Delaware Political Weekly: June 10-16, 2022
1. It’s Official! Becca Cotto Files Against Deb Heffernan. Becca has been campaigning since the beginning of the year. A true grassroots campaign. I’ve been knocking doors on her behalf. Response has been great. She is our kind of candidate–a true progressive, the Director of YWCA Delaware’s Social And Racial Justice Program. In predictable fashion, the Heffernan campaign, which had been almost as invisible as Heffernan herself has been in the district, posted a shit e-blast about Cotto’s demand for accountability following the police killing of George Floyd. Guess they were waiting for Becca to file. Heffernan’s votes aren’t bad. However, she has enabled the Kop Kabal with her support for them in leadership, and even helped Longhurst’s scheme to fund the Ft. DuPont boondoggle. Heffernan now holds the distinction of holding the purse-strings for the project while serving on the Ft. DuPont board that will ask her for the money. Totally unethical. She is also one of Buccini/Pollin’s beneficiaries. Leg Hall fixer Bobby Byrd has publicly promised to raise Heffernan all the money she will need. Cotto has pledged to take no corporate money. It’s no secret that the incumbent has been virtually invisible. She didn’t even show up for the reorganization of her own district committee on Monday. Becca doesn’t expect to outspend Deb. But she can raise enough money to be competitive which, with her burgeoning grassroots support, makes this race one of the best opportunities for a progressive pickup this cycle. Help her out. Right here! Just click on that orange ‘Donate’ button.
2. And Then There Were–Five. A five-way D primary to succeed Sen. Bruce Ennis in the 14th SD. The latest entry, and he looks like he’ll have the construction trades behind him, is Sam Noel. All carpenters, all the time. I suppose you could do worse in this district. Having said that, four out of the five filed candidates will lose this primary. If someone would just switch to challenge Ol’ Lumpy Carson, they’d likely have better than a 50% chance of winning. Hey, all I can do is suggest, I can’t make anybody switch.
3. Colin’s Three-Way. No, he doesn’t have the energy for that. Will Bonini have enough energy to fend off both Kent County Levy Court Commissioner Eric Buckson and NRA gun nut Kim Petters in an R primary for his Senate seat? What do our Kentco pundits think?
4. R Bryan Shupe Gets A Primary. His name? Patrick Smith. Check out the bow tie. Looks like a clip-on to me. Kinda enjoy this excerpt from his bio:
Patrick spends most of his time working around their property, hunting, or socializing with friends. Patrick is an avid fan of local craft breweries.
Ho-kay. Hadn’t heard of much R dissatisfaction with Shupe, but, hey, I don’t live there.
5. Rethug Primary In RD 4. The district that was transplanted from Wilmington and NCC to Suxco. The new candidate is Jeff Hilovsky, a retired USAF Medical Commander. At first blush, quite the credible candidate. The other candidate is Brad Layfield, a high school principal. A prospective D candidate, Keegan Worley, has filed a committee, but hasn’t yet filed for office.
6. Filings: D State Treasurer Colleen Davis; State Rep. Ruth Briggs King (R-37th RD).
That’s all I’ve got. What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?
The 14th SD is turning into chaos quickly for the Dems in a very red year. GOP pickup.
Kim petters wants to be the Marjorie Taylor Greene of Delaware. She went from a semi normal Republican weed advocate to complete fringe lunatic obsessed with conspiracies and guns. Ahh trump has ruined so many.
What’s with these GOP dudes and bow ties.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. The 14th has a strong D edge. Plus, I’m not convinced that all 5 D’s are campaigning vigorously.
Do you live in that district? What have you seen? Who would you consider the favorite?
“A very red year.”
In Delaware? You think people — in the civilized parts of the state, anyway — are going to vote for sedition and Lauren Witless? How much money are you willing to stake on that?
And that right there is the backwards thinking of democrats in Delaware thinking in 1995. Sussex in last census went to almost 250k Kent another 200k. SNCC has almost 100k alone. That is now more then the rest of NCC
keep living in the past. The days of the confessional Delegation all living within 3 miles of each other in Wilmington is going to be over soon
All the people moving to Sussex are also backwards hicks and hayseeds. Exactly! You’re so smart!
Just like immigration is a communist plot. You lot are too clever.
And you are exactly what’s wrong with this Democratic Party who thinks it’s still 1995 and has a hack as their chair. Sussex has 250k Kent has 200k SNCC is close to 100k. Read the census! You know like real info not blogs. That’s more then the rest of NCC. If the dems think they can ride on Wilmington newark and all the rich assholes in the North Star area you living in the past.
Welcome to the future
Have you been to southern new castle county or Kent or Sussex? In news to the Democratic Party of Delaware there is life outside the 8 percent population of Delaware that is Wilmington? And man that city is shit. Cant even take my son anymore after almost getting mugged down by the theater. Dems are a little dif once you leave the city. Ennis is an NRA guy and got re-elected by old school dems in name only. When he is not on the ballot you think they are voting dem?
Yes, actually. While Ennis overperformed, statewide Dems like LBR also won the 14th with 55% of the vote, which is a pretty significant victory. In a red year, this district can be competitive, but the notion that the 14th is some deep red district waiting to go Republican is just not true.
I can tell this was written by some cool guy in union gardens or trinity vicninty who think of south of bear as “uncivilized”
Huge dif between local and state candidates. Look at any of the 11th, 8th, 9th, 15th, 29th or 30th and compare them.
Get outside your Wilmington bubble
We all bow to your incisive understanding of the Delaware electorate.
Wilmington? You’d have to be as slow as a lower Delawarean to think that the city limits of Wilmington mean anything politically. New Castle County outside the city has more population than the two lower counties combines, even if you lop off the below-the-canal portion of NCCo.
All electing an R there will do is lessen the crushing majority of Democrats in the General Assembly. If you think I’m going to abandon all my positions and principles just so a guy with a D after his name gets the seat, think again. If they elect an R, they’ll get precisely what they deserve.
I do enjoy these updates, and I admit to looking to see who has filed on the DOE website.
A few comments: I looked at Bryan Shupe’s opponent’s website-to check on the clip-on bow tie. It appears that clipping on a bowtie is not the only evidence of laziness. In referring the September primary, he states that only Republicans may “partake” Having lived and voted in Milford , I don’t recall food being served at polling places. Speaking of polling places, his website states ‘some common polling places are…” He then lists 5 of the 10.
In reaction to the information on the new Sussex 4th, the new Republican candidate may “seem” qualified, but only until you look at HIS website. He is an eye doctor. His only published endorsement so far is from his own employee. He positions on issues are totally those of the Trump crazy right. The Democrat who has filed his committee but has not yet filed his paperwork with the DOE, is Keegan Worley. He is a young (27) public school teacher The 4th is not impossible for a Democrat if that Democrat is able to somehow convince the residents of manufactured homes in his district, who are strong Trump supporters, to actually vote IN their own interests.
Uh, Mitch, there’s a difference, at least in terms of educational bona fides, between an ophthalmologist and an optometrist. I’m a big fan of both.
But ‘eye doctor’ sounds like a pejorative to me.
El Som- I wrote “eye doctor” because I do not know whether or not he is and ophthalmologist or an optometrist. I respect both professions. As to it sounding perjorative, I often see FB posts asking people for recommendations for an “eye doctor”.
You used it in the context of, well let me quote your own words:
“In reaction to the information on the new Sussex 4th, the new Republican candidate may “seem” qualified, but only until you look at HIS website. He is an eye doctor.”
That’s clearly written as a pejorative.
You really love picking apart what other people write. How sad. How funny
Jesus Christ. For someone who putatively was a judge, your use of language is so imprecise.
You denigrated the guy for being an eye doctor. Then said you didn’t.
With you, that’s a pattern that repeats itself ad nauseum.
Keegan Worley’s wife works for or used to work for the House Ds.
Thanks!
I don’t have a dog in the fight for the 6th RD. But there were plenty of Elected officials who didn’t show up to their own Reorganization meetings. Whether I agree with any or all of your other critiques of Rep. Heffernan–the last point is childish, unless you went to all of the NCC Dems Reorg meetings and are going to call out all of the E/Os who didn’t show up– and hey, I’m here for that, actually–and you know how to get a hold of me for that information.
There were three RD’s that were meeting. For the uninitiated, RD stands for ‘Representative District’. As in ‘state representative’. The three RD’s?: 6, 7, and 10.
The representatives for the 7th and 10th were there. Larry Lambert and Sean Matthews. Deb was not, although she lives five minutes away.
You call pointing that out ‘childish’? Fine. I think it’s worth pointing out.
Reading Heffernan’s bio, it’s kinda sad really. She seems to be someone who started out on the right track with all the best intentions, but the corrosive pull of the Delaware Way is too much to resist over time.
This pattern has repeated itself many times over the years. For me the saddest example was former New Castle County Councilwoman Karen Venezky, who was elected on a good-government platform and lived up to it until Gordon and Freebery started whispering in her ear.
Power does corrupt, often in subtle ways.
I’d say it’s more the corrosive insistence by House leadership that either they’re for the Kop Kabal or against the Kop Kabal. They punish those who don’t kiss their butts.
Without a doubt, it’s historically the most adversarial a Caucus leadership team has been towards its own members, at least dating back to the early ’80’s, when I started down there.
Just a quick note on the Wilmington “bubble” idea. Bill Martin and I have had a chance to interact with many regular Kent Co. citizens since the McGuiness trial has kicked off in Dover. We plan to meet more next week.
Since colonial “Delaware” (think three lower counties) there’s been a distinct and stark difference in the political attitudes of New Castle Co. vis-a-vis the southern two. Look up the County Party and the Court Party.
In the mid 19th century both elites and working class people alike in Kent and Sussex were quite public about Confederate sympathies. A member of the duPont family in Dover wrote Lee in Richmond about plans to sabotage his own family’s Union gunpowder facilities in New Castle Co.
Slave plantations existed in Kent and Sussex through the Civil War. At the same time Wilmington was a crucial final pivot point for the Underground Railroad.
This doesn’t absolve my city of any guilt or racism or reactionary politics. It doesn’t apply on an individual basis. I know there are socialists in eastern Sussex and reactionary racists in my neighborhood.
But the principle of the County faction versus the Court faction is still alive and well in the First State. It requires only a cursory, passive consumption of local news to make it quite obvious.
But as in the 1750s and the 1850s and the 1950s… reactionary politics are the embryo of capital fascism. Whether neofeudal chattel slavery or the absolute ding-dongs circling Leg Hall in trucks pulling electric signs with anti union messages that I saw two weeks ago. And these politics in Delaware are foundational in Kent and Sussex.
The crux of the matter is my leftist politics make every attempt to consider the interests of the most people and reactionary garbage politics endeavours to consider the interests of the narrowest constituencies – usually the individual and perhaps the police who violently protect the individual’s accrued things.
—- Left is best…. REV
Yea all the gays down in the beach doing drag shows 100 percent agree with you sussex hasn’t changed since 1750!
How many of them vote at their beach address?
Draconian seems very smart.
That was a nice bit of history, REV.
🙏
Nice post from RE. Something further: Delaware was not in rebellion against the Union so the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply here. Delaware did not ratify the 13th amendment until 1901. This, more than “being Democrats ” has shaped the disaster of racism in Delaware.
Compliment at 4:20pm. Nice