Delaware GOP Civil War – Do They Get It Yet?
The Delaware GOP’s civil war is on full display in today’s News Journal. This is just the beginning of the war, the part I’ll call “finger-pointing.”
“The problem is a lack of leadership, a lack of vision, a lack of inclusion,” said Steve Grossman, Kent County coordinator for O’Donnell’s campaign. The party’s current leadership comes mainly from northern New Castle County.
Several downstate Republicans say the New Castle County GOP is not very well-organized.
“We keep losing elections because New Castle County Republicans won’t get their act together,” said Don Ayotte of Georgetown, who organized a censure of state Party Chairman Tom Ross last week.
According to O’Donnell’s campaign and Sussex County Republicans it was lack of leadership from New Castle County Republicans and poor organization.
Michele Rollins has a different diagnosis:
“We need to sit back and say, ‘Do we want to be a party of social issues?’ If that’s the case, then let it be that. But I can’t be in that,” said businesswoman Michele Rollins, who lost the GOP U.S. House primary to Glen Urquhart.
But, but, CONSTITUTION!
“Let’s focus on the fiscal conservancy of the party,” said former state Rep. Tom Kovach, who lost re-election in a northern New Castle County district that saw a surge in anti-O’Donnell voters.
Lyle Humpton of Bridgeville argues the party should shift further to the right on social and economic issues.
So, the moderates blame the social conservatives and the conservatives blame the moderates. Sussex blames New Castle. They all believe they can win on fiscal issues yet failed to talk about fiscal issues in a manner that appealed to the public.
Have you ever seen those comedies where the sheriff goes up to a crowd and asks, “which way did he go?” and the crowd points in every direction? This is what this feels like.
Tags: Delaware, Delaware Republicans
Copy pasta from a judson bennett email. fortunately, i doubt the rethugs are smart enough to take this kind of advice to heart.
“The Elephant in the Room
The boiling over of frustrations at the Sussex County GOP Committee meeting has finally lifted the veil on the problems the GOP faces in Delaware. The infighting and resentment has reached a tipping point, and the future of the Delaware Republican Party hangs in the balance. Tom Ross, Chairman of the DE GOP, or his replacement, will face the gargantuan task of bridging the real and meaningful differences between the conservative and more moderate factions of the party. How quickly and effectively this can be done will determine whether or not the Republican Party will ever again be relevant in Delaware politics.
In early 2009, basking in the glow of New Castle County Rep. Tom Kovach’s special election win, some influential New Castle County Republicans believed they had found the recipe for getting Republicans elected in Delaware: fiscally conservative, but socially moderate candidates. After all, it had been working for Rep. Mike Castle for decades. In a commentary at that time, I implored the State Party leadership not to ignore the passion and values of downstate Republicans; we couldn’t win any statewide election without them. Unfortunately, the leadership had decided that moderation was to be the only face and message of the Party. That, along with a few inflammatory votes by moderate standard-bearer Mike Castle, stirred the conservative element of the party into action. There were missteps on both sides, and the end result was a route of the Republican slate at the ballot box. That electoral disappointment is what led to calls to censure Chairman Tom Ross in Georgetown. I worry now that the pendulum may swing too far in the other direction. An exclusively conservative Delaware GOP would be just as impotent as a party that shuns them.
As heated as the rhetoric was, there is a silver lining to the dark cloud hanging over the DE GOP. We finally have no choice but to address the elephant in the room: Delaware Republicans have been eyeing one another suspiciously from across the C&D Canal for far too long. As Delaware Republicans, we have been too quick to stereotype and dismiss other Republicans as either upstate elitists, or downstate bumpkins. The fact is, in my time within the DE GOP I have never met anyone who is a caricature. I have met: an elderly woman in Newark who is involved in politics because she knows every decision we make now affects the world she will leave her grandchildren; a nurse in Houston who is struggling to make her mortgage payments, and every tax or fee increase makes the already thin margin between paying on time and falling behind ever smaller; and many people in Sussex county who, like me, find themselves out of work and growing more discouraged by the week. Look around you Delaware Republicans; these are your neighbors and friends. Let’s lay aside for a moment the small differences among us, and pull tight the ties that bind us together. We have to put the DE GOP back together for our own good, and for the good of the State.
I don’t know whether or not Tom Ross is the man to lead the rebuilding effort, but a no confidence vote in Sussex seems inevitable. If Ross does leave, there will be a vacuum at the head of the DE GOP and I’m sure we’ll hear a bunch of names put forward to replace him. I don’t know who any of those people might be, but I do know who I would support. I will support a person who steps forward, and instead of parceling out blame for recent failures, takes responsibility for reversing them; a person who looks into the discord and chaos that is the current state of affairs within the Party and sees, first and foremost, opportunity. That’s what I’m really looking for, someone who realizes this is an excellent chance to lay the foundation for future success. Let’s not just rebuild, let’s build the Party bigger and stronger, bit by little bit. Because of recent setbacks, the mood among Republicans vacillates among anger, frustration, and indignation. A leader who could channel those feelings and direct them toward a common goal (defeating Democrats) would have my support.
More than anything, the next leader of the DE GOP needs to be able to strike a conciliatory tone between conservative and moderate Republicans. We are outnumbered in this State, and the only way we can win is to attract Independents to our cause. How can that ever happen if what they see of the Republican Party is two brothers with their hands around each other’s throats?
No one is going to fix the DE GOP for us, nor would we expect them to. (We are Republicans, after all.) We need a leader who can inspire us to see past our differences and into a future where, through cooperation, we are achieving things we never could have when we were ceding the battlefield to the Democrats because our house was so out of order. If you are that leader, by God, please step forward. There are many of us ready to line up behind you to get to work.—Bill Wong, Rehoboth Beach
In political terms, this advice is meaningless — “let’s all get along by compromising.”
The obvious fact is that the more right-leaning the candidates or party become, the less they and it appeal to moderate Democrats, let alone left-wing Democrats. The moderate course is the only one that makes sense, because conservatives should, theoretically at least, prefer a moderate R to a moderate D.
What the last election should have made stunningly obvious is that there aren’t enough conservatives in Delaware for a conservative to win a statewide election — unless, of course, that conservative pretends to be a moderate.
i think thats what it says up there. the teabaggers felt ignored so they revolted and are now litmus testing the moderates out of the party and if that happens theres no hope for them. like i said, theyre too stupid to realize thats going even further down the wrong road.
And anyone who would take any advice from Bill Wrong Wong is a complete idiot.
It’s all so very elementary and easy.
To Wit: Delaware is a Democratic, ‘Blue’ state. Unless the DE GOP fields candidates who are fiscal conservatives first, they have NO chance of gaining Republican control in the state.
The sometimes social conservative ‘Tea Party’ gang will alienate most Delawareans (Independents and Republicans alike). I mean, Dem voters outnumber Republican voters by at least 100k!
Unless someone has a plan to push 100k Dem voters out of the state and concurently attract 100k Republicans to the state, the GOP has NO chance of gaining back control.
All of the ‘other’ tea-party-vs-establishment-vs-upstate-vs-downstate-vs-fiscal-vs-social-vs-TomRoss-vs-9-12-Patriots-vs-NRC-vs-Tea-Party-Express-vs-SarahPalin-vsKarlRove-vs-JimDeMint internecine battles will never work until the fundamental understanding of WHO votes in Delaware is realized (hint: it ain’t social conservatives).
” Bill Wrong Wong”
is this a known person? that is…who?
It would be better for Delaware as a whole to see the LSD wingnuts led by O’Donnell wiped off the board. They are a minority within a minority and shouldn’t be the tail wagging the dog.
Unfortunately for the Delaware GOP, the tactics that don’t work here work in many other states, so the right-wingers delude themselves that being more conservative means more victories.
And the reason a healthy Delaware GOP matters is that it keeps out the O’Donnell/CRI riff-raff. They’re showing up more because of the lack of home-grown Republicans to keep them at bay.
As downstate wingnuts so loudly asserted during the campaign, county leadership is responsible for local job growth and business investment.
So let Kent and Sussex lead the way to become economic powerhouses. Then they will have all the political influence they want.