There are three Democratic primaries:
District 3–where the Developers’ Best Friend Janet Kilpatrick is retiring. It’s a Hockessin/Newark area district.
District 4–where longtime Councilman Penrose Hollins is retiring. A Wilmington-area district.
District 5–where Valerie George immediately allied herself with developer interests. That district runs along the state’s western border from Newark down to below the Canal.
The issues in all three districts are similar. You have three pro-unfettered-development candidates running against those who (a) have promised to not be rubber-stamps for the developers, and (b) who oppose data centers.
Quite a lot is at stake here. If progressive candidates Kira Alejandro, Jason Hoover, and Syam Kosigi win, and they all have legitimate chances, you could see an end to the Shawn Tuckers of this world running roughshod over Council, you could see an end to the bundling parties at the Tarabicos Law Firm, and you could see real regulation over unfettered development.
Council District 3: Community activist Kira Alejandro is facing former County employee Kyle Grantham. Grantham was just endorsed by Janet Kilpatrick, which says a lot about both Grantham’s priorities and his political acumen. Alejandro has led the fight against what was clearly a corrupt backrooom deal engineered by former State Rep. Deborah Hudson. She has taken the lead on preserving land that was rubber-stamped for development. She does her homework. Not only do I think that Kira will be a great member of Council, but I see her as having potential to run successfully for higher offices down the line. Plus, her home page, which I’ve linked, spells out quite clearly where she stands on the issues. One of my favorite new candidates of the cycle.
Council District 4: Regular readers of DL recall that I criticized Jason Hoover for his inability/unwillingness to raise money in his run for Council President two years ago. Plus, I much preferred Val Gould, who likely would have won the race had Hoover not split the progressive vote with them. However, Hoover has raised enough money to be competitive this time around. His principal opponent appears to be Curtis Linton, who is the anointed candidate of the Construction & Building Trades. I admit that I’ve heard good things about Linton, but his stated unwillingness to oppose data centers makes this an easy call for me.
Council District 5: As soon as Valerie George had been elected, the Tarabicos Law firm held a bundling party for her. She immediately became a rubber-stamp for developer interests on Council–and nothing else. They own her. They tell her how to vote. Her opponent, Syam Kosigi, has a different vision:
For too long, residents of District 5 have watched important community decisions be made without their meaningful input. Important issues — from unchecked data center development to rising property taxes — have been handled without transparency, accountability, or a long-term plan. Syam Kosigi is running to change that, bringing four core priorities to the County Council.
You can click the above link to read about his four core priorities.
Now, imagine a Council with these three progressive challengers, along with Dee Durham, Dave Carter, John Cartier, and Kevin Caneco.
If these three stellar candidates are elected, we can truly end Business As Usual on County Council.
Imagine that.
Then vote.
As a longtime county govt lurker this is truly an amazing opportunity to change the entire council. The additions of Carter and Durham started the change, recruiting Caneco to get on was another step. As the OP said Cartier is in the right camp. Adding these 3 would be huge, Linton is nothing but a union shil, Valerie George stands for nothing and seems miserable doing it, and Janet leaving is HUGE for progress. Not sure about either Kyle or Kira but Kyle touting Janets endorsement was gross. Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst as any longtime Delawarean knows.
IF (and it’s a big If) Hoover closes strong and runs an effective GOTV operation he should win this, possibly by a healthy margin. He has real enthusiasm and quite a few volunteers.
Linton’s actual agenda (which is cleverly concealed from his campaign literature) is pro building just about anything, anywhere as long as the builder agrees to exclusively use his Union. See for example his strong support for Project Washington, a massive data center.
Linton is now trying to hide that but it’s all a matter of the public record.
Hoover has done a good job of illustrating that contrast. If you want reasonable controls on development so that it provides some broader benefit to the community, the environment and is sustainable etc, Hoover is the clear choice.
“Expect the worst” should be on the signs when they welcome you to the state.
Fact check, sir: Hoover out raised every candidate in the 2024 race.
I live in the 4th and have seen very little from Jason, just one negative lit drop on my front door and a few yard signs. Not sure that the anti-data center message is enough without people also learning what his plan is/who he is. It could work against a stale old incumbent but i don’t think voters really know who either of them are. Also this district has more black voters than any county council district besides maybe Jay Street’s district (he needs to retire ASAP). The recent campaign finance report showing Sarah McBride is supporting Curtis will make things interesting. There is no way of knowing but I would not expect this race to be a blow out either way.
I’m not in the district, so I don’t know. Keep in mind, though that (a) there are two Black candidates in the race, the other being Helena Creamer:
https://www.creamer4county.com/meet_helena
and (b) race doesn’t appear to be the determinative factor in this district.
I’m honestly not sure why us progressives keep vilifying developers. News flash to all – we need builders and developers to get us out of this housing crisis and the anti-development stuff isn’t helping. We should encourage codes that will get the type of housing we need but we need to stop vilifying developers because even projects that we need (affordable housing, dense housing, etc.) keep getting denied by the NIMBY horde.
Is this mic on?
Because they abuse the approval process to push through shit that nobody needs. Often b/c those who wrote the regulations become the developers’ mouthpieces.
The way to ‘encourage codes that will get the type of housing we need’?
Elect people who aren’t on the take from developers.
Almost forgot, be sure to say hi to Tim for us.
Who is Tim?
Also – the codes we need written need to be done in conjunction with developers. When legislators try to do it without talking to developers – guess what – it doesn’t work. Look at the failed MPDU and SCRP ordinances in Sussex. Look at the failed workforce and affordable units in NCC. All of those failed because they didn’t take into account the economic viability of their desired goals. I’m actually super impressed by the Governor’s EO 18 as well as SB23 which work towards economically viable solutions rather than stupid policies that don’t work like mandated inclusionary zoning (without corresponding bumps in density or some form of subsidy or fee waivers) and rent control.
Puh-leeze.
Why would developers build things no one needs? Like, what would be their financial incentive? There’s a huge housing shortage, they could make lots of money building new housing. I agree that I think that our idea about “developers” being evil is super outdated. If someone buys land, why should people who don’t own it be able to tell them exactly what they put on it?
They build expensive houses while ignoring the housing needs of the general population.
They get zonings for commercial development that is unnecessary (see the quick-clearing of trees across from Branmar Plaza as an example).
There’s a REASON why they bribe council members.
I didn’t know I had such a stealth pro-developer readership. In fairness, are they not human? When you prick those pricks, do they not bleed?
Yes, developers build houses that are expensive because bribing council members is expensive and they need an ROI. I personally think it is bad that you have to bribe people to build stuff. Instead we should just make it easier to build stuff and ignore when people are mad about it. But when you make it expensive (which is what all the delays are, expenses) the only things that make economic sense to build are the things that cost a lot of money. This is a bad system but the developers are not at fault for it
There’s legit nothing stealth about my not understanding hating developers. I don’t love them but houses and other buildings do not grow out of the ground. As someone who has sat through Board of Adjustment meetings (not on behalf of developers, never worked for one, on behalf of just regular businesses trying to do regular things) it’s insane the hoops you have to jump through to do anything simple
If you have evidence of bribes then you should report that. My guess is that you don’t or you are calling campaign contributions bribes (which hey I get that rationale).
I agree with the other poster – we shouldn’t have a scenario where getting stuff approved is hard. The reality is that the only stuff that goes before council people generally are rezonings because most of the damn state is zoned to only build single family homes.
Yo, BobBob, I’ve written about it here:
https://delawareliberal.net/2022/11/28/will-valerie-george-and-brandon-toole-sell-their-offices-to-the-developers-before-they-take-office/
https://delawareliberal.net/2022/11/29/how-developers-and-their-lawyers-deliver-campaign-cash-bundles-of-joy-to-ncc-elected-officials-part-1/
https://delawareliberal.net/2022/11/29/how-developers-and-their-lawyers-deliver-bundles-of-joy-to-elected-county-officials-part-2/
You apparently didn’t read it, or didn’t even have someone read it to you.
It’s bribery. At the county level. By developers and their law firms for favorable consideration.
Read it. Or perhaps have someone read it to you.
You’ll learn something.
Yeah, this is all unseemly! But wouldn’t it be better to allow people to build things on their property without having to do bribes? If every square inch of NCC wasn’t zoned only for single family homes of a certain lot size they wouldn’t need approval to do stuff with land they already own and thus wouldn’t need to do bribes
You know who can change those requirements–members of New Castle County Council.
Bribe-proofing them would be a good start.
So can the Delaware Legislature! But if all we do is complain about “developers” those changes will never come. I think we on the Left have come to demonize developers, ignoring their actual function in society and how they’re doing the best they can with the system we have set up. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves
As long as developers and their attorneys bribe public officials, they deserve public scorn as do the council members they bribe.
While we can’t replace the bribers, we can replace the willing bribe-takers. You have a problem with that?
I do if their only solution is just to do the opposite of the bribed officials. At least the bribed people will let stuff get built (not enough and not the right stuff but at least in the right direction). If the people replacing them just won’t approve anything we’ve made stuff worse. Our issues are systematic, not individual
That’s a blatantly-false analogy, and you know it. ‘Won’t let anything get built’.
You’re bullshitting us, and you’ve reached your limit.
I promise you I’m not bullshitting. I want to be clear, I am not saying that the new people are evil and won’t let anything get built at all. I’m saying that we have a system in place that has so many veto points, the easiest path is nothing gets built. We’ve both been down at Leg Hall, we both know that the easiest path is generally the one that gets followed unless something changes
The overall point I’m making is that “developers” are not the enemy, the restrictive zoning regime is. If the new people come in and leave that system in place we will be in a worse spot than the status quo
Yeah a lot of these candidates won’t let stuff get built. They are all from the Dee Durham, Kevin Caneco mold. They hate all development.
And I call bullshit. Again. We’ve had so many bills enacted into law ‘cutting bureaucratic red tape’ on development that had ‘Delaware Way’ written all over them.
Sorry, boys, but this isn’t about building or not building affordable housing. It’s about data centers. Cut the bait and switch; we know damn well that you don’t give a shit about housing poor people, you care about building stuff so you have jobs. Nothing wrong with that, but spare me the social conscience routine.
Here’s a news flash: With what the president is doing to interest rates you needn’t bother plumping for housing. Nobody is going to be able to afford the mortgage on a house anytime soon.
Any time you can spend getting to know Kira Alejandro and Jason Hoover is time well spent. Thoughtful, intelligent, authentic people who I can’t see wanting to join the bribe tribe.
Back when Kyle Grantham first filed to run, I stated on this platform that he wasn’t progressive, which garnered a lengthy self-defense from the candidate himself. Kilpatrick’s endorsement proves I was correct. I’m glad he showed his district who he is before the primary so they can respond accordingly.
Also, Jason Hoover isn’t as authentic as some people claim he is. Don’t forget he attempted to use AI to write up lie-laden attacks his opponents in the last cycle. I have it on good authority that he showed no remorse when approached about it. He definitely has the ability to be fake and vindictive.
Goodness, Wasabi is defensive.
Unlike Dr. Peas, Jason Hoover can express himself in coherent paragraphs. Compare the positions:
https://eu.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/08/30/new-castle-county-council-primary-election-voter-guide/91455695007/
I’m not who you think I am, but it’s nice to know Jason once again has his minions patrolling this blog 24/7!