It is only September and the finger pointing over Ken Simpler’s loss has already started

Filed in National by on September 19, 2018

New Castle County GOP chairman resigns, blasts party and U.S. Senate candidate Rob Arlett

A central figure in the Delaware Republican Party fired off a scathing resignation letter last week that blasted both the direction of the state GOP and its recent nomination of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rob Arlett.

“Mr. Arlett lacks the character and integrity needed to lead our Ticket and receive my support,” wrote Peter Kopf, a former banking executive who has chaired the New Castle County Republican Committee and served on the state party’s executive committee since last year.

In his letter — a copy of which was obtained by The News Journal on Wednesday — the 64-year-old references “critical information” about Arlett he claims “will eventually derail his candidacy.”

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Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

Comments (58)

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  1. RE Vanella says:

    “Perhaps the most explosive of those charges is the revelation that two convicted felons are serving in public positions within the Delaware GOP.

    Kopf does not name them, but sources indicate he was referring to former Delaware secretary of state Mike Harkins and Robert Harra, the former president of Wilmington Trust.

    Harkins now serves as a contracted political strategist despite having pleaded guilty in 2004 to mail fraud and filing false tax returns. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison in the case, which centered on his private use of a $300-an-hour rental plane and stays in swank hotels at the expense of the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which he led for more than a decade.

    Harra, who serves on the state Republican Party’s finance committee, was one of four former Wilmington Trust executives found guilty in May on 15 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and making false entries in banking disclosure documents. His sentencing is scheduled for October.”

  2. mouse says:

    Then Arlett is 2nd lowest

  3. Beach says:

    Thanks, Nella!! I was really curious who he was talking about.

    • RE Vanella says:

      Thank Scott Goss. It’s a quote from the story.

      Credit where due.

    • Alby says:

      Mike Harkins has been a political fixer for at least 40 years, and a practitioner of the true Delaware Way — best summarized as “who cares D or R, just grab as much as you can” — from the first. IIRC he’s nominally a Republican, but he was tight with Minner, too. He’s a lot like the uber-lobbyists like Bobby Byrd in that he speaks a language both sides understand, and that language is printed in green.

  4. jason330 says:

    I loved when Kopf said “our candidate for Governor in 2020.”

    HA! It’ll probably end up being Alex Pires at the rate they are going.

  5. Beach says:

    HAHAHA I was just about to say “Where’s Mike Protack!?!” ‘Stache 2020

  6. El Somnambulo says:

    When I first started working for the House, one of my jobs was to be the Reading Clerk when the House was in session. I had to read stuff into the record. Kinda like that fast-talking Fed-Ex guy.

    So, I was on the podium. Above us on the podium was then-Speaker Lonnie George. He had a phone up there. DuPont was governor. One day he picks up the phone, and barks into it, “Tell Harkins to get his fat ass down here right NOW!” Meaning that perhaps the two fattest asses in Delaware ended up on the podium side-by-side. Two who were greatly enriched by the Delaware Way.

  7. trueblue says:

    Does no one else see what’s coming? A corporate bought moderate republican party joins the corporate part of the democratic party equals the new power party. Capitalism wins everytime.

  8. RE Vanella says:

    Yep, I couldn’t have said it better myself. These corporate lackeys and crooks in the state GOP have a lot to admire in Carney, et al. An organizational Castle/Carper swap seems like the move.

    That’s why what we’re doing cannot stop. It was never meant to anyway.

  9. Alby says:

    For a split second I read the headline as “the finger painting has started.”

  10. El Somnambulo says:

    As to Peter Kopf, puh-leeze. Guy’s been around forever. He’s getting out of the Rethug Party leadership NOW b/c of Harkins?? Kopf was kissing Harkins’ fat bee-hind all through the duPont/Castle years.

    He’s just trying to salvage some dignity now that the entire Rethuglican criminal enterprise has been exposed. I ain’t buyin’ it. Never had no dignity, still doesn’t.

  11. You Dont Get It says:

    There are no GOP donors to ask and the party is broke in many ways so the GOP troubles are not because of Kopf in any way. He realizes the lost cause for what it is.

    If you wackos ever read policy you would see Protack had substance and the balls the GOP has never had nor will not have anytime soon.

    • RE Vanella says:

      Protack policies have substance, folks.

    • Alby says:

      Holy fucking Jesus. A Mike Protack groupie.

      If you took the time to learn anything, you’d know we’ve read more policy that you ever will. Mike Protack has serious mental problems, so I have to conclude you do, too.

      • puck says:

        Groupie? That’s probably the ‘Stache himself.

        • RE Vanella says:

          I considered that same possibility. But I’ve read Protack’s ramblings and they have a totally different flavour than this nonsense.

        • Alby says:

          Could be. Has anyone searched photo banks for the image?

          Protack did have policies. He was the kind of guy who singlehandedly came up with solutions to every problem facing society but didn’t understand that if people didn’t like him it didn’t matter. None of the solutions was politically viable, something that sort of problem-solver never understands.

          Floyd McDowell was the same sort of guy on the liberal side. They postulate complex solutions that wouldn’t withstand one day of political opposition.

  12. Rufus Y. Kneedog says:

    If Simpler needs help with the up ballot races to remain Treasurer, how in the world would he ever be elected Governor anyway?
    Wagner won in 2010 with Christine O’Donnel at the top of the ticket.

  13. Beach says:

    Is that Protack’s next campaign slogan? “Policy! Balls! Vote Protack!”
    It’s got me hooked.

  14. Mitch Crane says:

    Wagner won by only .6% in 2010, over Richard Korn. Because of the Coons-O’Donnell and Flowers-Bonini race, and others at the top of the ticket, as well as Korn’s refusal to contribute to the coordinated campaign, Korn was omitted from that statewide campaign’s call and lit drop program, except in Sussex. 2010 was also a bad year for Democrats nationally, the rise of the Tea Party and Democratic voter complacency.

    This year all the factors that existed in 2010 are reversed and all statewide Republican candidates can lose in an expected large increase in Democratic turnout. Simpler beat Sean Barney by only 22,888 votes in 2014, another bad turnout year for Dems.

    • Rufus Y. Kneedog says:

      Its an interesting perspective that the state auditor race was decided because Korn didn’t “contribute to the coordinated campaign”. You may be absolutely right but I dont like it.

  15. Alby says:

    “Democratic voter complacency”

    Man, you never tire of being wrong. It’s not complacency, it’s disgust about sell-outs like you.

    • Mitch Crane says:

      Where is the word “complacency” in my post? I gave facts, not explanations.
      Would you rather just engage in a circle jerk rather than in debate and discussion?

    • RE Vanella says:

      Mitch lives in a fantasy world.

      (By the way, Mitch. I’m not ducking you. None of these lazy fuckers has passed along your contact info.)

      • Alby says:

        “Mitch lives in a fantasy world.”

        Well, yes, in that he lives at the beach. It’s a very insular place in that many residents, especially part-timers, have more connection to northern Delaware or DC or New York than to the rest of Sussex County.

        • RE Vanella says:

          He hasn’t always lived at the beach.

          I mean he’s been sucked into the insider party machinations. His cop friends (like Trinidad N and Pistol Pete) have convinced him that the power of conservative “Democrats” is better than standing up to that oppressive power.

          Hence the reason that calling your shit “Stonewall” is a sickening disgrace.

          The demonstration at Stonewall was an uprising against state oppression. Now Mitch is, for all of intent and purpose, a cop for the status quo.

          Like Jason is fond of saying, he pulled up the ladder after he made it to the spot.

          I have zero resprect for that.

  16. jason330 says:

    Hey now. We are all on the same page. Dem voter complacency and Dem voter disgust are symptoms. Corporate owned Democratic is the disease. Getting rid of corporate Dems is the cure.

  17. RE Vanella says:

    100%

  18. mouse says:

    We need a new board member in our HOA, I wonder if Protack with his brilliant policies could get elected to such an office

  19. jason330 says:

    This post is blowing up. In all modesty, I credit the spot on headline writing.

  20. jason330 says:

    BTW – Hey Dave! Long time. I hope you are well.

  21. RE Vanella says:

    Since everyone’s here…

    …Spadola for Auditor.

  22. puck says:

    Democrats for Spadola.

  23. Gop braintrust says:

    Simple fact is the gop never had anything for the future. Protack did but the same idiot gop bozos hated him cuz he was not a uppity Greenville ahole

    • Alby says:

      No, they hated him because he was a fucking weirdo who lied about and slandered people in the party. “Uppity” Greenville assholes? Get real. “Uppity” means something different than you think it does. Those “idiot bozos” were the ones who funded the party. Now it’s a collection of downstate dimwits with no funding.

      Protack had something for the future? You’re fucking kidding, right? This was a guy who lied at a Trumpian level, starting with where he got the $80,000 for his first serious run. He’s a nut case, and it was so obvious your mouth-breathing clown buddies from downstate could see it.

      And if you can’t stick to one name you’re going to be outta here.

  24. jason330 says:

    I agree with 2/3rds of that.

  25. RE Vanella says:

    Protack was a visionary. He was a joke candidate before it was cool.

  26. mouse says:

    Bill Lee was a great candidate, he had a sense of vision and wanted to be an activist governor. It was quite close as well. A little more support in NCC and he would have won.

  27. RE Vanella says:

    Also germane to this thread the 2004 primary score line:

    William Swain Lee 15,270
    Michael D Protack 5,108

  28. Faithful Skeptic says:

    Y’all wouldn’t mind if I asked, what is the dirt that Kopf alluded to about Arlett? Sure he’s going down, and Kopf knows a great deal better than I what the consequences for Republican down-ballot candidates could be. We know about at least some of the lunacy of Scott Walker, I’m just salaciously curious about the Arlett stuff. Is all of Sussex County’s Republican organization this bad?

    Please don’t pull punches or hide behind asterisks.

    • While I don’t know for sure what Kopf alluded to, the article makes clear that Arlett has not been diligent about paying his taxes, and he’s been called on it.

      • Alby says:

        He lost his house in the crash. Inability to afford living quarters is a feature, not a bug, for SuxCo voters, who also loved Christine O’Donnell, who couldn’t afford both a house and campaign headquarters but knew which one to write it off as.

        • RE Vanella says:

          It’s funny because if a tea party clown like this or a Trump cultist or a “classical liberal” had any sense they’d join DSA.

          Alas, they’re mostly rascist dolts and people concerned with “property rights.”

          All politics is local. And the locals are mostly white.

          This is an incredible coincidence!

          Do not mention it.

          Also, these fuckers are heavily armed.

          Again, coincidence.

          • Alby says:

            I’m trying to write something about this. The hidden tragedy of Trump is that it was real populist anger about how the system is rigged of, by and for the elites, of both parties. Kavanaugh is a perfect example of this. How many stories have you seen that talked about how he was “groomed” for success?