Delaware

When you have wide open races replacing a beloved retiring Representative, such as Terry Schooley, with three candidates struggling to get their names out there and pounding the pavement every night, endorsements from the local Representative District committee can mean a lot. Last night the 23rd RD endorsed Paul Baumbach over Jerry Grant and Claudia Bock. Of the 12 members voting, apparently Paul got 8 votes.

Since the Dem primary will settle the issue for many of the races in Delaware, election day is effectively just over a month out.

September 11, 2012 Primary Election

• Insurance Commissioner - Weldin Stewart/Crane/Others - Crane plus 1
• Wilmington Mayoral Race - Williams/Kelley - No line yet
• SD 1 McDowell/Brady/Martin - McDowell plus 2
• SD 6 Miller/Frederick/Staton - Staton plus 6
• SD 11 DeLuca/Townsend - even money
• RD 15 Longhurst/Burton - Longhurst plus 3
• RD 19 Dunn/Williams - even money
• RD 23 Baumbach/Bock/Grant - No line yet
• RD 32 McGlumphey/Bennett- even money

How far do you walk? 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile, 6 minutes, 30 minutes? What is distance you will walk before you start to think that maybe driving or taking a bus makes more sense? It turns out that walking distance has more to do with what you are looking at, and less to do with how far you need to go.

Walk Appeal promises to be a major new tool for understanding and building walkable places, and it explains several things that were heretofore either contradictory or mysterious. It begins with the assertion that the quarter-mile radius (or 5-minute walk,) which has been held up for a century as the distance Americans will walk before driving, is actually a myth.