DE’s Most Intriguing Legislative Races Of 2024: #4: RD 22

You can prioritize any of our remaining four races in any order you want.  Just, if you can, prioritize working on at least one of the four campaigns.  Four great candidates, each a huge upgrade over the incumbent.

The incumbent in RD 22 is a case in point.  He has established that his sole purpose in the Delaware House of Representatives is to serve as a useful pawn in the Rethugs’ attempt to impede progress and to pass ridiculous legislation.  Whether it’s giving Seaford corporations the right to vote, or stopping the inevitable move towards electric cars, Michael Smith is always right there to buttress the know-nothings.  Oh, sure, he (very) occasionally casts a vote suggesting he’s not as truly bad as some of his caucus members, but not when the chips are on the line.  Besides, ‘I’m not as bad as some of my colleagues’ hardly sounds like a winning message to me.

It’s difficult to determine which of his bills from this session (none of which have passed either chamber) are the most most notable:  The three bills addressing alleged loud music at a bar near Yorklyn, or his ludicrous redistricting bill.

Oh, that ludicrous redistricting bill?  Check this out:

The bill proposes that four redistricting committees be formed, one for each the House Majority, House Minority, Senate Majority, and Senate Minority caucuses. Each committee will be made up of three members from their respective caucus. Each committee will be supplied with all the necessary supplies and information in order to best determine how to redraw the district lines. Committees are to be established no later than January 30 of each year ending in 1.

As set forth in §812 and §813 of the bill (§812 for House and §813 for Senate), the redistricting committees of the majority caucuses will draw the original lines as they see fit, and then pass along the maps to the minority caucuses. The minority caucuses then choose to set some of the boundaries as they see fit (5 four House and 3 for Senate). The minority caucuses then redraw the remaining districts as they see fit. They continue in this fashion, setting boundaries as they see fit and redrawing the remaining ones before handing it over to the opposite party. The number of districts the house can set in place slowly declines throughout the process, while the number of districts the Senate can set in place remains as 2 after the initial redrawing.

The Delaware Supreme Court will review and judge the final redistricting plan. Residents of Delaware may petition for a mandamus or other review within 30 days of the adoption of the plan. If the General Assembly fails to meet their deadline or if the Supreme Court deems the redistricting plan unconstitutional, a judicial panel consisting of the Chancellor of the State of Delaware and 3 Superior Court judges (1 from each county) appointed by the President Judge of the Delaware Supreme Court, the Chancellor and 1 judge rom one party, and the other two judges from the other party. “The judicial redistricting plan shall be made public by November 1 of the same year and shall be final and lawfully binding. The judicial plan shall not be subject to any appellate process.”

Hey, I’ve got an idea:  Want more say in the redistricting process?  Nominate candidates who aren’t nutjobs.  The Rethugs are in a distinct minority for a reason.  Their candidates don’t appeal to a broad swath of voters.  Need I point out that the redistricting preceding the 2002 election was controlled by the R’s in the House?  Yet their majority gradually dissipated, and the House flipped in 2008 while under the 2002 R redistricting.

But, I digress. This might not matter if the Democrats didn’t have an awesome alternative to Smith.  But they do.  Monica ‘Nick’ Beard is the policy coordinator for the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  She serves on the boards of the Delaware Alliance Against Sexual Violence, the First State Abortion Fund, Friends of CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate), and the New York Alliance Against Sexual Assault.  She has laid out a specific and progressive set of legislative priorities that I think are achievable.  I know her as having been very active as a supporter of progressive candidates and progressive policy here in Delaware. She has already started her voter outreach, and it will only grow from here.

We already know that this district is competitive as Gigi Gonzalez likely would have won this seat back in 2018 were it not for the fact that she was ‘cut’ by the sore primary D loser and her husband.  As it was, she lost by 140 votes.

The registration favors a Democrat:  8377 D; 6595 R; and 6189 I.  The independent total has consistently increased as more registrants become disenchanted with the Republican Party.  Although the District has changed since that 2018 election, a comparison of registration totals is seriously instructive.  The totals from November of 2018: 7027 D; 6592 R; 5376 I.  According to my back-of-the-envelope math, in 2023, we now have 1350 more Democrats, 3 more Republicans, and 813 more I’s than we did in 2018.

Here is a copy of the RD 22 map.  We’re talking NW New Castle County, Hockessin, North Star (Dave Sokola!) and western suburbs.  There was a time when this area was absolutely rock-ribbed Republican.  Just like Brandywine Hundred was. There are no more elected R’s left in Brandywine Hundred.  Smith, Mike Ramone, and Janet Kilpatrick are the last three (more or less) standing here.

If you live near Monica’s district, please sign up and/or donate.  Right here.  I know there will be a crew knocking doors this weekend, which is why I’m posting this today.  If I wasn’t gonna be in Portland OR visiting my daughter, I’d be there.  I’ve already donated once, and will donate again as soon as my wife grants me permission…