Advice For Chip Flowers
In the liveblogging thread about the JCC Forum last week, several people offered advice for Chip Flowers for taking on Colin Bonini. This is going to be tough because the most common thing I hear people say about Bonini is that he’s funny. Here is the advice from commenter kurward derby:
>> Bonini spent the evening joking around, about having snacks afterwards and other things. < < Don't concede the race to Bonini; as this behavior demonstrates, he's a profoundly unserious politician. His attendance at legislative committee meetings is terrible. Somebody in the Flowers camp should do the research. Particularly for a legislator who lives close to Dover, he misses a lot of committee meetings, where the real legislating takes place. "I've never voted for state budget." This is a disgrace; we don't send our legislators to Dover to perform symbolic acts, we send them to negotiate with their colleagues to produce practical solutions to serious problems. To vote against a budget one time might properly draw attention to an issue; to vote against it regularly is an abdication of responsibility. Zero political courage is required to vote against something that you know is going to pass. As a wise Legislative Hall veteran once explained to me, if you've never voted "yes" on the state budget, you've never voted to pave a road, or build a school, or protect our drinking water. Flowers should hammer Bonini on his failure to perform the minimum requirements of his present position.
During the debate Bonini bragged that he had been a state senator of 16 years and that he had never voted for a state budget. He said he was running because of “spending” and he wanted to be accountable to the people. That’s it. I couldn’t figure out what Bonini wanted to do other than put the state checkbook online (which it already is). As far as spending goes, how is he going to affect it – not sign checks? El Somnambulo takes on Bonini in another comment:
The Other Geezer is so clueless as to legislative procedure that it’s embarrassing.
‘Vote for me b/c I never bothered to do my job in Dover’ is hardly a justifiable argument for winning votes. Especially since the Treasurer’s job is to make sure that money is disbursed properly. The Treasurer HAS to do their job. It is perhaps the worst place imaginable in government for someone who claims to ‘hate government’, but who has cashed his Senate paycheck for a dozen years. A paycheck the treasurer makes sure he gets.
Bonini used to be on the Budget Committee, yet always voted against the budget he helped craft. He is nothing but a Gingrichesque blowhard with not a single legislative accomplishment to point to in his entire career.
By TOG’s admission, he couldn’t be bothered to do his job:
“Legislative committee meetings when you are in the minority so badly don’t matter, GOP matters get no attention in the State Senate so why bother with the pre canned meetings which produce nothing?”
He is as unqualified to hold this office as O’Donnell is to serve in the Senate.
At least we know that TOG is a Bonini plant (‘plant’ perhaps in two senses of the word). In no way should he/she be compared to the one and only Geezer.
‘Bulo gets very serious:
Let me put it in terms that loyal readers of DL should understand–Bonini is as unqualified to be treasurer and perhaps even more dangerous…than KWS is to be insurance commissioner.
Wanna play games with the state’s Triple-A bond rating? Elect this guy who hasn’t bothered to do the one job he’s ever held for any period of time–and brags about it.
There’s a lot of material for Chip Flowers to go after but he needs to do it skillfully. It’s really hard to run against an affable nice guy. At one point in the debate Flowers actually took Bonini to task for not seeming serious. Flowers needs to take that tactic more without coming across as a wet blanket.
Tags: Chip Flowers, Colin Bonini, Treasurer
You are so wrong and your liberal brain can’t process facts.
The budget is a disgrace and he clearly took a swipe at Markell when he mentioned the golf courses bought by the state. If there were any budget discipline in Delaware we would be sitting real nice but we are in for a big fall.
Committee meetings in the Senate for a republican are a waste of time, Adams never cared and Delucca is so corrupt he never will. Name the last time any Republican idea or legislation got anywhere in the Senate.
Qualified? What does Flowers have to rest on? a Lawyer? An economist? So the Treasurer is going to make economic policy? Does Markell know that?
Flowers is a self inflated joke with zero experience.
What experience does Bonini have? 16 years of a paycheck for doing nothing?
Flowers’ qualifications vs. Bonini’s qualifications…Flowers wins everytime. I beg voters to compare resumes.
AKN, please process this fact: the golf courses Bonini referenced were purchased under Minner’s watch, NOT Markell’s. It’s fine to have a strong opinion, but when you start by insulting people and then make an “unfactual” (thanks Christine) statement, you cut yourself at the knees.
As for Republicans’ influence, Senate R’s have been instrumental in passing the equal rights legislation (SB 121) and played a big role in suspending the rules on the FOIA bill to bring it to the floor and forcing a vote.
Someone needs to check, but didn’t Bonini vote AGAINST suspending the rules for the FOIA bill? Now THAT would be a big deal, considering he tried suspending the rules for a bill of his own earlier this year. Not saying for sure that he did, but IF he did, that’s pretty bad.
I hate to use capital letters, but BONINI HAS TAKEN A STATE PAYCHECK FOR 16 YEARS WHILE PROUDLY ADMITTING THAT HE’S NOT PERFORMING HIS DUTIES BECAUSE THEY’RE A ‘WASTE OF TIME’.
Which, by the way, they’re not. During his time on the $$ committees, the Rethugs controlled the House, so he should have had plenty of influence on the budget. Only he chose not to. The super majorities needed to pass the budget should have given him leverage, only he chose not to use it.
In the last week of June, every year for 16 years, he’s stood up on the floor and grandstanded about his voting ‘no’, a meaningless symbolic vote. That is the sum, part & parcel of his ‘involvement’ in the process.
16 years, and, even in the tiny Rethug Senate caucus, he’s never been chosen for a leadership position. That shows what his own phone booth-sized caucus thinks about him.
Try to spin it all you want–bravery and integrity do not belong in the same sentence as Colin Bonini–except for the sentence I just wrote.
Bonini stated that the two golf courses and the other building from BoA were purchased in the same year. NOT.
That would be my advice for Korn as well. He needs to learn how to lighten up enough to balance Tom Wagner’s easy, joking familiarity schtick. Korn takes his candidacy seriously but needs to chase away the black clouds over his head and make a few jokes – play it against Wagner a bit.
We had the two Treasurer candidates at the Civic League on Wednesday night (the actual first post-primary forum) and Chip Flowers was very easy going with the crowd and cracked several jokes. I don’t see him having any problems with Bonini but you never want to take anything for granted.
UI,
I’m surprised you would even mention the other geezer in your post because he is just a Protack sockpuppet along with anon knows nothing..
I live in Dover and those who live elsewhere should not underestimate Colin. The Dems put up good candidates against him in his Senate races and he beats them easily each time. This race he will have the tea baggers and then he gets lots of out of state funds. The Dem primary means a likely divided party unless Velda gets her supporters behind Chip. Did the Dem party not remember from 2008 that endorsing candidates in a primary is not such a smart move? On CB’s legislative record, he spends his “street funds” and collects his travel money, which he could return to the Treasurer if he really was serious about excessive state spending convictions. He just want the Treasurer’s salary because his employment history is not so good. He is the worst kind of politician who only does it for himself.