DL Open Thread Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Gov. John Carney officially announced his candidacy for mayor of Wilmington Monday. If he succeeds, it would mark one of the biggest self-demotions since ex-President John Quincy Adams was elected to Congress. If he fails, it would be even more embarrassing.
It must be the season for political comebacks. DL patron saint Howard Dean is considering a run for governor of Vermont, two decades after he left the office to run for president. If he takes the plunge, he should promise not to scream.
It appears the uproarious MTG finally overplayed her hand. Her GOP colleagues are cold-shouldering her threat to oust House speaker Moses Mike Johnson, mainly because Democrats have made clear they’ll rescue him. Kind of amazing it took this long for Democrats to make common cause with the non-nutjob faction of the GOP to marginalize that party’s loonball minority. Makes one think that maybe they aren’t all that good at this.
Pro-Palestine protests on college campuses have roiled – well, they haven’t roiled much more than a bunch of talking heads, but boy are those heads roiled. In an echo of Israel’s genocidal overreaction to Oct. 7, university administrators have called in the cops, threatened to expel student protesters, a whole gamut of overreactions that have pundits citing Kent State. These are colleges, mind you, which tidily disproves Santayana – even those who remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The floor’s yours.
Carney’s platform:
“I live here, and I’ve got nothing better to do.”
“I wanted to run for Senate and I was surprised that my old boss endorsed someone else. Did anyone know about this?” – John Carney
I have many many many problems with Tom Carper but his decision to retire at this point was a classy thing to do and the right one. Spoke to his character which I think is good.
His also recognizing that John carney sucks and embarrassing him was another point in his favor.
No. Carper created Carney. Forced his fiscal aparatchik onto a ticket with Ruth Ann Minner in exchange for Carper’s support.
Carney had demonstrated no interest in running for office before that. Carper viewed him as his legacy–a fiscally conservative DINO.
He was right–although perhaps he couldn’t imagine anyone with such a lack of vision.
I don’t think Carney envisioned Carper anointing him as the chosen one. For that we can all be thankful.
Not saying it wasn’t a class act decision. My comment was political satire.
His platform is more substantive than BHL’s
Has anyone called Joe Flacco to see if he wants to run for Mayor of Wilmington?
If the Mayor has to be some kind of football hero, (Purzycki and Carney), can’t we at least have a Mayor who won a f*cking Super Bowl?
Joe Flacco is the UD commencement speaker, so maybe he will make an announcement then.
(That was a joke, if you couldn’t tell.)
You say it’s a joke, but you can’t guarantee it’s a joke, can you? 🙂
He actually is the commencement speaker. I guarantee that much.
Why shouldn’t John Carney lose the race for mayor? His conduct and deportment regarding health benefits for State of Delaware employees, lack of transparency, take MA or nothing, clinging to a court remedy all point to an attitude and behavior that the vast majority of Wilmingtonians would be idiotic to trust. He cares only for elites, who already don’t need his help.
I’ve come around to where you are on this.
We’ll certainly have to be wary of Potter-style grifting, but at least she’d have a vision that doesn’t solely rely on gentrification, gentrification, and MORE gentrification.
A race between budget smoothing and budget looting.
The quotes in the Delaware Public Media article about Carney read like they came right out of VEEP.
“‘There’s no gentrification happening,’ he says.” — Sorry sir, do you live here??
I tend to agree that there is no widespread, classical gentrification happening. No one was/is being displaced due to the riverfront development. The development downtown is mostly converted commercial. No one is leveling the east side, southbridge, wcc, north market, or hilltop to build new condos.
This does represent a different type of economic stratification, in which the commercial corridor and prime residential space gets continued investment, at the expense of underdeveloped communities.
Part of that is due to the General Assembly not giving the City broader condemnation powers, which they had sought.
I agree that it’s more like Rendell-era Philly, where downtown development was done while the residential neighborhoods were neglected.
Here’s an example of what Julie is talking about.
https://www.delawarepublic.org/science-health-tech/2024-04-30/creative-vision-factory-art-mental-health-addiction-wilmington
It’s polarizing. It’s the powerful looking down on those in need. And it will have to get worse before the powerful realize they have to do something better.
Carney’s campaign tag “At my age I just want a shorter commute.”