The Delaware Liberal Occasional Political Weekly
The local political scene has been slowed immeasurably, but I’ve now got more than enough for an update.
1. Sarah McBride Gets Primary Challenger And General Election Opponent. We already knew that former IPOD member Steven Washington was going to be her R challenger. He has now filed. What we didn’t know was that Joe McCole, who primaried Harris McDowell back in 2016, was gonna file again. Here’s what I wrote about him back in 2016:
One Joseph D. McCole, an apartment dweller along River Road. The only Joseph D. McCole I could find is a realtor with Weichert, he’s in his early 60’s, and he’s a Virgo.
He’s still an apartment dweller along River Road, he’s now in his not-so-early 60’s, and he’s still presumably a Virgo. Don’t think he’s with Weichert any more, looks he’s an e-mortgage broker now. He got 29.16% in his primary against McDowell. I’m taking the under this time around.
2. Lee Murphy Just Can’t Catch A Break. All he wants to do is to have a clear shot at getting 37% or so of the vote in a statewide race, this time against Lisa Blunt Rochester. Presumably to put the ‘Lee Murphy brand’ in the public eye. The Rethuglican Party welcomes it/him. An inoffensive joke of a candidate is less likely to turn off the voters than one of those wacky downstate ‘patriots’. But he keeps getting primary challenges, like he did when Scott Walker, of all people, consigned him to the sidelines last time. Ladeez and gentlemen, may I introduce to you, wait for it, Matthew M. Morris Hathaway. Or is it Matthew M. Hathaway Morris? I dunno. He’s allegedly a recovered drug addict who has now seen the light and is evangelizing on behalf of ‘America First’. He was recently seen unfurling a flag at the Carvel State Building to demand the reopening of the state. Since Murphy is the Delaware version of ‘Bob Forehead’, he’ll probably lose to this guy. Or to a woman from downstate who apparently is considering a challenge. Won’t anybody take pity on this poor hand model?
3. Democrats Who Join With Rethugs To Send Out Lit Should Be Primaried. Especially the drool-infested Rep. Gerald Brady, who sent out a joint lit piece with Sen. Anthony Delcollo. The only person who benefits from this is Delcollo, who faces a reelection challenge in what should be a D stronghold. Brady should be doing a fundraiser for Spiros Mantzavinos, not locking arms with a Trump ass-kisser like Delcollo. Memo to Sean Barney (who, yes, is running for the city council seat being vacated by Bud Freel), primary this miserable excuse for a D and hold a joint fundraiser with Spiros. Even I would support you if you did that. BTW, would it shock you to learn that Barney is now President of Progressive Democrats For Delaware? A Third Way lifer running an organization that once, a long time ago, had some relevance in the post-Dean era.
4. Everybody Into The Wilmington City Council Primary Pool. In the 6th District, incumbent Yolanda McCoy faces three D challengers–Evon Murray, Josue Ortega and Ian Smith. A search turned up nothing, save an address, for Evon Murray. Josue Ortega is a constituent services officer with the City of Wilmington. I don’t know if he is related to former councilman Demetrio ‘Junior’ Ortega, who I thought was a strong advocate for the Latino community during his time on council. Let me know. I tried to find out, but failed. Sean Barney has joined Nathan Field in the 8th District council primary to replace Bud Freel. It’s possible that the perennial candidate has finally found a race he can win, but we’ll see.
5. Navarro Files, Faces A Primary Of Sorts. I knew he was running when I heard his campaign commercials masquerading as PSA’s. He is challenged by ‘Wily’ Kayode Abegunde. Beep-beep.
6. I’m Waiting For These Two Filings: Larry Lambert, who has announced a primary challenge to incumbent Ray Seigfried in RD 7, and Marie Pinkney, who has announced a challenge to Dave McBride in SD 13. Coronavirus or not, she has the community contacts to defeat Lewes local McBride in a primary. Yo, Dave, you’ve got the beach all to yourself down there. Don’t come back. I just hope that neither of these great candidates decide not to run.
7. Two Candidates Who Are Overcoming The Coronavirus Challenges: Madinah Anton-Wilson and Kyle Evans Gay. Madinah had knocked on more doors by the time that the virus hit than John Viola ever could. She has built a powerful grassroots movement. She’s a winner. I may have done the last door-to-door with Kyle before the virus shut things down. Her campaign is doing an incredibly vigorous social media/phone outreach. The campaign’s volunteer coordinator is utterly ruthless when it comes to mobilizing her troops. I won’t mention her name b/c I don’t want anyone to steal her, but this song might or might not provide a clue:
8. Libertarians Have Their Slate. For the record, Nadine Frost is running for the Senate, David Rogers for the House, and John Machurek for Governor.
9. Filings. State Rep. Gerald Brady (“D”/Delcollo Enabler-RD 4); State Rep. Ray Seigfried (D-RD 7); Hunter Hastings (D Candidate-Sussex County Council CD-1); Lisa Hudson Briggs (R Candidate-Sussex CD -2). Briggs could well primary Sam Wilson who, even by Rethuglican downstate standards, is a stone-cold idiot. She got 44% of the vote back in 2016. Here is a right-wing take on that 2016 race.
That’s all I’ve got. What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?
WRONG ” BTW, would it shock you to learn that Barney is now President of Progressive Democrats For Delaware? A Third Way lifer running an organization that once, a long time ago, had some relevance in the post-Dean era. ”
PDD voted in new officers – Jordyn Pusey is now President.
https://progressivedemsde.blogspot.com/2020/03/pdd-general-meeting-7pm-thursday-march.html
Jordyn Pusey? You mean Delcollo’s biggest supporter? Isn’t PDD still affiliated with the state party? Does the Party know that the new head of PDD supports Delcollo? Isn’t that against the bylaws?
Oh, and Nancy, maybe you should let whoever still is involved with PDD know that it’s up to THEM to update their site. Or didn’t you bother to click on the direct link to their site that I provided?
Jordyn Pusey. Sean Barney. Utterly pathetic.
As a courtesy, I have continued the blog for PDD that I had started when I was a PDD member and President. I get their announcements and post them when I can. Do you really have a problem with that? They have a thin bench as many of the local organizations do and they may not have anyone updating the site you found but they are using their facebook page as their main social media outlet.
As for Jordyn’s support for DelCollo, I am not familiar with any specifics but if an area Rep. works hard for their constituents, it typically wouldn’t matter if they are R or D.. He is her district Senator.
And I am skeptical of your motive of impugning her ability to run the PDD. A working relationship with a member of the General Assembly who represents your household is only a barrier to also heading a DEM Party outfit in the eyes of certain deeply partisan bloggers.
This role of hate-mongering against each and every GOPer is one DL enjoys. Others skip on by these DL distasteful posts of that nature.
You wrote, and I quote: WRONG ”
Turns out I was ‘wrong’ b/c you didn’t update the site. I don’t have a problem with that, just a problem with you somehow trying to make the case that I was slipshod in my reporting. Didn’t realize that it was merely you being slipshod in updating the site.
The group is called ‘Progressive Democrats For Delaware’. So, yes, having the leader of the group strongly support a Rethug who is pushing ‘2nd Amendment gun rights’ as his key priority pretty much tells you all you need to know about the group. Pusey has posted on here about her support for Delcollo. Guess you missed it.
When the hell did I become a Delcollo supporter? And his biggest one at that? You’ve lost your damned mind if you think I’m team GOP in any way, shape or form. I’ve openly criticized him for years. You really need to check your sources.
Also, I only became president of PDD in February and we are working on updating the site.
Allow me to quote from, wait for it, you:
“Spiros was at my RD committee meeting Monday and I asked him about supporting a 15 dollar minimum wage and legalization of marijuana. On the wage he gave a non answer of watching what our GA and other states are doing before having an opinion. On legalization he said he supports medical, then backtracked to say he hasn’t researched the issue and would get back to me. Ffs there’s been a bill in our GA on this topic for two years and he hasn’t researched it. You gotta be kidding me. At least delcollo supports legalization.”
If you’ve EVER critiicized Delcollo, point us in the right direction or hold your peace. Oh, and even though you ‘only’ became president in February, you might want to start by updating the list of officers. It’s May, y’know.
Pointing out where you have common ground with someone isn’t lending support, it’s stating facts. I agree with Jordyn here that If we’re going to put up a Dem against DelCollo, they should at a bare minimum support the DelDem platform which calls for a $15 min. wage and the legalization of marijuana.
As for me, I’ve yet to hear Jordyn say anything about supporting DelCollo, either in public or private, that would constitute her being his “biggest supporter”. Unless you can find something better than that weaksauce BS to substantiate your claim, I think you owe her an apology.
Sorry, Josh. We strongly supported Jordyn when she ran against Woods. Endorsed her, even. We thought she would be the ideal person to run against Delcollo, but she was openly supportive of him through her civic association alliances and wasn’t interested. How do I know? Because I TALKED to people who were involved in that network. She, of course, declined to run, but is now in charge of an (admittedly) almost moribund organization that will assuredly remain neutral in what is a big pick-up opportunity.
You’ve seen many of the usual weak-kneed D suspects helping Delcollo out. Including Pusey. That’s not acceptable in my book. Not against someone like Delcollo.
You know what, though? Maybe I DO owe her a bit of an apology. Jordyn, I apologize for calling you Delcollo’s biggest supporter. What I SHOULD have said is that you and Gerald Brady are Delcollo’s biggest D supporters.
That better?
I didn’t realize that offering a valid criticism of the candidate I will be voting for is equal to supporting a Republican. As a progressive, increasing the minimum wage, universal healthcare and legalization are important to me. I’m allowed to be frustrated by weak policy positions coming from my party and Democratic candidates. I’m not alone in my district in feeling this way.
I am working to build our progressive base, which means donating to and supporting candidates that share my values. Delcollo does not share my values. Saying he’s to the left of my candidate on one issue does not make me a “huge” supporter of his, but it should motivate Dems to get on the correct side of the issue.
There are plenty of people who can attest to my criticism of Delcollo. If my personal circumstances were different, I’d be running against him! Honestly, I’m very confused about this characterization of myself.
For the record, yes it is May, but there have been organizational issues within PDD for a while, and access to the website was not readily available. Our new comms chair is working on getting access and updating the site. These are all volunteer positions, and I’m grateful that people are willing to offer their time and expertise to get this done, while also handling all their other responsibilities. I’m sorry its not fast enough for your liking.
I am reminded of what is known as Sayre’s Law: “The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low.”
I miss these so fucking much.
So do I. I really look forward to election year action.
BTW, the ‘Democrat’ running for that Sussex Council seat? He quit the Rethugs b/c they weren’t ideologically pure enough for him:
http://delawareliberal.net/2019/01/08/sussex-county-young-republican-chair-quits-the-gop-citing-republicans/
Love that headline.
You should. You wrote it.
More on Matthew Morris
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2013/12/10/arrests-made-brutal-gayborhood-attack/
He LOOKS like the same guy:
https://www.matthewmorrisfordelaware.com/
Are you sure that he is?
Esteban Parra wrote a story about it back in 2013 with more detail. Morris’ story, um, doesn’t ring true:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/crime/2013/12/11/delaware-man-charged-in-violent-attack-in-philadelphia/3988157/
BTW, it IS him. I called him. He told me that he took full accountability. He served prison time and is still paying restitution to his victim. Some $107,000 worth.
He was gracious with his time, and I think he’s working hard to change, but that incident pretty much is the center of his life. He claims he has completely turned his life around, he’s off drugs, etc. The conversation was going OK until he contradicted himself about the degree of his involvement in the attack. I don’t know if the contradictions are deliberate or if they’re a result of his ‘not being in my right mind’, his quote.
At that point, he went into a long screed about how he was more victim than perpetrator. Crooked DA, judge was gonna make an example of him b/c he wasn’t from Philly, somebody else shot somebody and only got 6 months of boot camp, you name it.
I politely extricated myself from the conversation.
Thanks for remembering Bob Forehead. All the politicians had neckties tied around their heads. Vivid memory of Pappy Bush constantly campaign-shouting “JOBS! JOBS JOBS!”
You had to be there.
You may or may not recall that Bob Forehead was the chair of the ‘JFK Lookalike Caucus’.