These Ten Incumbents Need Challengers ASAP!

This list does not include any incumbents who already have credible challengers.  It also does not include either Speaker Pete or Our PAL Val.  I just think that, with their war chests, it makes more sense to remove them from leadership by electing more progressives to the General Assembly.  We already have some good challengers, so this includes some other necessary targets.

The list also does not include Tizzy Lockman.  I’ve come around to the argument that she was part of, but not the sole instigator, of a strategy that I believe to be fatally-flawed.  Plus, there’s no guarantee that her successor would at least be ethical and honest, which I believe Lockman to be.  Besides, I have ten who I believe are more deserving of challenges.

Since this is one of my lists, I present it to you in reverse numerical order from lowest to highest priority:

10.  Mike Ramone-State Rep. (R), RD 21.  He always appears ready to be taken down, but he somehow survives. Barely.  In NFL draft parlance (hey, the draft’s next week), he has a low ceiling but a high floor.  He can definitely be defeated, Dave Sokola did it years ago, but I think we need a new challenger, one who presents Ramone with a different set of barriers to navigate.  I frankly wouldn’t be shocked if Pete ‘n Val are closet supporters.

9. Ken Woods-NCC County Council (D), CD 1. He’s sort-of the Andria Bennett of Council. His father was an undistinguished elected officlal (and construction trades guy, not unlike John Viola) whose name recognition won him a very close victory when he first ran.  That’s not, however, the only reason he should be challenged.  He and Larry Mitchell have much of their respective districts in common.  A challenger who teams up with DeShanna Neal could well lead to a clean sweep of those two contests.  Which reminds me…

8. Spiros Mantzavinos-State Senate (D), SD 7. …No he doesn’t totally suck.  But he’s a Chamber D in a district that I don’t consider a Chamber district. I believe he shares some of his district with both Mitchell and Woods.  BTW, sometimes you just have to point out that a fluke was a fluke.  Delcollo defeating Blevins was such a race.  She had worn out her welcome, and Delcollo was the beneficiary of all those bitter white guys who hated Hillary and voted for Trump.  It was easy for them to equate Blevins with Hillary.  I wouldn’t go out of my way to push for a major candidate recruitment effort here, but a capital D Democrat could, and should, provide an upgrade.

7.  Darius Brown-State Senate (D), SD 2.  I would have ranked him higher had Melissa Minor-Brown not (apparently) opted out of this race.  He’s not only hot-tempered, but he’s proven willing to sell out his constituents in exchange for campaign contributions.  Here’s the rub, though: As deserving as he is of being challenged, he was arguably the least-bad of the candidates in that primary four years ago. A former police chief, and two ne’er-do-wells, Sam Guy and Herman Holloway, Jr. So, if someone who, you know, really has the constituents’ concerns at heart would run, then absolutely.  They’d be an upgrade.  Any hands raised out there?

6. Michael Smith-State Rep. (R), RD 22.  It would be political malpractice for the D’s not to challenge him.  I mean a serious challenger.  He wouldn’t have made it through his first successful run had that husband-wife cop tag team, the Taschners, not cut Gigi Gonzalez.  Unlike Ramone, who occasionally casts a vote that D’s can live with, Smith’s record is full of votes completely out of step with his district.  Most recently single-handedly killing marijuana legalization he’d promised to support. There’s a whole lot more where that came from. This formerly-‘solid R’ district is precisely the kind of district where voters have been turned off by the right wing extremism of the national Republican Party.  For the same reason that formerly-all R Brandywine Hundred is now solidly D, this district is ready to flip.

5. Franklin Cooke-State Rep. (D), RD 16. I would have found it hard to believe that the successor to Rep. J. J. Johnson, who did so much to reform Delaware’s justice system, would be the puppet that Speaker Pete would use to kill police reform efforts.  But that’s exactly who Franklin Cooke turned out to be.  A career cop, Cooke was appointed the Chair of the House working group officially tasked with addressing the issue, but in fact tasked with killing any progress in the House.  Cooke is a card-carrying member of the Kop Kabal, and he has proven to have justified Pete’s confidence in him. The story of the burial by both the House and Gov. Carney (who appointed all cops as public members of this so-called task force) has been criminally under-reported.  It is at the top of the list of reasons why the House Kop Kabal must be deposed, and Franklin Cooke must be challenged in his district on this very issue.  This is an overwhelmingly-D district, and I betcha that police reform is a huge issue there. Cooke is a key part of the problem, and a guarantor of no solutions.

4.  Bill Bush-State Rep. (D), RD 29.  Is there a difference between a centrist Democrat and a corporate Democrat?  I think so. To me, Bruce Ennis could be considered a centrist Democrat, a true Democrat on economic, labor, and family issues, but more conservative on social issues. Bill Bush is not that kind of centrist Democrat.  He is a successor to the Bryon Shorts, Quinn Johnsons, and Andria Bennetts of the General Assembly.  You know, the ones who quote directly from Chamber talking points on the floor.  He succeeded Trey Paradee who, while not the most liberal in the House, was a solid D on issues like minimum wage and, yes, marijuana legalization.  Bush is quite a bit to the right of Paradee.  I would love to see a challenge from a true Democrat, someone who at least believes in most of the Democratic platform.  I believe it would prove a true test for Bush, and he could go back to being one of Mark Brainard’s chief lackeys at Del-Tech. (You may have forgotten that Bush was one of the key henchmen in getting rid of Lonnie George’s replacement at Del-Tech in order to install Lonnie’s hand-picked guy, Brainard, as his successor. I haven’t.)

3. Bill ‘Lumpy’ Carson-State Rep-D, RD 28.  Is there a difference between a centrist D and a corporate D?  Not when you’re merely a lazy-ass D who does nothing but Pete’s bidding in Dover. (Come to think of it, that sounds like Larry Mitchell.) The National Gerbil Society recently had their annual convention and bestowed upon Ol’ Lump an award as ‘Most Gerbil-Like Human’.  Word has it that Lumpy enjoyed it, although he found it difficult to suck booze out of those little tubes at the open bar.  His district has become more suburbanized, he’s lazy as shit, and ripe for the pickin’s.  Not to mention, beating Carson removes one of the Kop Kabal’s most loyal allies. I’m sorry, but it’s almost impossible for me to believe that someone this stupid and lazy could win in any district outside of lower-slower Suxco.  For those of you who think I’m being too cruel, I’m not the one who asked him to run.  He didn’t have to say yes (actually someone had to mouth the word for him; OK, I’ll stop now).

2. Stephanie Bolden-State Rep-D, RD 2.  Corrupt, sells her constituents down the river, tool of Buccini-Pollin. Fought against providing the renters in her district legal protections, wangled a part-time no-show job at City Council, and lately hasn’t been showing up for work in Dover.  She’s one of the key reasons why the House Black Caucus has effectively been dysfunctional. Yet another diseased branch from the Holloway family tree. I’m frankly amazed that no one has stepped forward yet.  Not only can she be defeated, she will be defeated by someone who is ethical, and stands up for the constituents. There has to be someone like that in RD 2, doesn’t there?  I can say this with certainty: No other district in Delaware in the last 40 years has been more consistently represented by grifters than RD 2.  Other than the 2-year term of Rourke Moore, I can’t think of any representative from that district who wasn’t in it for themselves. Or for their own ‘non-profit’ nest egg. (BTW, most of you are probably unaware, but I am not, that someone who’s been ‘building their brand’ in the Party is also from the Holloway family tree, and has, in fact, during one of their rare periods of employment, ‘worked’ at Herman The Lesser’s phony-baloney MLK Center.)

1. Kathy McGuiness-State Auditor.  Personal to Betsy Maron, and anybody who might be drawing a salary from the Delaware Democratic Party: Could you please take time out from your 24/7/365 figurative fellating of Joe Biden (He’s our President! He’s from Delaware!) to recruit a respectable candidate to replace this unfit-for-office crook/nut-job??!! Otherwise, what the fuck are you doing in these positions? (Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good all-purpose question.  BTW, let me know when you schedule that Hunter Biden Trivia Night.)  You don’t even need to be a CPA or any sort of auditor to be State Auditor. You simply need to have a healthy curiosity as to how taxpayers’ dollars are being spent. You can HIRE auditors. You already have them on staff.

This one is on the entire leadership of the Democratic Party, including, but not limited to, our Congressional delegation, our Governor (who deserves the term ‘somnambulant’ far more than I do), EVERYBODY.  Anybody but Dennis E. Williams who, let us not forget, was the spoiler who enabled McGuiness to get elected in the first place. You simply cannot allow someone this unhinged and unethical, and quite possibly, criminal, to be unchallenged for reelection.  Hey, I’ll throw out a name.  Since it’s up to all of us to throw out names.  What’s Matt Denn up to?  Are his kids in college yet? He’s honest, he knows state government, he has positive name recognition, and he has a reporter’s healthy skepticism. OK, who else?  One more requirement: They must have a pulse. That eliminates Sean Barney.

BTW, this is an opinion piece. I want feedback, I want your opinions. Most importantly, I want names of potential candidates for Auditor.  Maybe if someone is awake at Party HQ at some point, they might, you know, call them back.