Things I Want To See: Post-Primary Edition
In no particular order. Feel free to add your own:
Someone needs to immediately stop BHL from disbursing any more money from her opioid slush fund. Especially to herself.
I want to see Matt Meyer make government transparency and openness a key issue in his campaign and, one hopes, his administration. The voters have eliminated most of the impediments to ending the secrecy that John Carney and the General Assembly have embraced.
I want to see the new House leadership, following the November election, to give legislative employees the right to organize. There needs to be an end to the Pete/Val style of governing through fear.
I want to see Val Gould seriously considered to be Sarah McBride’s replacement in Dover.
I want to see John Carney appoint Eugene Young as his Chief of Staff. Hey, he endorsed him for Congress. Eugene would fill the ‘Incuriosity Gap’ that has defined Carney’s entire government–pardon the expression–service.
I want to see all the public and private entities that Our PAL intimidated into ‘donating’ to the Police Athletic League not return her phone calls, and no longer pony up. They don’t have to, she’s not the Speaker any more. She can’t threaten to kill legislation unless groups pay ‘tribute’ to the PAL any more. In fact, if any of said entities informed the PAL board that any future donations would be contingent on Val being removed as Executive Director, I, um, wouldn’t object.
I want to see the new House leadership consider rehiring some of the really good people that Pete and Val fired.
I want to see the new House leadership inform Michael Alexander Smith that he is not welcome back. I also want to see the powers-that-be make sure that his phony not-for-profit doesn’t get a dime in state funding.
I want incumbent legislators to make sure that Our PAL Val has no access to legislative campaign accounts. But I also want to make sure that those legislative campaign committees max out to the campaigns of Dr. Monica Beard, Terrell Williams, and Tracey Miller. The money’s there. Val wouldn’t have used it b/c all she cared about was remaining as Speaker. But you can.
I want to see either Matt Meyer or House or Senate leadership hire Branden Fletcher Dominguez to attack the problem of homelessness.
That’s a start. What do you want to see?
I want to see a stake put through the toxic politics of the 14th RD. A wounded bear lashes out and it will be in the form of a money bomb to Clair’s R opponent. The dude is President of the Rehoboth Fire Company and is entrenched in the community. Get your canvassing shoes and sweaters and plan a door knocking trip for Clair this fall. Send Pete one last message!
Ranked Choice Voting.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/friends-of-monica-beard-1
I met Terrell Williams yesterday and just wanted to say he’s an absolutely lovely person. He was absolutely going to bat for Kevin Canceco all day and was just so kind to everyone.
Kevin Hensley, to his credit, does a great job at outreach to our district, so it’s going to be a tough battle. Every bit counts if you can give him something: https://terrell4de.com/
Hopefully, Kevin returns the favor. I fully expect that he will.
So, what color rose must we place at the feet of the first woman Speaker of the House after she gets her ass handed to her in a primary?
(And middle finger isn’t a color.)
Black
One covered in thorns.
A bare stem with its blossom lopped off
A carnation with a juvaderm syringe sticking out of the top.
Juvaderm. That was hilarious. 😀
Oops, forgot:
I want to see the DSEA rank-and-file throw out the people who engineered that BHL endorsement.
STAT!
Eugene doesn’t live in the City anymore and I highly doubt that he will fake his residency like so many political appointees have in the past.
My money is on Claire DeMatteis or some Buccini Executive
Oh, Gawd-d-d-d.
But you could be right.
St. Mark’s H. S. forever for those two.
No, put your money on Jeff Bullock.
Anything that gets Bullock out of the SOS office…
Well he’s certainly not taking his connectivity to any law or lobbying firms. I doubt he’s going to be welcome in any door for the next decade.
Eugene would be a good choice IF he is willing to move to the City.
Pretty sure there’s a grace period enabling someone to move into the city if they’re being hired for a key position.
Don’t know what it is, maybe someone more versed in city residency requirements can help us out.
Does Eugene live in Sarah’s senate district? Eugene in the Senate could be great
No.
But there are are some real good people who do. And I suspect that Sarah will have plenty of input into who the Party chooses to run for that seat.
It will be interesting to see where Eugene goes from here. His may have been the biggest political miscalculation of the cycle.
To me the biggest miscalculation was O’Mara’s candidacy. Was he a shill for BHL to try to peel votes away from Meyer? Seems risky if he expects to have a political future in the state. Maybe he’s a good policy guy but bad retail politician? He’s seems smart but ran a very casual, half-assed campaign. I’m genuinely curious.
I have been curious from the first about how running for governor squared with him chairing a big government-funded hydrogen project.
Read this news release at the state web site from a year ago. Sounds to me like the kind of thing you’d want to protect by having all the right lawmakers in place to fork over the funding. So maybe those involved – I notice the unions get a big mention in the release – would be motivated to help a go-along, get-along weathervane like BHL win the office.
https://news.delaware.gov/2023/10/13/mid-atlantic-clean-hydrogen-hub-chosen-by-department-of-energy-to-receive-funding-to-advance-clean-energy/
If someone has a better explanation of the O’Mara candidacy, I’m all ears.
Collin is, at best a dilettante, or maybe just a grifter. His record at DENREC is unimpressive, and while his proposals got some folks excited, they were just proposals, without any knowledge or understanding of how to get them through the legislature or implemented. What I refer to as an extremely empty suit, like Arne Duncan.
I would say the most likely explanation is human nature being human nature, and the pull of personal ambition, before any sense of running as a conspiracy to help BHL, unless evidence emerges to the contrary. My guess is that Omara has (or maybe had) an inflated sense that his relative success/status in non-political fields would translate into success in the field of electoral politics. He did not run a good campaign. Campaining and planning, organizing campaigns, are a skill in itself. Some people are good at it (or can figure out how to be good at it). Some people aren’t.
Doesn’t pass the smell test for me. He’s not stupid, he knew he was starting in third place, and then ran a really lazy campaign. If he were serious he would have hired someone with experience to run his campaign. He didn’t.
Your read, that he’s got an oversized ego, might well be true, but he’d also have to have incredibly poor judgment. I’ve seen nothing in his past to suggest that’s the case.
I think whoever used the word ‘dilettante’ got it right.
I think what Alby said makes the most sense. A shill because he needed BHL’s support for the hydrogen project. Interesting to see what happens with that going forward in terms of Meyer’s support of it.
Money laundering, along with his wife’s bid for Maryland governor a few years ago
Money laundering? Source?
I want to see what happens during BHL’s couple of weeks as governor (I slow down to look at car crashes)
I want to see who Governor Meyer will pick to fill in for Chris Coons when he gets a Cabinet Position in the new Harris Administration.
That’ll never happen…like in 2008/2009 with Minner picking Kaufman (which was really Biden’s pick), Carney (through Coons) will most likely have the opportunity to select.
Lol. Coons was at Meyer’s party.
Any appointment would be after Meyer is sworn in.
I know it’s fresh still but you guys really don’t understand that your job is to get shit off the Wilmington streets and building permits done efficiently. No one is interested in your thoughts on who should be senator for Delaware. Decidedly so.
Out of curiosity, was Coons at Meyer’s party before or after the elections results started rolling in, and if it was after, was it after all of the results were in?
I think the part that will never happen is Coons getting tapped for a cabinet position. I don’t think she’s looking for an Israel hawk for State.
Anyone know if he can choose himself? I know Carney would… or BHL would if it happens during the two weeks…
The only reason why Harris would even consider Coons would be to possibly elevate someone like Sarah to the Senate.
Cabinet officials have to be confirmed. Even IF she nominates him, there’s no way he’d be ensconced in the cabinet before Meyer was Governor.
Plus, why would she risk a special election when the Senate is likely at best to be 50-50, more likely 49-51?
There’s no risk for a special election in Delaware. The Republicans have no bench to run from and no money to run with. They can only win in Kent (sometimes) and Sussex (some places).
No chance for a special election; the seat is already up in 2026.
Ah, but there COULD be. While it’s true that the Governor could appoint a successor to fill out the remaining term, if said Governor named Sarah McBride (I would), then there would be a special election–for the congressional seat.