Dan Cruce was Dead Meat Biking without the Musk-Rats love.
Two biggest underachievers of the night when it comes to results vs. $$’s spent: The Other Michael Smith, who finished a distant third behind runner-up Mike Miller, and Rob Bahnsen, who almost matched Krista Griffith dollar for dollar, but nowhere near vote for vote. Why, you ask? I am reminded of the story about the award-winning dog food commercial. Great commercial, but the dogs just wouldn’t eat the stuff.
Biggest cipher of the night: Ayanna Flowers-Khan. If commenter Middletonian is correct, the two perceived front-runners had fatal flaws. Could Rethugs retain this seat? And just what do we know about Flowers-Khan?
Two steps up, one step back? Kira Alejandro and Jason Hoover (apparently, not yet officially) win seats on County Council. But Dave Tackett defeats would-be briber Mike Kozikowski for the Recorder of Deeds spot. Special election dead ahead. Meaning, who will choose the nominee?
The national Working Families Party should keep their goddamn direct mail out of Delaware. It was the equivalent of those car crash election TV ads that clutter our screens at election time. They did more damage than good. People get to meet the candidates here. They know that there are (likely) no Hannibal Lecters among them.
There’s another new D House candidate who won his primary last night–Dave Redlawsk, who likely will replace Mara Gorman, who is running to succeed Dave Sokola.
I simply can’t overstate the potential for positive change in the House after last night’s results. Who will be the Speaker? Who will be in leadership? Even if Speaker Mimi retains the gavel, far from certain, she will have to appoint progressives to the powerful money committees as three of her preferred go-to’s–Lumpy Carson, Stephanie Bolden, and Deb Heffernan–are gone. Next time–Kim Williams?
I was poll-greeting at a site that both Shay Frisby and Rae Krantz have in common. Rae’s volunteers who campaigned with me yesterday are my kind of people. Hope we can all get together, perhaps at a joint fundraiser.
Shay Frisby is such an upgrade over Ray Seigfried that it’s hard to quantify. Her fellow Caucus members will soon realize it. Defeating an incumbent state senator who is awash in dark money is difficult. Defeating him by 800 votes speaks volumes. I have never been around such an effective grassroots campaign. Remember the name: Jamie Rubin. Best campaign manager ever. And a huge shout-out to Larry Lambert. People will underestimate his political acumen at their own risk.
What are your quick takes?
Come to think of it, Kim Williams didn’t have to lose to perhaps lose her perch on JFC. A speaker who is partial to, say, universal school lunches, could have something to say about that…
The terrible TWO, Cooke & Bolden got there just Deserts. Neither deserved to be Chairman of anything important. They both thought they were entitled to a seat in leg-hall without doing any meaningful work. Kissing the ring of the establishment only gets you so far.Now the state house can do something on robust oversight by breaking-up and putting creditable people on ADMINISTRATION, RULES, and ETHICS. THOSE COMMITTIES CONTROLED BY THE SAME PEOPLE IS NOT DEMOCRACY. IT ENTERPRISE CORRUPTION AND MUST END.
ALBERT JACKSON
I’m about to be on Khan-Flowers ass to make sure that seat is flipped. But Keonna was so close, too. More focus on Whitehall and we will get them next time.