NCC Council Opening – Developers Wanted
Since Stephanie McClellen is leaving her position as a county councilwoman to work for the Markell administration there is a void in Newark. Apparently, there are three people vying for the chance to run as the Democrat in the special election. There will be a meeting on Thursday to select the candidate. I am not sure if it is open to the public, but I’m going to try to get there.
However, I have heard from two sources that one of the people that has thrown his hat into the ring is Vince D’Anna. I don’t know much about Vince, but here is what I do know:
- On the evening at Leg Hall where the Eminent Domain veto was not overridden, I got a few minutes to talk to John Carney about it. There was a guy with John Carney that was completely and utterly toeing the Buccini/Pollin party line. He was even lying to me. He was quoting case law that has been overruled by the Kelo decision as a reason for why ED laws changes were not needed. That man was Vince D’Anna. So from that standpoint, if you think that New Castle County could really use a friend of developers, Vince is your man.
- When Karen Hartley Nagle was trying to figure out where she stood in the polls, someone stepped forward and conducted a poll that showed that Karen was closing in on Mike Castle. They also said great things about Tom Gordon. So if you want someone that knows how to “work the numbers” so that it looks like something it isn’t, Vince is your man.
- Finally, he was Tom Gordon’s campaign manager. So if you want someone that will be able to mobilize mobs of people for the wrong cause, Vince is your man.
Wait until I tell you how the deck has been stacked in Vince’s favor…
Tags: New Castle County
Jebus. This county is soooooo fucked.
I had the same “chat” with Vince in the cafeteria of Leg. Hall on the same night. He only bolstered my favorable opinion of that ED bill with his rambling nonsense.
He was PAUL CLARK’s CAMPAIGN manager..not Gordon’s. SHEESH!
He is a smart enough guy but he is a business partner with Mario Capano for god’s sake. I and a few others working Gordon’s campaign think that he screwed up Gordon but good.
WHERE ARE THE GOPerheads? I would have figured that they would have figured that Newark is their kind of town, they have run Newark for evah because of the great influence of the UD – duPonts here. Look at the rash of GOP legis traditionally elected around here too.
Luckily, we have one good candidate. I am surprised that DL hasn’t deciphered that John Tobin’s wife is one of the DEMs running. LET’s ELECT Lisa.
Vince D’Anna comments from 10-11-07 New Castle County “Affordable Housing Public Meeting”(Now known as WFH)-meeting minutes attribute comments to D’Anna-“Transit requirement is a regulatory barrier…need to look at revising the UDC more generally for all development…apply incentives generally”
If there is any question at all as to who D’Anna would represent(it is NOT the citizen’s of NCCo)a review of the public record will make his allegiance very clear. D’Anna is a staunch advocate for developers. At a TDR (Transfer of Development Rights)committee meeting I attended he went so far as to advocate for the participation of realtors in “brokering” TDR’s so they could take a “cut” from the potential profits. New Castle County taxpayers don’t need more of his kind on council.
There are actually 4 candidates as of now. I don’t know the name of the 4th candidate but he/she decided on Thursday night at the meeting to run.
I’m actually part of the secret cabal that gets to decide the candidate. The three I know about are
Lisa Diller (Tobin’s wife, endorsed by Kowalko)
Vince D’Anna
Patty Howard
I think someone told me the 4th candidate is the head of the Brookside Community group but I’m not sure about that!
When we were trying to get the Sprawl Prevention Act (HB 280) out of committee in 2006, a legislator was told by Vince she would not have an opponent that year if she didn’t vote the bill out. Think about it — a Democrat threatening a Democrat incumbent! Also, the arrogance of his “guaranteeing” that she would not have an opponent — anyone in that district could have chosen to run, with or without his intervention or approval. (The legislator voted the bill out of committee.)
He also accused DNREC scientists of falsifying the discovery of a federally protected species on land he was trying to develop.
good luck finding any Republican to join the democrat lepper colony that is county government.
FYI: Any registered Democrat is permitted, under party rules, to attend any Democrat Party meeting where party business is decided.
In other words: all meetings, except ‘executive sessions’ perhaps, where party business is being conducted are OPEN. Call party headquarters.
DO NOT be surprised if ‘funny business’ is carried on right before your eyes. When former Rep. Al O. Plant’s seat was being filled none other than Ted Blunt went around the room keeping folks in their seats by placing his hand on their shoulders, etc. That’s how Hazel got the seat….the Dirty Dems wanted her and no one else (been that way ever since).
Don’t be surprised if the non-Kowalkos try to hand him his head to ‘prove’ (in their pea brains) he ain’t all that powerful.
Good luck to all observers and very good luck to Lisa.
Geek: Vince did polls for Biden, Carper and any number of democrats. Your slap at him doing the polling for KHN, proves you no soooo so little. In fact, Karens numbers were so close to Sandcastle even Castle was worried. The fix was in and has been for decades. Where is Fitzpatrick…maybe when he finishes in Illinois “pay to play politics” he should mosey on over to Delaware and figure out why Delaware is the 8th most corrupt state in the nation.
Unstable Isotope , as a fellow secret cabal member, I look forward to meeting you.
Lisa is my wife and I am considering breaking my blog’s self-imposed nonendorsement policy for this election because I think she would be an asset on county council.
For more information go to her website:
http://www.lisadiller.com/
From her website:
“Lisa has been endorsed by Representative Terry Schooley of the 23rd District and Representative John Kowalko of the 25th District. Together, these districts make up 85% of the voters in the 5th County Council District.”
I look forward to meeting you as well John. Just to let you know, I got a phone call from Mr. D’Anna this morning. He sounds very impressive (he emphasized his county government experience). It wasn’t until I really probed him (about workforce housing and growth south of the canal) that I got any real info out of him. He sounded just like Paul Clark.
Umm Nancy, you were there, he was Gordon’s campaign manager, and even is quoted in articles as such. His polls for Karen and Tom were nothing short of delusional! I would say Lisa Diller is the party favorite out of the gates….
Nancy,
The other anon is right. From WDEL: “Tom Gordon’s Campaign manager Vince D’Anna says they ran a good campaign with a strong message but it was not enough to overcome Gordon’s past legal trouble.”
I don’t know if he was Paul Clark’s campaign guru or not, but he certainly was Gordon’s, if WDEL is to be trusted.
Lisa Diller is the best candidate there is for this seat. Vince D’Anna is completely inappropriate for this — he’s a developer whose main partner is Mario Capano. His interest in council is to rewrite the UDC, so that developers and realtors (of which is he one) can make as much money as possible. I’ve never heard one un-self serving comment escape him. Tim Sheldon is apparently trying to usher Patty Howard in. If she’d be a councilperson like Sheldon, than NCC is in big trouble. Vote Diller!
PLease take into consideration who Markell appointed as SOL – a staunch pro-development, union head.
D’Anna was Clark’s campaign manager and did some work for various DEMs (Hartley-Nagle, Gordon, Biden) with his polling ‘company’. Gordon’s campaign suffered a huge deficit and had to switch gears when Colantuono left the campaign to make a last minute attempt for his own chances against Cartier. Colantuono was the backbone of the Gordon campaign and when he left it was a scattershot operation. I suppose it is possible that D’Anna took on that role of manager formally at that point. I wasn’t working very closely with any of the campaigns after having spent weeks and weeks at the waterfront doing polling for everyone.
The polls were indicative of a decent edge for KHN but she could never raise the money she needed for a media blast. They also showed that Coons’ negatives were a possible unrecoverable liability. Gordon just didn’t show the chops needed during debate but it didn’t help that Coons spent a small fortune on a full press media blitz or that many of Gordon’s intial ‘followers’ backed out as soon as they successfully leveraged some promises out of Mr. Coons.
I got a phone call from Mr. D’Anna this morning.
*
UI, D’Anna is one of Clark’s best friends. Just sayin.
Do you have an e-mail list. If so, I’d like to be added for alerts and announcements. I just discovered you today.
Oops. Didn’t know I was commenting on a topic. Thought I was contacting the webmaster.