Claymont. Since the 2012 redistricting, this has become close to a Claymont-centered district. I think that if someone ran on those bread and butter issues, there could well be enough of a critical mass to successfully challenge someone who is so totally in thrall to the Chamber of Commerce. Run on minimum wage, against the Estate Tax repeal, and against the Secret Panel to Give Away Money To Business Cronies (Short’s a member of this FOIA-exempt group.)
It’d be a fascinating race, IMHO.
Well, it would be. But which Rocky Balboa is waiting in the wings is a mystery to me. Most of the possibles are pretty similar in philosophy, if not in practice, and most of the money follows them. If there’s a stouthearted Union organizer biding his or her time on Green Street, I hope they send up a balloon.
@Rufus: I don’t dislike her, and I think she’s done no worse than the others would have either. Democrats don’t run the place anyway. I was simply noting that there’s nothing complicated about predicting three-way primary races. Given roughly equal name recognition (or lack thereof), two women will split the vote and the man will win, or vice versa. Depending on the party and location, race can play the same role, and it often does in Wilmington — two blacks against one white will produce a white winner and vice versa.
Please note that this only holds in cases (such as last fall’s congressional primary) in which three basically unknown candidates are competing. If one has higher name recognition than the other two, that trumps the demographic-tribal element.