Tag: Sen. Bob Marshall

Wilmington Mayor’s Race — Undecided Leads the Pack

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on July 12, 2016 11 Comments
Wilmington Mayor’s Race — Undecided Leads the Pack

The News Journal released the results of their poll last night, which shows the race being much closer than the common wisdom (including mine) would have suggested. Here’s the numbers:

Kevin Kelly 18%
Mike Purzycki 14%
Dennis Williams 13%
Theo Gregory 11%
Eugene Young 9%
Norm Griffiths 8%
Robert Marshall 2%
Maria Cabrera 2%
Undecided 21%

The margin of error on this poll is 5.8 and reached landlines only. This surveyed likely Democratic voters. This polly also asked about registration and primary practices — where we find that this group of likely Democratic voters think that it should be easier to switch parties to vote and that primaries should be open.

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Wilmington Mayoral Debate on Public Safety

Filed in Delaware by on May 31, 2016 62 Comments
Wilmington Mayoral Debate on Public Safety

Last Thursday evening, there was another debate among the Mayoral candidates for Wilmington (except the current Mayor — who apparently does not think he needs to explain or be accountable for his dismal record in this area). This one was focused on public safety and was sponsored by the News Journal and WHYY and held at the Grand. There have been quite a few debates/ public forums for Mayoral candidates in the last month or so, reflecting the very high interest in this race around town. It is a perfect situation for the kind of retail politics that Delaware is famous for and is a perfect setup for all of the organisations around town who feel that they need to work at supporting the public conversation. What you know from talking to people at these events is that there is a great deal of sensitivity about the crossroads Wilmington seems to be on and a great deal of motivation to try choose someone who will move the City in a much better direction. Public safety is a very large issue — but it is almost always entwined with discussions on education, re-entry, jobs. This is important, I think, because it indicates that many of the most interested voters in Wilmington understand that public safety is a complex issue and that city government has not been a good leader in addressing these issues. While reducing shootings and other criminal behavior is a priority, Wilmingtonians seem ready to hear about long-term prevention strategies as well.

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Results of the Complexities of Color Wilmington Mayoral Debate Focus Group

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on May 25, 2016 6 Comments
Results of the Complexities of Color Wilmington Mayoral Debate Focus Group

You’ll remember that the CoC in conjunction with the Metropolitan Urban League Young Professionals, Delaware Young Democrats Minority Caucus and IMAC hosted a Mayoral Debate at Ezion Fair on April 18. One of the potentially interesting things that could come from that debate was some polling data — in the form of a focus group — that might start shedding some light on the state of this race. I’ve permission to share this results memo on Delaware Liberal (I will post the actual memo later today — I can’t do that from here right now):

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Wilmington Mayoral Debates at Ezion Fair

Filed in Delaware by on April 19, 2016 24 Comments
Wilmington Mayoral Debates at Ezion Fair

Last night was another big Mayoral debate, this one including the newly announced (but not filed) Maria Cabrera and finally showing up Dennis Williams. This debate was sponsored by the Complexities of Color Coalition, the Metropolitan Urban League Young Professionals, Interdenominational Ministers Action Council, Delaware Young Democrats Minority Caucus and Delaware Black and held at Ezion Fair church in Southbridge. This was really well attended and the audience was definitely there to be engaged. The NJ provides a bunch of the highlights of the evening, but I want to focus on some campaign themes emerging and a different cattle call at the end.

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Delaware Political Weekly: March 22-28, 2014

Filed in Delaware by on March 28, 2014 23 Comments
Delaware Political Weekly: March 22-28, 2014

Granted, he’s a Libertarian. Scott Gesty. Unfortunately, he’s not a Steve Newton Libertarian. More like a ‘they’re taking away our freedoms’ Libertarian. He congratulates himself on predicting that ‘Obamacare is destroying the healthcare system’. Man, can’t at least one of these third party types not make you unclean when considering casting a protest vote for them? Paging the Green Party…

Looks like the Republicans are doing better in concentrating on recruiting candidates in General Assembly races…

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Delaware Political Weekly: March 8-14, 2014

Filed in Delaware by on March 14, 2014 6 Comments
Delaware Political Weekly: March 8-14, 2014

Rep. Daryll Scott has designated his preferred successor. He’s Sean Lynn, a Dover City Councilman.    Looks like he’d be a worthy successor to Scott, and the district is solidly blue. Of course, we don’t know if there will be any primary challengers, and we never know how someone will ultimately perform once in office.

I, for one, can only hope that Rep. Scott is not done with public service. He’s among the best progressives in the Delaware General Assembly.

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Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Filed in National by on March 12, 2013 14 Comments

Coming off its six-week break for Joint Finance Committee, the Delaware General Assembly begins in earnest its legislative sprint to…Easter break, three weeks hence.

At least, this should prove to be an action-packed three weeks–especially when it comes to the introduction of key bills. Assuming that the Attorney General’s and the Governor’s legal counsel are productive, we could well have the major pieces of the gun control package finalized and introduced. Marriage equality could also surface.  We’ll also get a much better sense as to what budgetary issues remain to be resolved.

Plus, we don’t need to wait for some intriguing story lines to develop. Take today, for example. Please.  HB 10 (Keeley), which would immediately restore voting rights to convicted felons who have paid their debt to society, is scheduled for floor debate. This is the second leg of a constitutional amendment, meaning that it has already passed both houses of the General Assembly during the preceding legislative session. Should it pass this time, it will become law. I think it will. In fact, the only obstacle that could stand in the way of its passage would be  near-unanimous  opposition from House R’s. With Republican Rep. Don Blakey a certain yes, I don’t see it happening. And, with Senators Lavelle and Cloutier co-sponsoring the bill, the Senate looks solid as well.

Much much more inside….

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On Privatizing the Port of Wilmington, Bob Marshall Says ‘Not So Fast, My Friends’.

Filed in National by on December 17, 2012 8 Comments

In what I consider to be a masterfully-crafted letter, Sen. Bob Marshall has made clear that he does not intend to let Markell/Levin push a Port of Wilmington privatization proposal through without legislative oversight.

As you may recall, a recent Friday news dump by the Markell Administration contained the announcement that Kinder Morgan had emerged as the ‘preferred partner’ to run the Port. Both Kinder and Morgan made their corporate bones at Enron, and their company specializes in pipelines and the fluids that run through them.

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