Tag Archives: Delaware

Clips From Last Night’s Rachel Maddow Show

If you missed last night’s Rachel Maddow Show or forgot to set your DVR here’s some clips from last night’s show. Delaware voters showed themselves to be very smart!

First show segment – Chris Coons and Tom Carper at a Wilmington senior center. The highlight of the segment was the interview with Dr. Gilbert Sinclair. Also, I’d like to replace Morning Joe & Chris Matthews with these voters.

More interviews with Delaware voters. I know some of these voters! This segment was very amusing.

Rachel’s interview with Chris Coons. It’s a really strong interview from Chris Coons – his messages: I’m my own man, I’m talking to voters to get their concerns and I know how balance the budget. He called himself a fiscal conservative.

I kept getting distracted by Dr. Sinclair mugging in the background.

Farleigh Dickinson Poll Results

Fairleigh Dickinson has released poll results for several Delaware races. The poll finds John Carney with a 15% lead, with Urquhart’s support in the mid-30s.

But according to the most recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, Democrat and former Lt. Gov. John Carney is leading Republican Glen Urquhart by 51%-36% for the House seat soon to be vacated by Republican Mike Castle.

“Reputation and name brand matter,” said Peter Woolley, professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University and director of the poll, “and it matters a little more in Delaware than in most states,” he said. While Carney predictably leads comfortably in New Castle County (56-32), he runs even with Urquhart (43-43) in the more Republican counties of Kent and Sussex.

Urquhart is underperforming O’Donnell slightly, so he probably has room to grow his numbers. Carney is also underperforming Chris Coons. The hot Senate race has really overshadowed the U.S. House race in this cycle.

For Auditor of Accounts, Richard Korn has a lot of ground to make up, Wagner leads by 15% (but is under the magic 50% mark).

Likewise, one of five voters (20%) is undecided in the race for auditor of accounts where Republican incumbent Tom Wagner leads the Democrat Richard Korn by 46%-31%. Wagner leads downstate by a 2-to-1 margin, 55-24 and in New Castle County by 42-35.

The Treasurer’s race may turn out to be the most interesting race. The poll found Flowers and Bonini tied.

In the race for state treasurer, Democrat Chip Flowers and Republican Colin Bonini are neck and neck at 38%-38%, with 21% unsure. Flowers leads in New Castle by 41%-34%, while Bonini leads downstate by 44-33. “Don’t look for many of the undecided to break,” said Woolley. “Lots of these unsure voters will resolve their dilemma by not casting a vote in this particular race.”

The poll finds that Beau Biden is the most popular politician in the state, and is handily beating his challenger Doug Campbell by 40% (65/25). Biden’s favorable/unfavorable is 61/23. Jack Markell is also popular, with a 57% approval rating.

We Will Miss Ted Kaufman

This week the U.S. Senate went into recess until after the elections. It was the end of Ted Kaufman’s time in the U.S. Senate. The election in November is a special election and the winner will take over the Senate seat. Ted Kaufman turned out to be a great asset to the U.S. Senate and he will be missed. He was able to talk eloquently about the failures of our banking sytem and became a voice for people who have suffered from them. Senator Kaufman did an interview with the Huffington Post and reminded us of why we love him:

But, Kaufman said in an interview with the Huffington Post, there’s a paradox at work: If he’d been running for reelection, he wouldn’t have those rabid backers, because he never would have waged his campaign against the banks – not because he would have worried it would hurt him politically, but simply because he would have had to spend more than half his time raising money and organizing his campaign.

“It is a perfect Catch-22,” said Kaufman, explaining that his campaign against the banks “wouldn’t have existed, no, because I’m not on the banking committee. I would have stuck to my bidding on judiciary and foreign relations.”

And without the campaign against the banks, he wouldn’t have the supporters he now does. “I wouldn’t have this rabid” following, he said. “That’s the whole thing. It was a Catch-22. There’s no way I could have — my race, if I ran, would be totally, you know, standard, cookie-cutter campaign. I wouldn’t have had anything to show. I never would have been able to do any of the things that would really be the major things in my campaign, because the whole stuff I’d done on financial reform–we never would have been part of the debate.”

…

Kaufman said that the only way out of the paradox he experienced is to create a system of public financing for campaigns, but the Supreme Court is making that increasingly less attainable. “If I’m czar, not president of the United States of America, I’d institute public financing of campaigns. But that cat’s long out,” he said. “So I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know what to say about the system. The system is so awful.”

Amen to that, Senator Kaufman. Ted Kaufman may be leaving the Senate but he isn’t leaving public service all together. He’s been tapped to take over the Bailout Oversight Committee, replacing Elizabeth Warren.

Sen. Ted Kaufman, the outgoing Delaware senator who battled to break up major banks the past year, will replace Elizabeth Warren as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told HuffPost.

Reid initially appointed Warren to run the panel, launching her as a national champion of the middle class. The committee oversees the federal government’s bailout of Wall Street.

The TARP program is actually ending soon but we’ll be shareholders in banks and AIG for many more years. It’s good to know that we have a champion like Ted Kaufman there to try to keep these banks honest.

In Case You Don’t Have Enough To Do…

The election season is heavy upon us right now and that means plenty of activities, in case you don’t have enough to do.

Tomorrow there’s a rally in Wilmington called “It’s About Jobs!”

The Painters and Machinists

“IT’S ABOUT JOBS!”: Let’s Get America Working Again!

BUS TOURS ARE COMING TO WILMINGTON

JOIN US for a
“IT’S ABOUT JOBS!” RALLY

FREE FOOD!!! HOAGIES, CHIPS, & DRINKS

Confirmed Speakers

Governor Jack Markell
Beau Biden, Attorney General of Delaware
John Carney, Candidate for Congress and former Lt. Gov of DE
Matt Denn, Lt. Governor of Delaware
Peter Schwartzkopf, Delaware House Majority Leader
Other labor leaders and pro-worker candidates

Friday, September 24, 2010
5:00 PM
Tubman – Garrett Riverfront Park

corner of Water and South French Streets at the Christina River in Wilmington, DE

For more information: (IUPAT) Matt Trzaska 215-778-4539 or (IAM) John Carr 513-373-5544

TEXT “JOBS” TO 48728

On Saturday, there is a coordinated canvassing event all through Delaware. This one is specific to the Newark area, but click on the link in the information to see your own area.

This weekend marks our second big Day of Action of the campaign season, and we hope that you will join us for a door-to-door canvass in your area! After seeing the results of last week’s primary, it’s more important than ever that we turn out every Democratic voter and tell them why it’s important to support our candidates this fall. Please join us for the canvass closest to you:

Coordinated Campaign Canvass
Saturday, 9/25 at 10am
Sunday, 9/26 at 12pm
Newark Coordinated Campaign Headquarters
350 College Square
Newark, DE
Click here to RSVP!

Next week the University of Delaware College Democrats are hosting an event headed by DNC Chair Tim Kaine.

The College Democrats are proud to host Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine at the University of Delaware on Tuesday, September 28 at 6 PM in Smith Hall 130. Doors open at 5:30 PM.

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine, the former Governor of Virginia, will be the featured speaker at an event brought to you by Organizing for America (part of the Democratic National Committee) and the White House. President Obama will be delivering a simulcasted speech to students from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and we will be watching that speech at this event and hearing from Gov. Kaine, as well as from students and senior members of the College Democrats at the University of Delaware.

This will be a huge event drawing students from all over the area, so make sure to get there early. We hope to see you there. If you are not registered to vote, there will be a table outside the event for you to do that beforehand.

If you want to get out of town on Saturday, October 2 there is a “One Nation Working Together” march in Washington D.C. Pacem in Terris is taking a bus to the gathering.

Several chartered buses are going from Wilmington. You can ride the Pacem in Terris bus for $25 by calling 656-2721. If you’re driving, it’s best to park at Greenbelt or New Carrollton Metro stop (Metro parking is free on weekends) and take the Metro to Foggy Bottom (closest stop to Lincoln Memorial).

Don’t forget, WHYY is also hosting voter outreach forums. The next one is September 27 in Dover (details at link).

The Other Results

Everyone was focused on the Senate & House primaries last night but there were other offices being contested. Here are the results:

STATE TREASURER
323 of 323 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
CHIP FLOWERS JR. 18406 435 18841 54 . 3 %
VELDA JONES-POTTER 15393 487 15880 45 . 7 %

AUDITOR OF ACCOUNTS
323 of 323 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
RICHARD KORN 17167 472 17639 53 . 9 %
KENNETH A. MATLUSKY 14692 405 15097 46 . 1 %

STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 19
16 of 16 Districts Reported

REPUBLICAN PARTY
ERIC R. BODENWEISER 1957 80 2037 48 . 6 %
* JOSEPH W. BOOTH 2062 95 2157 51 . 4 %

STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 20
16 of 16 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
* GEORGE H. BUNTING JR. 1815 43 1858 78 . 8 %
PERRY J. MITCHELL 484 15 499 21 . 2 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 2
10 of 10 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
STEPHANIE T. BOLDEN 652 24 676 51 . 2 %
HAZEL D. PLANT 630 15 645 48 . 8 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 3
7 of 7 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
ROBERT BOVELL 583 7 590 44 . 5 %
HELENE M. KEELEY 707 29 736 55 . 5 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 8
9 of 9 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
S. QUINTON JOHNSON 778 13 791 68 . 7 %
VALERIE V. JONES-RABB 358 3 361 31 . 3 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 9
10 of 10 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
RICHARD H. GRIFFITHS 255 3 258 21 . 0 %
REBECCA WALKER 961 9 970 79 . 0 %
REPUBLICAN PARTY
JOHN MARINO 1514 8 1522 75 . 5 %
ANTHONY MIRTO 486 7 493 24 . 5 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 10
9 of 9 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
KENNETH DARGIS 274 6 280 27 . 8 %
DENNIS E. WILLIAMS 718 9 727 72 . 2 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 24
6 of 6 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
KAY WILDE GALLOGLY 235 4 239 29 . 1 %
EDWARD S. OSIENSKI 579 2 581 70 . 9 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 27
6 of 6 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
EARL G. JAQUES JR. 769 12 781 64 . 3 %
JAMES MARAVELIAS 429 5 434 35 . 7 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 29
7 of 7 Districts Reported

REPUBLICAN PARTY
GEORGE A. PHILLIPS 427 23 450 28 . 0 %
LINCOLN D. WILLIS 1114 42 1156 72 . 0 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 31
7 of 7 Districts Reported

REPUBLICAN PARTY
RONALD POLIQUIN 497 38 535 49 . 4 %
RONALD SMITH 504 45 549 50 . 6 %

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 33
8 of 8 Districts Reported

REPUBLICAN PARTY
HAROLD J. PETERMAN 1069 33 1102 56 . 3 %
STEVEN RUST 829 26 855 43 . 7 %

COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 3
20 of 20 Districts Reported

REPUBLICAN PARTY
JANET KILPATRICK 2641 51 2692 51 . 7 %
MICHAEL D. PROTACK 2470 49 2519 48 . 3 %

SHERIFF
212 of 212 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
TRINIDAD NAVARRO 14732 300 15032 63 . 3 %
MICHAEL P. WALSH 8504 206 8710 36 . 7 %
REPUBLICAN PARTY
WILLIAM HART 14134 243 14377 56 . 4 %
JOSEPH O’LEARY 10905 200 11105 43 . 6 %

RECORDER OF DEEDS
63 of 63 Districts Reported

DEMOCRATIC PARTY
JOHN F. BRADY 3674 111 3785 56 . 0 %
ALMA C. ROACH 2852 127 2979 44 . 0 %

What surprises do you see? I see a few mild upsets – Flowers over Jones-Potter (surprisingly high margin), Navarro over Walsh (a blowout) and Bolden over Plant. There were a few close calls as well – Korn-Matlusky, Booth-Bodenweiser & Kilpatrick-Protack. The labor-backed challengers also did quite well in the open seat races – Rebecca Walker in RD9 and Ed Osienski in RD24. Maravelias did not prevail over incumbent Jaques in RD27, however.

Primary Prediction Thread

Tomorrow is the long-awaited primary day. We’ll find out who will be their parties representatives in the November elections, less than 60 days away. Delaware has some hot and nasty primaries that are getting national attention.

So, you’ve been paying attention. Who’s going to win tomorrow? Let’s turn this into a contest. The person who predicts the most winners correctly will get a copy of Markos Moulitsas’s American Taliban. The tiebreaker question will be to give the spread of the Castle-O’Donnell primary.

Here are the races:

Republican Primaries

U.S. Senate Mike Castle vs. Christine O’Donnell
U.S. House of Representatives Michele Rollins, Glen Urquhart, Rose Izzo
State Senate District 19 Joe Booth vs. Eric Bodenweiser
State Representative District 9 John Marino vs. Anthony Mirto
State Representative District 29 George Phillips vs. Lincoln Willis
State Representative District 31 Ron Smith vs. Ron Poliquin
State Representative District 33 Harold Peterman vs. Steven Rust
New Castle County Council District 3 Janet Kilpatrick vs. Mike Protack
New Castle County Sheriff Bill Hart vs. Joseph O’Leary

Democratic Primaries

State Treasurer Velda Jones-Potter vs. Chip Flowers
State Auditor Richard Korn vs. Ken Matlusky
State Senate District 20 George Bunting vs. Perry Mitchell
State Representative District 2 Hazel Plant vs. Stephanie Bolden
State Representative District 3 Robert Bovell vs. Helene Keeley
State Representative District 8 Quinton Johnson vs. Valerie Jones-Rabb
State Representative District 9 Richard Griffiths vs. Rebecca Walker
State Representative District 10 Kenneth Dargis vs. Dennis E. Williams
State Representative District 24 Kay Wilde Gallogly vs. Ed Osienski
State Representative District 29 Earl Jaques vs. James Maravelias
New Castle County Sheriff Trinidad Navarro vs. Mike Walsh
Sussex County Recorder of Deeds John Brady vs. Alma Roach

Debate Open Thread

There are two primary debates occurring tonight.

One is a debate between Glen Urquhart and Michele Rollins at the Hockessin Memorial Hall.

The other debate is between Sheriff Mike Walsh and challenger Trinidad Navarro for the Democratic nomination to New Castle County Sheriff.

Use this thread to discuss the debates if you’re listening or attending in person.

Campaign Finance Open Thread

A few of you have already been discussing the campaign finance reports that were due a few days ago to the Department of Elections. There are still quite a few reports missing but use this as a thread to discuss anything interesting that you see.

What I’ve noticed:
State Treasurer
Chip Flowers has raised an impressive $27,000 mainly from lawyers and with a $200,000 loan to himself he’s looking good for cash. Velda Jones-Potter’s finance report hasn’t appeared yet.

Auditor
Richard Korn raised $9400 this year, mostly from business and labor groups.
Ken Matlusky has raised $17,000 this year which looks to be mainly from himself and family but with some individual donors. He’s also listing the names of his small dollar donors. He’s spent almost $19,000! Is he getting the bang for his advertising buck? It looks like he’s spent a lot on radio advertising.

State Representatives
Two primary candidates, Ed Osienski in the 24th and James Maravelias in the 27th have raised a lot of money from labor groups. Osienski raised $13,000 and Maravelias raised $17,000. Osienski’s primary opponent Kay Gallogly has only raised $1000 from individuals with an $11,000 loan to herself.

New Castle County Sheriff
Trinidad Navarro had an eyebrow-raising haul of $33,000, mostly individual donors. Mike Walsh’s finance report hasn’t been posted yet. It will be interesting to see what his looks like.

New Castle County Council
Mike Protack has a decent haul of almost $9000. Interestingly, $6000 of it comes from donors <$100. Janet Kilpatrick has raised $6400. Some of Kilpatrick's donors include Greg Lavelle, Bill Tansey, Citizens for Sorenson, Dick Cathcart and Nick Manokalos. She's definitely the establishment pick. Also I'm checking the qualified candidates site and see a few new names, mostly from the Independence Party of Delaware. For U.S. Senate - Glen Miller For U.S. House of Representatives - Earl Lofland Blue Enigma candidate for U.S. House of Representatives - Jeffrey Brown Beau Biden has his a challenger! Independence Party of Delware's Doug Campbell

Delaware PPP Poll Results

PPP has just released their poll results for Delaware. There are a lot of results, so I’m sure this will lead to a lot of blog posts. Here’s the headline numbers:

DE-Sen

Public Policy Polling (PDF) for Daily Kos. 8/7-8. Registered voters. MoE 4% (No trendlines)

If the candidates for US Senate this fall were Republican Mike Castle and Democrat Chris Coons, who would you vote for?

All Dem GOP Ind
Chris Coons (D) 35 55 12 23
Mike Castle (R) 48 30 75 50
Undecided 17 15 13 27

Chris Coons (D) 44 67 17 29
Christine O’Donnell (R) 37 16 67 40
Undecided 19 16 15 31

Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure

Coons 31/31/39
Dem 42/25
GOP 19/40
Ind 23/30

Castle 51/32/18
Dem 47/35
GOP 60/25
Ind 49/32

O’Donnell’s Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure %s: 23/34/44

The latest numbers are very similar to the Rasmussen numbers from the last two weeks. Castle has a solid lead, but remains under 50%. Coons is still largely unknown and has more room to grow.

DE-AL

Carney leads Rollins 48-31 and leads Urquhart 48-30. Carney leads either Rollins of Urquhart in every county.

Carney’s Favorable/unfavorable/Not Sure: 31/24/45
Rollins F/U/NS: 18/25/57
Urquhart F/U/NS: 15/20/65

None of the candidates have extremely high name recognition. Carney’s is the best, but it’s still below that of Chris Coons despite his stint as Lt. Governor.

Other favorable/unfavorable/not sure from the survey:
President Obama: 50/44/6
Senator Carper: 47/33/20
Senator Kaufman: 37/30/33
Governor Markell: 50/32/18

So the winner of the popularity contest is *drumroll* Mike Castle with +19% approval! Close behind is Governor Markell with +18, followed by Tom Carper with +14, Senator Kaufman with +7 and President Obama with +6.

John Carney Carves A Niche For Himself

John Carney may be the quiet candidate, but he’s quietly carving a niche for himself in the Delaware House race. He’s very strong in environmental issues but he’s been unique in pushing a cancer initiative for Delaware. So I wasn’t surprised when last week I got this press release from Carney’s campaign:

“Just weeks ago, I outlined my intentions as Delaware’s Congressman to seek the assistance of organizations, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, to help identify federal resources to conduct a body burden study and identify the causes of cancer clusters in our state. The purpose of the study is to identify toxins that may have a link to environmental risks in our air, water, and soil which could lead to higher rates of cancer.

Based on the front page stories released by the News Journal this week, possible contaminants in Delaware’s drinking water is yet another reason why we need to do such a study. In light of the significant concerns raised, I believe we need a high level group of experts and community leaders to analyze the existing research and determine what gaps might exist. There currently doesn’t appear to be any one entity looking at all the relevant data. This group could provide a comprehensive analysis and recommend specific actions to help Delawareans avoid any environmental risks and create a level of public trust that their concerns are being addressed.

Carney is referring to the article that came out recently about issues with water quality in Delaware. I know for a fact that many people are scared and worried about their water quality. Have any other candidates discussed this issue or proposed any action?

Mike Castle – Nope
Chris Coons – Nope
Michele Rollins – Nothing
Glen Urquhart – No

So here’s a hot local issue that has a lot of people worried and upset and John Carney is the only politician discussing the problem? I couldn’t even find mention of it on Governor Markell’s website.

It’s Official: Libertarians Kicked Off the Republican and Democratic Primaries

Celia Cohen had the scoop yesterday, and the news was published in today’s News Journal. The Libertarian candidate Will McVay (RD32) will not be allowed to run in either the Democratic party primary nor the Republican primary. Brent Wangen (DE-AL) will not be allowed to run in the Republican primary. Both will still be on the Libertarian line in the general election.

The decision to cut them out of the party primaries was made by Deputy Attorney General Ann Woolfolk, who is assigned to the ElectionsOffice. Woolfolk said candidates are barred from filing to run on multiple party ballot lines, according to a 1994 court decision, an earlier attorney general’s report and the phrase “political party” in state law.

Candidates can be listed on the ballot under multiple parties if they are nominated by at least one of the parties, but not when they file without party backing.

Woolfolk said the Election Office received letters from both political parties stating that McVay is neither “affiliated” with their party nor nominated by them. The parties had begun to raise objections when McVay announced he was entering both primaries. The Republicans submitted an identical letter for Wangen.

Yes, to me this is the key difference with the Margaret Rose Henry situation. Henry was nominated by the Republican party. Neither Wangen nor McVay were nominated by the Republicans or the Democrats, in fact, I don’t know if they even knew them.

As Celia Cohen’s post said, the decision came down to a statement issued by the Attorney General’s office in 1994. This came from a reading of the election law.

Forsten and Woolfolk point to a court ruling and separate attorney general’s opinion from 1994 as the justification for removing McVay and Wangen.

State law requires a primary candidate to notify the chairman of “their respective political party” when filing to run.

Commenter The Straight Scoop posted the relevant portion of the state election law in an earlier thread:

Comment by The Straight Scoop on 10 July 2010 at 11:42 am:
OK, here’s something from the Delaware Code that might shed some light…

Title 15, Chapter 31 (Primary Elections)

3106(a)(2) Candidates for all other offices:

a. All candidates for county or countywide office, members of the General Assembly and/or municipal office for any municipality holding its election at the time of the general election shall notify the county chair, or the county chair’s designee, in writing (or the city chair, or the city chair’s designee, if applicable for municipal candidates) of their respective political party in their county of residence on forms prescribed by the State Election Commissioner on or before the deadline set forth in § 3101(1) of this title.

Let’s strip away the excess language and get to the heart of it:

All candidates for non-statewide office shall notify the county chair of their respective political party in their county of residence before the deadline. (emphasis mine)

This is an extremely rudimentary reading of the code, but doesn’t that imply that to be a candidate in a primary election, you must be a member of that political party?

Also, the next subsection says that filing fees must be “payable to the county committee of the candidate’s political party…”

Again, a direct reference to the candidate’s political party in a primary. I’m not an attorney, but I have to imagine that adds fuel to the debate. And it accommodates Anon’s request to read the code and post a specific example that might this candidacy.

Feel free to discuss…

Apparently the decision was partly based on a judge’s ruling. There was a candidate that previously tried to run on two lines:

A few weeks after Ridgely’s decision, the Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion when John Reda tried to run for the state Legislature as a Libertarian and a Republican.

“The question is whether a candidate may have more than one respective party. We conclude that he may not,” the opinion states, denying Reda the ability to run under both banners.

My understanding after reading is that candidates can run on multiples lines as a fusion candidate, but they must be nominated by that party if they aren’t registered with that party. This makes sense to me. If this is the understanding the state has of the election law, I really see no need for further legislation addressing the issue.

Who’s Running – Republican Primary Edition

Yesterday was the filing deadline for running for office in Delaware. There was a lot of activity in the final days. Let’s take a look at the Republican primaries.

U.S. Senate
Mike Castle vs. Christine O’Donnell

Prediction: Castle in a walk.

U.S. House of Representatives
Michele Rollins vs. Glen Urquhart vs. Rose Izzo vs. last minute addition Brent Wangen, who is also running as a Libertarian. I guess the Libertarians have a plan this year – 1) run in more than one party and 2) post on Delaware Liberal. Good luck with that plan! Urquhart’s website has a video with a lot of inspiring Democratic presidential speeches – FDR, JFK.

You can watch Rose Izzo shoot things.

Prediction: Rollins in a walk

General Assembly
State Senate District 19 – Joe Booth (incumbent) vs. Eric Bodenweiser
I don’t know this district very well. Booth won a special election after Thurman Adams’s death. I’ll let Bodenweiser describe himself:

My name is Eric Bodenweiser, and I’m a Conservative Republican running for State Senate in Delaware’s 19th Senate District. I’m a member of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots, as well as the Delaware Tea Party. I’m a devoted husband, father, grandfather and Christian who feels that our state and nation is on a socialistic path, the consequences of which will impact our economic and moral well being for generations.

Even though this race is in the part of the state most sympathetic to the tea party, I have to give the prediction here as Joe Booth.

State Representative District 9 – John Marino vs. Anthony Mirto
This is Cathcart’s open seat. Cathcart endorsed Marino, so I assume Marino has the edge in this race.

State Representative District 29 – George Phillips vs. Lincoln Willis
This is Thornburg’s open seat. I know nothing about either candidate and neither of them have a campaign website listed.

State Representative District 31 – Ronald Poliquin vs. Ronald Smith
The incumbent in this district is Darryl Scott (D). Poliquin’s website has an endorsement by Colin Bonini and Poliquin claims to be “100% taxpayer approved.” (turn down your speakers before going to his website) He also seems concerned that Delaware is turning into New Jersey or something.

State Representative District 32 – Libertarian, Republican and Democratic candidate William McVay vs. Beth Buzzell Miller
Brad Bennett (D) is the incumbent in this race. McVay’s website doesn’t have much information on McVay’s platform but there is quite a bit about state sovereignty. Miller is the favorite for this primary.

State Representative District 33 – Harold Peterman vs. Steven Rust
The incumbent is Robert Walls (D)

New Castle County
County Council District 1 – Scot Sauer vs. Robert Suiter
The incumbent is Joe Reda (D). I don’t know much about either Republican but Sauer was a late entry.

County Council District 3 – Janet Kilpatrick vs. Mike Protack
Open seat being vacated by Bill Tansey. This one should be interesting. Perennial candidate Mike Protack should have some name recognition from his many runs for office. Kilpatrick is married to Vince Lofink and is well-regarded. I have no prediction on this race.

New Castle County Sheriff – William Hart vs. Joseph O’Leary
The incumbent is Mike Walsh (D). These are both late entries to the race. Perhaps they think they can benefit from a brutal primary fight between Walsh and Navarro. O’Leary has a website that has absolutely no information on it.