The 2025 Delaware Democratic Convention
Here is my mostly-anecdotal take on today’s convention. I was a delegate and, thanks to alert fellow 7th RD committee members, we were in the front row. I didn’t get in any fights.
The newly-elected slate of statewide Democratic Party officers is as follows:
State Party Chair: Evelyn Waters Brady
First Vice-Chair: Coby Owens
Second Vice-Chair: Debbie Harrington
Treasurer: Brennon Fountain
Secretary: Leslie Ledogar
OK, now for my take on the proceedings.
The convention was generally well-run. Yes, it took an inordinately long time to count the ballots for Party Chair. But, everyone learned from that, and the rest of the proceedings went quite smoothly. There was no difficulty getting credentialed and into the auditorium. Shout-out to officers and volunteers.
Malcolm Kenyatta, who is from Philly and is a DNC Vice-Chair, gave a great red-meat address. So, of course, did Sarah McBride. We also heard from Governor Matt Meyer, Lt. Governor Kyle Evans Gay, State Treasurer Colleen Davis and, a bit later in the proceedings, Chris Coons.
While the jury is out on whether Evelyn Waters Brady, who got my vote, will be a great State Party Chair, she is already the Best Candidate Ever for the position of State Chair. Her speech today was full of energy and enthusiasm. Oh, and inclusiveness. The delegate sitting to my left, who was not from our district, kept saying, “It’s over.” And it was. The. word that comes to mind in describing Cassandra Marshall’s speech is ‘bureaucratic’. And low energy. A third candidate, John Starks, from Kent County was also nominated. I wouldn’t call what he gave a speech but, at the end of his three minutes, he dropped out and endorsed Evelyn.
I was very disappointed that Nick Beard wasn’t elected to the Treasurer position. Her opponent, Brennon Fountain, hadn’t bothered to meet with the various RD committees, and only announced his candidacy just something like three days before the convention. And, yes, I thought it was poor form for Colleen Davis to endorse Brennon from the stage of the convention (he works in her office).
Some other anecdotes–I think, but I’m not sure, that Matt Meyer had never confirmed his attendance with the Party Chair. From my perch in the front row, I’m pretty sure I heard Betsy Maron say ‘And going off the scheduled agenda…’ before she called him onstage. Is it asking too much for the Governor to respond?
I thought that Betsy handled the convention with grace and competence. She seemed pretty relaxed. I think she’s happy to move on to her next stage in life. Let me make this clear: Any disagreements I’ve had with her were in no way personal. I’ve known her since we were both members of the 7th RD dating back to the early ’80’s. (Yikes! 40 years!). I’ve always liked her, and I wish the best for her.
There was no debate permitted on the reports from the Platform Committee, Resolutions Committee, and Rules Committee. There must have been something in the Rules Committee report that caused several members of the Kent County delegation to object. While the Rules Committee report apparently received the 3/4ths majority that the party rules require, I’d like to hear from someone from the delegation to share what their concerns are.
Finally, events like these are all about people. I bumped into one of my co-workers from my time in the Senate. She still works there. I was at her wedding, and she had a son right before I left the General Assembly. She told me he’s now headed off to college. Man, time flies. I look far worse for wear than she does. It was great to see her. Made my day.
If you were there, what did you see and what did you think?
Agree on the proceedings and counting the votes but it did get better.
I actually agree with most of what you said. Malcom is the passion we need and Sarah. Well she is Sarah! I thought some of the other speeches could have been passed on but it’s the convention.
I look forward to seeing what Evelyn and us can do going forward!
Got remote reports and I will save any thoughts beyond congratulations for another day. I met Chair Brady a few weeks ago at a non political event and she was gracious and poised and empathetic in offering support to our mutual friend. I am for the first time in a while hopeful.
4 of the rule changes were to directly attack Kent.
Paul: What did they do?
I stand corrected at 3 rules. Rule 2.1.d.1– when a cross district has a candidate file, the other county get money even though the candidate filed in Kent. 2.2.b– removing specific numbers for cross county districts. 10.4 which adds to the grievance procedure allowing the state party to add penalties when there is no actual violation but the party wants to create something to penalize the person they don’t like.
Thanks for explaining. I didn’t understand those rules pertaining to districts that cross county lines.
I was surprised at Colleen Davis’ lack of tact in endorsing her deputy as State Treasurer, while she is supposed to talk about her accomplishments as treasurer. We can assume she us running for re-election, but many Sussex County delegates murmured that they have to go to Kent County to see Sussex Countian Davis’ face. As to her deputy, the new State Party Treasurer, seems he, too, lives in Sussex County- would have been nice if he had actually been involved with the subdivision.
As to the speakers, Malcolm Kenyatta was great and much appreciated. Sarah McBride was as inspirational as Chris Coons was in 2010. The rest took up valuable time.
It will be really hard for Brady to be any less of a dud than Betsy was for 4 years. All I ever saw Betsy do was wish Chris coons and tom carper happy birthday in emails. I literally have no idea what else she actually did. As the OP said, Betsy taking over was always odd and seemed uncomfortable. She can stop pretending now and be free of the burden.
To be fair, I’m not sure anybody else sought the position.
The whole Kent county thing is that for A VERY long time Bruce Ennis filed for reelection in NCC. NCC would send a proportional amount (by ED) of his filing fee to Kent County. The same is done with the City of Wilmington. Both of them cashed all of the checks (you can verify easily).
When there was an open seat, 3 or 4 candidates all filed in Kent. Kent refused to pay a proportional amount to NCC. It was grieved by NCC. They won. Kent still refused to pay.
I think the rule change is to make it clear that that money must be disbursed. So, honestly, fuck Kent’s feelings. They were behaving like Trump in multiple ways.
Thanks for the context.
All I knew when they described the rules change yesterday was that I had no clue what they were talking about.
No, f. NCC. They had $90k in the bank while Kent had $9 right before Election Day and I doubt the Bruce Ennis story. The law says that you file in the County where you reside. I barely live above the NCC line and I still know that the money should have stayed in Kent.
It’s been an issue for years where more, almost all, attention is paid above the canal and everyone else has to fend for itself. Poor Sussex is trying to flip districts and given no resources. They are growing by leaps and bounds over the other counties and treated like a red headed step child. The western section is still really red, but the eastern side has a chance to flip some districts if anyone in the party really cared. Same with Kent. Dover was the line at one point. North was blue and south was red. The numbers are almost even for registration the closer you get to Dover, but without resources, hard to make a change. It’s the elitist attitude of NCC and State party leaders for a long time.
I’m not gonna be the referee here.
Just appreciative that the readers and I now understand what the dispute was (and apparently is) about.
The proof is in the reports. They aren’t made-up. You can look at the reports from Kent for years. Kent doesn’t pay the huge amount that NCC had paid in to the Coordinated Campaign every cycle. It’s proportional. NCC doesn’t bitch and moan that they pay 4 or 5 times what Kent does. They complain that Kent short-changes NCC and makes up the rules as they go along.
Only one subdivision in the state behaves like this.
They need to get their shit together. This rule change should help, but as you can see, none are so blind as those that refuse to see.
Kent, pays the same amount as Sussex and the Wilmington subdivisions into the CC (Coordinated Campaign). NCC pays more simply because of the number of legislative seats.
The thing that the State Party never released, is that there was never a rule for fee exchanges. Yes, they sided with NCC but there was literally nothing for them to enforce. Smoke and mirrors.
Kent’s Treasurer provided over 14 instances where there were no monies exchanged during the grievance process. So no, it has not happened every election cycle.
The 14th Senate Race was a 5 way primary. NCC, demanding the money for over two years was and is absolutely ridiculous. It was nothing more than pure greed when the bank account balances were compared. Great way to divide the party-just like the Resolution that was introduced by NCC.
The Resolution, which failed at the State Party level-is exactly what tanked the CC.
NCC’s greed and failures in leadership is what fueled the Kent County Delegates. Let’s try acting like we’re one Party.
The NCC Chairman, flagging down the newly elected State Party Chairman-to stop the announcements at the end of the Convention… kinda says who is still in charge.
14 instances would go back decades. I call bullshit. The payments are predictable and it took me all of 15 minutes to find them. Just review Kent 30 day primary filings in years that Bruce Ennis was up for reelection.
And by this incredibly stupid logic, the City of Wilmington Party would NEVER get filing fees since everyone pays to their county.
It DOES go back decades. That’s exactly my point. Contact the previous Kent Treasurer, he put a lot of research into the report he provided to the State Party. This isn’t and hasn’t been about Senator Ennis or where he did or did not file. You apparently are stuck on that issue. There are three cross county RD’s in Delaware, all affect Kent County. The rule changes were just throwing darts at Kent. If the State Party thought that would go unanswered, they were sadly mistaken.
Incorrect. There are also 3 in Wilmington. And you must be new if you think that the lines haven’t moved. There are Rep and Senate districts. The state party has a spreadsheet with all of the info and it has been done like clockwork for decades.
It was only when Kent had to write a check that they made up their own rules. “Oh, look at how much NCC has in their account! That’s too much! You get nothing.”
I have wondered if the issue was the fact that the NCC Chair and the state chair were women. It would check out.
Congratulations to our new Chair Brady who deserves support from those experienced in Party work. Speaking of work, Cassandra Marshall is a proven work horse, not a show horse and we owe her both respect and gratitude for her ceaseless efforts to do the plodding, thankless work required to run a Party organization. Thank you Cassandra.
I enjoy fiction.
Agreed with the comments on the Treasurer and hope she draws a strong primary. Maybe from someone she mentioned. Saying Chair Brady gives me what my nephews call “the ick” because of the GOP but I am excited for our new Chair. I hope vote counts will be available in the minutes so we can see how things played out exactly. I heard murmurs that Monica Beard was too “WFP” but the defeat of Marshall seems to indicate the welcoming of the liberal left. I can’t move on without expressing disappointment of Debbie Harrington continuing as Vice Chair having achieved nothing but another failed run for office while a party officer.
I was PO’d that neither Harrington nor the Treasurer guy bothered to reach out to the committee members. Neither announced until the last week. Neither did the last-minute challenger to Leslie Ledogar.
Clearly, not enough people shared my opinion.
There is a bit of history of “swoop in and win” I don’t agree with the ploy and I am not critiquing Saturday’s result either way but the premise is that sometimes the early candidate is less than impressive. A gentleman who was a great friend of mine and well known to the Treasurer was a fan of the tactic. That’s politics.
Maybe, but I gotta tell you, Debbie Harrington was totally unimpressive. First time I’d ever seen her speak.
So was Colleen Davis’ hand-picked guy.
I could have gone either way on the Harrigton vote, both have done stellar work volunteering. I will say that Debbie might be a dynamic speaker, but her work ethic and intelligence have been impressive to many. I learned that the best thing she does is listen and formulate a response and plan. I believe that is the military training. I wish there were more spots for the deserving.
I expected to see some sign of her military training/organizational skills in her presentation. I saw none.
Plus, on at least three occasions that I can recall, Harrington was scheduled to appear and speak at an event that I attended, and all three times she was a no-show.
Plus, the campaign she ran against Kevin Hensley sucked.
I’ll describe my overall impression of Harrington thusly–The IDEA of Debbie Harrington far outpaced the reality of Debbie Harrington.
100% agree. Harrington is dull AF and only won because of her incumbency.
Catherine Ciferni worked a lot harder to earn votes and is impressive on a number of levels.