The Origins of Non-Partisan Delaware
Nine very different citizen candidates will be on the ballot this
November.
Everyone will be able to vote for at least two, some will see
three of their names in the voting booth on November 8th, and about 1,200
Delawareans in one overlapping Election District of Representative District 41
will have the opportunity to pull the lever for four of them.
They are the first wave of Non-Partisan Delaware.
This June, in a small Dover backyard, eating hot dogs while young
children played and my Vizsla scavenged for what fell on the ground, a group of
politically homeless centrists organized Non-Partisan Delaware as our State’s newest
ballot-qualified political organization.
These former Libertarians, Democrats, and Republicans held
different views on specific issues, but all fell into that fuzzy “Middle” or “Moderate” realm, drawn together by the bitter taste of partisanship.
Is there really still a “Middle” in American politics?
Professional politicians, the pundits, and your opinionated Uncle
online don’t
think so.
They’re
wrong. On a wide array of issues, a majority of voters support common-sense
policy positions that cross all party boundaries.
Abortion: 61% of Americans say that abortion should
be legal in most or all cases.
Climate Change: 63% of Americans believe climate change
is both real and a significant challenge to our world and nation; 65% believe the government is doing too little to combat it;
larger majorities want carbon footprints reduced and increased automobile fuel
efficiency.
Guns: 40% of American households contain
firearms, but 44-52% think gun laws should be
somewhat stricter. There remain significant disagreements over balancing the rights
of responsible gun owners against the threat of terrorists and criminals.
LGBTQIA+: Acceptance of LGBTQIA+ and marriage
equality stands at an all-time high of 62%, and while views on transgendered individuals are more complex, a
majority also believes that gender identity issues should be taught in our
public schools.
Police
Reform: 89% of Americans favor police reform in
the wake of shootings of Black Americans, though that breakdown is complex, with reform favored by 72% among
blacks, 54% among Hispanics, and only 44% among whites.
Public Education: 63% of Americans believe that public
education is critical to making our nation, their communities, and the economy
stronger, and 53% are ready to
invest in fixing our schools; younger voters favor both school choice
and teachers’ unions.
Taxation: 63% of Americans think billionaires
should be paying more taxes. 55% of Americans, however, don’t trust the Government to spend tax
revenues efficiently, and 53% say that Government should prioritize spending on
Social Security and health care.
There’s a consistent, if floating moderate consensus for
reasonable changes and sound public policy management … if it can be expressed
politically.
The problem -- both across America and in
Delaware -- is that the opposing parties are often so busy being opposing
parties that they’ve forgotten that we want them to be Non-Partisan
more than bipartisan.
Too often “The
Delaware Way” acts in the parties’ interests and not the public interest.
Example: Delaware has among the worst campaign
finance laws in the nation,
because -- when it comes to closed doors and smoke-filled rooms -- neither Ds
nor Rs want the system made more transparent nor violators held accountable. They are particularly insistent that no
third party should ever be granted the opportunity to break into their
stranglehold on ballot access
or funding.
Example: Delaware eviction rates are
among the highest in the nation, and 20% of Delaware’s homeless have been evicted. Landlords or creditors bring attorneys to
86% of those court cases, but only 2% of the people facing eviction are
represented. Once again, in
2022, the General Assembly failed to remedy this.
Example: Law enforcement reform, civilian
police oversight, and qualified immunity reform, have all been stymied for
years (in the state with the most extensive set
of police protections from accountability in the nation) by the General Assembly’s informal, bipartisan “law
enforcement caucus.”
Example: In Delaware we elect -- not
appoint based on merit or experience -- Insurance Commissioners, Sheriffs,
Registers of Wills, and Recorders of Deeds in partisan elections. A more
sensible approach would be hiring highly qualified candidates rather than
aspiring politicians who sometimes campaign on having no experience for the job.
Example: Nobody in the General Assembly
will touch health insurance reform, even though what they’ve
done since 2014 is turn over total control of the private health insurance
market and much of Medicaid to one of the nation’s
most predatory, unethical insurance companies. Why? Let’s just say you could follow the money.
Example; The same process applies to the slow destruction of Coastal Zone
protections, the 97% of our rivers and streams that are heavily polluted, and encroachments by developers on the
Nanticoke River.
“The Delaware Way” too often doesn’t produce the outcomes
favorable for average residents, and is literally ignoring the needs of our
most vulnerable on so many levels, while failing miserably at representing “The Middle.”
Final, HUGE Example: In 21 State Senate
races, 12 incumbents of a major party are
running unopposed by any candidate from their opposition. The same is true of the House of Representatives, where 22 of 41 incumbents are running
unopposed by a candidate from the other major party. In other words, in a majority of Delaware’s legislative
districts there is not even a functional two-party system anymore.
There are people willing to run, but the two
parties have created a system of filing fees and fundraising requirements that
are insurmountable barriers for most candidates who are not devoted party
loyalists or financed by powerful special interests.
Non-Partisan Delaware believes the purpose of
political parties is to OPEN access to motivated candidates, not restrict it.
We’re
being transparent about our process and flexible in defining “moderate” or “middle” because we think the value
of contested elections outweighs party-imposed political correctness.
It’s been less than three months since that backyard
kick-off party in Dover, and those nine candidates are challenging not just
their opponents, but the status quo dictating what can and can’t
be talked about, who can and cannot run …
They won’t all agree with each
other on everything, but on the issues, they will speak their minds -- not
lapse into political doublespeak.
There’s a complete list of our candidates here -- and during August we will be posting links to their campaign
pages. But here are some highlights --
● In three Representative Districts (5, 34, and 41) and one Senate
District (21) our Non-Partisan candidates are the only real opposition to
entrenched incumbents out of step with the majority positions outlined above …
● In all three counties, Non-Partisan Delaware is running individuals
for Sheriff effectively as protest candidates to point out that the position itself needs to be abolished
as a partisan, elected office.
Instead of funding themselves via the profits of evictions, our counties should
be figuring out ways to help tenants stay in their homes.
Others in the past have tried and failed to
recover the American mainstream, because if there’s one thing that
unites Democrats and Republicans, it’s their opposition to a multi-party political ecosystem
that can fairly represent everyone. This is true even in a state where registered voters NOT affiliated with the Democratic or
Republican parties comprise nearly a quarter of the electorate.
Still, somebody’s gotta step up, and
we need YOUR participation. Follow us on Facebook and visit our Non-Partisan
Delaware website often (be
kind -- we are bootstrapping that at the same time we’re using every slim
resource available to support our candidates). When you see posts, news, and interviews about our candidates, SHARE them far and wide.
This is our premiere year, and no matter the
results, we will be back in 2023, fighting for the issues that matter and
preparing to field twice as many candidates in 2024.
Elected, our senators and representatives will
go to Dover to start the conversations nobody else seems interested in having,
and to be a voting block for public policies that make sense.
We can do this -- TOGETHER.
