Progressive Wave Hits Delaware State House – A New Democratic Party Emerges
Go-along-to-get-along “moderates” had a rough night as a wave of progressive activist replaced a host of “Republican-Lite” incumbent Democrats.
Marie Pinkney defeats Dave McBride in SD13.
Eric Morrison defeats Earl Jaques in the 27th RD
Madinah Wilson-Anton over John Viola Rep. District 26
Sarah McBride won the open seat in SD1
Kyle Evans Gay wins the right to take out Cathy Cloutier in (SD5) in November.
Sherae “Rae” Moore wins the 8th RD seat vacated by Republican-Lite Quinton Johnson
Adewunmi Kuforiji wins in the 34th.
Don’t forget Larry Lambert in RD 7.
BTW, Quin Johnson endorsed the buttoned-down white guy in RD 8. He came in last. If Quin endorsed him, then Pete ‘n Val wanted him.
Doesn’t exactly fit because the incumbent wasn’t really a member of the “Dark Money Dems” gasping for breath caucus. But yes, Lambert is certainly more progressive.
Well I have not been this happy in an election in 30 years. This blog was pretty fantastic as well!
I have to temper it with a thank you to Jessica Scarane who i believe helped drive these wins!
Agreed. It all twines together.
But the truth is statewide is a very tough nut to crack for insurgents.
Eric Morrison made the national news. Headline at Raw Story:
Drag Queen claims victory over legislator who voted against marriage equality in Delaware upset
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/drag-queen-claims-victory-over-legislator-who-voted-against-marriage-equality-in-delaware-upset/
A very good night — but one thing is terribly bittersweet, and I find I’m missing it sorely: Allan Loudell running election coverage and concluding with a roundtable postmortem with a handful of seasoned political observers. End of an era.
I agree. There was a big hole today.
Pete Schwartzkopf is next.
Would love to see Schwartzkopf defeated and gone, I think we all would, it would remove yet another log jam in the general assembly. No more retired cops, not now, not later, not ever.
Time to start lobbying your reps for the vote in December for Speaker of the House. Pete needs to go!
The vote last time was the day after the election, before Return Day. Pete and Val will only call a meeting that soon if they think they have the votes.
Time is of the essence…let’s make sure they don’t have the votes!
Went to the Wayback Machine. Found this post from February. This is where it all started for me this year, and I don’t want to forget it:
http://delawareliberal.net/2020/02/19/working-families-party-leftward-delaware-bring-the-beef/
A classy move by Dave McBride. According to WBOC, he congratulated Marie and offered to help her make the transition to the Senate.
I am not sure you get to call wins by such small margins in a couple legislative races to be a “progressive wave.” There was no mandate in any of these returns with the exception of the Jaques/Morrison race. Winning by 43 votes in one state rep race and by less than 300 in a state senate race – against incumbents this site called lazy, ineffective, and no longer qualified to serve – just shows what happens when elected officials fail to draw an opponent for cycle after cycle, leading those constituents who are not engaged in their communities to have little to no interaction with them until a competitive challenger comes along. If these incumbents were as awful as contributors on this page stated they were, then it would have been a blowout for both of them like it was in the 27th.
One does have to wonder if the keyboard warrior tendencies that both the winners in the 26th and 27th demonstrate regularly will assist with their efforts to enact progressive policies. I can’t imagine that popping off Eric Morrison style, or getting your personal facebook page taken down as Madinah Wilson-Anton recently reported on twitter had happened to her (to which she declared she’d be fighting the person who had reported her page “on sight”) leads to a lot of collaboration or constructive dialogue. (Side note- what do you have to be caught doing on fb to get your page taken down?! ) Russians are all over social media, but they manage to remain in place. Maybe these new people will learn to use social media as a tool for their office, as opposed to harassing others online unprovoked.
The real reason for this comment is to warn folks that if things appear too good to be true then they probably aren’t and never were. It is interesting that you see little to no women stomping for Madinah; one wonders if she really was the Purzicki/BLM news journal leaker from their meeting earlier in the summer as rumors making rounds then had claimed. Taping anyone without permission is violating that person’s privacy, but taping your fellow advocates as they meet with their mayor is the quickest way to ruin those relationships. While in a pandemic. One wonders if she really thought about it before doing it… likely not.
Here’s hoping that prior to being sworn in both of these winners make the choice not to be a keyboard warrior moving forward. smack talking other caucus members and staff is exactly the type of mean girl behavior madinah enjoys, per numerous former co-workers at several jobs. Assuming that’s true, she’ll have kowalko and morrison to help her move bills, but last time I checked you need at least 21 reps to pass the house. Same for Morrison – and unless these two just get their feet wet with short bills, and refuse to act like jerks to those on their own team, their first session of their first term will be quite lonely. Here’s hoping humility and kindness will prevail, but I am not holding my breath.
I don’t know why this was in the trash. But if you trashed your own comment, simply do it again and I’ll leave it in the bin.
“If these incumbents were as awful as contributors on this page stated they were, then it would have been a blowout for both of them like it was in the 27th.”
Bullshit. Most people in Delaware can’t name their state rep, and so most elections are won on name recognition alone. The claim is false, and it therefore throws the rest of your analysis into a light I don’t think you want.
I’m not sure the point of this comment, other than the typical “don’t rock the boat” warnings of the go-along-to-get-along crowd. It’s concern trolling.
Another thing: Try the posting-under-two-names bull you pulled at Blue Delaware and you’ll get shitcanned here, too.