2016 Statewides–IC–KWS Gets her multiple challengers.

2016 Statewides–IC–KWS Gets her multiple challengers.

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I see that Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart has successfully enticed more than one primary opponent to challenge her. You see, that is the key for her continued and unfortunate presence in office: you line up the support of the Gordon-Williams machine in New Castle County, and then you get more than one primary opponent to divide the anti-KWS vote. That is imperative because the anti-KWS vote is always the majority of the vote when there is a primary, as she has never received more than 42.5% of the vote in a contested primary.
KWS Goes to Bat For Mega Insurance Company

KWS Goes to Bat For Mega Insurance Company

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Our purported insurance regulator, Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart, is instead trying to run interference for Met Life.  Check out this article from the state government website: fer cryin' out loud:
DOVER, DE  – In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and other federal regulators, Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart has urged them to reconsider their vote to propose that MetLife be labeled as a “systemically important financial institution” (SIFI) and therefore subject to tougher federal regulation. “Based on my experience as an insurance regulator (insert joke here), and a regulator of one of MetLife’s larger insurance subsidiaries, I do not believe that MetLife’s businesses and corporate structure create the kind of systemic risk that Dodd-Frank’s SIFI designation process was designed to address,” she said. Stewart argues explicitly against the designation of MetLife and said state regulators are capable and competent to continue the oversight of the company (insert joke here).
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., April 8, 2014

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., April 8, 2014

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Same day registration/voting is coming to Delaware. HB 105(Viola) passed the House, 24-15, last Thursday. Two putative D's, John Atkins and Bill 'Lumpy' Carson, voted no. No R's voted yes.  I look for a 12-9 yes vote in the Senate. Karen Weldin Stewart loses yet more of her authority if SB 178(Peterson) passes. The bill 'transfers authority for state-approved motor vehicle accident prevention (defensive driving) courses from the Department of Insurance to the Division of Motor Vehicles'.  A classic example of the state adding by subtracting. The less KWS can screw up, the better.  When you think about it, it's pretty amazing that we have two elected public officials in whom virtually nobody in state government has any confidence. KWS and Chip Flowers. Said lack of confidence is totally justified. Weird.

SEO And The Local Races

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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.

Unrequited Love: Dennis P. Williams Dumps KWS…

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from his sample ballot. The rest of the Gordon/Williams/Bullock team remains, along with Charles Potter and Trippi Congo, but KWS is conspicuous by her absence.How do I know? I've got a proof of the ballot. She's still in league with Gordon and Bullock, however, and the three of them have ponied up $$'s to have the Construction/Building Trades unions pass out lit at the polls. Which, BTW, is a total waste of resources. Except for the union guys pocketing the chump change.

El Somnambulo Predicts ‘Em All For You*. Part 1…

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*Well, not all as in ALL. Just every primary where I think I know enough to make a prediction.  Some of which, invariably, will be wrong. National Races: U. S. Senate D's: Tom Carper routs Keith Spanarelli. Over/under on Spanarelli: 12%. U. S. House R's: Tom Kovach routs Rose Izzo. Over/under on Rizzo: 11%. Come inside for more, including, as the photo suggests, my prediction on the epic 11th SD race.

The IC’s Office Resorts to Pay to Vote

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A variation on Pay to Play, to be sure. I don't know that this got much attention by the NJ, but recently, Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart claimed that the Captive Insurance section was suddenly generating a "surplus" AND that she was having that "surplus" returned to the General Fund to be specifically directed to the City of Wilmington. This is a pretty sweet deal and interesting that suddenly this program has a surplus. It is even more interesting that she just sends a big chunk of that "surplus" to the City of Wilmington, which is the source of one of the few Party endorsements she received.

Three ICs and a Proxy

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On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of seeing 3 of the 4 Democratic Insurance Commissioners and a representative of Paul Clark.  The setting was a caucus with 4 or 5 RDs represented and conducting various business, including the first step in sending delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Insurance Commissioner Debate Tomorrow!

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The first (I think!) Insurance Commissioner Candidate Forum will be held this Monday among the current officially filed Democratic candidates for the office: Insurance Commissioner Candidate Forum Monday March 26th, 2012 7:00 pm Marbrook Elementary School 2101 Centerville Road Wilmington, DE

The Delaware Liberal Tracking Poll

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You may have noticed in the center column of the site, we have a poll question regarding the job performance of Governor Markell. Currently, the Governor has a 69% approval rating (27% approve, 42% strongly approve), and a 22% disapproval rating (17% disapprove, 5% strongly). And 9% of you either don't care, don't know or are "meh" when it comes to the Governor. Now, an internet poll is in no way accurate (although, real polls of the Governor's job performance have similar findings, with approval in the 60's). We are not dealing with a random sample here. And the sample size is way too small (64 people at last count). Still, I thought it would be fun to have a new tracking poll feature each day that polls the politically motivated and passionate in Delaware. Each day of the week we will poll on a different office holder or candidate.