Back to normalcy

First this and first that ain’t working for Delaware - or the rest of America.

When Senator Tom Carper announced earlier this spring that he was retiring, it confirmed perhaps the worst-kept political secret in Delaware. A few days later, we learned about the second-worst: that Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (known on my sites as just LBR) would run to replace him. That more or less signaled to Delaware Democrats that she was clearing the Senate field, so that race became off limits to the party faithful who were expected to follow her “first black (and first) woman to represent the First State” schtick to the Senate, where LBR wouldn’t be the first black woman there - the scandal-ridden Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois beat her by about 30 years. (The second was Kamala Harris, so let’s just say - to borrow an analogy from my other baseball-focused Substack, The Knothole - we ain’t exactly had a Jackie Robinson there. And LBR wouldn’t be either. Now if Virginia’s LG Winsome Sears could be convinced to run for Senate, on the other hand…)

Of course, that made for a second open seat for Delaware Democrats to salivate over, since “the Delaware Way” now seems to involve ambitious members of that party waiting until one of the major statewide offices to open up to move up the chain. Certainly the Governor’s race is attracting interest from certain sectors of the party, but that’s almost become a detour away from where the real money and power lies for leftists: Washington, D.C.

Perhaps at some point as the race becomes clearer I’ll handicap the full field, but this piece was inspired by an announcement that State Senator “Sarah” McBride had raised nearly a half-million dollars for her nascent Congressional bid. The “Sarah” is in quotes because the campaign is all about electing the first transgender person (born male and named Tim, later changed his name in college and identifies as a woman) to Congress - otherwise, there’s not much more of a claim to fame McBride has than any other legislative member with just four years’ experience.