The Races Are Set

The Delaware Governor’s race is now set. Republican Bill Lee will be facing Democrat Jack Markell along with the Independent Party of Delaware’s Mike Protack and the Blue Enigma Party’s Jeffrey Brown.

The Lt. Governor’s race was already set as there was no primary necessary in either of the major parties. Republican Charles Copeland will be facing Democrat Matt Denn and Blue Enigma Party’s Peter Cullen.

Our US House Representative race is set with the incumbent Republican Mike Castle will be facing Democrat Karen Hartley-Nagle and Libertarian Mark Anthony Parks.

And if you didn’t already know, the US Senate race is set with Republican Christine O’Donnell facing the Democrat too busy campaigning for VP, Joe Biden. Biden is staying in this Senate race just in case the VP gig doesn’t work out.

The Palin Speech

I posted my first thoughts at DelawarePolitics.net:

That speech was GREAT! Now it’s all downhill…

Can’t wait to see her smackdown Biden. Oh yeah…

The Conservative Geek sent a text to me which I put on Twitter:

Wolf Blitzer on Sarah Palin, “A star is born”

Here is a great dig at her critics, from the transcript:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

I had to laugh with Howard at Delmar Dustpan as he writes about someone else’s perspective on the whole convention: Levi Johnson.

Finally, thanks to my oldest son, Jeremy, maybe the way the signs should be:

UPDATE: Christine O’Donnell’s comments from the News Journal:

U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, who is running against Biden and attended the convention, described the speech as “brilliant.” “She is the epitome of of a modern woman,” O’Donnell said. She’s strong, independent and utterly feminine. And it shows that to be a strong woman and to play in a man’s world you don’t have to act like a man.”

UPDATE 2: I missed this graphic at Gazizza.

The First State races - U.S. Congress

Today I shift focus to the Congressional race. There’s only a handful of states where the number of Congressmen is fewer than the number of Senators, but Delaware is one of them. This means all federal races are statewide.

Currently on the ballot are incumbent Republican Congressman Michael Castle and three Democrats who are seeking to oust him: Karen Hartley-Nagle, Mike Miller, and Jerry Northington. The issues I’ll discuss will be in the same order and point scale as yesterday’s post, beginning with eminent domain and property rights. Unlike yesterday I’m predominantly going to go by the campaign websites since all four are available to me (I’ll add the link to Miller’s after I complete this post.) And with the exception of Miller, fortunately I’m able to simply link to the issue positions instead of the long quotes I needed to use in the Biden/O’Donnell race. So let’s get cracking, shall we?

Eminent domain/property rights (5 points):

Castle: Mike doesn’t mention the issue on his site; however, there were two Congressional votes where the question of eminent domain came up and Rep. Castle voted against the interests of private property holders in both. I’m deducting three points.

Hartley-Nagle: Karen doesn’t bring the subject up on her site. No points.

Miller: Again, the issue doesn’t come into play there. No points.

Northington: Apparently none of the candidates find this as important as I do, but bear in mind Delaware received a failing grade on the eminent domain issue from the Castle Coalition (no connection to the Congressman, it’s a subgroup of the Institute for Justice.) No points for Jerry.

Second Amendment (7 points):

Castle: As part of the “Keeping Communities Safe” portion of his site, Mike talks about his work on a couple gun-related issues. Unfortunately, that work is on the wrong side and the two key pro-Second Amendment groups (National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America) have regularly given him failing grades. Deduct all 7 points.

Hartley-Nagle: Karen doesn’t discuss the Second Amendment on her site, so no points.

Miller: The same goes for his site. In fact, his site is very limited as far as issue stances go with the exception of some broad-brush philosophies.

Northington: Conversely to his two Democrat opponents, Jerry has a section devoted to firearms issues. Northington skirts the line between being a gun-grabber and a pragmatist, noting that individuals should be allowed to have firearms for personal use but not be able to have so-called “assault weapons”. (The trick is what is defined as an assault weapon?) Of the four candidates, his position is the best of a bad - or nonexistent - lot so I’ll grant him two points.

Election reform/campaign finance (9 points):

The First State races: U.S. Senate

[Elbert says: Michael at Monoblogue is a frequent contributer to That's Elbert. He will be examining some of our races coming up in the Frist State, so they will be present here as well as his blog.]

In honor of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s selection as the nominee for Vice President, I’m going to lead off this three-post look at Delaware’s three major election races with the ladies first: the U.S. Senate tilt between incumbent Senator (and Democrat Vice-Presidntial pick) Joe Biden and Republican hopeful Christine O’Donnell. In truth, this is sort of a courtesy to those interested in the race because neither Biden or O’Donnell have any opposition in the upcoming September 9th primary, nor are any minor party candidates currently on the ballot for November.

Additionally, with his elevation to a national stage the JoeBiden.com website has been absorbed into the website for Barack Obama, which to me means Joe’s treating the Delaware race as the red-headed stepchild in comparison to the run for VP. Fortunately, having ran for President Biden has already established positions on a number of issues I care about and Delaware voters should too. It’ll be a little bit of a recycling job on his side because I’ve already written about Biden’s positions.

Because this is a race of national scope, most of the pet issues that I used for the Presidential race are applicable to this one. Longtime readers [of Monoblogue] also may recall that I did a point system to compare candidates, but for those who are newer or who forgot, here is a refresher course:

• Eminent domain and property rights (5 points)
• Second Amendment (7 points)
• Election reform and campaign finance (9 points)
• Trade and job creation (11 points)
• Education (13 points)
• Military/veterans affairs (15 points)
• Energy independence (17 points)
• Social Security/Medicare (19 points)
• Taxation (21 points)
• Role of Government (23 points)
• Border security and immigration (25 points)
• The Long War (27 points)

I believe I can get all twelve parts into one fairly long post. These will be arranged by topic as listed above. Where I don’t have a statement already for Senator Biden, I attempt to look into his voting record through the VoteSmart.org website.

Property rights:

Biden: There was no relevant votes I could find regarding the issues of eminent domain and private property rights. No points given or taken away.

O’Donnell: Christine O’Donnell doesn’t address this issue on her website, so no points.

Second Amendment:

Biden: In seven votes cited by VoteSmart.org Senator Biden voted against gun owners on six. Gun Owners of America gave Biden an “F” in 2007. Because of that, I’ll deduct all 7 points in this category.

Unfortunately, Christine O’Donnell doesn’t address this issue on her site. No points.

Election reform and campaign finance:

How About McCain’s VP? Can Anyone Say Sarah Palin?

Good grief. Most of last week’s posts centered around Obama and Biden with a dash of O’Donnell. I was hoping to jump off politics for at least a couple of posts but I feel the need to touch on John McCain’s upcoming VP pick. At the end of June I wrote about two names being kicked around for McCain’s VP: Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin. At the time I felt that both of them would be great for the ticket, however it should come at another time. Jindal has only been governor of Louisiana for less than a year, and I felt he could use some more time fixing all that was wrong down there. Palin has been the governor of Alaska for about a year and a half. She’s well liked there, but there’s work to be done in Alaska so it may be better to continue to focus her attention there. In addition, Palin had a son during the spring who has Down Syndrome, and this certainly would make the Presidential campaign trail a difficult task.

Two Delaware bloggers, Howard in the south and Hube in the north, both think she would be a good VP. Among many of the names tossed around, I will agree with my fellow bloggers that Sarah Palin would be a great asset to the McCain ticket. She is a young, attractive woman, wife and mother. She appears to be a strong conservative, being a lifetime member of the NRA and a member of Feminists For Life. She has drank the Global Warming Cool Aid, but McCain has drank it too, so getting away from that will be difficult. I really don’t think that she will pull any Hillary votes over unless it’s the crowd that would vote for any woman regardless of her views. The one thing that might cause trouble is a growing scandal regarding the firing of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner because he wouldn’t remove a former brother-in-law from their state police. From Alex Gimarc’s Interesting Items, August 18, 2008 edition:

Palin fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The firing came as a surprise to most observers, as Monegan was popular and appeared to be doing his job well. As the days went by, information started dribbling out of the state government that he was fired because he refused to remove from state employment a state trooper who was Palin’s former brother-in-law. The trooper had been involved in a very nasty divorce and custody fight, and the fight was family-wide, with various Palin family members filing nearly 40 official complaints against him over the course of a couple of years. The event has opened Palin into charges of abuse of office, for while she does have the ability to hire and fire her political appointees at will, she does not have the ability to reach down into the state bureaucracy and do the same thing.

This scandal might hurt her in Alaska were she enjoys a 80-90% approval rating but it could haunt her on the Presidential campaign trail. I suppose if she’s chosen time will tell. Still, I am coming around to liking the idea of a McCain/Palin ticket.

McCain’s Campaign Is Already On Biden

And good for them…

Bill Lee - Let’s Get Started

Hat tip to DelawarePolitics.net for this:

David Horowitz Appearing In Bridgeville

There will be a luncheon and book signing with David Horowitz. From an email:

In the 1960’s, David was one of the founders of the New Left and an editor of its largest magazine, Ramparts. Today he is one of the country’s leading conservative activists, founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and editor of the conservative website Frontpage Magazine. He founded the activist group Students for Academic Freedom and has spoken at over 250 colleges and universities. He has appeared on Nightline, Crossfire, Today, Hannity and Colmes, the Bill O’Reilly Show, Good Morning America, C-SPAN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, This Morning, and more.

This will be benefiting Christine O’Donnell, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. The luncheon will occur on Monday, August 18, 2008 at 12:00 PM at Heritage Shores Club, One Heritage Shores Circle in Bridgeville, Delaware. Please call 302-299-8066 to attend. This event is presented by Friends of Christine O’Donnell ‘08. (There will also be a similar event at 6:00pm at the Ed Oliver Golf Club, 800 N. DuPont Road (Rt. 100), Wilmington, DE.)