The unofficial results are in and the anti-incumbent mood that prevailed on Maryland’s Eastern Shore spread across the line to Delaware voters, at least for the Governor’s race. Jack Markell won over John Carney by 2.4% and moves on to face Bill Lee, who swamped opponent Mike Protack on the GOP side.
I call it an anti-incumbent mood because Carney was endorsed by the state Democratic Party, but failed to capitalize on the endorsement enough to carry the day. It appears Carney was strongest in traditional highly Democrat strongholds, but he also did well in rural Sussex County too – all four districts which border Maryland on their south went for John Carney (Districts 38 through 41). But Markell was too strong in the center of the state and managed to squeak out the win.
While it’s not an Obama-Clinton type of battle where most on each side are partisan enough to hold a grudge, I think this shows why it shouldn’t be up to the party to endorse a candidate before the primary. Obviously the high-ranking Democrats in Delaware who run the party apparatus are going to have some egg on their face because they backed the loser as determined by the rank-and-file who actually cast the votes. Certainly they’ll mend fences enough to get behind Markell but what the Delaware Democrat machine now has to figure out is why their favored candidate lost with the full force and weight of their camp behind him – unless, of course, they only put in a half-hearted effort.
Because Markell has had the more difficult primary, he now has the advantage as far as name recognition and staking out positions on the issues. As I noted in my look at the First State governor’s contest, Bill Lee needs to flesh out his ideas in a much more comprehensive fashion if he’s going to have a chance to convince voters that Markell’s fairly far-left agenda, cloaked in the business experience and time as state Treasurer he continually touts, will take Delaware farther in the wrong direction and that Lee’s more moderate to conservative way is better. There’s just eight weeks to overcome Markell’s advantages, so Bill Lee better get to work early tomorrow.
