The New Castle County GOP united today and supported a good man and a good candidate for the New Castle County Council President race. Republican Tom Kovach defeated former AFL-CIO VP Tim Sheldon in a blowout 57%-41%. All corners of the GOP came together behind Mr. Kovach. In stark contrast to the divided November elections when the TEA Party element was at odds with the establishment, Kovach enjoyed broad support from both conservatives and moderates in the New Castle County GOP. The advocacy group Common Sense Communities Society even endorsed Kovach and turned out their voters to ensure his victory tonight. Even Christine O'Donnell, who was the subject of moderate Republican ire in November and who lost largely due to that ire, chipped in the maximum amount allowed to Mr. Kovach. This was truly a united effort and let me say that I am proud of Mr. Kovach and look forward to holding him accountable in County Council. Afterall, Tom is a TEA Partier:
Showing posts with label Tim Sheldon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Sheldon. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
A case for Tom Kovach
Regular readers of this blog will recall that I laid out a compelling case for why I think Tom Kovach deserves a look when we go to the polls on Jan 13th to vote for a new New Castle County President. Most importantly, Tom's opponent, Tim Sheldon, is a former VP of the AFL-CIO (I mean, can you GET anymore Progressive than that?). Some folks have gotten hung up on the fact that Kovach has been labeled as the "hand picked candidate" of former Congressman Mike Castle. C'est la vie folks and we have to deal with it. We could stay home, protest our vote and say we won't vote for Castle's guy. We could vote for the Libertarian candidate James Christina and he might get just under 10% of the vote. In the end that does one thing, it ensures that Tim Sheldon, former VP of the AFL/CIO has a smooth road to NCC President.
Sure, Kovach went on with Glen Urquhart on WILM today and espoused the wonders of the RGGI that has continuously depressed jobs, shrunk the economy and driven up the price of energy but he didn't sound real confident in those statements so I think we can still talk him down from the regional cap and trade ledge. Look, the fact is that we tried the whole "elect the radicals to prove a point" thing in 2008 and we got Universal Healthcare....you put Tim Sheldon in the Presidents seat and you might as well call us the New Castle Socialist County. Besides, if Tim Sheldon were to beat Mike Castle's hand picked candidate for Council President, that would leave the DE GOP leadership looking...well worse than it already does and we can't have that now can we? C.R. also has a pretty compelling reason why Kovach is the choice over at Resolute Determination.
Sure, Kovach went on with Glen Urquhart on WILM today and espoused the wonders of the RGGI that has continuously depressed jobs, shrunk the economy and driven up the price of energy but he didn't sound real confident in those statements so I think we can still talk him down from the regional cap and trade ledge. Look, the fact is that we tried the whole "elect the radicals to prove a point" thing in 2008 and we got Universal Healthcare....you put Tim Sheldon in the Presidents seat and you might as well call us the New Castle Socialist County. Besides, if Tim Sheldon were to beat Mike Castle's hand picked candidate for Council President, that would leave the DE GOP leadership looking...well worse than it already does and we can't have that now can we? C.R. also has a pretty compelling reason why Kovach is the choice over at Resolute Determination.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Why Tom...Why Now...Why Not
As a T.E.A. Party leader and Republican I am uniquely positioned to understand the concerns of both sides as they struggle to achieve a balance in a new political climate. The establishment has been running things for a very long time and now some new upstarts are threatening to cut in on their action. The "upstarts" happen to be the electorate as a whole which is actually the way our government was designed. The problem is that it hasn't been run that way in more than 100 years so the establishment has become complacent in their dominance.
Delaware, like New York, Chicago and most other small geographical locations has been controlled by a powerful few for many years. These powerful few come from all political affiliations and they control the most important decisions in the state. While the people retain the power to vote of course and appear to be in control of the process, it is the elite few that control who runs, how they are covered in the media and what support they get from the political parties. It's been said that the only place that plays Chicago politics as good as Chicago, is Delaware.
So it's not surprising that after a divisive Primary election where establishment favorite Mike Castle was beaten by TEA Party favorite Christine O'Donnell, that the two factions would be suspicious of one another. The Democrats are riding a high after their General election victories and they are feeling confident about the Special Election for New Castle County President. They've nominated Tim Sheldon, the current 9th District County Council Representative and former Vice President of Delaware's AFL-CIO. He's still employed by the unions, now serving as the Chief Administrative Officer of the regional bricklayers union and like fellow Democrat Velda Jones-Potter, he's dipping into government resources through another level as well. While not a paid position, Sheldon serves on the board of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority. DSWA is a public/private partnership whose board is appointed by the Governor (and confirmed by the State Senate) and who controls landfill and trash removal in the state.
Councilman Sheldon is paid $27,500 per year by the New Castle County taxpayers part time to serve on County Council and also likely pulls down 6 figures from his full time union job (Not to mention the benefits!). He doesn't really need the money so it's OK that the DSWA appointment comes without pay, what it gives him is an inside track to ensure that his union gets in on the government contract action. It may not be illegal but morally, we have to wonder, is it right?
On the other hand, the Republicans have nominated former State Representative Tom Kovach who was caught on the wrong side of the wave election this year. Kovach is the hand picked candidate of Mike Castle which likely harmed him among conservative voters in his district and may have cost him the election there. This past election was unfortunate as good Republicans lost in places they never should have for various reasons. Some lost because people didn't like O'Donnell and others because of their allegiance to Castle. Whatever the case, unfortunately the good was taken out with the bad. Tom Kovach, for all his bedfellows, is one of the good ones. As a State Representative he served ably in Dover and he stood up for conservative fiscal values. He's a lawyer who specializes in corporate environmental law and intellectual property. He has experience with the land use issues that County Council will be working on and he understands the importance of fiscal responsibility at all levels of government. Tom is perceived as a moderate, "Mike Castle Republican" because he has not been overt about his views on social issues. What we do know about Tom is that he understands that we need cut spending, decrease the tax burden and get government out of the way of the free market to create jobs. These are the things that matter and these are the things that Tom will work to fix in County Council. So what if Mike Castle endorsed Tom Kovach? There has been a lot of talk about working together and uniting to ensure that our economy improves and I believe that Tom Kovach is a candidate that we can all agree will fight to make that happen. With that in mind, consider this my official endorsement of Tom Kovach for New Castle County President. I hope that the members of the Patriot Movement will join me in supporting Tom and standing up against the harmful policies of Paul Clark and Tim Sheldon. Please consider voting for Tom Kovach on Jan. 13th, 2011 in the Special Election for New Castle County Council President.
Delaware, like New York, Chicago and most other small geographical locations has been controlled by a powerful few for many years. These powerful few come from all political affiliations and they control the most important decisions in the state. While the people retain the power to vote of course and appear to be in control of the process, it is the elite few that control who runs, how they are covered in the media and what support they get from the political parties. It's been said that the only place that plays Chicago politics as good as Chicago, is Delaware.
So it's not surprising that after a divisive Primary election where establishment favorite Mike Castle was beaten by TEA Party favorite Christine O'Donnell, that the two factions would be suspicious of one another. The Democrats are riding a high after their General election victories and they are feeling confident about the Special Election for New Castle County President. They've nominated Tim Sheldon, the current 9th District County Council Representative and former Vice President of Delaware's AFL-CIO. He's still employed by the unions, now serving as the Chief Administrative Officer of the regional bricklayers union and like fellow Democrat Velda Jones-Potter, he's dipping into government resources through another level as well. While not a paid position, Sheldon serves on the board of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority. DSWA is a public/private partnership whose board is appointed by the Governor (and confirmed by the State Senate) and who controls landfill and trash removal in the state.
Councilman Sheldon is paid $27,500 per year by the New Castle County taxpayers part time to serve on County Council and also likely pulls down 6 figures from his full time union job (Not to mention the benefits!). He doesn't really need the money so it's OK that the DSWA appointment comes without pay, what it gives him is an inside track to ensure that his union gets in on the government contract action. It may not be illegal but morally, we have to wonder, is it right?
On the other hand, the Republicans have nominated former State Representative Tom Kovach who was caught on the wrong side of the wave election this year. Kovach is the hand picked candidate of Mike Castle which likely harmed him among conservative voters in his district and may have cost him the election there. This past election was unfortunate as good Republicans lost in places they never should have for various reasons. Some lost because people didn't like O'Donnell and others because of their allegiance to Castle. Whatever the case, unfortunately the good was taken out with the bad. Tom Kovach, for all his bedfellows, is one of the good ones. As a State Representative he served ably in Dover and he stood up for conservative fiscal values. He's a lawyer who specializes in corporate environmental law and intellectual property. He has experience with the land use issues that County Council will be working on and he understands the importance of fiscal responsibility at all levels of government. Tom is perceived as a moderate, "Mike Castle Republican" because he has not been overt about his views on social issues. What we do know about Tom is that he understands that we need cut spending, decrease the tax burden and get government out of the way of the free market to create jobs. These are the things that matter and these are the things that Tom will work to fix in County Council. So what if Mike Castle endorsed Tom Kovach? There has been a lot of talk about working together and uniting to ensure that our economy improves and I believe that Tom Kovach is a candidate that we can all agree will fight to make that happen. With that in mind, consider this my official endorsement of Tom Kovach for New Castle County President. I hope that the members of the Patriot Movement will join me in supporting Tom and standing up against the harmful policies of Paul Clark and Tim Sheldon. Please consider voting for Tom Kovach on Jan. 13th, 2011 in the Special Election for New Castle County Council President.
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