Merit-bound Alley

The Republican Senate Caucus recently blew the doors off of the Delaware politics doors recently with the announcement of a five-point plan to open up the government. This move, 10 days before the midterm elections, is forcing the Dems to to stand and support their bold move or be forever lambasted as Haters of Democracy.

Folks like Karen E. Peterson have been fighting for this for years, with little to no support from some of the Republican Senators supporting this new plan. So, what caused this 180-degree turn? Were the Rs visited the night before by the Ghosts of Democracy Past, and woke with love in their hearts, finally buying us Cratchits our Freedom Turkey? Wow, that was a tortured metaphor. Someone call Gitmo.

Does it even matter what caused this? I see a huge benefit to the people of Delaware in this move. People like Tyler Patrick Nixon and Jason over at Delaware Liberal have been fairly vocal that their parties need some fixing. Will this be the catalyst for that? The Republicans move seems to be the crowbar in the door to give these worthy folks who are not blinded by party loyalty the foot in to start to hold the hands of the parties and help them take those tentative first steps back to their former glory, where they did work for the people, and not self-glorification.

I am an idealist at heart, and I see nothing but good coming out of this as it will begin to put more power in the hands of the people to enact even more change.

We have no no good candidate running for State Senator. That’s a fact. Carper voted to let the President kidnap and torture his way to security, and Jan Ting wants to wall us in. Jan also wants to… hmmm… well, I’m sure there’s something, but we haven’t heard it yet. I don’t think it’s even worth mentioning Christine O’Donnell except to say that, if she took her candidacy seriously, she wouldn’t have waited until the last minute to run in the primaries, and again as a write-in after having given up the ghost.

With our sorrowful lack of trustworthy and capable candidates for the Senate race, I’m joining in with Dana Garrett, Nancy Willing, Jason, and others to write in Karen E. Peterson for Senate. Senator Peterson represents my district, the 9th, with a strct focus on what her constituents want in their government. Open government, re-regulation, rights for prisoners to be healthy, equal rights for the GLBT community, cleaning up the environment; the list just goes on and on. Senator Peterson is also not afraid to use strong words in making her points; she calls the Legislatures performance in deregulating the power company “pathetic”, and the Legislature exempting itself fro the Freedom of Information Act “hypocritical.” (link)

I’m fairly certain that we won’t be able to get Senator Peterson into the US Senate with a write-in. However, we can send her the message that we Delewareans want her to represent us on a national basis. What better way to do that than to tell her she already has our votes?

One more point to make. Although I want Senator Peterson to go into the US Senate, it will suck to lose her from the local Legislature. So, here’s a deal, 1st Senate District; elect Tyler Patrick Nixon, so Karen has the most worthy replacement in our State Senate. That way, we lose nothing and Delaware gains one more courageous and dedicated Civil Servant.