The Delaware Primary election is one month away! And there are plenty of statewide and district races for Delaware citizens to vote on. I would go so far as to say the Primary is just as important as the General Election this year. The heat is on!
Deadlines
Christina Board Tables MOU Between District & Governor Carney With 5-2 Vote
Christina/Carney MOUThe Christina School District Board of Education voted 5-2 to table the Memorandum of Understanding between the Christina School District and Delaware Governor John Carney’s office. In a nutshell, this means it isn’t dead but will most likely come up at a future board meeting. Carney’s office gave Christina a deadline of February 28th to approve the whole thing, even the portion which would consolidate five schools into two. The two no votes belonged to board members John Young and Elizabeth Paige.
Carney is going to be one pissed off Governor tonight! In my opinion, this MOU was a bait and switch to begin with. Now that the Christina Board has essentially said “screw you and your MOU”, he can REALLY go after the district. Which means he will bring out the big guns and threats of charter conversion. These are predictions on my end with nothing to base them on. Nothing but history. To see the latest draft, please see below:
Final Delaware Candidate List For Statewide Offices, State Reps, & State Senate
Delaware Election 2016Today was the filing deadline for Delaware elections. These are all the filed candidates for statewide office, State Senator, or State Representative. Some candidates who were not facing contestants for the General Election will now have opponents. As of this time, candidates running unopposed are 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans in the Delaware Senate, and 16 Democrats and 6 Republicans in the Delaware House of Representatives. That means we will have 14 of the same Delaware Senators and 22 of the same Delaware State Representatives in January of 2017, well over half the seats in each. For a state that wants change so much, we sure have a funny way of making sure the same people stay in power!
Delaware Election 2016: November 8th
Delaware Primary: September 13th (7am-8pn)
Deadline to Withdraw from Election and get filing fees back: July 15th
Deadline to Register to Vote for Primary Election: August 20th
Deadline to Register to Vote for General Election: October 15th
What’s At Stake:
President: The future of the country.
Delaware Senate: 11 out of 21 seats, Currently 12 Democrats, 9 Republicans. With no one running against some candidates, 8 Democrats and 7 Republicans will retain seats if the opposing party doesn’t select someone to run. Magic number for Democrats: 4, for Republicans: 5
Delaware House: All 41 Seats, Currently 26 Democrats, 15 Republicans. With no one running against some candidates, 16 Democrats and 7 Republicans will retain seats if the opposing party doesn’t select someone to run. Magic number for Democrats: 5, for Republicans: 14. These numbers don’t assume certain parties will win if a candidate is running against one of the Libertarians. Assuming the incumbents win in those elections, that would change the magic numbers for Democrats to 4 and the Republicans to 13.
President:
Hillary Clinton (D)
Donald Trump (R)
Governor:
John Carney (D)
Sean Goward (L)
Colin Bonini (R)
Lacey Lafferty (R)
Congress: US Representative
Sean Barney (D)
Lisa Blunt Rochester (D)
Michael Miller (D)
Bryan Townsend (D)
R.E. Walker (D)
Elias Weir (D)
Scott Gesty (L)
Hans Reigle (R)
Lieutenant Governor:
Sherry Dorsey-Walker (D)
Brad Eaby (D)
Greg Fuller (D)
Bethany Hall-Long (D)
Kathleen McGuiness (D)
Ciro Poppiti III (D)
La Mar Gunn (R)
Insurance Commissioner:
Paul Gallagher (D)
Trinidad Navarro (D)
Karen Weldin Stewart (D) (Incumbent)
Jeffrey Cragg (R)
George Parrish (R)
State Senate:
District 1:
Joseph McCole (D)
Harris McDowell III (D) (Incumbent)
James Spadola (R)
District 5:
Denise Bowers (D)
Catherine Cloutier (R) (Incumbent)
District 7:
Patricia Blevins (D) (Incumbent)
Anthony Delcollo (R)
District 8:
David Sokola (D) (Incumbent)
Meredith Chapman (R)
District 9:
Caitlin Olsen (D)
John Walsh (D)
District 12: Winner
Nicole Poore (D) (Incumbent)
District 13: Winner
David McBride (D) (Incumbent)
District 14:
Bruce Ennis (D) (Incumbent)
Carl Pace (R)
District 15: Winner
Dave Lawson (R) (Incumbent)
District 19: Winner
Brian Pettyjohn (R) (Incumbent)
District 20:
Perry Mitchell (D)
Gerald Hocker (R) (Incumbent)
State Representative:
District 1: Winner
Charles Potter (D) (Incumbent)
District 2: Winner
Stephanie Boulden (D) (Incumbent)
District 3: Winner
Helene Keeley (D) (Incumbent)
District 4: Winner
Gerald Brady (D) (Incumbent)
District 5: Winner
Melanie George Smith (D) (Incumbent)
District 6:
Deb Heffernan (D) (Incumbent)
Lee Murphy (R)
District 7:
David Brady (D)
Bryon Short (D) (Incumbent)
Robert Wilson (L)
District 8: Winner
Quinton Johnson (D) (Incumbent)
District 9:
Richard Griffiths (D)
Monique Johns (D)
Kevin Hensley (R) (Incumbent)
District 10:
Sean Matthews (D) (Incumbent)
Dennis Williams (D)
Judith Travis (R)
District 11:
David Neilson (D)
Jeffrey Spiegelman (R) (Incumbent)
District 12: Winner
Deb Hudson (R) (Incumbent)
District 13: Winner
John Mitchell (D) (Incumbent)
District 14:
Don Peterson (D)
Peter Schwartzkopf (D) (Incumbent)
James DeMartino (R)
District 15:
James Burton (D)
Valerie Longhurst (D) (Incumbent)
District 16: Winner
James Johnson (D) (Incumbent)
District 17: Winner
Michael Mulrooney (D) (Incumbent)
District 18: Winner
David Bentz (D) (Incumbent)
District 19:
Kim Williams (D) (Incumbent)
James Startzman (R)
District 20:
Barbara Vaughn (D)
Stephen Smyk (R) Incumbent
District 21: Winner
Mike Ramone (R) (Incumbent)
District 22:
Lanette Edwards (D)
Joseph Miro (R) (Incumbent)
District 23: Winner
Paul Baumbach (D) (Incumbent)
District 24:
Edward Osienski (D) (Incumbent)
Timothy Conrad (R)
District 25: Winner
John Kowalko (D) (Incumbent)
District 26: Winner
John Viola (D) (Incumbent)
District 27: Winner
Earl Jaques (D) (Incumbent)
District 28: Winner
William Carson (D) (Incumbent)
District 29:
Trey Paradee (D) (Incumbent)
Janice Gallagher (R)
District 30: Winner
William Outten (R) (Incumbent)
District 31:
Sean Lynn (D) (Incumbent)
Jean Dowding (R)
District 32:
Andria Bennett (D) (Incumbent)
Patricia Foltz (R)
District 33:
Karen Williams (D)
Morgan Hudson (R)
Charles Postles (R)
Robert James Scott (R)
District 34:
David Henderson (D)
Lyndon Yearick (R) (Incumbent)
District 35:
Robert Mitchell (R)
David Wilson (R) (Incumbent)
District 36: Winner
Harvey Kenton (R) (Incumbent)
District 37:
Paulette Rappa (D)
Ruth Briggs-King (R) (Incumbent)
District 38: Winner
Ronald Gray (R) (Incumbent)
District 39:
James Brittingham (L)
Daniel Short (R) (Incumbent)
District 40: Winner
Timothy Dukes (R) (Incumbent)
District 41:
Bradley Connor (D)
Richard Collins (R) (Incumbent)
The current Senate seats NOT running for re-election are as follows:
District 2: Margaret-Rose Henry (D)
District 3: Robert Marshall (D)
District 4: Greg Lavelle (R)
District 6: Ernie Lopez (R)
District 10: Bethany Hall-Long (D)
District 11: Bryan Townsend (D)
District 16: Colin Bonini (R)
District 17: Brian Bushweller (D)
District 18: Gary Simpson (R)
District 21: Bryant Richardson (R)
Delaware House of Representatives Leadership Has Very Strong Reaction on DOE Letter to Christina about Priority Schools
Delaware Priority Schools TakeoverThe Delaware General Assembly House of Representatives leadership has issued a statement to all members of the House concerning the Delaware Department of Education letter to the Christina School District about their priority schools.
From: Finnigan, Sean (LegHall)
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 4:48 PM
To: Finnigan, Sean (LegHall)
Subject: Memo on Behalf of House Leadership regarding Christina School District
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 4:48 PM
To: Finnigan, Sean (LegHall)
Subject: Memo on Behalf of House Leadership regarding Christina School District
To: House Democratic Caucus Members
From: Representative Pete Schwartzkopf
Representative Valerie Longhurst
Representative John Viola
Date: 2/12/2015
Re: Christina School District Priority Schools
During the past two days, several caucus members have contacted leadership expressing concerns about the Department of Education’s letter to the Christina School District (which is attached). Thank you for contacting us. We wanted to update you on what actions we took and where the situation currently is.
On Tuesday, Secretary of Education Mark Murphy sent a letter to Christina School District saying that the district’s Board of Education is not in compliance with the Priority School program. As a result, Secretary Murphy gave district leaders until February 27 to decide on one of following options for its three priority schools: closure or restructuring, either as a charter school or under an education management organization. The letter also detailed the Wilmington Education Advisory Group’s recommendation to redraw Christina’s school district lines and close the noncontiguous Wilmington portion of Christina’s district in the city. The suggestion was that doing so could have an effect on “the planning process for Christina’s Priority Schools moving forward.”
Caucus leadership held a conference call with staff to discuss this issue and the concerns that several of you raised about this letter. We had multiple conversations with the governor’s office about the issue and had decided to send a letter to the governor asking that the Department of Education to extend the fast-approaching February 27 deadline. In part, the letter would have noted that forcing a short turnaround for Christina to make a decision would not result in a productive outcome, and it could have a negative impact on school referendums that are taking place. We also planned to ask the governor to convene a group of district, DOE stakeholders to reach a decision on this issue. The letter would have requested that the Chairs of the House and Senate Education committees be included in the negotiations to help facilitate the discussion, and to ensure that each caucus received accurate accounts of the progress of the negotiations.
Late Wednesday evening, we learned that the Christina School Board voted at its Tuesday meeting to support the Wilmington Education Advisory Group’s recommendation to close the Wilmington portion Christina’s district (a copy of that resolution is also attached). When they learned of this, the governor’s office told us that the February 27 deadline no longer applied because Christina had pledged to work with the state to implement the WEAC redistricting recommendation.
Currently, we are communicating with the governor’s office about what they foresee as the next steps. Here’s what we do know:
· Any redistricting process will require action by the General Assembly.
· Any redistricting process will take multiple years to implement.
· Any redistricting process is a complicated process that will involve a lot of discussions about finances and revenue, and it may require a significant amount of state money to implement.
Most importantly, we need to recognize and remember that when we talk about redistricting these Christina School District schools, we are talking about not just the physical schools, but hundreds of teachers who will be unsure of their future, and thousands of students whose educational future is at stake. Whatever we do in the coming weeks and months, our focus must be on what’s best for all of them, as well as the state of Delaware.
Please do not hesitate to contact any of us in leadership if you have questions, concerns or suggestions.
The Season Of Myths 