Delaware
Lawlessness in the City of Wilmington Starts at the Top
The News Journal published a remarkable story yesterday, detailing the escapades of a Wilmington Fire Marshal who was supposedly performing a residency investigation. Some quick background, new hires with the City of Wilmington are expected to establish residency in the city within six months of hire and then are expected to live in the city for 5 years. There’s a Residency Review Board that is supposed to review challenges of non-compliance. But here we find that somehow a WFD Fire Marshal is clumsily investigating WFD employees:
Complexities of Color Coalition Mayoral Debate April 18
The Complexities of Color Coalition, in partnership with the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League Young Professionals, Interdenominational Ministers Action Council, Delaware Young Democrats Minority Caucus, and Delaware Black are hosting a debate among Wilmington Mayoral candidates April 18, 2016, 7pm at Ezion Fair Baptist Church in Wilmington. You need a ticket (it’s free) for this one and you can sign up for that at this website. Your ticket comes via email.
Mayor Williams’ FB Meltdown
A meltdown, right? Because WTF else could be going on here? For someone who needs plenty of votes this September, alienating some of them on racial lines seems just plain delusional. And this is not all. If you are on his page regularly, there are posts saying Good Night Wilmington (think Good Night JohnBoy) and for those who are asking serious questions or who criticize him in any way — you are unfriended and blocked. Like he was still in junior high school or something.
Delaware Political Weekly: March 18-24, 2016
Realtor Jim Startzman startz anew. Doesn’t even look like his webpage has been updated. Here’s why he says he’s running:
You’re probably wondering why I’ve decided to run for State Representative and what it is that makes me more qualified than the incumbent. During the last 6+ years I have become more and more aware of the negative effect of our state government towards the citizens of Delaware.
Ho-kay. Anyway, Williams defeated him in 2014 by a 3128-1788 margin. She is one of Delaware’s best legislators and best progressives. She’s part of the solution. My theory as to why Startzman’s running? Real estate business must be slow.
If I Could Have A Moment Of Your Time…
I canvassed with Eugene this past fall and was impressed with his grasp of the issues and his solutions. I’m impressed by the broad coalition of volunteers and staff he has been surrounded himself with — people who are energizing their networks and creating one of the most professionally run campaigns I’ve ever seen in the city. It is gratifying to see (and work with!) younger people energized by stepping up to do the work of making sure that Wilmington is a great place for them to live in and work in.
The diversity and outreach in this campaign is awe-inspiring. Eugene is campaigning across the entire city, in every community. That’s refreshing and smart. Far too often candidates for mayor focus solely on certain communities. Even worse, a few pit communities against each other by employing fear and the familiar “tough on crime” stance, dividing the city into “us and them”.
It’s also no secret that campaigns need contributions. It’s also also no secret that our city needs a new direction and vision. I believe the person capable of setting us on a new path is Eugene Young. So I’m calling on (really, asking) the DL statewide community (because you guys are awesome!) to contribute to Eugene’s campaign. In order to keep track of our awesomeness please add .16 to your contribution. (You know… 25.16)
Black Lives Matter Political Town Hall March 23
The Wilmington Black Lives Matter group is hosting a Town Hall on Wednesday, March 23 from 6 – 8 PM. The Town Hall is at 2303 Lancaster Avenue Wilmington, Delaware. Invited politicians include: John Carney, Matt Denn, Penrose Hollins, Stephanie Bolden, Theo Gregory, Kevin Kelley, Eugene Young, Justen Wright, Sherry Dorsey, Bob Williams, Greg Fuller, Maria Cabrera, Steve Washington, Matthew Meyers and others.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 22, 2016
Another week down, another 8-figure payout of taxpayer money transferred to the corporate giants. We’re told that we have to do it, otherwise someone else will. You see, the people who keep getting their pittance of health care cut, the state workers who have to beg for a pittance of a raise, they don’t count. We don’t have to do anything for them, they’re lucky they get what we give them. No, we need the big-paying jobs, or, to be accurate, the tiny fraction of those jobs that will remain, more than we need a more equitable and humane system. Oh, and to go ever-so-slightly off-topic, our sleazy County Executive is gonna throw yet millions more of taxpayers’ money at these extortionists. $7.5 mill for starters. Our money going to pay the big corporations and their biggest earners. That is what’s known as a transfer of wealth. BTW, all those Rethugs who publicly rended their garments in outrage over Gov. Markell’s efforts to at least bring new industries to Delaware? They all voted for both (so far) of these corporate bailouts. They don’t object to transfer of wealth, they just object to it not going to the usual suspects. What this Governor and this General Assembly just did is pretty much similar to throwing money at the casinos…except that these jobs pay more. More money for ever-diminishing returns. Our money.
Yes, SB 200 (Blevins) passed the House and was immediately signed into law by the Governor Thursday. Nobody even had to be late for their St. Patty’s Celebrations. Betcha there was some passin’ ‘o the green to go along with the wearin’ o’ the green that night. Only people who got screwed? Delaware taxpayers. And maybe an inebriated legislator and an appreciative lobbyist or two.
Before I move on, I have a question for my County Council member. These companies are staying, at least for now, whether or not the County hands them $7.5 mill of our money. Could you at least please vote no against this unnecessary and unwarranted giveaway? Thanks for reading. You, the reader, may want to call your Council member to express similar sentiments.
Delaware Political Weekly: March 11-17, 2016.
The more I think about it, the more I’m impressed with the kickoff to Matt Meyer’s campaign for County Executive. It’s as if the campaign emerged fully-formed out of nowhere. I’m sure a lot of people worked on preparing this, but I hadn’t heard even a hint about his candidacy until yesterday. Perhaps, as an attorney, he didn’t want to give Gordon the chance to threaten his employer until he was already in. The ad is brilliant, effectively lays out his message. My favorite bit: “Your search found 1 result”. And his bio is compelling. Especially the stuff about Ecosandals:
Matt chose to move to Nairobi, Kenya, where he taught himself Swahili and started Ecosandals, a footwear business he created that has sold environmentally-friendly footwear to customers on 17 countries in 5 continents for over two decades.
Numerous groups and organizations have recognized Ecosandals’ work in creating innovative job opportunities in neighborhoods facing extreme poverty. Those groups include CNN, the United Nations, the World Bank, BBC, Al Jazeera and Current TV, which on national TV called Matt an all-around super human. Ecosandals continues to create employment opportunities in neighborhoods of Nairobi, Kenya where residents are desperate for meaningful work.
Think about it: Tom Gordon or Matt Meyer…gotta ask my wife if we can send Matt a few bucks. Besides, Friends grad and a math teacher? Hey, that’s my daughter’s bio!
BTW, Tom Gordon filed yesterday, so the game is on.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., March 17, 2016
The proposed constitutional amendment mandating that $10 mill must go to Agriculture Lands Preservation annually did not come close to a 2/3 majority in the House. 20 Y, 17 N, 4 A. The only upstate D’s to vote for the bill were Gerald Brady (?) and…Bryon Short (!). Oh, did I mention that there are 8,000 Delaware Farm Bureau members? A cheap (it wasn’t going to pass with or without his vote), politically expedient, and intellectually dishonest vote by the least progressive D candidate for Congress in Delaware.
Guess there was no controversy surrounding SB 202 (Sokola) after all. Mitch Crane was right, the bill merely reflects the self-insured nature of the state and its school buses in this matter. Bill passed unanimously in Senate.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues. March 15, 2016
This entire session has been one giveaway after another to the corporate behemoths. Thursday’s session continued the trend with the Senate voting unanimously to fatten the corporate coffers (at the expense of the state’s coffers) by $10.6 mill by FY 2019. Look, I understand that we don’t want to lose any more jobs, but the state has essentially become a one-trick pony in recent years. And, for all that we’ve doled out in corporate welfare, we’ve only retained a small fraction of the jobs that once were the backbone of our economy. And now the county is jumping on the bandwagon. And all the public officials are praising each other for moving so swiftly to ‘save’ the paltry number of DuPont jobs that were ‘saved’. What is lacking is the ‘vision thing’, to quote Bush the Elder. Plus, a thoughtful discussion as to whether the millions we’re tossing to the companies extorting us would be better spent elsewhere. Thankfully, we’ve got John Carney bringing his inspiring vision to–uh, never mind.
What Brought the No Votes to Christina? Part I
A commenter on my previous post about supporting public education and “Super Referendum Wednesday” asked specifically about the Christina School District’s two failures last year and if there were any themes from no voters as to why they voted the way they did. Rather than answer it inline, I felt those themes deserved their own posts for visibility sake, That way the types of misinformation we have campaigned against for the last several years is put on display.
Yes, there are common themes among the no-voters that emerged from both elections, and they persist even today. Check out the CSDpavingtheway or Official District’s Facebook pages for proof. Better yet, read the comments on any article the News Journal posts about Christina on delawareonline.com, just be sure to have your eye bleach ready.
The eerie similarities between Donald Trump and Christine O’Donnell
Didn’t Republicans learn their lesson?
Delaware Political Weekly: March 4-10, 2016
Mayor Dennis Williams Just Won’t, Or Can’t, Grow Up.
You’re probably aware that there is a Wilmington mayoral debate on March 15. You may be aware that there are six filed candidates for Mayor. You may also be aware that none of those filed candidates are named Dennis Williams. OK, when the forum was scheduled, quite some time ago, one of the requirements for participating in the forum was that you must be filed as a candidate. Didn’t seem unreasonable, still doesn’t seem unreasonable. But, from a highly-placed source (wink wink) this caused Wilmington’s Embarrassment of a Mayor to go into high dudgeon…how dare they require that someone must be filed as a candidate to participate in a candidates’ debate? Junior high school stuff. But, the organizers relented. So, if Mayor Williams, for one of the very few times since he’s been mayor, deigns to grace the crowd with his presence, he’ll be welcome. Of course, if he had just filed, like a reasonable person, none of this faux-drama would have been necessary. But he just can’t help himself.
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