Delaware Political Weekly: June 23-29, 2012
1. A Surprise R Primary in the 22th RD.
The Conventional Wisdom was wrong. Again. Following redistricting, two Republican representatives, Joe Miro and Nick Manolakos, found themselves in the same district, the strong R-leaning 22nd in NW New Castle County. Conventional wisdom was that Manolakos ultimately would decide not to primary Joe Miro. Well, Manolakos filed this week and will battle Miro in the September primary. Conventional wisdom suggests that Miro is the favorite. Need I say more? The winner faces Democrat David Ellis in November.
2. All About Ezra.
We get press releases from candidates all the time, as do every other media outlet. It is exceedingly rare, however, that someone’s campaign manager sends out a press release announcing that someone’s campaign manager will be someone’s campaign manager. And for good reason. Good campaign managers know that there is only one candidate and only one campaign manager, and that all the focus should be on the candidate. That, however, did not stop Ezra Temko from announcing that he, Ezra Temko, would be managing the campaign of Claudia Bock for State Representative in the 23rd RD. Perhaps fittingly, Temko spends at least the first 50% of the press release talking about himself, Ezra Temko, and his ongoing search for enlightenment. And then he closes with basically 10 boilerplate reasons he’s supporting Bock. Read the release for yourself and decide whose interests he’s really trying to serve here (PDF file).
3. D Budget Hawk to Seek Bennett Seat.
The good news? He’s credible and has been an elected official for ten years. Former Dover City Councilman Bill McGlumphy has filed as a D to seek the 32nd RD seat vacated by fellow D Brad Bennett. While he’s far from the most progressive of legislators, the 32nd is far from the most progressive of districts, and Brad Bennett fit the mold of the district. Except for that DUI and messy personal stuff. McGlumphy at least offers a fighting chance to keep this seat in the D column, which is a much-improved situation since just last week. Besides, I kinda like a guy who can come up with something like this:
“In reality, I feel more like a woodpecker – time to move to a different tree.”
4. Is Rep. Dan Short Retiring?
I ask because (a) he has not yet filed; and (b) another Republican has. Patrick J. Murray filed this week for Short’s 39th RD seat. Couldn’t find out a thing about him on The Google, although there was a well-known Patrick W. Murray who was a fixture in State Republican politics. Sussex spies, whaddayagot?
5. Clara Zahradnik Enters Wilmington Council-At-Large Race.
Sure seems like a worthy addition. President of the Cool Spring-Tilton Neighborhood Association. Played a key role in the replacement and redesign of the Cool Spring reservoir. While I don’t know her, and while this is not an endorsement, if I were a resident in Wilmington, Zahradnik is the type of accomplished person I’d want to see on Council. Pretty much an instant upgrade. Can anyone provide more information on her?
6. The Libertarians Are Coming! The Libertarians Are Coming!
Memorialized for the sake of historical accuracy, here are the Libertarian filings for this week: Gwendolyn Jones, SD 6; John Potter, SD 21; Margaret Melson, RD 14; Valerie Valeska, RD 20; Ronnie Fitzgerald, RD 35; and David Eisenhour, Sussex County Clerk of the Peace. All of these candidates are running in Sussex County and, in some cases, they are the only alternatives to the incumbents. You can find more info on the Sussex County Libertarian Party here.
7. Filings, We Have Filings!
In addition to those already mentioned, State Rep. David Wilson (R-35th RD) and Kent County Clerk of the Peace Loretta Wootten (D) have filed for reelection.
That’s it for this week. What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?
Tags: Bill McGlumphy Delaware, Clara Zahradnik Delaware, Claudia Bock Delaware, El Somnambulo, Ezra Temko Delaware, Joe Miro Delaware, Nick Manolakos Delaware, Rep. Dan Short Delaware, s, Steve Tanzer Delaware
El dear–The Patrick Murray you speak of was the “late” Patrick Murray from the Dept. of Elections, who passed away maybe 2 years ago. This one in the 39th, couldn’t tell ya.
11 more days til the filing deadline!
Never heard of Murray. I doubt Short is retiring. The party would have picked someone known to run.
But … also note that Mike Vincent hasn’t filed yet for the county council, either.
Also, Atkins hasn’t filed yet, either.
And the pathetic group that are the Sussex Democrats have yet to put up a candidate for Sam Wilson’s seat. That’s got to be the easiest race for someone to win, and they’re giving it away – along with Vincent’s seat. Ed O’Connor, Jane Hovington, etc., ought to be ashamed.
Thanks, JC. I read the elder Murray’s obit. Although he has a son named Patrick, it’s a different middle initial, and he lives or lived in Middletown. The mystery continues…
SW, maybe it’s b/c there really hasn’t been an operating Democratic Party in western Sussex for awhile. Just Uncle Thurm and his pals hangin’ around the cracker barrel.
Wow. Temko may be a progressive, but he’s also a punk kid with an overly large ego, based upon this statement.
“2. Social justice? Community empowerment? Education? Economics? I am confident Claudia shares my values.”
Ezra, those aren’t values, they’re hippie catchphrases and single words that signify nothing.
Highly deserving of public ridicule. Thanks, ES.
There were six or so Dems wanting to run for Thurman’s seat after he died. One of them is running for the House this year (Lynn Rogers) and another did last time (Jim Westhoff). That leaves several people the party could tap to challenge Sam. Hell, even Polly would be better than wasting the ballot line!
Re: Ezra — Is that a press release? I don’t see it as such. Especially considering the “Top 10” list. I see this more as a personal email sent to friends and members of the 23rd. Definitely not a press release.
I know Claudia Bock, as well, in my activities with RCEA and DSEA. Solid, solid candidate. That district is BLESSED with some amazing candidates. Considering I know Claudia’s work the best among the choices — her advocacy actions are amazing — then I’m inclined to go with her in this District.
Again, very tough race with very credible candidates from all angles.
I don’t buy that this was a press release. Yes, it was “released” to the “press,” but this has the tenor more or less of a personal email sent to friend and fellow district members looking to use his name to let them know about a great candidate. It’s much too informal to be a press release. Did it say “Press Release” anywhere?
Also, as someone who knows Claudia Bock a bit personally, but mostly by reputation through her activities with DSEA, I can attest she’s a great candidate. There are great candidates in this race and it’s definitely one to watch. For right now, I’m with Claudia based on the interactions I’ve had with her in the field of education.
This was NOT a press release or even from the campaign. You will receive an official press release on Monday about Claudia’s announcement and of course it won’t mention me. I would have posted this as a comment on the old post but that was from a long time ago.
Ezra is just showing his true colors. Even down here we hear about his holier than thou personality. About time people opened their eyes to it. Has always been an obnoxious self-centered you know what.
So what was it, Ezra?
Is it OK to have a giant ego and spout meaningless progressobabble phrases as long as you don’t put it in a press release?
Dude, even if this was just meant for your friends and supporters, you come across like a Class A douchenozzle.
I wish you all the best of luck as you sink deep into comfortable academia and divorce yourself from reality. You are a sterling example of an Oberlin education!
Re: Sussex Watcher
I was responding to an earlier post by clarifying that I was not running, why I was not running (and in doing so providing some perspective on what I think is a major issue in governance and society), that I thought we had great candidates, and that in fact I am supporting one candidate and think she would make a great representative.
Everything I wrote I meant honestly and sincerely. If you want to call it names, that is of course your prerogative.
I don’t know why “economics” in your mind is a “hippie catchphrase” or a “progressobabble phrase.” Those are the real reasons I am supporting a specific candidate in my district. I do not think that “economics” is a value – but after discussing economics with Claudia, I found that we shared the values that informed our views on economics.
I am sorry you do not view higher education as a positive; Oberlin provided me with an excellent education and I would highly recommend the college to high school students looking for the same. If you knew me at all you would know I intend to stay grounded and active in the community and that I view academia and theory as something that can be helpful and informative but a means rather than a goal. For example, my graduate analytical paper at UD was on Newark’s civic health and tied together the notions of democratic governance and civic health with a survey of a cross-section of stakeholders in Newark regarding our civic health as well as democratic governance steps that could be taken to address areas in which stakeholders said we needed to grow. I then worked for the next two years on implementing those changes to build our community’s civic capacity – for example establishing a Citizens’ Academy. I don’t believe being well-informed and understanding issues deeply divorces one from reality. In fact, I think it is appropriate and necessary!
Seems SuxCo citizens are so afraid of actual liberals that they’ll search two counties away to find one to demonize.
SW: Your ignorance of the meaning of the phrases does not mean the phrases have no meaning.
Geezer,
If I’m not allowed to criticize your local douchenozzles, you’re not allowed to criticize mine. How much would that hamper your day job?
“Social justice” and “community empowerment” are indeed meaningless phrases. One person’s justice is another person’s lynch mob; the NRA’s idea of empowerment is arming the citizenry. I doubt that’s what ET’s blathering about. Education and economics are just neutral words.
So sorry that you’ve lost your reading comprehension abilities over the years.
And I’m not demonizing, just calling a self-important nitwit a self-important nitwit.
SW – totally agree with you about the leadership of the Sussex Dems. And no one filing in the 19th SD, which a D could win no matter who wins the GOP primary. JP O’Connor – we need to get together and recruit some folks.
As a proud Sussex Countian (though not 6 generations; just someone who chose to move here), let me please help my friends sleep better.
The Sussex County Democrats are working hard to recruit qualified candidates for all the positions on the ballot. I can tell you that candidates will be announced soon for the races in question.
Let me also say that July 9th is a filing deadline in name only. The parties will be able to select candidates even after that date. Has anyone noticed that there are many “candidates” who have not filed- Governor Markell for one!. Most of the Republicans running for statewide office have also not yet filed.
Sussex Dems are not “rubes”. They just go about their work in a quieter way then others in colder climes do.
I actually figured their capitulation last time meant a deal had been struck in which Joe secretly agreed to be the moderate everyone thought he was. Instead, he’s become a Bonini acolyte.
I guess what really happened was the spines of all Democrats between Bridgeville and Georgetown were surgically removed. Except for Jim’s, of course. He’s the only one there with any balls at all.
Ezra, you wrote it, you sent it to us. If it isn’t a press release, it’s the functional equivalent. Not having a press pass does not exclude one from serving as press.
I think Ezra needs to put on his man-pants and own up to the fact that he sent out a press release extolling why he, Ezra Temko, is so G-d damn important.
Mitch: I have a lot of respect for you, but this waiting-until-after-the-deadline crap is just so much bullshit and a reflection on the incompetence that has reigned at the top of the Sussex Democrats for so many years. The chairmanship has gone from Seaford to Bridgeville to the coast without any discernible change. We’re always last and almost always losers. Appointing candidates to slots after the ballot line is the sign of a party just going through the motions. It means there was not a single person motivated to get out there and do the work of getting signatures and starting a campaign on their own. How’d that work out for Russ Melrath? Can anyone name a single candidate named by the party to fill an empty ballot line who’s actually won?
The only seats people are lining up for are open ones. That says volumes about our candidates’ confidence in their own abilities.
The Republicans live in slower lower, too, Mitch. But they’ve got their shit together. C’mon. You can’t win if you don’t play.
Ezra, you wrote it, you sent it to us. If it isn’t a press release, it’s the functional equivalent. Not having a press pass does not exclude one from serving as press.
Go Bloggers!
Still waiting for my last comment/response to post which responds to SussexWatcher…
Xstryker, by it not being a “press release,” I meant it was a personal reflection from me and not from any organization or campaign or even a traditional press release. Surely if it was from a campaign or any other organization, I would have identified it as such instead of sending it from myself from my personal e-mail account, though what I sent would not make sense in the context of coming from a campaign…
In the meantime, MJ, I would say that if other activists in the state, particularly if it was someone I respected, posted something about their feelings on the state of politics, where that had led them, and who they think is working to change things for the better, I would be interested in reading it and maybe even having a conversation about it. If you read what I wrote you would know that besides addressing the issue of self-importance directly, the issue that I raised is a system that keeps many citizens from having a voice to which people/govt. listen.
Ezra, I read it and it was all about you, not the candidate you were supporting. Can we say outsized ego? Campaign managers to-be don’t send out puff pieces about themselves and why they are supporting a candidate, and that’s what you did. Own up to it. Keep denying it and you’re only tarnishing yourself and your candidate.
Patrick J. Murray is the RWNJ primary challenger Danny Short gets for introducing the original Sheriff’s bill.
MJ, I was following up on an earlier post. Please remember that most campaign managers in Delaware for most offices are part-time volunteers that are still individuals and activists and professionals in other capacities. If I am speaking for any organization that I am a part of or a leader with, I will say as much. In the meantime, please take anything you see from me that I post as coming from me and representing my views only.
If it wasn’t a press release, why did you ask us to post it? If you want to stroke your ego, start a blog.
Eesh, I just read the letter in full. Love yourself much? I guess Ezra never liked that group “Better than Ezra”. And bringing up another race in your candidate’s letter? Highly unusual and poor form. I wouldn’t keep you if I were Claudia. Agreed w MJ. You carry your own agenda and don’t seem to have the slightest interest in carrying someone else’s. Claudia, whoever you are – watch out!
MJ – Are you now insulting bloggers by saying they have a blog to stroke their own ego?
“… tied together the notions of democratic governance and civic health with a survey of a cross-section of stakeholders in Newark regarding our civic health as well as democratic governance steps that could be taken to address areas in which stakeholders said we needed to grow.”
Incoherent AND a douchenozzle!
Seriously, what the hell does that mean? No one talks like that. No one. Utter nonsense.
Fail, Ezra. but thanks for playing. You can pick up your parting gifts from Vanna on the way out.
Sussex Watcher: If by no one you mean lots of practitioners in many fields of our democracy…
The National League of Cities actually has a committee on Democratic Governance.
The National Civic League has publications on civic health.
If you want to understand what I was talking about in my paper, you can go to http://ezratemko.com/civic-health/ and read it.
Sussex Watcher-I wasn’t advocating waiting until after the filing deadline. I was pointing out that the deadline is not a real deadline. My understanding is that two main challengers to R incumbents will be announcing in the next few days.
I am not actively involved in recruiting candidates as I am heavily involved in another campaign-for a candidate not waiting for a filing deadline but who announced a year ago-and has 34,000 miles on his car to show for it.
No, he’s saying that blogging is accessible to virtually everyone, so you can go start your own regardless of what you want to do with it. Inflating egos is not part of our mission statement. And “bloggers” is an extremely broad term. Just because we share a medium doesn’t mean we have anything in common with, say, someone who posts nothing but cat pictures on their blogs.
Our blog reflects our mission and perspective – we are the local liberal media, because the establishment media is too busy creating false equivalencies and kowtowing to the powerful to tell the truth and put it in context. If you want to make your voice heard, post your comments in our open threads – we post them daily. If you think something is news that we should post, send us a tip with the “Got a tip?” feature.
Where I come from, we don’t have practitioners of democracy. We have ordinary people who work hard and don’t have time to sort through the impenetrable writings of pompous idiots who think they’re smarter than everyone else and know what’s good for everyone else to boot. Which means you.
We stakeholders might reframe the selection from your earlier epistle to recast the debate in more pragmatic terms to better communicate the importance of our democratic values as such: “We talked to people about their problems and the town’s problems and tried to find some solutions.”
But why use a five-cent word when a $20 one will get you a Ph.D and the ability to lord it over us common folk?
DE Senate 3rd:Eric Anderson Filed today:
Democratic Primary is now a 2 person race.
State Senate District 3 (2 Year Term) Timothy J. Meades, Sr. (2-3-12)
Eric M. Anderson (6-29-12)
Young quixotic guy is actively involved in politics, and tries to endorse a candidate. Young guy has lived in the magical kingdom of Academia for too long, and is not really familiar with the harsh world of Blogospheria. Throws meat to wolves. Wolves devour meat, begin to devour naive knave. Knave keeps returning to wolves troth. As Monty Python would say “Run Away!”
Knave needs to work on real world public writing skills, lest he be devoured by wolves.
Just got home from work. Ezra, you asked us to post this with your suggested headline of something like “Tomko to Run Bock Campaign”. That’s a press release. One, BTW, that no campaign manager should write. I think you asked us something like 3 or 4 times to run it. Once it is posted, you lose control of where the conversation goes from there. As bloggers, we know that.
My point also still stands: Candidates are meant to be seen, not campaign managers. This release, and that’s what it was, was about you, not Claudia Bock.
And the release was made available in its entirety, just as you requested.
Back to the spinning, already in progress.
By 3 to 4 times I think you mean I sent one email to you and one email to DelawareDem as you two had earlier posts on which I was commenting…
Ezra, give it up. The more you comment, the worse you look. Take some advice, shut up and let this die. But I understand if your ego won’t let you.
Sussex Watcher- your comment from earlier today from earlier today, about how Sussex needs to run candidates in all of the races is interesting. Interesting because I’m still not sure if it is beneficial for the dems to recruit and finance a candidate in western Sussex, even though I spent nearly a year of my life titling at that windmill.
For starters, remember that in the 35th District, O’Donnell won 2 to 1. Even though, we all worked our taills off, and used resources from all over the state, I only received 30 percent of the vote. In 2008, Obama lost Sussex County, and got creamed in Western Sussex.
I could have been a better candidate, and I estimate that my rookie mistakes I made amounted to losing perhaps 10 percent of the vote.
My point is, now the we know how democrats fare in western Sussex, our efforts and resources should be spent on races that are within reach. For that reason, I look forward to helping the campaings of Joan Deaver, and Andy Staton.
As for county council, I actually live in Sam Wilson’s district, but I won’t run for that seat. The job requires a lot of meetings and work during the workday, and they pay is not enough to live on. Serving on county council would only be feasible for either a retiree, or someone who is self employed.
That was a long answer to a queation you didn’t even ask, but your post got me thinking.
Ps – Don’t tell my wife, but all of my yard signs are safely stored in the shed. — who knows, maybe one day, my western Sussex friends and I might want to go tiliting some windmills once again. The truth is, God help me, we had a ball working on that campaign.
Hats off to Sussex Watcher for pointing out the utter vapidity of this beauty:
“My graduate analytical paper at UD was on Newark’s civic health and tied together the notions of democratic governance and civic health with a survey of a cross-section of stakeholders in Newark regarding our civic health as well as democratic governance steps that could be taken to address areas in which stakeholders said we needed to grow.”
Of course his name is Ezra. And of course he went to Oberlin.
SW: Criticize away. I simply pointed out that just because you don’t know what “social justice” means does not indicate it has no meaning. All you have shown is that you don’t know what it means.
You’ll notice that I did not take issue with your criticism of it as a liberal buzzword, which it is. It’s just not “meaningless.”
You might try working on your own reading comprehension.
unrelated but check out http://any1butpaulclark4ncco.com/
OH THANK YOU lindalap! Someone did much of the work for me. Now I know what I will write about on my blog today before I hit the road and head to Dover.
I don’t think that Ezra deserves ridicule for his education, determination and drive. Oberlin is an incredibly difficult school. If you are not driven from an academic perspective, you won’t survive there. If you are, then you are well-prepared to go out and make a difference.
My point is/was that the campaign manager serves the candidate, and should not place him/herself out there as the focal point.
I’d be more sanguine about the anybody but clark site if it contained a single word about who’s behind it and who’s paying for it. Or do we only care about that stuff when they’re Republicans?
I think Ezra, knows something about campaigns. He worked for the Governor at the professional level and was an elected representative for two terms. Was valedictorian at the 2nd best high school in the state. He’s smart I agree with Mike Matthews another alumnus from the same school that it wasn’t a press release.
If I was a candidate in a 4 way primary I would want the endorsement of a popular former elected official in my district.
.
I remember the Nathan Hayward site being a refreshing cup of tea and it was pretty well understood that it was state insiders who wanted to tell their side. I think the Clark site is equally volunteer insiders who have a story to tell.
I am getting a lot of people saying they ‘know it is me’. But no.
I remember it too, Nancy. But while they didn’t give their names, they made it clear they were DelDOT people. And Hayward was not an elected office-holder, so there was no possibility that it was an election opponent who set it up. Not the case here.
Ezra deserves ridicule for his arrogance and out-of-touch attitude of superiority. He was an opportunist at Oberlin – co-founder of the College Republicans! – and remains one today. It’s all about ways to get attention for Ezra.
Ezra is a registered Democrat.
And he organized the Oberlin College Republicans: http://www.oberlin.edu/stupub/ocreview/2005/4/15/news/article6.html
Now, one shouldn’t be held to what one says in college. We all did lots of stupid things away from home. But …
My point was not that he remains a Republican today, but remains an opportunist today.
Nice catch, SW.
To clarify:
I have identified as a Democrat since before I could register to vote and have always been registered as a Democrat. I was involved with the College Democrats while at Oberlin as well as with various Democratic campaigns during my time there.
Oberlin College is a quite liberal school. Oftentimes students focus on protest rather than solutions. Many students can debate raising the minimum wage versus having a living wage but would not be adequately prepared to have a discussion with someone who did not believe in having a minimum wage or raising it. Furthermore, when I met students who were openly Republican on campus (this did not occur until my second year), the stories I heard about the way they were treated by others was appalling, e.g. people getting the silent treatment if they were voting for Bush.
I did and still do believe it is healthy and helpful for Oberlin to have a College Republicans group in addition to a College Democrats group. I was extremely familiar with how groups become chartered and receive funding due to my involvement in student senate. I found a Republican who was willing to lead the group, as I would not do that, then helped them become chartered, helped organize their first speaker (who, incidentally, ended up being a Democrat by mistake – he was a neocon who supported the Iraq war), and helped them as the interim treasurer until they found one to step in.
During this time I also served as an officer of the College Democrats as their liaison to the College Republicans. We were then able to host bi-partisan events such as a Political Participation Party, etc. I believe in open dialogue, respect for others, and people being able to effectively discuss matters outside of a “bubble” that sometimes liberal arts colleges can become. I’m not asking for anyone now to agree or disagree with my decision to help the College Republicans re-form. However, I hope my comment here has given some context to the above comments.
Excerpts from the article to which SussexWatcher linked:
“Some people who knew me saw me putting up signs and asked, ‘Ezra, what are you doing? Are you a Republican?’” said Temko, who describes himself politically as a progressive moderate. “I used to be one of the most liberal kids in my high school. I was very intolerant of other viewpoints. Then I came to Oberlin, and I was shocked. Even the OC Dems describe themselves as left of the Democratic party. Political discourse at Oberlin is very contained, and it doesn’t prepare people for debates and political discourse outside of Oberlin.”
Students also shared their experiences as the conservative minority at Oberlin. A bond seemed to form around the shared trauma of the 2004 presidential election, during which one girl was ridiculed for being the only Republican on her hall, others received the silent treatment and one girl remembered being called a “heinous bitch.”
“This club will offer a new political angle and will increase awareness, respect and discourse,” said Temko. “I think the College Republicans is a group that needs to exist on this campus.”
And your explanation for sending out a two-page announcement about yourself?
nice one, SW.