Good afternoon,
The term “stay in your lane” is in danger of becoming a cliché.
But it was the question I asked myself last week when the story surfaced on social media remarks from Sussex and New Castle County Republican officials that used gay and anti-Semitic slurs.
New Castle County Republican Chair Chris Rowe resigned with Sussex County Vice Chair Nelly Jordan is not commenting on her status.
A frustrated Rowe, a gun rights advocate, used a homophobic slur to YouTube in his unsuccessful effort to post a video of a shooting at a Texas Church. He wanted to honor the church member who took down the assailant with his gun. YouTube has a ban on such videos.
Separately Jordan fretted over the Trump impeachment and Democrats who are Jewish.
She used code words and ancient claims of disloyalty to the homeland that form the bedrock philosophy of anti-Semites.
I wasn’t sure whether this stuff amounted to wandering outside “the lane” of a business newsletter.
In the end, it is clear that politics and business in Delaware are intertwined and the internal woes of the Delaware GOP are bad news for the business community.
There was a time when Delaware had moderate Republicans in the mold of the late U.S. Sen. William Roth and former Congressman and Governor Mike Castle. The more diverse party even had labor union representation.
Then came Castle’s primary defeat at the hands of Christine O’Donnell in the race or a Senate seat. Democrat Chris Coons waltzed to victory.
The influence of moderate Republicans waned and after a modest surge in 2016, hopes for a Senate Republican majority faded in 2018. Democrats picked up seats north of the C&D Canal and the GOP grew its base south of the canal as conservative Democrats faded away.
The GOP’s rising star, State Treasurer Ken Simpler was defeated by Colleen Davis, a candidate known for difficulties with traffic tickets.
The Democratic Party moved to the left, with an emphasis on social justice legislation, with less attention paid to fiscal responsibility and enhancing the state’s business environment. A couple of Republicans wandered further “outside their lane” and on a couple of occasions flirted with fringe obsessions with guns and Islamophobia.
Democratic Gov. John Carney now deals with legislators on the left who have no interest in his plan for “budget smoothing” – setting aside some revenues during good times as a way to avoid tax hikes during economic downturns. Some money has been set aside but not enough.
Instead, bills calling for additional income tax brackets for the wealthy and a $15 minimum wage were promoted. A moderate streak that is still alive in Democratic leadership meant the bills went nowhere.
The lack of action on the minimum wage last year led to an Email tirade from State Rep. John Kowalko, D_Newark. Kowalko attacked legislators from both parties for not passing minimum wage bills. He later apologized for the choice of words.
Republicans should be entering 2020 with a ray of hope. Forty years of Democratic control of much of state government have left many uneasy. Democrats are not squeaky clean on the scandal front and Delaware still ranks high on the government corruption scale.
But this most recent controversy shows that some in the GOP have strayed from a small government, pro-business message into the frightening obsessions of the political fringe.
Republican legislators were correct in demanding the resignations of both Rowe and Jordan. It is time to move on and leave this ugliness behind. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer.