Kevin Wade Withdraws From Congressional Race
Jun 13th, 2010 by thatsElbert
Kevin Wade withdraws from Congressional race. The official press release is below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Wade Withdraws from Congressional Race
At a Staff Appreciation buffet reception dinner at Old New Castle’s, Arsenal on the Green, Conservative Republican Congressional Candidate, Kevin Wade, from Delaware’s 17th District, officially withdrew from the state’s congressional race, Saturday evening.
“You have to judge a candidacy by its results. We are withdrawing from this race not retreating from our conservative values,” said Wade, addressing a group of friends, volunteers and supporters. Wade asked his supporters to carry on the fight by supporting conservative candidates running for seats in the State Senate and House of Representatives throughout Delaware. Wade praised his volunteers for the hard work and loyalty and vowed that the fight to change the current status quo in Delaware and America had just begun.
Unlike other congressional campaigns, Wade supporters were unpaid professionals, who gave freely of their time and talents because they believe that America is at an important crossroads and everybody should take action according to their talents and abilities. “We will continue fighting for other conservative candidates in the state,” said Jerry Wood, a Wade Supporter and committeeman from Sussex County.
Kate Rokosz, a conservative candidate for Delaware’s 8th Representative District, which takes in Middletown spoke briefly. “I decided to run when my husband got laid off from his job and found we more foreclosures listed in the newspaper than jobs. Something has to change in Delaware,” she said. “That’s why I’m running to represent my district. I felt that I had to take action.”
Dave Lawson, who has entered the race against Democrat Nancy Cook to claim the 15th Senatorial District, spoke briefly about breaking Cook’s longtime family control of this seat and reinstating conservative values in Delaware. Dave is a retired State Trooper and owner of a successful business. He said, “This is a campaign about “We” not “Me”. It is time to take this seat from the hands of the Cook family and return to its rightful owners, the people of the 15th Senatorial District.”
Louis Saindon, a conservative republican candidate for the 8th Senatorial District Seat said, “We need to take back the House of Representatives and add more conservative seats to the Senate.” Saindon thanked Mr. Wade for inspiring him to step forward and challenge the long-term Democrat incumbent.
*yawn*
A smart conservative analytical thinker. Would have been a good candidate.
This is a loss for all of Delaware. I hope that he can take the political capital he has earned and put it to good use.
Probably, the best liked of the Republican Candidates. He was running against millionaires who made money raising an issue. He was a self made man who was doing well but not a multi millionaire. I thought he made the best contrast to John Carney.
He always handled himself with class.
Was that a Presser for someone dropping out or for the other Candidates mentioned running their own races?
What political capital? He went around for months spending other people’s money, and was the very first person eliminated by the very first marginally meaningful vote.
Kevin Wade built up an enormous amount of good will with people all around the state. He raised more money from private sources than any other Republican candidate while he was in the race. Several candidates who are now running for state House or Senate directly credit Kevin with getting them into the race. The state party even came to accept and eventually welcome his classy presence in the race. His withdrawal and the classy way in which he did it elevates his profile further. This gives Kevin and his team the ability to go about the state with great credibility to debate important issues and advance a conservative agenda for our party and put all this hoo-haa about a “center-right” party to bed once and for all. That is what I mean by “political capital.”
Well said Michael. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Some people don’t know quality if it slaps them in the face.
I guess you’re talking about the vast majority of Republican voters then. It is voters who matter in elections, right? Republican voters don’t know quality? I see.
Will you people ever figure out that Delaware leans liberal? Biden, Castle, Carper, Minner, Markell…what hard-core conservative last won a major statewide race?
I’ve always pictured Kevin as standing in the middle of the Constitutional Convention. He is solid in his foundation. All my respect…
Rick: Does Roth count?
Phil…
The “vast majority of Republican voters” did not vote at the convention. There are only 344 delegates. The other 180,706 registered Republicans in our state will not get to choose Kevin on the ballot this year.
you assume the delegates dont represent registered republicans. I guess we’ll see when the primary actually happens.
In theory, they are supposed to. But we won’t find out come September, because Wade won’t be on the ballot.
I am starting to see a picture where many of the delegates, rather than being representative of their party’s general populus, are helping to shape the opinion of the general populus. At a minimum, they have from the Convention in May till the Primary In September to convince the public to vote the same way they did, and there are quite a few of them working hard every day to accomplish that objective.
Tim that’s because the delegates are the people who show up. They stuff the envelopes, go door to door, host meet and greets and fundraisers, they make the phone calls, they work the polls. The delegates are the active people in the party.
I am with Mike Borgia.
I have witnessed at numerous state conventions that the majority of delegates don’t think for themselves and do whatever the party leadership tells them to do.
Delegate count is around 400, and this does not represent the rank-and-file Delaware Republican who works hard to provide for their families.
Can someone please tell me the last time an endorsed GOP candidate won a state-wide race as a challenger?
Jason, can you tell us the last time a non GOP Convention endorsed candidate won in a primary in Delaware?
“I have witnessed at numerous state conventions that the majority of delegates don’t think for themselves and do whatever the party leadership tells them to do.” What exactly did you witness Jason? That’s a pretty outrageous statement and a gross disservice to a lot of hard working people. These are the grass root activists who keep the Party going when everyone else is heading for the lifeboats. When did any of your quixotic candidates win anything? I see that Janet Kilpatrick has filed to run for NCCO County Council, where’s your boy Protack? You’ve been his primary cheerleader and apologist and should have the inside scoop. When does the Party plot against him in the NCCO race get revealed?
Indeed. Jason still hasn’t answered why, when an endorsed Republican candidate gets 35% in the general, it shows leadership is out of touch — but when Christine O’Donnell got that little vs. Biden, his analysis is full of excuses.
It’s not that I believe delegates don’t think for themselves, they do. The problem is that in small states using a convention system, the party tends to be a small, closed group that is very slow to welcome outsiders. Because it is small, it is easy for leaders to control the process of delegate selection. That’s why the tea party was so unsuccessful in influencing Delaware (344 delegates) but was able to run rampant over a large convention like Utah’s (3,500 delegates) where it is nearly impossible for the party leadership to control who gets selected.
“I have witnessed at numerous state conventions that the majority of delegates don’t think for themselves and do whatever the party leadership tells them to do.”
Jason do tell us who these mind numb, blind sheep, delegates are. You have successfully smeared 340 + hard working Republicans. It appears you are either repeating the endless slurs of Svengali master or you are making this up on your own. In short name some names if you are telling the truth. Otherwise you are condemning yourself as a pure smear merchant.
“Jason do tell us who these mind numb, blind sheep, delegates are. You have successfully smeared 340 + hard working Republicans.” – TW
He’s only smeared you if you’re one of the ones that needs to get sheared….if not why do you care?
Bingo Borgia! That’s exactly correct. The GOP leadership brought their delegates out of the closet behind closed doors. Heck in the Newark half the people that showed up to the convention hadn’t been at a Region meeting since the Newark office reopened.
The deck was stacked and they certainly know how to play the game. In fact, had Newark’s delegation not been sandbagged by GOP insiders I think the region would have been a stain upon an otherwise by the book convention. It would have bucked the trend and Urquhart/Wade and O’Donnell would have won.
So, I’m not mad at the Delaware GOP. The leadership has simply tipped its hand and we know how it operates. Bring a few loyal people to a convention (or the polls) and your guy (gal) wins. Now the T.E.A. Party needs to be the flipside. Bring the masses to the polls and make sure the best candidate wins.
My earlier coment was not meant as an indictment of the Republican Party. It is an observation of the way things move within the party. People should have every opportunity possible to be aware of how the process actually works. Also, while I can’t speak to the motivations and the why, or whether specific delegates think or not, I have seen that there is some truth behind Jason’s observation that most delegates vote with the party leadership. However, this could be caused by a variety of reasons.
I like my district. It is open and has a certain honest bluntness to it, but I do not have the same impression of the statewide party.
Tim,
I think in that setting you have a lot of people who are worried about what the person next to them might think of them if they go against the grain. It takes a different person to do things like what the folks who nominated Mr. Wade and Mr. Urquhart did, to go against the grain. It’s human nature in many cases to lay low in public settings and to be cautious so as to avoid confrontation. This is even more prevalent in general, the older we get. It’s not an idictment, as you say, it’s simply fact. We all know that going against the grain and cutting the legs out from under someone like Rollins or Castle generally seals one’s fate in a state like Delaware. The GOP here has been shrunk to a core constituency of just over 300 people who make the decisions for the entire party despite hundreds of thousands of registered voters in the party. Why do you think that is? It’s about control. It’s my understandin that previous conventions barely eclipsed 250 people and sometimes less than that. Apparently the activity of the T.E.A Parties caused the numbers to swell quite a bit. I’m glad more people are getting involved but with that will come push back from those at the top who now are unable to directly control the movement of their pawns in the chess game of politics. It will be interesting to see how things develop over the coming months and how things shake out in September.
“He’s only smeared you if you’re one of the ones that needs to get sheared….if not why do you care?”
Evan, Jason’s comments without any specifics, paint every single delegate in a bad Light. I disagreed with some of my colleagues about their vote, but they made their choices in good conscience. This is not the first time Jason has said this type of thing. If he truly has seen this type of behavior, he should do the right thing and name names. That way those who he has not named are free of the labels that Jason throws around every 2 years without backing it up.
Rick: Does Roth count? Anon A
I don’t know if I’d call Roth a ‘hardcore conservative,’ but yes, he counts- and he’s the last. How long has it been?
Delaware has been trending left, and is now firmly-established ‘liberal.’
If the delegates had voted for their chosen candidates, Evan and Jason would be talking about them like they walked over the water on the Rehoboth Bay to get to the Convention.