Tom Kovach Wants To Dip County Government In Tea
The race for New Castle County Council President has been a pretty low-key affair so far. Perhaps it’s because of the holidays and the fact that there haven’t been debates. There’s barely been any news coverage of the race. Back in November, El Somnabulo wrote about the race: “How Erik Schramm Elected Tim Sheldon NCC Council President” showing how all the advantages in the race go to Tim Sheldon.
I was having a conversation with a friend recently on the race and we discussed the ways that Tom Kovach could win. Special elections are decided on turnout. Democrats have a big advantage here, with much higher voter registration and Tim Sheldon has an extra advantage of labor support. Tom Kovach would have to consolidate Republican support and try to get some of the Tea Party magic. If he got them excited enough, perhaps they would turn out. Tom Kovach is trying to do that. This ad started appearing on Facebook:
Clicking on the ad takes you to his website. There is no mention of the Tea Party on the website and it does prominently feature Mike Castle’s endorsement.
Update: See liberalgeek’s comment below for Tom Kovach’s response. He denies his campaign is the source of the ad.
Tags: New Castle County Council President, Tim Sheldon, Tom Kovach
Is there anyone left in the Republican Party who’s unwilling to sell there soul?
i can’t see Kovach overcoming the labor support. the tea party hasn’t gained traction in NCCo–there are many NCCo Repubs who blame the tea party for Castle’s defeat–this ad will not help motivate them to come out to vote in mid-January. Labor, however, can be depended upon to show up and vote. Tim by at least 15%.
I do not see a problem with the idea that we are taxed enough already. The Tea Party stands for sound public money management, limited, transparent government, free markets, and keeping a lid on taxation. Which of those principles do you have a problem with?
how did limited government do in preventing the financial collapse?
i don’t want our county government failing to process sewage
i don’t want our public libraries to be closed, and our parks sold to developers (in the name of ‘sound public money management’ or ‘free markets’)
clean water, clean air–which do you have a problem with?
Waving around the ‘scary’ Tea Party is pretty thin here. Not one link to the NCC financial crisis columns from yesterday? huh. Not pertinant or did you just miss them? Both are available via this link:
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110105/OPINION05/101050327/1004/OPINION/NCCo+transition+team+dissident+is+right+–+budget+ax+must+finally+fall
Al Mascitti was talking about the fact that the DEMs have larded up the payroll in the county to the degree that there is a call to lay off at least 120 people. I know for a fact that there are a slew of key DEMs hanging around getting county perks because they work on campaigns. DEMs won’t have the guts to lead budget discussions with a call to layoff some of the bloat and I am not talking about librarians.
Mascitti formally endorsed Kovach yesterday because there is a crying need for balance on the council. Labor’s interests are too heavily represented.
If Kovach wants to do something different he should say so. Right now he’s saying he wants to cut business taxes. How will that help county government?
I have reservations about Sheldon but no way am I voting for a teapartier even if it’s just pandering. I want our county politics to get smarter not dumber. Pretending he will run the whole county and lower business taxes is just dumb.
“Which of those principles do you have a problem with?”
In the simplistic version you listed, “free” markets.
What “business taxes” can he cut as a member of county council? None of which I’m aware.
As long as we all understand that David and Kojack (being republicans) think that it is important to “run” on a platform of smaller government, then all of thier comments and election season blow-hardiness make perfect sense.
What “business taxes” can he cut as a member of county council? None of which I’m aware.
Consider his audience – does it matter?
Hi Rep Dave.
The issue is that you and the libertarians are dishonest and lack any ethics or morals.
The tea party marketing scheme is original, but it is still the same old hateful bunch of libertarian goblins, who ironically do not even believe in the Constitution while at the same time wrap themselves with the flag.
The only bright spot in all this is that Delaware does not really have a Tea Party. It is just a few frustrated libertarians and the 9/12 traitors.
Though I will be expecting the national tea party money backing when I run for Senate. We have some medical bills to pay.. I mean campaign office rent and campaign marketing expenses to pay.
And Dave, calling veterans traitors really works against your wrap yourself in the flag patriotic marketing.
I agree with Nancy. What just rubber stamping the same leadership which has not dealt with the financial problems of the county?
Do you just make things up as you go along Para18? Who in our group is calling Vets traitors and why do you think Tom or I agree?
Maybe Al is trying to help me rebuild the Delaware GOP. 😉
Nancy tells us that Al Mascitti formerly endorsed Kovach yesterday. It’s hard to say where that endorsement came from. His irrational hatred of labor unions or his increasing flirtation with Republican positions. Mascitti recently said on the air that he might vote for Romney over Obama if the 2012 race features those choices. The situation is as Ed Shultz described it: there is no progressive radio in Delaware.
Why is it irrational to dislike the union domination of the Democratic Party in Delaware?
If you notice, it also says something about a “GOP administration.” He’s running for council’s at-large seat, not executive.
Dave Dave.
Let’s keep it simple. What is the GOP position on the DE veterans home charging 210.00 per day, well above the VA rate?
How is that helping veterans? ( psst this is what is called governing. it goes beyond simple bumper stickers ). You were not quiet when you were boasting about all of these great things done for veterans.
So is that part of limited government?
And charging me more for Para transit, is that part of helping veterans, let alone the seriously disabled?
This is the problem with the Tea Party, you are great at throwing out the bumper stickers and then when someone actually asks a serious questions one of two things, and usually both occur. Attack anyone who questions, then run and hide.
Contrary to the libertarian thought process, people do need government to provide service and should not have to give you a tax cut, so you can decide whether a seriously disabled veteran should have transportation.
And fundamentally you do hate veterans. All of your positions are anti-veteran and I understand why. You cannot throw us into the pile of drug addicts, lazy people, and any other label you use to inspire hate of those who need help from the government.
I know it is a tough spot. But the fact is that these liberals do more for veterans than anyone else. John Kerry( liberal, the Senator the right loves to attack, has spent his life fighting for veterans. McCain( moderate )is the other Senator that has been there for veterans issues.
And the traitor issue we will address in 2012.. I guarantee it.
Geezer, your question makes an erronous assumption. Unions don’t dominate the DE Democratic Party. The reelection of the current chairperson of the party suffices to demonstrate that and so does at will firing laws in DE. I wish that unions had more of an influence in the party and the body politic. Workers in DE would be a lot better off.
OK, “dominate” might be the wrong word. But they’re quite well represented, at least upstate, wouldn’t you say? Of all the groups under the Democratic tent, which one has the most representatives throughout the party structure? I don’t see a whole lot of environmentalists; we’re certainly short on minorities; the gays have just one office-holder; and so forth. When an elected Democrat needs a job and there’s no room left at the grant-in-aid nonprofits, which department takes them in and employs them? Granted, there’s also a strong “moderate” contingent (I’m not sure what you’d call them), preventing labor from “dominating” the party, so I suppose the labor folks are, on some issues, more progressive than the party average. But on issues outside the realm of employment, I don’t see much that’s progressive about most of them.
And what’s with the notion that a strong labor position in the Democratic Party would automatically lead to an end of our employment-at-will status? I’m sure you’ll dismiss it as “irrational hatred,” but I don’t agree with the idea that an employer, once hiring a person, is then bound for decades to keep that person employed. If that makes me less progressive than you, oh well. That’s called a “disagreement.” What’s irrational is slagging me personally because I don’t meet your requirement for inclusion in your “progressive” club.
I gotta say that I didn’t see this coming. With all the things that Kovach DOES support that are reasonable, putting out support for the Tea Party seems out of sync.
For David, I think the best way for you to think about someone who supports the Tea Party is to think of it as a Republican version of the ACLU or ACORN. (Do you have a problem with keeping government out of our Constitutionally protected rights? Do you have a problem with an organization that registers voters and helps the poor?)
I am disappointed to see that Kovach has thrown his lot in with the Tea Party.
Now that I think about it, I’m wondering who took out that ad. What would rile up Democratic voters more than linking the Republican to the Tea Party?
Fair enough, Geezer. I guess we’ll have to see if Kovach distances himself from the ad, or defends it.
We need as much financial help as we can get!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6waHZVP5eU4
UI:
What a biased and hyperbolic headline! The HuffPost has, in recent weeks, gone wholesale propoganda in its GINORMOUS-SIZED, lead-story headlines.
Not that they ever hid their progressive agenda or anything, but they are now past the point of no return with respect to credibility in political news. “The End is NEAR!” “GOP: SATAN Reincarnated!”
Wow! Like Elaine Benes, I never though I’d have to use so many exclamation points in so many sentences.
Btw, why not talk about the ongoing DEL-DOT-Dem scandal that’s been perpetrated since the days of Minner? The graft, corruption, cronyism and nepotism between developers/politicians is so incestuous that it pales in comparison to little diddies about COD, the ‘evil’ GOP, and other non-newsworthy subjects that gets bantered about on here.
Why not discuss what Dems in DE are proposing on economic and social fronts? Why whine incessantly about a non-entity Tea Party?
As for the election to County Council president:
Tim Sheldon is another union hack. Kovach has ideas, leadership and principle and has the intellectual heft to be a check on the ‘real’ incestuous relationship that clearly exists between Paul Clark and his County-developer connected wife. Why not question Clark’s idiotic hiring of disgraced and incompetent Vince Meconi?
Delaware is completely Democratically controlled. There’s basically no oversight on anything. How can Markell’s administration lead an investigation against the DEL-DOT-Developer scam in Millsboro without it not being a conflict of interest given his past position as State Treasurer? The same can be said for Beau Biden and not having the political gravitas to undo the aftermath of the Minner/Meconi/Hayworth/Carney/Brainard/Danburg/Wicks/Rizzo/Tigani Gestalt-like cartel?
I got a response tweet from Tom Kovach saying that he has no idea who placed the ad, but it wasn’t him on his campaign. I have also asked him if the quote about the Tea Party is accurate.
Kojack reminds me of Joe Pantoliano’s charachter in the matrix. “you know, I know this steak doesn’t exsist…”
Further info from Tom Kovach:
-He was misquoted in the ad above
-He did not take out that ad
-His campaign did not take out the ad
-He supports people, groups and even blogs like DelawareLiberal that hold public officials accountable (conservative, liberal, whatever)
Presumably, when the Tea Party hold public officials accountable, Tom supports them. If they are screaming about the President being a Muslim or seceding from the union or watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants, Tom is out.
Wow! Thanks for the investigative reporting, LG.
Twitter is great. That is all.
This is why I am giving my full support to the Libertarian Party Candidate. James Edward Christina. I belive he would be a Fresh Breath of Air. To the County.
I would hope that the retraction from the Kovach camp might be added to the body of the post itself….UI? If Delaraware Liberal wants to be fair it should correct the above post on what is very likely a DEM-planted fb ad lie.
Where did UI get this ad copy? From Sheldon’s camp?
We get it. Geek loves the guy. But did he really say this? ” If (the Teabagz) are screaming about the President being a Muslim or seceding from the union or watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants, Tom is out.”
I doubt it. He is a politician, and poking his base in the eyes is not something that I think he has the nerve for.
While I agree with Geezer’s distrust of inordinate union impact in Delaware, and especially in the Democratic Party (more specifically the construction trade unions), I think the issue with Council is less with unions than with developers. You have a body with a lot of nobodies who don’t make all that much to serve who can easily be ‘influenced’ by developers and perhaps, just perhaps, the perks that they can provide.
I haven’t seen the Kovach ad, but I saw Kovach address the Tea Party Rally at the Riverfront, and he said, ‘You’re the reason I got into this.’ He didn’t have to go there, and he sure as bleep didn’t have to be that enthusiastic about it. Makes me wonder who Tom Kovach really is. We’ve featured that tape a couple of times here, and it really gives me pause.
I’ve talked to a couple of people who I consider ‘progressives’ in county government. They believe that Sheldon will be a ‘surprise’ to the positive side. While I remain ambivalent, it’s enough for me to give a cautious vote for Sheldon with the understanding that, to quote noted philosopher Tom Waits, “This ain’t a purchase, it’s a rental.”
Check out Celcia Cohen’s take on the Whist Club fundraiser for Kovach. Nary a Teabagger in da place. Who of our DE GOP WASN’T in full flowering teaparty mode at the now much-rued Rally on the Riverfront? Bringing that up as a starting point now is stretching it.
Twitter is NOT great.
Okay Nancy. I get it. Kojack going to the KKK rally on the riverfront to pledge his loyalty to the white race was some kind of honest mistake right? Could have happened to anybody – except anyone who does not want to be associated with the KKK.
(..and by “KKK” I mean Teaparty and by “white race” I mean lower taxes for corporations and rich people.)
Thanks for the update above, UI.
Jason, it is laughable not to recognize how badly the mainstreamer DE GOP now feels about having backed the fledgling tea party movement. It ended up bagging their balls but good.
I believe the Facebook ad was fabricated and done by someone who does not want Tom Kovach to win and to smear him in this campaign.
Anyone with a little bit of computer/tech “know how” can make an ad and put it on Facebook, as it does not take the sharpest pencil in the box to know how to do that!
I have sent an email to a Facebook Admin. I know asking to trace and track the IP address of the computer where the ad originated from.
“I’ve talked to a couple of people who I consider ‘progressives’ in county government. They believe that Sheldon will be a ’surprise’ to the positive side.”
How will changing seats on county council change Tim Sheldon? The simple truth is that there’s nothing he can do as president that he can’t do now except for hold the gavel. Losing this election wouldn’t keep him from doing any of the things he wants to do.
Kovach’s pandering to the Tea Party doesn’t worry me as much as his ties to Parkowski and Swayze, two of the most powerful lawyer/lobbyists in the state. But I’m willing to take the risk to get a bright, reasonably moderate Republican involved as a counterweight to the not-exactly-intellectual crowd of Democrats on council.