Election Season Winners and Losers – Delaware Edition
Yesterday, we did this for the National Election, so now lets go through the winners and losers for Delaware elections:
WINNERS
- Democratic Party — regained control of the House, solidified control of the Senate took advantage of a blue state getting bluer. Mike Katz winning SD 4 was especially sweet.
- Jack Markell — took on the machine and won. Got the party decisively behind him and even kept much of his crossover R voters. Jack has a tough job ahead, but is likely in a better position to take that on than any of the other candidates. Jack was generous in working with all of the downticket Dems, and I hope (but don’t know) that the coterie of Dems who won competitive races will be allies of Jack. It is something to build on.
- Delaware — people know us now for more than credit cards and highway robbery at the toll booth on I95.
- Matt Denn!
LOSERS
- Democratic Party — there isn’t much (that I can tell) that is especially progressive about the new majorities, so the highly insular political Delaware Way gets pretty much preserved and makes them a Big Fat Target. And then there’s Atkins.
- Republican Party — seemed to field candidates who were more conservative than Delawareans are, meaning that they found themselves on the wrong side of the Delaware Way. No doubt that they suffered from being Rs in a D year, but aligning themselves with the national playbook rather than thinking about speaking to their neighbors certainly hurt.
- Citizens of Delaware — all of this new Democratic power without much of a unifying issue or agenda. This could be a real problem or a real opportunity — I include this on the Loser list because I don’t know how reliable Dem leadership is going to be — outside of Jack Markell and Matt Denn.
- Charlie Copeland — nuff said.
So who do you think the winners and losers are here in Delaware after this election season? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Tags: 2008 Election
The biggest loser:
Mike Protack
I think he came out of this with even less influence than before, if that was possible. I think O’Donnell and Lee are at the same place they were before, but the Delaware Republican party is in pretty bad shape. Maybe they’ll have to let Jan Ting back in.
The biggest winner:
Bob Gilligan
He didn’t even need Atkins!
The second biggest winner:
John Kowalko
Wins in a walk
Winner – ME!
I got to go on DTR with Geek and Jason, what can I say?
Wait…maybe that’s LOSER. Hmmm….
The biggest winner? Jack Markell of course – he took on “thats what we do in Dleaware” and won.
The biggest loser? John Brady – to have someone as useless as KWs win just because she happend to be on the democratic ticket is jst plain sad. I suppose the saddest thing of all is that she really thinks people voted for HER
She is soooo dillusional
Interesting post. I heartily agree that the citizens are in an unfortunate limbo state because of ” all of this new Democratic power without much of a unifying issue or agenda. ”
Jack and Barack are likely to take similar tacks in that they are going to be giving some sugar to the centrists, slash special interests, in order to float the boat after a greatly divided and lengthy primary.
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Cass, any chance Loretta can name you to the Hope Commission?
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CorrectionalOfficer4Brady – sour grapes!
Winner: Andrew Roos
Winner: Joe Rogalsky
Winner: Delaware State News
Loser: News Journal
Winner: DelawareLiberal
Loser(s): People who think I look like a young Newt Gingrich.
HEY. I just thought you looked like a commie
Progressives should be getting together and come up with some good citizens we would like Jack to put on: prison boards, judical appts, DNREC, health care committees and such. Lets not let the hi dems pick who serves on these committees, allow the citizens to have some input.
Winner – Jack. A lot of us stood by him and now he’s going to stand by us.
Winner – Matt Denn.
Loser – RAM. ’nuff said
Loser – Sussex County – bigot Sam Wilson is now on county council and the pro-development, build at any cost majority is going to ruin beautiful landscapes.
Cass, any chance Loretta can name you to the Hope Commission?
LOL, Nancy! I really, really doubt that would ever happen.
Winner: Eric Schramm
I agree with most winners mentioned, but must emphasize Sussex County as a general area of losers, particularly the people of Seaford, who continue to elect the same “good ol’ boys” to office even though we continue to lose decent jobs and poverty levels climb. We can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results down here. The Democratic Party needs to make a focused effort to register new voters and shift the electorate in this area. The people I saw voting in Seaford on Tuesday were not the people I see living in the town.
Eric Schramm is a great choice, Jason. Although his cat-herding skills will be seriously tested in the weeks ahead.
El Somnambulo nominates another loser: The Delaware Taxpayers’ Coalition. Remember the phony group that El Junior Burrito set up so that Jim Bowers could have something on his lit?
Remind El Somnambulo again, how did that one work out?
El Somnambulo wonders…will Jim Bowers’ obituary read that he was a ‘…founding member of the Delaware Taxpayers Coalition’, as did every piece of his pathetic lit?
I agree with Mike M. We need a change of leadership in the county Democratic Party. We also need to educate our candidates (1) that they should not be paying 70% of what they raise to a “campaign manager” and (2) it is not pushy to shake hands at a polling place and introduce yourself to the voters on Election Day.
I’d like to add the residents of the city of Wilmington as among the most losing….giving Baker, an undeserved third term, is gonna cost us BIG.
Recent WITN Channel 22 (city owned spin and propaganda station) program showed Baker, Rago, & Betts at Hoopes Resevoir where the mayor reveals than he opposes term limits!!!
Then he has the colossal nerve to point to the 20+ year mayor of Trenton as an ideal!!!!
Trenton New Jersey…..is that where Wilmington is being directed? It could be now that the Bakerites have their new city on the banks of the sewer outlet river at the expense of the suffering old city neighborhoods.
Lord help us especially with that tiresome go along to get something city council. I’m up for a breather after 8 years of Bu$hco but I figure we’ll be holding our noses in Wilmington for at least another 4 years of Frawley-style egomania.