Going against the Conventional Wisdom, I think it’s possible.
The two candidates? Matt Meyer and Collin O’Mara.
Now hear me out. I write this not only because both Meyer and O’Mara appeared at the dinner that our 7th RD cooked for the Arden Dinner Gild, and not only because they made positive impressions on the attendees. You all know that I like Matt. This was my first official interaction with Collin, who brought his two kids and his wife to the event. There is no doubt that O’Mara has a lot of ground to make up in terms of just meeting Delawareans. But he creates a very positive impression. Both Meyer and O’Mara have visions that they can share with primary voters. I know because I heard each of them explaining to attendees why they’re running. Both have the money advantage over…
Bethany Hall-Long, though, to be fair, BHL attended last year’s dinner. Didn’t, and still can’t, explain why she’s running. I know that the CW is that O’Mara is a spoiler who will help Bethany. I don’t think so. I think that BHL has already maxed out her prospective primary supporters, has nowhere near a majority, and has nowhere to go but down. Some of BHL’s supporters are ‘Anybody But Matt’ supporters who had no place else to go. Now they do. Or, may, if O’Mara can boost his profile.
Without trying to sound too sexist, O’Mara has that Kennedyesque appearance and appeal that might attract female BHL supporters to his campaign.
We still haven’t gotten to the distinct possibility that BHL’s legal woes may not be behind her. I mean, she still hasn’t released her so-called audit. We already know that she’s having problems raising money. We know that Matt is having no problems raising money. And after seeing Collin in action last weekend, I have no doubt that he’ll be able to raise money from contributors. And Bethany will presumably have little to no money coming in from her husband’s bullshit Section 8 house-flipping business now that he no longer ‘works’ for the County and has the inside information he used to access. Oh, and she no longer has that money they ‘borrowed’ from contributors in order to maintain their hardscrabble existence in their country club community.
If someone can explain to me how BHL’s insider candidacy is gonna grow to the point where she has a shot, I’d like to hear it. Otherwise, I think she’s gonna start hemorrhaging votes. At first, they’ll flip to undecided. Then, they’ll either go to Collin, or they will not vote.
Feel free to disagree, and let me know why.