Author Archives: liberalgeek

What Had Happened Was…

DL is back online. The DL hosting provider shut us down because the site was using up too many resources on their shared server environment. We suspect that it was due to a new plugin that was installed to make life easier for the authors. Unbeknownst to us, the plugin caused a bunch of alarms for the hosting provider. Inexplicably, they simply disabled the site and took days (5 to be specific) to re-enable it for an administrator to make the requested changes to optimize it. When they finally did, the changes were implemented in about an hour. Then it took an additional 48 hours to re-enable the site for everyone.

We will be re-examining our hosting provider relationship over the next few weeks and hopefully we can avoid outages like this in the future.

I should note that this is the longest that the site has been down since it’s founding 14 or so years ago. Thanks for sticking with us.

Technical Issues Imminent

We just want to give you a heads-up that there may be some weirdness on the site this week. We are changing hosting companies (probably on Wednesday). We are hoping that it won’t be much of an impact, but if you get some odd errors this week, rest assured that we will be back in the swing of things in no time.

Also, a huge thank you to AgoraNet for hosting us for the past decade.

A Modest Proposal

I have been following the charter school/high-stakes testing/Priority Schools debacle for the past few years. My proposal is that we use the same model for another daunting and complex problem: Crime.

We have a major crime problem in Wilmington and other locales around the state. I think we can solve it with a few transformations of the way that we structure our public safety. The key is to use the invisible hand of the market to reduce crime.

Step 1: Charter Police Squads

We now have the technology to have 911 go to wherever we want it to go. If I am dissatisfied with my police force, I can simply sign up for alternative police forces. For example, we could have Blackwater (or whatever they are called now after all those horrible shootings of innocent people) open up a charter police force. Then when I call 911 from my home or cell phone, it goes to them instead of traditional police force. They could then come to my house and put down whatever disturbance bothered me.
Obviously, these charter police forces would have to remain profitable. They would, of course, get the money that I pay in taxes for police service today. But also, if I end up being too much trouble as a customer (maybe I cry wolf a lot or live in an area that has high crime), they could fire me as a customer and I”d have to go back to my police feeder pattern. It almost goes without saying that the charters could be non-union and the charters could train their force as they see fit.

Step 2: Accountability

We need to online casino measure the effectiveness of the charters police forces and the traditional police forces. There are a few measures that we could use. For example, we could use reported crimes or arrests made. I suggest that we use a very corporate method. A Net Promoter Score (NPS). A couple times a year we would send out a form asking just a few questions, the most important of which is “Would you recommend this police force to your friends?” Police forces would have to compete with each other for better service in order to get a better score.

Step 3: Remove bad actors

By bad actors, I mean police forces with bad NPS numbers. We could have a charter come in and take control of poorly performing forces or we could award them to another local police force. Obviously, this would entail all of the cops reapplying for their jobs and certainly we would need to bring in consultants to assess the effectiveness of the police chief and his lieutenants.

Step 4: Improve the funding model

The police forces these days are funded through a variety of sources (federal, state and local taxes), but we really need a more democratic way of making the funding responsive to the electorate. Half of all police funding will be determined by referendum. If they want to provide better service, they will have to show us how they are going to spend that money. Obviously this will also be a good way to determine the per-citizen price, so that that money can be allocated to the charter police forces as well. The other half of the funding would come from State and Federal sources so as to match whatever the referendum nets them.

Step 5: Success!

I think this step speaks for itself.

LG Out

I have been trying to put together a resignation post for a while now.  It is hard to capture the joy and pain, success and frustration that I have enjoyed for the past several years as a part of the DL team. But as a wise blog founder once told me, “Never let perfect be the enemy of the good enough”.

So I’ll be signing off as a contributor here to attend to other political, professional and personal endeavors, but I’ll be here as a commenter as time permits. As always, DL can count on me for any support that they may need.

I Stand Corrected: Dem Signs to Come Down & More

Earlier, I let my cynicism get the better of me. I should have known better with people like Matt Denn around. I received this email from the Democratic party during the 7 o’clock hour:

We received the email pasted below regarding sign removal in preparation for Hurricane Sandy.  The Coordinated Campaign (Carper, Carney, Markell, Denn, Weldin Stewart Campaigns) will be working to remove signs by region, but we need all the help we can get.  Stephanie Swain with Matt Denn’s campaign will be coordinating these efforts.  Please contact her at stephanie.swain@mattdenn.com to find out more and/or to volunteer.

As indicated in Nicole’s email below, our primary concern is the larger signs.

Pasted below this message was the request from DelDot to Erik Schramm:

Dear Party Official:

Due to the approach of Hurricane Sandy and the arrival of high winds capable of uprooting temporary signs along the state’s roadways, the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) respectfully requests that candidates for political office do as much as possible to remove their signs for safekeeping throughout the storm.  We are especially concerned about the larger, heavier signs that could present the most danger to motorists and pedestrians.

We apologize for this inconvenience, but do request your assistance in ensuring our roadways stay safe during this storm event.   Campaigns are welcome to repost the signs once this weather event concludes.

[…]

Thanks,
Nicole Majeski
Deputy Secretary
Delaware Department of Transportation

Also, Chip Guy, the Sussex PIO, sent out an email with a video message on the preparations for the storm:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSvvZI-wqgk[/youtube]

DL will try to stay on top of the storm as it tracks north.

Not Gonna Happen

I just got a press release from DelDOT that has a lot of good information about storm prep, including road projects that have been postponed due to the impending conflagration (95 @202 will NOT be closed this weekend).

Among the suggestions for storm safety was this gem:

DelDOT is requesting that political campaigns do what they can to remove political signs along state roadways prior to the arrival of the storm; especially large signs that may become airborne

Good luck with that.  Nonetheless, for those of you that have control of signage, please take heed.  The last thing that you want is a front-page picture of your plywood campaign sign sticking out of the chest of a dead motorist.

Behind the Numbers in Local Races: Updated

This week I was granted access to some of the polling data gathered by a new local communications firm, Out of the Box. One of the men behind the curtain is Richard Korn, former Democratic candidate for Auditor.  Richard sat down with me to answer questions about the polling that Out of the Box did for local races, including Insurance Commissioner, SD11 (Deluca v. Townsend), Mayor of Wilmington and County Executive.

If you are a registered Democrat in New Castle County (and you are a likely voter) you probably received a call from Out of the Box. Their polls were probably most memorable for their brevity. Usually just a single question, they got right to the heart of the goal of the poll. “Hello, as a voter in [name the location], your opinion matters. Please answer the following question:” and then the old “if the election were held today…” question.  That’s it.

Deluca v Townsend

It was obvious to OOTB where this race was going with a week left. Townsend was pulling over 40% with Deluca hovering around 30% and only 23% still undecided. Certainly the people that commissioned the poll (the poll was sponsored by an organization that supported Deluca) had reached out to Deluca to tell him that things weren’t looking good.  But the rumors that I’m hearing from other people about this is that Deluca was in serious denial.

By the time the Saturday before the election rolled around, the deal was done. Townsend had risen in the polls to over 50% and Deluca had dropped to about 27%. The remaining undecideds broke 2:1 for Deluca on election day, but the final tally was to 58-42.

Wilmington Mayor

You wouldn’t know it looking at the comments here on DL, but the mayors race wasn’t even close. Even as far back as mid-August, the race belonged to Dennis Williams. Williams had 28% and a 9 point lead over his next closest competitor (Kevin Kelly). Williams had a base of power in RD1 and 2, whereas Kelly and Montgomery split RDs 3 and 4.

On election day, Williams and Kelly each picked up 40% of the undecided voters.  And that is enough to Call Dennis P. Williams “Mr. Mayor”.

In the next post I’ll talk about what the New Castle County Executive and Council President polling showed and when.

Update:

From the comments, I have realized some of the data that I left out. I apologize for that.  Here is more detailed information about the polls above.

Deluca/Townsend

Both polls were robocalls made only to likely Democratic voters in SD11 consisting of the same script both times and similar to the one above. The poll consisted of only one question.

September 4 & 5
Total polls completed=175
Deluca: 30.9
Townsend: 42.9
Undecided: 26.2
September 7 & 8
Total Polls completed=175
Deluca: 29.1
Townsend: 48
Undecided: 22.9
Wilmington Mayor
This poll was conducted August 11 & 12 via robocall to likely Democratic voters inside of Wilmington. It consisted of a single poll question similar to the phrasing above.
Total polls completed=910
Bovell: 8.7
Kelly: 19.2
Montgomery: 17.7
Williams: 24.5
Undecided: 26.9

The Polls are Closed: Primary Election Results Thread

The polls are now closed. The poll workers are tabulating results and phoning them in.  Hopefully the candidates are having their signs gathered in hopes of reuse in two months.

The Department of Elections website is here.

Post the results you find interesting below.

UPDATE FROM DELAWARE DEM: I am here at Timothy’s. Come out and drink. Also, be sure to check out the #votede Twitter feed.

Primary Day in Delaware

Well, the polls are now open.  Go out and vote, then report back with any observations.

This is now an open thread for polling place reports for the day and predictions.

Polls close at 8PM.  If you don’t know where to vote, look it up here.

And once the polls close, come on out to Timothy’s on the Wilmington waterfront for some liberal libations and to watch the returns come in.

SEO And The Local Races

SEO is Search Engine Optimization. It is a geeky dark science that strives to improve the ranking of web pages through a variety of techniques. It can also show you who is working on improving their online persona. I like to think of it as a way of controlling the first impression of someone looking for more information. Let’s look at how the candidates have done.

NCC Executive Race

This is the one that caught my attention.  Both Gordon and Clark have huge issues with their public personas.  Shahan and Husband have been cash starved and have yet to really make their cases. For each, let’s Google [candidate name] New Castle County Executive

Paul Clark – The first 3 hits are for the New Castle County government website. Sadly, that site is god-awful (NCC, can you work on that?). It isn’t until the 4th result that we see Clark’s campaign website. However, the 5th result is one of the “anyone but Paul Clark” websites. In fact, the first page of results have two of those websites as well as a blog post over at Resolute Determination about ties to developers. Finally, at the bottom of the page is an ad for Tom Gordon.

Tom Gordon – The first hit is Gordon’s campaign website. Oddly, the second is his Wikipedia page that has been well scrubbed.  A peek at the history of the wiki page shows that someone is adding the sentence “He was indicted in 2004 by the United States Attorney following an investigation by the FBI for the misuse of public funds. He pled guilty to slightly lesser charges and then proceeded to have his criminal file sealed.” only to have it removed within a few days. A couple of positive news bits announcing his run and his Facebook page also appear.  On the first page of hits, the only two negative words that I see is a the title of a video “Tom Gordon & Paul Clark Heated Exchange on Ethics” and the phrase “a battle between the ethically challenged” on a link to a DE GOP. And at the bottom, the Tom Gordon Google ad.

William “Bill” Shahan – Google corrected me when I put Bill Shahan in the search terms, so I used William and got the same results. Bill’s website is first, followed by his Facebook page and a News Journal article. Then two videos make the list, an interview and his candidacy announcement. Another hit is a link to Delawareblack.com basically reprinting a presser.  At the top of the post? A Tom Gordon banner ad. Also, at the bottom of the results, Gordon has another Google ad.

Jon[athon] Husband – He leads off with two News Journal pieces and then his campaign site. A DelawareLiberal post comes in 4th and his LinkedIn profile makes the list twice. In 4 of the first 10, he is included in a list, rather than on his own. And guess what’s at the bottom of the page? Yep, Gordon’s Google ad.

Insurance Commissioner

This is competing with the NCC Exec race as the ugliest. Also, it features a damaged incumbent, a serious challenger and a pair of also-rans. We’ll search for [candidate name] Delaware Insurance Commissioner.

Karen Weldin Stewart – As with Clark, Stewart’s governmental page comes up first (and second and third). The fourth hit is Karen’s Wikipedia page.  The wiki page is pretty clean, although the history lists some pretty funny stuff (Alma mater: Hamburger University, Profession: Lobbyist for the Insurance Industry, Party: Republican). Good work on keeping that cleaned up. Next up is her NAIC membership and then a presser. The 7th hit is the DelawareLiberal page for posts tagged with Karen Weldin Stewart.  That can’t be helpful. Her own campaign webpage makes the list at number 8. No Google ad at the bottom.

Mitch Crane – Like Gordon, the first (and second) hit was the Crane campaign website. Three of the first 10 mention Crane’s sexuality.  Three also mention endorsements that Mitch has won. Oddly, the Google ad at the bottom is an Ask.com page.

Paul Gallagher – Some day, Paul Gallagher will be the answer to a difficult Delaware Political trivia question, but for today, he is the answer to the question, “Who has the longest URL in Delaware politics?” His site www.paulgallagherfordelawareinsurancecommissioner.com is easily the most awkward URL I’ve seen in politics. Good thing I used “the google” to find it.  It is his top hit. The rest of the hits are actually pretty reasonable. There are a few articles including one from Crane’s list above. He also seems to have been picked up by a few sites that grap PR headlines. However, I think the cleanliness of Gallagher’s list is an indication of how absent he has been in the campaign. When your 3rd hit is a press release aggregator, it’s gonna be a cold day in hell when you win the race.

Dennis Spivack – The first 3 hits are Dennis’ website.  There are two videos featured in his first page from a televised debate on Community Crossfire. Also, links from The News Journal, WDEL and DelawareLiberal.

New Castle County Council President

Renee Taschner – Three of the top ten hits for Taschner are News Journal links. Her website doesn’t appear until the fourth result.  Another press release aggregator, DelawareWay.blogspot.com (I kid), gets three hits and the Middletown Transcript and Grapevine round out the list.

Christopher Bullock – Rev. Bullock’s site is the number one hit for his search and his Twitter page is number three. The News Journal makes the list twice, as well as a link each on Delaware Way, DelawareLiberal and CommunityPub.com. The Delaware Way link is actually Nancy’s post about Dunn endorsing Bullock.

What does all of this tell us? Well, there is a long way to go for local campaigns to go to improve their online presence. Tom Gordon is showing the way. I hope he loses tomorrow, but local politicos should take heed even if he does. If you don’t control the medium, someone else will.

DL Primary Returns Party (there will be beer)

It’s been a long and painful primary campaign.  You’re tired, anxious, angry, overjoyed or confused… but most of all, you are thirsty.

Join Delaware Liberal for a little soiree at Timothy’s on the waterfront in Wilmington at 8PM.  We’ll have our laptops open and our eyes trained on the elections returns websites… and on our beer (or wine, or martinis).  Anyone is welcome, Democrat, Republican, independent or faux-republican Libertarians.

Romney Just Lost Virginia

I was just over at Electoral-vote.com (a great site that I don’t visit enough) and saw that Virgil Goode, Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party and long-time Virginia Congressman, has made the ballot in Virginia. As a Virginia local running to the right of Romney, this should be the death-knell of the Romney campaign.  At the end of August, Goode was polling at about 4% and I doubt any of those votes are Obama voters.

This should give Obama a comfortable lead in Virginia, if it holds.  And if Obama holds Virginia, I’m not sure that the Romney math is even possible.  Further, if the narrative shifts away from “this is a close race” to “How much will Obama win by” we could be looking at more exposure for down-ticket races and a better chance at retaking the House.

What can I say, I’m an optimist.