Markell Campaign Responds To DEL DEM Misuse of Party Funds For Carney’s Dishonest WDEL AD
It’s just wrong.
John Carney has started running radio ads promoting his record, but instead of using his own campaign to pay for the ads, he’s using money from the Delaware Democratic Party to do it. That’s right — money given by grassroots Democrats to help elect Barack Obama and help elect Democrats to the State Legislature is instead being siphoned off by John Carney to promote himself.
No wonder dozens of rank-and-file Democrats who have contributed to the State Democratic Party are speaking up to express their outrage that the money they’ve given to support Barack Obama is being used to support John Carney instead. It’s just wrong for John Carney to use the money from people who may not be supporting his candidacy to promote himself. Say NO to insider political deals!
Email John Carney and Tell Him to Give the Money Back!
The money paying for these ads could be spent fighting back against George Bush’s Republican Party, helping our candidate for Lieutenant Governor win against a well-funded Republican candidate in November, or helping win both houses of the State Legislature for the first time in years. This is an example of insider politics at its worst.
If you want to send the message that Delaware is tired of politics as usual, then please call John Carney’s Headquarters and ask him to give back the money his campaign is taking away from grassroots democrats.
Call Carney HQ now at 302.633.1000
Andrew Roos
Campaign ManagerP.S. Come to our Headquarters in Wilmington at 11:00 on Friday morning to make your voice heard. There will be a press conference with Jack and other Democrats who want Democratic money to focus on beating Republicans.
Paul Baumbach has also extended and revised his remarks….
The Delaware Democratic Party is sponsoring radio ads promoting John Carney’s candidacy for Governor. On the one hand, this makes some sense, as the state (and county) party endorsed John Carney (despite support for Markell from RDs including the 23rd). However, I have two objections with the party’s actions. First, I would prefer that our party’s resources be used against Republicans (and fusion candidates) and not against faithful Democratic candidates such as Jack Markell. Second, I would prefer that their ad was factual. The ad portrays Carney as the primary force behind the BlueWater Wind deal. It brings to mind the comment about the fellow who was born on third base thinking that he hit a triple. Carney eventually provided some support for the deal—he was in no way a leader in bringing the BWW deal to fruition.
Jack Markell is hosting a press conference at his Riverfront campaign office (920 S Justison, Wilmington, DE 19801) on Friday at 11am, to present his disappointment with the actions of the Delaware Democratic Party in directing resources against Democrats rather than Republicans.
If you agree with Jack that this is a poor use of Delaware Democratic money, and/or if you agree that the fact-checking in the ad is atrocious, and a dis-service to the Delaware voters and to the DelDems Party, then try to attend the press conference.
Paul S Baumbach
http://paulprogressive.blogspot.com/
It is ON.
“Carney eventually provided some support for the deal—he was in no way a leader in bringing the BWW deal to fruition.”
Really…? Someone should tell that to Bluewater Wind.
Didn’t they mention him like 10 times by name in the press conference announcing the deal?
Didn’t they also pay for radio ads praising Carney and Sen. DeLuca for their role in getting the deal done?
I doubt they would have done these things if he wasn’t instrumental in getting the job done.
I’m going to get some popcorn. This looks like it’s going to be a good movie!
I do think that Carney, because of the position he was in, did do a fair amount to get the deal done, and does deserve some credit. However, is that the best he has got? What else has he done for the past 8 years?
“I would prefer that their ad was factual. The ad portrays Carney as the primary force behind the BlueWater Wind deal.”
I mean seriously, this is just a load of crap!
Liberalgeek has said it before, but it bears repeating…
If the Bluewater Wind deal didn’t get done, you would have been the first ones to jump all over Carney on it. So if he assumes the risk if it doesn’t get done, he gets the glory if it does. Simple as that.
Bluewater Wind themselves went out of their way to praise Carney for his role in the deal. I think we’re past the point where Markell surrogates can go back and try and rewrite history.
The Ad is over the top with its dishonest claims that Carney and DeLuca did the deal and that the deal will bring 1,000’s of jobs to the state.
NOW IF JOHN HAD PAID FOR THE DISHONEST AD ON HIS OWN, that would be one thing.
But I paid for some of those lies. I don’t like having paid for this dishonesty.
What is so hard to get about that?
This makes me very glad that I’ve never contributed to the DE Dem Party even though they are working hard to fill up my recycle bin…
Jack Markell was one of the first, if not the very first, elected official in Delaware to be brought into the BWW talks. He was behind it from day one, which one cannot truthfully say about John Carney. He may have come on board at the end but was that because he saw that 90+% of the Delaware public was in favor of wind energy? Note that the ads by BWW have stopped using Carney and DeLuca’s names. Why was that?
so where the hell is Markell’s ad?
WDEL is like $500 for a minute…sheesh
Tony – When you say “brought into the BWW talks” what do you mean? Do you mean that he went on-record that he was in favor of it, fine. If you mean that he was negotiating with BWW, Delmarva and legislators that were opposed, I have seen no evidence to support that.
What is Paul Baumbach’s problem with Fusion Candidates ??
“First, I would prefer that our party’s resources be used against Republicans (and fusion candidates)”
Paul believes in fission candidacies, like Protack and his (iced tea) drinking buddy Atkins. They’re radioactive!
I think reasonable people (not many of those here) can debate the number of jobs that will be created by the BWW deal.
But there is no disputing that the only reason that ANY of the jobs are coming here is Carney’s work with Babcock and Brown. He did this months ago, of his own accord and it is the reason that the deal will benefit DE so much.
I’ll tell you what Jason, we can have a discussion about the number of jobs the deal will create here if you will admit that the only reason that ANY of them will be here is because Carney took the initiative and got B&B to make this concession.
…and then he will part the waters of the Atlantic so B&B won’t have to worry about the engineering hassles of construction in the ocean.
The angels sing, “Hallelllluuuujjjjiiiaaaahhhh”
If Carney has that much power, why did he wait 8 years, until he needed votes, to do anything?
Active,
Here is what I honestly think about Carney’s role. I think he figured out what was going to happen befor he risked talking to anyone at B&B. He was mute for months and months while we tried to get people to notice that McDowell and Copeland were shills for Delmarva. Once the thing started to break in BWW’s favor he jumped in.
In speaking with B&B they probably figured out that it would be good PR to mention the construction jobs and construction HDqrts (that were going to be built here anyway) and pump up that side of it.
Would the deal have gotten done without Carney? It might have taken a bit longer, but yes.
Again, the larger issue is that every dollar the party uses to prop up the Carney campaign against another democrat are dollars that aren’t available to help candidates for local and county office against GOP foes.
Why not just burn a CD of the ad and send it to our local candidates with a note: “I know you wanted a donation so you could get your own fund raising letters out to defeat Republicans, but isn’t this a clever ad? Aren’t you glad we spent the money on this instead?”
How convienent to leave Rep. John Kowalko completely out of the picture. By the way John K is having a nasty telephone push poll being run against him…no one wants to own up to the source. Dirty Dems at it again?????
Damn right Carney should refund other candidate’s $$$$$ for this dirty, lying radio ad deal.
Another thing how come Coons is the ONLY Dem w/an office at party headquarters???? That trust fund jackass could pay for all candidates and he gets special treatment, why?
As for (sic) ‘there is no disputing that the only reason that ANY of the jobs are coming here’…I suppose you are not aware that KHN went to BWW and informed them that if they wanted to make any progress they must provide organized labor with jobs….right after that move was made things started rolling along.
There were many hardworking people involved in the BWW deal….Carney was just one of them. He loses all street cred by claiming otherwise. My vote now goes to Markell…based on his honesty.
Dirty Effin Dems!!!!!!! Something is REALLY WRONG at Dem Headquarters….the members of the State Exec. Committee better get off their respective dead asses and start asking the hard questions….hope their insurance is paid up before they get sued in Chancery.
Selander – fair enough. Do we have any idea what kind of money we are talking about? 2 or 3 grand?
I, too want to support the undercard. There is an element in the Democratic (and the Republican) party that thinks Markell is more “Republican” than Carney. That he has drawn his contributions from Chateau country. If that is the case for the upper echelon of the Dem party, then it is reasonable for them to behave this way.
Would you rather that they spend money to defeat a pseudo-Democrat or a “real Democrat”? To wit, I ask, shouldn’t they be spending money to oppose Atkins in his primary bid?
Jason, if what you say is true then why didn’t Jack Markell get wise to this before John Carney?
If it was so easy, such a no brainer, why didn’t he do it first?
Did he ever even have a conversation with B&B?
We can speculate about what might have happened all day long, but what did happen was the deal got done, John Carney got it done, and DE is getting new jobs because of it.
Bob Gilligan is a moron. He is blinded by the goal of getting a Dem majority at any cost.
If it were not for dumbass Gilligan we would not even be talking about Atkins right now.
It is just plain wrong for the state democratic party to use money to support Carney in a primary against another dem and money most thought they were donating to all dems. If the money was used after the primary, then fine. I suppose the party brass is scared to death of what it would mean if Markell won. What would that say about their real power if their choosen candidate (and stooge for labor) lost. What would that say about their ability to control candidates and elections? What would that say about their influence and ability? We decide who wins and loses, not you the public and we’ll do everything in our power to ensure that result.
Mad Wet Hen. Coons is going to be the Dems choice to run for Congress in 2010 after the dems make sure Castle wins in 08. The top brass love his mom’s money. Kowalko did as much for wind as anyone, but he doesn’t play by party rules so he won’t get any support.
LG –
I’m not sure how much it is. It’ll be a lot less than the Carney folks are planning (meaning no TV spots) if people share their anger about this.
Carney’s folks like to pretend that because Jack worked hard to be able to afford to raise his kids near the park that he’s somehow less progressive. But the “Jack is more conservative” idea is truly fiction. He never would have won the endorsement of DemocracyforAmerica if it was true.
Jack Markell is conservative to conservative audiences, progressive to progressive audiences. Carney could win this thing with a video camera, a laptop and a YouTube account if he wanted.
Hen, just to correct a misapprehension, Coons rents those offices at DelDems. He is not getting a free ride.
“Didn’t they mention him like 10 times by name in the press conference announcing the [BWW] deal? Didn’t they also pay for radio ads praising Carney and Sen. DeLuca for their role in getting the deal done? I doubt they would have done these things if he wasn’t instrumental in getting the job done.”
Wow, are you a sucker. Can’t spell “gullible” without yoU. It didn’t seem strange to you that with all those involved, those two were singled out for praise? Never occurred to you that such a payoff was part of the deal? Never heard the scuttlebutt that DeLuca had decided by March to put the pressure on Delmarva, but they dragged it out to make it a selling point for the otherwise hard-to-peddle Carney?
Start thinking about it now, sporto. Because if you elect Carney, remember than DeLuca has him by the short ones. So who do you want running the state — Jack Markell or Tony DeLuca?
“I suppose you are not aware that KHN went to BWW and informed them that if they wanted to make any progress they must provide organized labor with jobs….right after that move was made things started rolling along.”
Oh my….yes, I’m sure they sat up and took notice when someone with no money chipped in her two cents’ worth on an issue that isn’t even germane to the office she’s running for.
By the way, Active, you have to be kidding here…. Bluewater would have given that concession to anyone who asked. If it happened as you say, Carney essentially played bagman for Tony DeLuca.
The player with all the cards was Delmarva. The reason this is happening is that someone — and I’m betting it was DeLuca, not Carney — jacked Pepco up against the wall and explained that the jig was up, and if they sued and incumbents lost they could forget about whatever Harris McDowell is cooking up to funnel most of the SEU money back to Delmarva.
Jesus, do you people have functioning brains, or do you just bleat on command from Daniello?
“Jack Markell is conservative to conservative audiences, progressive to progressive audiences. Carney could win this thing with a video camera, a laptop and a YouTube account if he wanted.”
Except he apparently doesn’t have the money for those things. Otherwise he’d pay for his own ads, and he wouldn’t have to give out free pizza to get people to come listen to him.
In reading the comments on this blog it sure looks like the Markell campaign staff is having a busy busy night…shouldn’t you guys be making phone calls?
Incredibly efficient use of time complaining on blogs only read by campaign staff and others politically involved.
CARNEY ’08
We’re having intelligent conversation. It’s what people with a full set of brain cells (and teeth) do. I’m sure Carney staff is getting out their baseball bats and crowbars at the direction of their thug union bosses and getting ready to go threaten their way to more “earned” votes from people who don’t know any better.
Funny,
I was just going to make that observation about you Carney staffers.
Geez, I really don’t have a horse in this race, (gasp, I’m kinda okay with either one) but I don’t like using Dem party money for a primary, and I don’t like the Carney trolls.
OK Pandora, it’s obvious you DO have a horse in this race. I guess you must get tired of seeing Carney people when Markell’s staff includes him and his oddball family.
Jason, not a staffer here, just a volunteer who knows a good candidate when she sees one! Thanks for making my decision to support Carney even stronger. Maybe you should work on your schmoozing skills?
YIKES! I work in Dover and I honestly don’t care either way…let’s just get a DEM elected.
FIRED UP!
Oddball family? You must be another one of Carney’s oh-so-classy union supporters. Oops, redundant. That’s the only kind he has, isn’t it?
What I find hilarious is that there’s about one of you, but you keep changing your blog name to give the impression that anyone who isn’t a union moron is in his corner.
Hilarious, you are sooo wrong. I like both candidates. I’ve known John for years and have always found him responsive to constituents needs and a really nice guy. Actually, I’ve just started learning about Markell. You do your candidate no favors, and, had you been around here a while, you’d know that when it comes to local politics I’m more of a question (rather than opinion) kinda of gal.
OK, I’m going to hell…big time. Check my site.
Hey, no free advertising, pal!
“YIKES! I work in Dover and I honestly don’t care either way…let’s just get a DEM elected.
FIRED UP!”
And there’s the attitude that gets useless retards like Minner elected.
This was money donated to the presidential race, and other democrats not for the “parties chosen one”.
And why is Coons office “inside'”Dem hdqtrs! Paying rent or not, “appearance of impropriety’.
What party loyals are making these decisions with “democratic party money”, how disgusting, now maybe some of you dems realize why I freakin left that democratic party mess, been the same for decades. Tow the party line, or else.
Almost all of the candidates have had offices in Dem HQ for a year. Most have moved out to more spacious accommodations. Maybe the Shipyard Shops are finally full.
hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.