One Legislative Race I’d Love To See
OK, let’s see. We’ve got a D House Speaker who is a DINO and would-be statewide power broker. We’ve got an R State Senator whose personal reputation has been damaged and who represents the only Sussex SD with a D voting edge. We have a would-be statewide elected official who has or had strong relationships (albeit presumably different types of relationships) with both of those characters. We have the DINO Speaker and his minions trying to run interference for the R state senator.
Oh, and we have a possible candidate who had the guts to challenge the DINO Speaker in 2016. Yes, he lost to the machine of the Speaker, but he developed a lot of positive name recognition in the process.
The DINO Speaker is Pete Schwartzkopf. The damaged Senator is Ernie Lopez. The would-be statewide elected official is Kathy McGuiness who, famously has her face emblazoned in a picture as one of Ernie Lopez’ top volunteers. (No, I’m not going there, thankyouverymuch, but who am I to stop you from going there?)
The possible candidate (although he may not yet know it? Don Peterson. He lives in Rehoboth Beach and he stands for all the right things:
http://donforachange.com/about/
I’d love for him to run b/c (a) he could win; (b) he could force DINO Pete to betray his Party; (c) he could force Park City Kathy to choose between her Party du jour and her, um, close friend; and (d) he’d be a tremendous upgrade over Lopez, who occasionally votes the right way, but stands with his Party obstructionists when it comes to stuff like making the rich pay a little more.
So there you have it folks: Don Peterson vs. Ernie Lopez.
How can we make it happen?
I second this.
B and C are not compelling reasons to run for office and incur all of the costs that go along with running, despite all the inside baseball this blog tries to traffic. Park City and Pete have no interest in being ideologically coherent or loyal Democrats. And don’t we have enough proof of both already? Park City thinks she can selfie her way into statewide office, and she just might. But don’t count Wagner out, he actually appears to be maybe kinda doing his job this week? And this blog and its 50 readers will raise like $12 for poor Don. I mean, go for it, if you want it, Don, but not so Del Lib can say they were right (they are).
@S: I dunno. I’m good for a lot more than $12. My wife just gave Tizzie Lockman the $38 she asked for.
Have to agree with scuttle on this one. even $38 doesn’t pay the filing fee. Did n’t he just lose in 16?
Yes. This would be more an annoyance to Lopez than anything else, and the party would never get behind it. Also, Ernie is more progressive than Schwartzkopf, so Peterson might not want to challenge him.
Plus I wanted to give Lockman another plug.
“(a) he could win”
I live here. Trust me. He can’t win. Lopez is very well liked and he even votes the right way sometimes. You literally (I mean literally, not figuratively) cannot go to an event without Lopez being there. Lewes Christmas Parade – Lopez, Dewey Beach End of Era Party – Lopez. I run into him everywhere and I mean everywhere! I don’t know how he does it but the guy loves events and he often shows up standing right next to Pete.
Remember the Rehoboth Beach area does not operate according party rules. It’s less about Ds and Rs then it is about clans. The Lifeguard clan, the Builder clan, the Restaurateur clan, Lewes Yacht Club clan, etc. Democrats and Republicans here look at clanship first, then party.
Yes, despite the property values, it’s still a small town.
In case anybody wants to know what I think about this…a) I’m flattered — thanks for the shout out DL! b) when I ran against Pete, everywhere I went Democrats told me that they LOVED Ernie!, c) when I ran against Pete, I had the whole Democratic establishment working against me — running against Ernie, I’ll have both the Republican AND the Democratic establishment working against me, d) I suspect that the Dems will put up a weak candidate to run against Ernie so Pete and Kathy can keep their dear friend in office. So my Magic 8 ball says “Nope!”
But there could be support for you from Ernie’s former wife. “Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned”