Parker Versus Booth for 19th Senatorial District
Jul 1st, 2009 by Timothy Pancoast
So the candidates have been chosen now for the special election in the 19th district. It will be Rep. Joe Booth from the Republican Party and Eddy Parker from the Democrat Party.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090701/NEWS/90701072/-1/RSS08
I saw Rep. Booth in action for the first time last night and he left a reasonably good impression on me. Other than this article I have never heard of Eddy Parker and that may be true for several of the people in the 19th district as well. It seems like both men have been an asset to their community so I look forward to seeing how this race goes.
Jud had an interesting account in his e-news letter.
Eddy Parker, current Director of Sussex County’s Assessment Division will be the Democrat candidate in the upcoming special election for the 19th Senate seat (formily held by Thurman Adams who recently passed away). In the now apparent official meeting last night in Bridgeville, a motion was made from the floor to go to caucus immediately after the five minute speeches and the hour long Question and Answer session were finally concluded.
The Process was much different then how the Republicans did it and was as follows: The participants passed a motion to caucus and decided not to have the official meeting scheduled for next week. All 27 attending committee people caucused and each voted for their favorite candidate. Then the nominee with the least amount of votes was dropped and then they voted again. Finally, through a process of elimination, it came down to 14 votes for Eddie Parker and 13 votes for Polly Adams Mervine (Thurman Adam’s daughter).
Lynn Rogers (former Sussex County Councilman) ironicly was only third in the running. The other candidates included Scott Wilkins ( Wilkins Powerwashing Enterprises), Jim Westoff( DelDot engineer and self proclaimed progressive Democrat), and Will Dewey ( an A C Shulte employee and Woodbridge School Board member).
Mr. Parker was a state policeman for 6 years and since then has been an employee of Sussex County, actually working part of the time under former Councilman Lynn Rogers, who he was able to usurp in this process of elimiation. Mr. Parker is the VIce President of the Bridgeville Fire Dept, President of the Woodbridge School District, serves on the Methodist Church Board, and is the President of the Bridgeville Lions Club.
Therefore, the official candidates are now officially– 37th District Representative JOE BOOTH (R) from Georgetown vs Sussex County’s Assessment Director, Eddie Parker(D) from Bridgeville in the Special Election for the 19th Senatorial District recently vacated by Thurman Adams. Let the games begin!
Federal law (the Hatch Act I think…) bans certain government employees from participating inpartisan politics. This often includes those local gov administrators who deal with federal funding.
I think the Dems should quikly check to see that Eddy can run without resigning from his Sussex County Position.
(not that the law matters to Dems)
His or Hers… since Eddie is spelled with an “IE” it could go either way.
His. I wondered that as well when I saw the news article. It is hard to believe that they turned down a former senate aid and daughter of Senator Adams by one vote. They should have done a second meeting. It looked like the narrow majority was afraid of losing its momentum. They may have lost the race right there. The Adams supporters in the community will be miffed and stay home.
The federal government has no enforcement power in this regard. The law was revised anyway, but that attempted application in a purely state matter did not hold up in court which helped fuel a revision. Even if it still existed, the law should not be obeyed when it is illegitimate and undermines lawful authority. We can no longer accept federal intrusion into areas where it is clearly unconstitutional. The states have a lawful duty to reassert themselves. Unfortunately they are fast selling themselves at the first bell. Times are tough and they are bending over backwards to take federal money. I am sick of the lawless dismissal of federalism, but that is a subject for another day.
I encourage all Republican activists in the state to get involved in this race. It is a rare opportunity.
Adams was a fixture and appealed to congenital Democrats. Those with the mindsets of ‘Reagan Democrats’ found him to be their cup of tea. His Democrat replacement would not be the same cup of tea but one victory confers the benefits of incumbency.
Win the Senate seat for Booth and then win the Booth seat back in the lower house.
He all have to get involved with money, time, and shoe leather. Winning this one could send a powerful message.