Delaware Political Weekly: March 30-April 5, 2018

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on April 6, 2018

1. D POLITICAL MALPRACTICE OF THE YEAR.

Had a conversation with a political friend of mine, and she convinced me that the biggest D fail of the year is the seeming willingness to let Blowhard Colin Bonini get a free ride to another term.  The registration generally favors the D’s: 12,431 D; 10,560 R; 8797 I. Our general sense that Bonini is a fool is shared by many in his district, and not just D’s.  He barely works at his job, he always runs for some other office in his off-year, he grandstands and often embarrasses other R’s with his grandstanding, and he is not in great physical condition for a run, to put it mildly.  With all this handwringing that the D’s are only a Bruce Ennis health scare away from losing the majority, can someone please explain to me why nobody from the Party is showing any leadership here?  Seriously, get off your asses and recruit someone.  I wouldn’t be shocked if Bonini decides not to run–if a credible D enters the race. Even his bromance with Carney should not prove to be an impediment. In fact, John, don’t you need an Official Food Taster?

2. Is THIS GUY the D Candidate For State Treasurer?

Could be. People thought it was an April Fool’s joke when he put it up on Facebook (he wanted the Russians to be the first to know).  But it’s apparently for real as he was scheduled to meet with Erik Schramm this week. His name is Hirak Mukhopadhyay.  He is a student at the University of Delaware, former president of the UD College Democrats, and former Vice President of the UD Chapter of the NAACP.  He also was reportedly involved in Bryan Townsend’s congressional campaign.  Hey, you cannot win if you do not play.  Here’s an op-ed he wrote for Delaware Voices.  “We Back Hirak”?  Has a certain ring to it…

3. The Green Machine Enters The Fray.

If nothing else, this is the Year Of The Long Names in Delaware politics.  Demitri Theodoropoulos will be the Green Party candidate for US Senate (the first candidate to file, BTW), and David B. Chandler will carry the Green banner for State Treasurer. Chandler previously ran for the State Senate from SD 8.  I believe that Theodoropoulos owns, or at least owned, Wonderland Records in Newark, and has an engineering background.  If Carper is the D nominee, which I’m working to make sure doesn’t happen, Demitri just might be my man for November.

4. It’s Yearick vs. ‘King Sunny Ade’ in the 34th.  State Rep. Lyndon Yearick filed for reelection this week, and will face Adewumni Kuforiji in November.  I don’t want to have to write these alphabet soup names all year, so I’m opting for ‘King Sunny Ade’ as our candidate’s nickname.  Lovers of African music know why. BTW, you don’t get this kind of music on any other political blog, for better or worse:

5. Filings. State Rep. William ‘Lumpy’ Carson (D-RD 28); Bob Weiner (R-NCC District 2).

That’s it for this week. What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?

 

 

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  1. jason330 says:

    From Wikipedia: “The 16th State Senate District is a sprawling suburban, rural and small town section of southern and eastern Kent County along with a small portion of adjacent Sussex County. It includes the southern portions of Dover around the Dover Air Force Base, the towns of Frederica and Harrington…”

    The soccer mom Anti-TRUMP-antimachine-guns-in-schools voters will be out in force this November.

    This should be a cake-walk for a Dem. I wish I lived in the district.

  2. bamboozer says:

    Met Bonini ten years ago, he was putting up a sign nearby my workplace, struck me as humpty dumpty in the flesh. He tried to make nice but I was not in the mood and started asking hard questions about taxes and the like. If he could have run he would have, truly a cowardly response. The problem are the people in his district, it features a great many far right military retirees from states like Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma. To wit Roy Moore voters. As for the Green Party post Jill Stein never, ever again. I won’t vote for Carper either, but I’ll leave that slot empty rather than go Green.

  3. RE Vanella says:

    No need to leave it blank. Kerri Evelyn Harris, bud. Get out there for the primary. Carper out.

  4. Mitch Crane says:

    I do not dispute the need of a Democratic opponent to Senator Bonini. Contrary to El Som’s reading of the map of the district, it contains no part of Sussex County. The district is one ED in the 28th, one ED in the 29th and the rest is the 32nd, 33rd, and 34th-all Kent County.

    I find it interesting that the Party is attacked for not recruiting a candidate, while earlier “experts” said it is NOT the job of the Party to recruit-candidates should just appear and run.

    While I do not know what the Kent County party leadership is doing, I do know that the State party and the Senate leadership is looking to support a challenger.

    This race, like others in Kent and Sussex, is mathematically doable, but one should not be fooled by the 25% or so who are “independents”. While 90% of registered Democrats vote Democratic and 90% of Republicans vote Republican, in Kent and Sussex the majority of those registered neither party have been swinging Republican since 2008. They key to these elections is increasing the turnout of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents. This effort, combined with an anti-trump anger in eastern Sussex and less-rural areas of Kent, make a win by Democrats more possible.

  5. RE Vanella says:

    Don’t be fooled people. If, and this is a big if, they find a challenger it will need to be an ex-cop type who will appeal to “Democratic-leaning” voters. Or maybe the owner of a car dealership.

    Convincing these voters these type of candidates are absolute fucking garbage is out of the question! Can’t be done. Don’t even mention it.

    And Mitch should know. He abandoned his beliefs in favour of perceived political expediency a long, long time ago.

    We need to engineer a candidate to the voters not actually make a good argument based on ideas. That’s for losers and idealists.

  6. ‘El Som’ did not read the map. Didn’t say that any part of Sussex County was in the district. But your haughty disdain is duly noted.

  7. Mitch Crane says:

    El Som- No disdain intended, yet alone “haughty”. Looking back, I see you got that from Wilkipedia. I am sorry if I offended you.

    The best way to see where districts are is on the Department of Elections website. Look at the the “Archive” link and then there is a breakdown of every race by ED and RD and candidate. That is what I did this morning for Bonini’s 2014 race.

  8. Alby says:

    Looking back, you might have noticed that it was Jason, not El Som.

  9. jason330 says:

    A huge majority of voters in that district live in a smallish area bound by Rt 1 on the East, 13 on the West and Barratts Chapel (371) to the South. Lots of recent arrivals from PA and NJ. Very doable.

    If Mitch is right (withouth being correct or accurate), and “They key to these elections is increasing the turnout of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents.”

    Then a strong Sanders/Warren message should do the trick.

  10. jason330 says:

    Even further back.. it was wikipedia, not me.

  11. Alby says:

    Yeah, I realize that. I was just pointing out that Mitch missed the author of the comment referencing wikipedia.

  12. Tim Parkerson says:

    Steve: How about you call him by his real name and not make one up? This is as bad as when you did your stupid Mexican wrestling accents on Al’s show. You may think it is funny but most of us do not.

  13. nathan arizona says:

    No, most of us do.

  14. Alby says:

    It probably helps if you spell his name correctly. it’s Adewunmi Kuforiji — “nm,” not “mn” in his first name.

    @Tim: You shouldn’t use “most of us” when you mean “I.” You don’t speak for most of us.

  15. Point taken on the names, Tim. Don’t think I’ve had a week with more challenging names: Adewunmi Kuforiji, Demitri Theodoropoulos, and Hirak Mukhopadhyay. You will note that I did use his name before trying a nickname on for size. Also just wanted an excuse to put some King Sunny Ade on the blog.

    From now on, I’ll use his name and only his name.

  16. Stat says:

    He goes by Ade. Really nice guy. Business Manager for Capital SD.

  17. Kinda thought that. I think he’s got a shot in that district.

  18. Alby says:

    If your name was Adewunmi, you’d go by Ade, too. Or, given where he lives, Bubba. It’s a not-uncommon name in Nigeria — Ade, I mean, not Bubba.

  19. Joshua W says:

    Unfortunately it seems that Erik Raser-Schram talked Mr. Mukhopadhyay out of his run https://medium.com/@hrkmookie/why-i-have-decided-not-to-run-for-delaware-state-treasurer-32c21373d61a

  20. A says:

    If you say that Bonono’s district can be won by a D, you’ve just never been to the district. I live in the district and it is FILLED with Trump Dem’s who back in the day were Reagan Dems… So even if a dem were to run and win they would be weak.

  21. Paul says:

    Moyshe Kapoyer (36) Marcus Hayes (35): we need a candidate to run against Dave Wilson in the 18th Senate. What are you doing to address this need?

  22. Paul says:

    My sincere apologies, Marcel, senior moment…

  23. Paul says:

    And dear god in heaven not Greg Fuller again…on greased skids with a tailwind his campaign would come to a screeching halt from lack of everything.

  24. Don says:

    Worked with Ade many years ago at DHSS. I don’t know his politics, but he’s a genuinely nice guy whose reputation was that he was very good at crunching the budgeting & finance numbers.

  25. He’d be a natural for the Joint Finance Committee then. That committee could use some new perspective.

  26. BTW, ‘A’, you need to think outside the box more. For a very young person, you have no vision beyond the conventional political wisdom. Time to broaden your horizons.