Delaware Political Weekly: November 3-9, 2023
1. Carney For Wilmington. First, even with the lowered journalistic standards that have become the new normal, I can’t believe that, as I’m writing this, not a single news organization has picked up this story.
What I want to talk about, though, is a comment that Bane made in the Carney thread that got me to thinking:
Word on the street is that for the last year, Carney and Mike P. were trying to recruit a few of the more established, respected, young, african american leaders in WIlmington to run for mayor, including Herring. Seems like all of them who were smart and respected enough to be “recruited” said “Hell no! You people crazy af”.
So Carney said “F—- it – Hold my beer. Go Birds!”
I don’t know if that’s true. However what is undeniable is that established and respected young Black leaders in Wilmington are avoiding running against grifters, both for the General Assembly and for City Council.
There are of course exceptions: Tizzy Lockman, Shane Darby, Chris Johnson and newcomer Brandon Fletcher Dominguez come to mind. I don’t know if I’m missing anybody else. But when the likes of Stephanie Bolden, Darius Brown and Xanthia Oliver can continue to feed at the public trough, I wonder why.
I thought the thread was real good until a couple of trolls decided to make it personal. Posters made an effective point on just how hard it is to be Mayor of Wilmington. Which explains why Carney’s only challenger might be confirmed grifter Velda Jones-Potter. The family has been shut out of public office for awhile, and the ‘ol’ coffers’ might be getting a little threadbare.
As to Carney, I’ll withhold further judgment until I see whether he reschedules that fundraiser for Bethany Hall-Long. She and her husband have now been exposed as confirmed grifters, and we haven’t even revisited the story on how Dana Long got his hands on the contact information for Section 8 residents in BHL’s Senate district when she was running for that seat so that the campaign could call them and perhaps put pressure on them. There’s a reason why the County transferred him out of his home territory to Brandywine Hundred–where he soon developed another, more lucrative, grift. Which is the reason he’s no longer employed by NCC.
John, you might want to think about that before you lend your name to a fundraiser for her.
2. Sen. Tizzy Lockman And Branden Fletcher Dominguez Team Up. I’m happy about that. Couldn’t attend a fundraiser that was held last night, but I’ll contribute again to Branden’s campaign. He would be a marked improvement over Sherry Dorsey Walker, who was merely passing time in Dover before she again sought the Office Of Lieutenant Governor. As I’ve said, she didn’t exactly suck, but she was disengaged. Branden Fletcher Dominguez is incredible. I first met him while campaigning for Shane Darby. He’s a true progressive, and he will not be a back-bencher. He has legitimate leadership potential. And you can contribute to him right here.
That’s all I’ve got. What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?
It’s truly stumped me as to why Carney running for Mayor wouldn’t be bigger news. Truly sad for the city if he gets it. The city needs someone who actually loves the city enough to do something about the problems it faces. Carney will be a rubber stamp for corporations to get their hands on the city.
Most of our media outlets have apparently decided not to report on candidates until they actually file their candidacy or announce. Forming a campaign committee doesn’t appear to be enough of a commitment.
I get that. But the Governor running for Wilmington Mayor? That’s a whole ‘nother thing.
One of my friends has suggested that Carney wants to be mayor so he can keep a closer watch on the Wilmington Learning Collaborative, which he has been touting as his primary achievement in the education arena.
I’m questioning his logic. Time after time, the collaborative has missed scheduled deadlines and it has no substantive accomplishments to date. It’s moving at a snail’s (Carney-like) pace. Carney does not have a reputation for pushing anyone to get things done quickly. If I’m Carney, I’d want to get as far away as possible from the collaborative, and that means staying out of City Hall.
Does the city have a seat on the WLC board? I thought it was just the districts. Seems like a silly rationale to me.
Council has 3 reps from each district (superintendent, city board member and parent), plus one appointee by the Mayor and one by the Secretary of Education. Also student rep, named by the rest of the council, who has limited voting powers.
As mayor, Carney would be in better position to follow what the WLC is up to.
Interestingly, Purzycki’s appointee lives in Newark … but he’s a retired teacher/administrator who grew up in Wilmington and spent a lot of his career in city schools.
Also, there was a pro-BHL text message push poll out yesterday bashing Meyer.
If you listen to the entire poll, it bashes BOTH BHL and Meyer. It pushes negatives for each. This leads me to believe the poll was conducted for a potential third candidate, looking for a path to victory.
john carney doesnt have the guts to cut bhl butttttttt he also doesnt have the guts to do anything to support her. good old moderate dem.
ill take velda over john. I already know he sucks at being an executive, I dont know if she would.
it seems like carneys message is that velda’s husband is corrupt so she cant be mayor. but, bhl, should be governor. despite the fact that her husband is corrupt. can someone help do the math here? there’s something different about the two of them but I just cant plcace it hmmmm
Check with people who worked with her at the bank. She sucks too.
to be clear alby I do think they both suck. I wish eugene would run for mayor but that ship has sailed
When it’s an incompetent vs. a grifter, I’ll take the incompetent. YMMV.
Looks like Colin O’Marra is going to be the spoiler in the 2024 governor race. He doesn’t even know anyone, is never here, is deeply tied into the crypto and bitcoin industry he apparently bounced a check or it has been frozen for $20,000!!! He cheated his own political party! We’re still dealing with the Bloom Energy mess and his top two campaign consiglieres are none other than Dennis E. Williams and Richard Korn. His campaign slogan might as well be #FirstStateFarce.
Source?
Evidently, he held an organizational campaign kickoff meeting the other night and let’s just say he has a leak in his boat.
Dennis E. Wiliams? Richard Korn? Man, they’re not even the JV.
What makes you think he’s a spoiler? Simply because you don’t like him?
Let’s see–he’s starting late. He’s never run for office in Delaware and hasn’t lived here for some time, even though he apparently has maintained a residence here. He’s gonna need to raise money from somewhere. And his campaign ‘braintrust’ is comprised of two has-beens and/or never wases.
Because there’s a thing called math and he’s going to cut into the meyer vote and we’ll be left with this corrupt annd unethical idiot thanks to people like you.
Typical of this crowd to go all negative on an actual progressive with a proven record who is in his 30s and could actually help the state detox from its addiction to the go-along-to-get-along corrupt Delaware Way of BHL and John Carney. I hope he gets in and if he does I’ll be the first to contribute and volunteer for him.
We kind-of figured that. Figured you were already on board.
‘Typical of this crowd’…that’s what I call bullshit.
In his 30s? He graduated Dartmouth in 2001. He was named NWF president in 2014, when he was 35. He’s 43-44.
He is 44. Registered to vote in Bear
Since when? Last I heard he merely owned a home in Wilmington.
If he was a serious candidate, people would be more serious about him, but he’s not. No one is cheering for a Colin O’marra run except for a few handful of environmentalists and a couple of has beens/were nots who couldn’t get elected dog catcher if they tried.
“Typical of this crown”? This blog is a s a progressive oasis.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2023/11/10/bethany-hall-long-campaign-related-expenses-improperly-reported/71536035007/
Only 300K 😉
Hmmm, a press release from the campaign late on a Friday afternoon.
News dumps don’t get more blatant than that.
$300 K. Are you bleeping kidding me? Especially since Dana Long was her treasurer from way back to her first race up until this year.
bhl isn’t going to win. if colin omara or anyone else for that matter gets in, she will be in third. 80% of the state doesnt know who she is and now they are going to know nothing about her other than this. she has no money to communicate on tv. not positive. not negative. meyer will probably have 4x her money by january. who in their right mind is going to give her money now? knowing that her and her husband just wrote 200k in payments to themselves. 200k in checks. to themselves. that they now say were for expenditures but haven’t actually listed those expenditures.
she is not a serious or viable candidate.
but it’s been great to see the cowards of the party and the powers that be allow her to bleed out and wither on the vine until they got someone else in. and she played the part flawlessly.
You can’t be serious saying 80% of the state doesn’t know who she is? Be so serious
OK, it might be only 75%. Lieutenant governor is not exactly a high-profile position, especially upstate. Downstate gets some coverage from WBOC, but no government stories about Delaware or NCCo ever makes the Philly TV news.
Beyond that, those of us who pay attention to politics usually overestimate, often by a lot, how informed about this stuff normal people are. I think one reason Trump doesn’t generate more outrage is that a lot of people figure, “ah, they all do it.”
So Avi’s mistake isn’t about how few people know who she is. It’s about how much, or more likely how little, they’ll care about what she’s done – once they learn about it. The News-Journal’s circulation is a tiny fraction of what it used to be, radio’s reach is even less, so they’ll learn about it mainly through Meyer’s attack-ad mailers.
I’d be surprised if more than 60% of the public could name the governor in a pop quiz, just as I’d be surprised if 50% could name our congresswoman unprompted. Unless and until some issue affects them directly, the majority pays no attention at all to government.
Truth. When I speak to people here in my district about our state rep (I’m on the district committee), many people invariably say it’s Lisa Blunt Rochester.
They don’t pay attention until/unless it impacts them.
Yes, it seems weird, but the people on this site are political junkies. The general public-not so much.
I can promise you not a single person in my office can name our senators, representative, and governor, let alone the lieutenant governor.
1) The editors of the state’s media outlets are complete and total jackasses for not covering Carney’s filing of papers to run for Wilmington mayor. And they wonder why readership is down.
2) O’Mara getting in will likely split votes among him and Meyer and make things easier for BHL.
3) The only threat to BHL would be a canddiate who should run who I call the Mispillion Moderate, who can unite Democrats on both sides of the canal and the Mispillion River, and also excite farmers and others who used to be reliably Demcoratic voters. But until he gets in, it’s BHL’s race to lose despite what commenters and posters on here would like to happen.
Farmers? What are there 10 of them? There’s more votes to be had in Union Park Gardens one block of Geddes street than in your Mispillipn River Valley.
There aren’t enough downstate Democrats to make appealing to them important. This is why downstaters like Minner and Hall Long have to line up their place in the hierarchy early on. Because if it’s not “their turn,” they’ll never get one.
It’s BHL’s race to lose, but she’s losing it more every day.
she has a 14% approval rating when people find out about what she did. it was her race to lose but she lost it. at this point whatever she thinks she is doing is just embarassing.
Do you have a link to that poll?
I saw that poll too. Now, if only I can find it…
She has a built-in constituency regardless. There have been plenty of apologists for this behavior – I’m presuming that the caucus members she called were given some indication this was the problem – and they have a flock of loyalists who vote in primaries.
Add to that the uninformed who will go by name recognition, or her gender (don’t laugh – more than a few Republican women voted for Ruth Ann on that basis alone). In short, she will pull plenty of support unless and until lots of people find out about what she did.
Not sure how many loyalists Our PAL Val or Nicole Poore have.
Sure would be nice to see just how ‘loyal’ their constituencies are…
It’s not just them. There’s a whole class of downstaters who depend on the state government for employment. That’s who she’s spent years cultivating.