The Independent Comical Party of Delaware
It's reasonable to expect that a political party would emulate in its own practices what it promulgates for the operations of government. The Independent Party of Delaware [what I shall refer to from now on as the "Independent Comical Party of Delaware" (ICPOD: pronounced as "Ickpod" as in "icky")] has honorably stood for the following in past party platforms:
- Thorough and real open government
- Referendum and Initiative
- Opening Family Court
- Zero contributions from lobbyists in political campaigns
- Election of the Judiciary
- Term limits
- A government that operates with the highest standards of Public Integrity (link)
What one sees in this platform are the laudable principles of:
- Government must operate in a context of enhanced openness and transparency
- Government must not only act with integrity but work to keep from creating the appearance of impropriety
- Trust in the populace to exercise democratic control over their government
- The leadership of government must maximize the ability of the populace to exercise democratic control over their government
But, lately, in the governance of its internal affairs there is little evidence that ICPOD practices what it preaches:
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mike Protack on Friday was added to the state ballot as the nominee of the Independent Party of Delaware, but some party members -- including the founder of the party -- are crying foul and calling for an appeal of the filing....
The papers filed Friday with the Commissioner of Elections office says Protack was nominated at the party's June 19 convention. But some party members expressed outrage Friday, saying the nomination was made secretly and that no notice of a state convention ever was made to others in the party. They plan to appeal the filing to the Commissioner of Elections.
Glenn Miller, Kent County chairman for the party, said the convention -- a meeting of the party's four trustees -- was held Thursday. Under party rules, only the board of trustees votes on nominations for statewide and federal offices, Miller said. If some are upset about that, it's because they don't understand the party's rules, he said.
"We made the decision about a week ago" to hold the convention, Miller said. "Why? I'm not going to comment on that. We have internal reasons."
They have their "internal reasons?" Is that an example of enhanced openness and transparency? Does a committee of 4 persons in the party's leadership that also serves as a nominating convention, properly or not, maximize the democratic control of its party members over their own party? (In truth this so-called Convention of Four is an oligarchy and not a democracy.)
The answers are obvious and they make the party not only hypocritical but comical as well. IPOD has become the laughingstock ICPOD.
Conspiracy and Revenge
According to party member Liz Allen during a personal conversation, ICOPD had told the membership that the nominating convention would be held in August. She has been blindsided by the Convention of Four:
News of Protack's nomination did not please party member Liz Allen of Millsboro, who called Protack a "spoiler, crank, malcontent" and said she was never notified that the party convention had been scheduled.
"A rogue group of unelected leaders have violated not only the bylaws [of the party], but violated any trust we the members have in the current leadership," she said. "These rogue leaders should not retain any of their positions, as they were not duly voted on in a nominating convention, and are therefore not really elected themselves."
Allen also told me that party founder and member and community activist Floyd McDowell had planned to put his name up for nomination for Governor, a claim verified by the News Journal article:
Floyd McDowell, who founded the party the same year he ran unsuccessfully as its gubernatorial nominee in 2000, called the move an "underhanded, fly-by-night, subversion of everything we developed in this party."
If the move stands, he said, it will spell the "destruction of the party."
McDowell said he planned to run for the party's nomination at the state convention, which party officials had said would be in August.
Was the sudden Convention of Four a hastily arranged ad hoc affair to make Mike Protack the nominee before McDowell filed to run as an ICPOD's candidate? Was it in fact a conspiracy to aid Mike Protack and trump Floyd McDowell?
If it was a conspiracy, Mike Protack claims the innocence conferred by ignorance:
Protack said he didn't understand the "arcane rules" of every party.
One is excused for laughing out loud at this transparent sophistry because while no one would expect Mike Protack to be aware of the rules of every party, one reasonably expects that he would read the rules of the party whose nomination he is seeking.
We can only give Mike Protack the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn't aware of ICPOD's rules if we also conclude, therefore, that his ignorance of the rules are precisely a reason not to make him Governor of the state. Who wants to have as a Governor someone that does not read the necessary and important background of the official commitments he makes? In this case, "not reading" is practically equivalent to "can't read." Giving Protack's reading non-habits, electing him would be the equivalent of electing an illiterate as Governor. Nevertheless, the comedy here is delightful and appreciated.
If that isn't comical enough, more laughs come our way. Protack makes himself out to be the savior of ICPOD:
"There are a lot of tremendously talented people who -- because they haven't had a candidate who is viable -- have sat on the sidelines," Protack said. "Now, they can get their voices heard. They're happy about that and so am I."
What is he saving ICPOD from? He won't win the race. Perhaps he is saving them from getting little attention in 2008. But if widespread derisive laughter counts as the kind of attention ICPOD is seeking, then through this episode he will indeed deliver them attention in spades.
Of course, the ICPOD "nomination" won't keep Protack from pursuing the Republican Party nomination as well, assuming, that is, he ever gets around to filing for the post and paying the obscenely high filing fee of $5,300 by July 25:
Protack, 50 of Hockessin, said he still plans to pursue the GOP nomination in the state primary Sept. 9, but the Independent Party's nomination means he will be on the general election ballot Nov. 4 no matter what happens in the primary.
The Republican Party's own comic contribution is its assumption that it's ditto candidate Bill Lee, who seems to confuse campaigning with raising money, actually stands a chance to beat either of the powerful Democratic Party candidates in the November election. Whatever slim chance he poses is almost certainly extinguished by Protack appearing as the ICPOD candidate on the November ballot, as Protack's performance in his primary race against Jan Ting and Christine O'Donnell demonstrated.
Protack has a substantial following among the values, anti-abortion conservatives within the Delaware Republican Party. There are not enough of them in Delaware's upstate substantially fiscally conservative and valuationally moderate Republican Party to make Protack the nominee, but there are enough of them to assure his role as a spoiler for Bill Lee's (albeit unlikely) chances of victory.
As we all know, Bill Lee was a Johnnie-come-lately to the race. I agree with Protack supporters that Lee was urged to enter the race precisely because many in the GOP leadership didn't want to endure the egg on their faces a Protack nomination would bring. Many GOP bigwigs would have to eat their past vilification of Protack whose principal "crime" had only been repeatedly seeking to run for office according to his party's rules.
Now, just when the party leadership thought it had delivered its greatest sleight to Mike Protack by trumping the endorsement of his candidacy at the last possible moment before the convention, Protack checkmates their endorsed candidate's prospects at obtaining the governorship. I believe that's how Mike Protack spells revenge:
... but the Independent Party's nomination means he will be on the general election ballot Nov. 4 no matter what happens in the primary
How about that? Mike Protack turned out to be strategically smarter than the GOP party bigwigs and the pompous boastful insiders we've all read on the Delaware blogosphere.
Now how about this? IPOD has made itself into a cheap and comical political whore willing to open its doors to candidates seeking revenge: i.e., ICPOD.
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