Tag Archives: Delaware Republicans

Ron Williams Wants Our Attention

Ron Williams is obviously trying to get our attention by providing blog bait in yesterday’s column. He is passing along some gossip about the continuing woes of the Delaware GOP. First he passes on a tidbit that is no surprise – Republicans are not happy with Tom Ross.

There’s already serious talk about replacing state party chairman Tom Ross with former state senator Charlie Copeland, a move that I see as yet more divisive to the party.

Ross has done a good job, given the hand he was dealt.

So who besides Williams thinks Ross did a good job? No matter what Delaware Republicans were shellacked in November. They only control one statewide office and lost seats in the House. He’s the head guy when the party fell apart. I think it’s logical that someone take the fall. I kind of think Copeland is an inspired choice. He can unite the crazy wing with the money wing.

Now the word is out that a fervent Christine O’Donnell supporter from out of state is preparing to file a lawsuit against Ross and the party because they didn’t follow the national party rules that call for state parties not to endorse candidates.

Really? That should be entertaining. I wonder who the rabid out-of-state supporter is. Any guesses? Williams also gets some more shots in at O’Donnell. He holds her personally responsible for the Republican bloodbath.

Somebody in the Delaware Republican Party needs to “man up” and tell Christine O’Donnell to take a hike, go back to New Jersey or move to Alaska and play TV reality show hostess with Palin.

I was thinking about the O’Donnell factor this past election recently and concluded that no single politician has ever had more personal effect on other candidates in Delaware than did she.

She personally ended the career of one of the most respected and successful politicians ever, Mike Castle, with her band of cripple-minded supporters, who after 40 years suddenly discovered Castle was a moderate, not some kooky tea partier. He would have been U.S. senator now.

Williams also blames O’Donnell for Urquhart’s loss which seems strange because Urquhart didn’t have any ideas that didn’t come out of the 1980s and didn’t over perform O’Donell by much – only a couple of thousand votes. Why wouldn’t Williams discuss Wagner’s or Bonini’s close call? I agree O’Donnell hurt Republicans this year but the Delaware GOP’s problems are mostly of their own making. Even Mike Castle has admitted that he didn’t do enough to keep and attract moderate voters.

I think Williams hasn’t accepted the new reality of the Delaware Republican party. It’s no longer the Mike Castle party and it’s been moving away from that for years. 2010 was the year thar made the transformation complete.

Delaware GOP Civil War – Do They Get It Yet?

The Delaware GOP’s civil war is on full display in today’s News Journal. This is just the beginning of the war, the part I’ll call “finger-pointing.”

“The problem is a lack of leadership, a lack of vision, a lack of inclusion,” said Steve Grossman, Kent County coordinator for O’Donnell’s campaign. The party’s current leadership comes mainly from northern New Castle County.

Several downstate Republicans say the New Castle County GOP is not very well-organized.

“We keep losing elections because New Castle County Republicans won’t get their act together,” said Don Ayotte of Georgetown, who organized a censure of state Party Chairman Tom Ross last week.

According to O’Donnell’s campaign and Sussex County Republicans it was lack of leadership from New Castle County Republicans and poor organization.

Michele Rollins has a different diagnosis:

“We need to sit back and say, ‘Do we want to be a party of social issues?’ If that’s the case, then let it be that. But I can’t be in that,” said businesswoman Michele Rollins, who lost the GOP U.S. House primary to Glen Urquhart.

But, but, CONSTITUTION!

“Let’s focus on the fiscal conservancy of the party,” said former state Rep. Tom Kovach, who lost re-election in a northern New Castle County district that saw a surge in anti-O’Donnell voters.

Lyle Humpton of Bridgeville argues the party should shift further to the right on social and economic issues.

So, the moderates blame the social conservatives and the conservatives blame the moderates. Sussex blames New Castle. They all believe they can win on fiscal issues yet failed to talk about fiscal issues in a manner that appealed to the public.

Have you ever seen those comedies where the sheriff goes up to a crowd and asks, “which way did he go?” and the crowd points in every direction? This is what this feels like.

“Republican Cannibalism”

So much for personal responsibility. Honestly, is anything ever her fault – even partly her part? The video below is an embarrassment.

Here’s the truth: The Tea Party gave the senate to the Dems. Not that they’d ever admit it. In fact, after blaming everyone else they’ll start crying that they need to be more conservative. Also, I expect to hear the term “Republican Cannibalism” a lot.

My prediction: Even though her canidacy decimated Republicans up and down the ticket she’s not going anywhere. I think we’re stuck with her.

Christine O’Donnell Performed Better In 2008

Glen Urquhart, in his concession speech last night, said that his campaign had done better than any Republican candidate had done “in a while.” It probably depends on what he means by “a while.” Here’s the results from last night:

U.S. Senate
Chris Coons………….56.6%…..173,900
Christine O’Donnell…40.0%…..123,025
Others…………………..3.4%……10,200

U.S. House of Representatives
John Carney…………56.8%…..173,443
Glen Urquhart………..41.0%…..125,408
Others…………………..2.2%…….6,651

So, yes, Urquhart did outperform O’Donnell by a small amount ~2,000 votes. But you know who did better? Colin Bonini, who received 146,991 votes and Tom Wagner, who received 150,110 votes (and won).

You know who else did better? Mike Castle in 2008, who received 235,437 votes (61.1%). Even though O’Donnell had her best performance in terms of % of the vote (35.3% in 2008 compared to 40.0% in 2010), she still received less votes in 2010 (123,025) than in 2008 (140,595).

On a side not can I say that the polls were actually pretty damn accurate? O’Donnell didn’t break 41%, which was her ceiling even in the most GOP-friendly polls like Rasmussen and the last Monmouth poll. O’Donnell did succeed in taking 1-2% off of Coons’s total, if you look at the unusually large 3rd party vote. Urq’s support seemed to collapse again (polls had him 2-5% better than O’Donnell), similar to his performance in the Republican primary. I guess Urquhart can’t seal the deal with voters.

Christine O’Donnell Holds The GOP Hostage

The Huffington Post has a scoop on Christine O’Donnell. In private she’s told the Delaware Republican party that she has Sean Hannity in her back pocket:

Specifically, according to two top GOP insiders, she said at a strategy meeting with DC types last week: “I’ve got Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money by attacking you guys.”

And that was precisely what she was doing on the radio today. On Hannity’s popular afternoon drive-time show, the Tea Party-inspired Senate contender acidly criticized the party, specifically the National Republican Senatorial Committee, for not funneling any serious cash (beyond a pro forma $43,000) into her race against Democrat Chris Coons.

(The O’Donnell campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

Hannity, who earlier in the show warned GOP officials not to criticize Tea Party leader Sen. Jim DeMint, expressed sympathy with O’Donnell’s fiscal plight and gave a glowing review of her performance in last night’s televised debate with Coons. Hannity criticized party insiders for not backing her with cash or endorsements.

Oh my. Pass the popcorn.

Karma Is A Bitch – Delaware GOP Edition

Karma is a bitch. Several weeks back the Delaware GOP filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint about Christine O’Donnell and her misuse of campaign funds. Now that she’s the GOP candidate and since the GOP completely caved to an unqualified candidate, they tried to quietly withdraw their petition. The FEC said “nuh-uh.”

Prior to getting their establishment asses handed them to them on the end of a mob-wielded pitchfork, the Delaware state GOP filed a FEC complaint against Christine O’Donnell for illegal campaign coordination with and excessive contributions from the Tea Party Express. Now that they’re saddled with her as the nominee, the FEC is telling them no-backsies, and that they can’t withdraw the complaint… the complaint against their own nominee.

Christine O’Donnell finally has an answer for CREW about their criminal complaint:

Now the O’Donnell’s lawyer is attacking the organization which made the charges against her — arguing that the group lacks credibility because George Soros has donated to CREW.

O’Donnell’s attorney Cleta Mitchell dismissed the charge as outlandish and described CREW as a “left-wing front group” funded by the liberal financier Soros.

“If Melanie Sloan wants to deny that, you tell Melanie Sloan to reveal her donors,” Mitchell told the Christian Science Monitor, referencing CREW’s executive director. “She is not a neutral arbiter of ethics.” Mitchell did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

In other words – GUILTY!

Holy Sh…

Just saw this come through on Twitter

After much thought, I left the Republican Party today and became an Independent. That’s all I have to say on the subject at this time. #fb

10 minutes ago via Seesmic Desktop
Retweeted by 1 person

daveburris
Dave Burris

Best wishes to you, Dave. I’m sorry you weren’t able to turn the Republican party on a path of sanity.

The Logic of the Delaware GOP Purge

I don’t know how many of you have been following Delaware Tomorrow but there’s been a bout of nastiness there. The blogger who goes by the pseudonym “Wanda Maximoff” has left to form her own blog.

A few weeks back, Wanda asked me if he/she could come on the blog as a contributor. Knowing him/her from a past life, I agreed. Wanda then brought up the work he/she was doing on Christine O’Donnell. I reviewed it and said that it was fine to post so long as Wanda documented his/her claims. If he/she would do that, I’d stand behind it. And I’m confident that Wanda has met that burden, so I continue to support that effort 100%. Especially since no proof whatsoever has been offered to refute the documented claims in Wanda’s posts.

You can find all the posts about Christine O’Donnell at the new site called Delaware Republican Record. Wanda Maximoff has done some really excellent work exposing Christine O’Donnell and I hope she continues to do so.

Someone explain to me the logic of purging voices on the right by other voices on the right? I know the national GOP is turning from the big tent to the pup tent by why do they think it’s going to work in Delaware? Turning themselves into a small, irrelevant socially conservative party in the state gains them what exactly? Why is shutting down longtime Republicans Dave Burris and Michael Stafford because of perennial loser Christine O’Donnell a good idea in their minds?

Also, hahahahahahaha (link from Delaware Republican Record):

When Republican candidate Christine O’Donnell’s office was contacted for a comment on the proposals, her press aide, Yates Walker, hung up the phone.

re: lobbying proposals from both Mike Castle and Chris Coons

PPP Delaware Poll: Republicans

One of the disappointing things about the newly-released PPP Poll was that the Republican primaries were not polled. There’s plenty of raw numbers to look at though. Can we get any hints of how the primaries might go from the raw data? Let’s take a look.

PPP has broken down the approval numbers several ways. One way was by who the voter chose for president in the 2008 election. How do the Republican candidates stack up?

McCain voters Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable (Favorable-Unfavorable)
Mike Castle – 54/31/16/+12
Christine O’Donnell – 32/29/39/+3
Michele Rollins – 22/22/56/0
Glenn Urquhart – 23/18/59/+5

This crude analysis shows that Castle beats O’Donnell handily. O’Donnell’s name recognition is still low so she definitely has room to move up however her favorables are low. The Rollins/Urquhart is a toss-up with a slight lean towards Urquhart. Both Rollins and Urquhart are both largely unknown so this race is quite fluid.

PPP also broke down the numbers by self-reported ideology. Republicans in Delaware would probably label themselves as either “moderate” or “conservative” (I realize that there’s a lot of overlap of moderates with both Independents and Democrats).

Conservatives Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable
Mike Castle – 46/39/15/+7
Christine O’Donnell – 37/23/40/+14
Michele Rollins – 21/19/59/+2
Glenn Urquhart – 25/14/61/+9

O’Donnell has her best showing among conservatives but still trails Castle. Despite rumors to the contrary, Castle is popular among conservatives. Urquhart has a clear advantage with conservatives over Rollins.

What about moderates?
Moderates Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable
Mike Castle – 56/25/18/+31
Christine O’Donnell – 15/38/47/-23
Michele Rollins – 16/27/57/-9
Glenn Urquhart – 12/21/67/-9

Castle is beloved by self-reported moderates. All other Republican candidates are in negative territory, which shows why Republicans have trouble winning in Delaware. Despite having the News Journal declare her a moderate, Rollins is clearly not catching on. She has the same rating with mderates as Glenn Urquhart. I assume Urquhart’s negatives will go up with moderates once they watch Urquhart’s Nazi comments.

One last analysis – how do the Republican candidates rate among Republicans?

Republicans Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable
Mike Castle – 60/25/16/+35
Christine O’Donnell – 34/29/37/+5
Michele Rollins – 27/17/57/+10
Glenn Urquhart – 23/17/59/+6

Castle is popular with Republicans no matter which way you look at the numbers. O’Donnell has an uphill climb. Rollins finally comes out ahead of Urquhart in this match-up so I call their race a toss-up as of now.

What advice do you give each of these candidates? My advice:
Castle – Ignore O’Donnell, keep doing what you’re doing
O’Donnell – Go relentlessly negative to drive down Castle’s numbers. Be sure to get your base support of conservatives out to vote. If you have money, now would be a good time to spend it.
Rollins – Quit sitting on your load of cash and start spending some, otherwise you could lose to Urquhart. Since Urquhart is probably the conservatives’ candidate you have nothing to lose by moving to the left and appealing to moderates. Try to link yourself to Castle more aggressively.
Urquhart – Spend money to raise your name recognition & profile & make sure conservatives come to vote in the primaries

Who’s Running – Republican Primary Edition

Yesterday was the filing deadline for running for office in Delaware. There was a lot of activity in the final days. Let’s take a look at the Republican primaries.

U.S. Senate
Mike Castle vs. Christine O’Donnell

Prediction: Castle in a walk.

U.S. House of Representatives
Michele Rollins vs. Glen Urquhart vs. Rose Izzo vs. last minute addition Brent Wangen, who is also running as a Libertarian. I guess the Libertarians have a plan this year – 1) run in more than one party and 2) post on Delaware Liberal. Good luck with that plan! Urquhart’s website has a video with a lot of inspiring Democratic presidential speeches – FDR, JFK.

You can watch Rose Izzo shoot things.

Prediction: Rollins in a walk

General Assembly
State Senate District 19 – Joe Booth (incumbent) vs. Eric Bodenweiser
I don’t know this district very well. Booth won a special election after Thurman Adams’s death. I’ll let Bodenweiser describe himself:

My name is Eric Bodenweiser, and I’m a Conservative Republican running for State Senate in Delaware’s 19th Senate District. I’m a member of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots, as well as the Delaware Tea Party. I’m a devoted husband, father, grandfather and Christian who feels that our state and nation is on a socialistic path, the consequences of which will impact our economic and moral well being for generations.

Even though this race is in the part of the state most sympathetic to the tea party, I have to give the prediction here as Joe Booth.

State Representative District 9 – John Marino vs. Anthony Mirto
This is Cathcart’s open seat. Cathcart endorsed Marino, so I assume Marino has the edge in this race.

State Representative District 29 – George Phillips vs. Lincoln Willis
This is Thornburg’s open seat. I know nothing about either candidate and neither of them have a campaign website listed.

State Representative District 31 – Ronald Poliquin vs. Ronald Smith
The incumbent in this district is Darryl Scott (D). Poliquin’s website has an endorsement by Colin Bonini and Poliquin claims to be “100% taxpayer approved.” (turn down your speakers before going to his website) He also seems concerned that Delaware is turning into New Jersey or something.

State Representative District 32 – Libertarian, Republican and Democratic candidate William McVay vs. Beth Buzzell Miller
Brad Bennett (D) is the incumbent in this race. McVay’s website doesn’t have much information on McVay’s platform but there is quite a bit about state sovereignty. Miller is the favorite for this primary.

State Representative District 33 – Harold Peterman vs. Steven Rust
The incumbent is Robert Walls (D)

New Castle County
County Council District 1 – Scot Sauer vs. Robert Suiter
The incumbent is Joe Reda (D). I don’t know much about either Republican but Sauer was a late entry.

County Council District 3 – Janet Kilpatrick vs. Mike Protack
Open seat being vacated by Bill Tansey. This one should be interesting. Perennial candidate Mike Protack should have some name recognition from his many runs for office. Kilpatrick is married to Vince Lofink and is well-regarded. I have no prediction on this race.

New Castle County Sheriff – William Hart vs. Joseph O’Leary
The incumbent is Mike Walsh (D). These are both late entries to the race. Perhaps they think they can benefit from a brutal primary fight between Walsh and Navarro. O’Leary has a website that has absolutely no information on it.

Dick Cathcart Announces Retirement

House Minority Leader Dick Cathcart announced today that he will retire from the General Assembly (h/t anon). The News Journal has the story.

House Minority Leader Richard Cathcart, R-Middletown, will not seek re-election for the seat he has held for 13 years.

Cathcart, who led the minority caucus and frequently butted heads with Gov. Jack Markell, announced today that he will retire this year to spend more time concentrating on his job at Delaware State University.

“This is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make. It was clear that I had to reduce the stress of doing two jobs,” Cathcart said in a news release. “It was then that, with my wife Linda, I began to reassess my life and consider options. After weighing many factors and looking at what made the most sense for my family and me, there was only one difficult course of action – announce my retirement.”

This immediately puts the 9th representative district race on the radar. The Democratic candidate is Richard Griffiths. No Republican has filed yet but Cathcart endorsed John Marino.

Bumps In The Road For The Rollins Coronation?

Republican Glenn Urquhart has released a poll showing that he leads Michelle Rollins in the primary race to replace Mike Castle. Take this poll with a huge grain of salt because it’s an internal poll with high undecideds. WDEL has the details:

A new poll suggests downstate real estate developer Glen Urquhart has an edge over Michele Rollins with Republican primary voters.

Kim Stevenson with the Urquhart campaign tells WDEL News GOP polling firm Wilson Research Strategies polled 300 likely Republican primary voters April 20th and 21st.

The survey says by a 53 to 47-percent margin, voters with an opinion of both candidates are likely to back Urquhart, but also says 60 percent of those responding are undecided, so the race is still wide open.

I think this will be a very interesting primary race. Michelle Rollins represents the country club Republicans, who are a dying breed in the Republican party but are likely still the majority among Delaware Republicans. Glenn Urquhart seems to be much more like the standard Southern Republican that we’re used to. I think this election will tell us a lot about the state of Delaware’s Republican party.

Sussex County Council President on the Take?

What would you say if I told you that the President of The Sussex County Council was paid $5,000 in salary by the largest developer in Sussex County? Sounds pretty fishy, eh? Well that is exactly what developer and Republican candidate for US Congress Glenn Urquhart is doing with his campaign funds.

Let’s review. Glenn Urquhart has raised $568,050 dollars in his quest to be the Republican candidate for Congress. Of that $568,050, Urquhart gave $565,000 to his own campaign. This means that he has raised a mere $3,050 in donations.

So far he has spent a little over $56,000 on the campaign. $5,000 of that money has gone to pay a salary to Vance Phillips, The Sussex County Council President. An additional $475 or so was paid to Phillips to reimburse him for expenses, as well.

Vance’s salary is the second highest expenditure for the Urquhart campaign during this reporting period. It also represents more that Urquhart has collected in fundraising and almost 10% of total expenditures. I guess if this whole Congressional thing doesn’t work out, Urquhart can go right back to developing the hell out of Sussex County. Except, next time he will have an employee as County Council President.