Now THAT Was A Primary Night!
I’m writing this on very little sleep. My mind churning all night. Here are the results of those mind-churns:
Jess Scarane deserves a lot of credit, not just for her run, but for using her campaign as a platform to feature many of the candidates who won last night as she had them join her on her social media. She also contributed to many of their campaigns. An incredibly generous soul. Her kindness and progressive principles will be rewarded going forward.
It’s tough running as a white guy in a Democratic primary. Unless you’re a gay white guy running against an opponent of LGBTQ rights. Seriously, though, while it serves the greater good, it tends to limit chances for white male D’s, even good ones. Of course, they’ve dominated in Delaware for far too long, so there’s that.
I can’t wait for everybody to get to know Marie Pinkney. I’ve been around a long time. She is one of the finest human beings to be elected to office (not yet, more on that in a second) I’ve ever met. She has a comprehensive grasp of the issues facing those who just don’t have power and connections. She will be that connection. Intelligence, empathy, and resolve. After she defeats one Alexander Homich in November. So. She has a general election opponent: Memorandum to every Democratic Senator and every member of the Legislative Black Caucus: Cough up your $600 contributions now. Not a single one of you had the guts to stand up to the human legislative roadblock that was Dave McBride. That goes double for Darius Brown and Melissa Minor-Brown: What did you hope to accomplish by cutting campaign spots for McBride? All you accomplished was to mark yourselves as hacks willing to sell out if there’s something in it for you. Which there might be in 2022: Primary challengers. BTW, you know who did make contributions? Madinah Wilson-Anton. And Jess Scarane.
The county races, in particular, delivered results I didn’t expect. Karen Hartley-Nagle reelected? Bill Bell reelected? Well, the second of these two illustrates a point that I obviously forgot: Every race has its own dynamic. I lumped the Bell-Caneco race right in with the Powers-Carter race. There’s one obvious difference. Carter had a decades-long association with environmental advocacy. Kevin was a first-time candidate. I’m guessing that made the difference.
If I’m Matt Meyer, I’m making the construction trades and the FOP beg for whatever crumbs he’s willing to toss their way. And, if I’m a Delaware AFL-CIO member, I’m asking myself why James Maravelias is out there pursuing his own personal grudges at our expense.
I’m stunned at the size of Larry Lambert’s victory. I guess we now know who would have won a two-way primary back in 2018. There’s another element: Ray Seigfried is a serious issues-oriented person. Even though he did a great job on constituent issues, he just isn’t a self-promoter in a political sense. There is a lot to be said for someone who is a better person than he is a politician. Having said that, Larry can and will push police reform to a reluctant General Assembly. Albeit a less reluctant General Assembly as a result of last night.
Sean Barney loses again? I’m almost starting to feel sorry for the guy. One element he lacks is an outgoing personality. Maybe that’s it.
Seriously, the only survivor among the Potter Gang is Trippi Congo? My take is that voters wanted someone, even Trippi, as a check against Mayor Mike. I’m sure Cassandra over at Blue Delaware will have a more nuanced take on the city races. I never studied Abnormal Psychology, and don’t wish to start now.
The Rethugs’ US Senate primary winner is a QAnon follower. Meaning, I will actually have to vote for Coons this year. Sucks.
The ‘Wilson Dynasty’ in Sussex County is over. For now. Cynthia Green won that three-way primary Sussex County Council District 2. But guess who got a new lease on life? That cheatin’ former Suh-myrna mayor Mark Schaeffer, who edged I. G. Burton in Council District 3.
Finally, I haven’t been this happy on a Primary night in forever. So many progressives won. I thought we might be two years away. I was as wrong on that as I was on my Scott Walker prediction. Woo-hoo!!
Back to sleep. The Open Thread will be a little delayed today…
Great summary.
Caneco’s National Guard unit got deployed in the middle of the campaign, and Bell turned out to be the real beneficiary of Maravelias’ anti-Meyer campaign.
If he had been able to door knock things would have been different for Kevin. He has a future.
Also – Karen Hartley-Nagle – WTF?
There’s a big lesson here for incumbents in terms of campaign strategy. As soon as you target a supporter, do everything possible to get them to vote via the mail before they have a chance to learn about the newer better candidate.
Also, the traditional mailer schedule doesn’t make sense anymore with so many folks voting early.
The Barney / Field race is really interesting. Barney won the early vote, probably based on the name recognition from previous races. But Field’s grassroots / social media campaigning was very influential in the past couple weeks. If I had to take a guess at why Barney’s campaigns sputter, I think it’s because he either has had a bad mailer consultant or his own mailer maxim is bad. Besides his personality.
It looks like people are very receptive to vote for someone other than Gerald Brady. I never heard from Amy Solomon at all or heard anyone around me mention her but she still got close to 40%.
I’m so happy that Witzke won. If you’re a Republican, this is what your party is. If you’re a Republican, especially if you run for office as a Republican, your mere allegiance to the party is tying you to this toxic cult-ish dogma. And the best part of Witzke winning is that I can’t wait to hear more about what she did for the cartels and Detroit gangs as mentioned in her own bio on her website: “Lauren unwittingly participated in the pharmaceutical industries agenda which led to the nationwide opioid addiction crisis. Ironically, she found herself hopelessly addicted as well, and even worked for drug cartel families and illicit organized crime gangs from Detroit.“
I could not agree more on Gerald Brady. Amy Solomon filed and wasn’t heard from until about 2 weeks out. Of course, there’s a chance that he could retire and that his district could go away in redistricting…
Another headline: Dems HIGHLY engaged and Ready to Clean House in November!
2018 Dem primary turnout was 83,000. Yesterday it was 120,000. That’s a 44% increase.
Goodbye Ramone, Delcollo, Cloutier & Maybe Hensley, Lawson,
He will be getting a big boost from Trump – but if every RD and SD in NCC goes blue, the Dem County Chairman, whatshisname, will have to go down in history as the best NCC Democratic Party Chairperson ever.
Not sure about NCC, but Erik Raser-Schramm is ALREADY the best state chair we’ve ever had. He made clear that the Democratic Party was open to primary challenges, and kept his thumb off the scale. We’d never have all these great progressive winners w/o him.
Very true. The Democratic Party did a great job. Kudos to ER-S and JC
” Dems HIGHLY engaged ….
2018 Dem primary turnout was 83,000. Yesterday it was 120,000. That’s a 44% increase.” – jason330
120K is only a 32.26% turnout. Dems are NOT highly engaged.
No, that’s the total turnout. Democratic turnout was a bit higher, about 35%. You used one fact and got it wrong.
If you’re going to argue engagement by primary totals, Democrats are more engaged than they have ever been. In 2016, about 59,000 Democrats took part in the primary, then 83,000 in 2018, 120,000 yesterday.
In fact, yesterday’s total is by far the most people who have ever voted in a Democratic primary in Delaware. You can double-check that yourself at the Department of Elections web site.
So while you can debate what the bar for “highly engaged” is, because it’s a subjective term, you cannot debate the fact that Delaware Democrats voted in the primary in record numbers.
In short, you’re wrong everywhere but in your own mind.
Look at Karen Hartley-Nagle this way: The job is basically an at-large councilperson, so there’s no real power in it. The grown-ups on the council have isolated her so she can’t fuck up anything important.
On the plus side, the job keeps her off the dole, an important point now that she’s aging out of being able to sucker guys into playing sugar daddy. It also will give Janet Kilpatrick agita.
I think the KNH victory was what happens when there is a 3 way race and 2 better opponents split the rest of the ticket. If only one of the runs against her i think she loses 55-45
Agree. And I have to think the layout of the ballot REALLY hurt CIro.
Listed third when most races were 2 person races made him look like a fringe candidate.
I noticed that, too. Placement on the ballot shouldn’t matter than much, but it couldn’t have helped.
OTOH, the support for Monique Johns continued the night’s theme of minority candidates outperforming expectations.
Yeah, I think that’s a real story. Marginalized no more. Soon, I think the best will emerge in leadership, especially in Dover.
It occurs to me that for the first time in my lifetime, the next General Assembly will include more African-Americans than State Police-Americans.
This^
I am sooo happy the Potters and Sam Guy are out of politics forever. They were a disgrace to our city. It will be nice to watch a city council meeting with out all the racist remarks from Sam Guy and Vash Turner. I want to congratulate all the winners.
My take on county races…
CE: Meyer was always the favorite. He didn’t have a MAJOR scandal and didn’t screw up county government to bad to lose. Maggie accepted the FOP which was a major mistake and the AFL CIO grows more useless by the day in this new party. Maggie Jones should not of depended on these unions so much and made her own campaign, it would of made her stronger looking but she chose to follow the lead of the ilk. Not really a surprise.
County Clerk of the Piece: No one cares about this useless office BUT Lisa had some support from the institutions of New Castle County and reached out to them. In some down the ballot races people just chose the easier sounding name. Low info voters stink right? yea they do
NCC President: Ciro didn’t run a campaign thinking laying low be a smart move with all KHN problems. MISTAKE. Never not run a campaign. KHN didn’t exactly run a great campaign either but it wasn’t bad and she did just enough for an incumbent to hold on. Monique took votes, however with her not in the race its anyone’s guess who won. Not a surprise to me.
NCC D 12: Everyone thought Caneco had this, mostly because he ran an impressive campaign. It is clear he knows what he is doing and has a bright future moving ahead. However, I think people underestimated some of Bills old school connections with some 65 and over folks and the fire houses. Sure they are filled with Republicans but know how to help an old friend. This race is unfortunate since we all know how useless Bill is as a Councilman but in the end he found a way to get it together and survive, even if he had to pay dearly for it financially. With that said, I think Caneco moved to Delaware not to long ago and hit 46 percent against a lifer with 16 years in office. Not bad, if really good. Somewhat of a surprise but not totally.
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.
One race I was upset about was the Clerk of the Peace. Ms. Ajavon came very close to winning that. Had she done it she would’ve been a great Clerk. Despite all the negative accusations from her opponents lol, (Ken Boulden, Jerry Clifton, & Lisa Darrah), sent out in letters and a sleazy robo call, she remained positive and focused on her race. Ken and Lisa stuck it to the Democratic Party at the last minute and she even received an endorsement before Ms. Ajavon got in the race. Shame on them; I believe the Democratic Party has a star in Ms. Ajavon, she ran a remarkable race and she deserves the credit. I can see her going places in the party or perhaps the republicans might recruit her if she’s not appreciated by the dems. She received more minority votes then Matt Meyer lol.
Everyone I spoke with had nothing but nice things to say about her. Her personal story is also very impressive.
Yes she would have definitely clerked the shit out of the peace better than any other candidate. The fact that you think she would flip to team red if it worked out better for her is interesting though.
I don’t know her. Come to think of it she’s too progressive for them lol. I saw that she was endorsed by the progressive democrats the last time she ran. Why aren’t you all talking about the way Ken Boulden ran his race, because Ms. Darrah sure didn’t. I found out she broke up a married home, she is Boulden side peace, and he even made her his benefactor on his will. I thought he had a wife?
Anyway, I supported Marie, Jessica & Aja all strong progressive women. I want to see both Aja and Jessica come back.
Do you have any info to back up your assertions?
Ha, ha did SHE break up a married home? How exactly did she do that? Fascinating insight into your mentality.
Hey, it’s worth a musical salute, though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK3cAvnhLqs
Unless you read it or Ken told you, how the hell do you know what is in Ken Boulden’s Will?
Maybe Ciro told him.
That’s a ‘like’, right there.
of course you know that can’t be so. Wills are not public until they are filed for probate with the Register of Wills. Last I knew, Ken was still alive and kicking.
The comment is funny, though
Not sure I’d blame all the black people in the chamber for not supporting Pinkney over McBride. They made a decision that was based on the reality of the situation. They still have policy that they need to get through that chamber. Coming out against someone whose defeat was not guarunteed and holds tremendous legislative power; I can understand the difficulty. They have policies that affect an entire community that they want to get passed. I’m sure they don’t want to be like Kowalko with all of your respect and very few tangible legislative successes to go along with it. That is a previledge that minority communities cannot afford. Their actions are probably not a profile in courage, but I think you may be pouring it on a little thick. Obviously theres no threat for Ms. Anton and Ms. Scarane to support her as challengers themselves. The black caucus is still a small minority in that chamber, but you are not lampooning the numerous white legislators in the GA for not supporting her or any of the other challengers. However, I do understand the frustration.
When Bryan Townsend ran against Tony DeLuca, senators Karen Peterson and Dave Sokola openly supported Townsend. Need I remind you that DeLuca was Pro-Tem at the time?
McBride was either gonna leave in 2020 or 2022. Not a single black legislator in EITHER chamber sent a contribution to Pinkney, nor even publicly endorsed her.
I see it as timidity and, in the case of Darius Brown and Melissa Minor-Brown, a total lack of integrity. They cut promos for McBride. Darius? He and McBride betrayed their constituents by supporting an increase in the height of the Minquadale landfill. I dropped lit for Marie in West Minquadale, right near the landfill. Supporting more trash there was a total sellout of the people who live there. Why Minor-Brown kissed McBride’s ass, I have no idea. They both deserve primary challenges.
I DID lampoon the other legislators, black and white, and, in one case, a future legislator. All of them ponied up $600 apiece for McBride, who was already flush with money. Of course, he totally wasted it.
Karen Peterson and Sokola were open rivals to DeLuca. Sokola contributed to Dave McBride this time though, should he be primaried? Sarah McBride did too; Will she deserve a primary? Dave Bentz? Did Townsend contribute to Pinkney after Dave McBride killed his gun bill? Surely Bryan would have supported Marie with a contribution and a public endorsement since Karen similarly supported him against her rival. Nope, he didn’t. Is this a question of his integrity?
No, just a question of the integrity of the black legislators. Got it. Thanks for this week’s dose of double standard.
And I looked at Dave McBride’s 8 and 30 day reports and not one black elected contributed to him during this cycle. So not only are you being a little asshole, but you’re also full of shit. Dependent on lazy readers who won’t fact fact check your bs.
Please old white liberal boomer, tell us black people what we should be doing.
What’s the matter, can’t take the criticism?
Are you a legislator? If not, then the criticism doesn’t apply to you.
No matter who you are, you don’t speak for all Blacks. You have revealed yourself to be an asshole, however, so congratulations.
Apologies for revealing myself to be an asshole, we weren’t all born with one in the middle of our face like you.
Go back and hit the chianti again, old man. 4:44p is early but when you have nothing else to do I can’t blame you.
And the fact that this post is by a couple of fat, very old, white guys from Brandywine Hundred and Hockessin shitting on every black legislator in state….. it shows you everything you need to know about white liberals “Of a Certain Age”.
I’d be concerned but you’ll be slobbering on yourselves within 10 years, which may not actually be a discernible difference from your current look.
I didn’t shit on anybody. El Som’s opinions are his own.
I do shit on trolls, though, especially ones who pretend to be black.
You know how I know you’re not black? Because you have the weakest game of the dozens I’ve ever heard. Jesus, you couldn’t even type your fake name in the same way twice.
So fuck off, troll.
I dunno. White Savio has a ring of truth to it.
Meatball I don’t know her. Come to think of it she’s too progressive for them lol. I saw that she was endorsed by the progressive democrats the last time she ran. Why aren’t you all talking about the way Ken Boulden ran his race, because Ms. Darrah sure didn’t. I found out she broke up a married home, she is Boulden side peace, and he even made her his benefactor on his will. I thought he had a wife?
Anyway, I supported Marie, Jessica & Aja all strong progressive women. I want to see both Aja and Jessica come back.
Meatball I don’t know her. Come to think of it she’s too progressive for them lol. I saw that she was endorsed by the progressive democrats the last time she ran. Why aren’t you all talking about the way Ken Boulden ran his race, because Ms. Darrah sure didn’t lol. I found out she broke up a married home, she is Boulden side peace, and he even made her his benefactor on his will. I thought he had a wife?
Anyway, I supported Marie, Jessica & Aja all strong progressive women. I want to see both Aja and Jessica come back.