If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to receive our daily email. Thanks for visiting!
Delaware State Representative Gregory F. Lavelle released the following statement today regarding a possible run for Delaware’s lone Congressional seat.
“It has been and is an honor to represent the citizens of the 11th Representative District. Since Congressman Castle announced his intentions to run for the United States Senate, I, along with others, have considered running for the open Congressional seat. These are challenging times for our country and state and winning this seat will take a tremendous and almost full time effort. I recognize, and others in the GOP who are considering a run for the office must also recognize, that organizing a genuine and effective campaign, including the challenges of raising more than $1 million, will be no small task. This is no time for chasing windmills.
I appreciate words of encouragement and support I have received. I believe that the Three Ps must come together for any individual to take on this challenge and opportunity. Any candidate’s Personal, Professional and Political situations need to be in place to make a run for office. In a perfect world all three would come together. Not living in a perfect world, I feel that at least two of the three need to be in place before running for office.
After discussing these challenges with my wife, my family and friends, I have reached the decision that it is not the time for me to run for this office. My family is my first, second and third priority, and I am fortunate to be in a professional situation that I enjoy each and every day. As in life, opportunities such as this come and go and sometimes they come back again.
I do plan to seek reelection to the Delaware House of Representatives and I am hopeful that the residents of the 11th District will continue to afford me the opportunity to serve our community. As I have stated on many occasions, one party rule does not serve any state, country or political system well, and continued one party rule in Delaware will not be good for the future of our families.
I do plan to support and work for the election of Mike Castle to the United States Senate. Mike Castle’s independent and thoughtful leadership, along with his significant record of accomplishments, will be a welcome addition to the Senate.
I do plan to work with Republicans who are interested in this office to ensure that we provide Republicans, Independents and Democrats across Delaware with a strong, independent candidate that will bring their positive and varied life experiences to the table – and to Washington, D.C. – to address the significant issues that our country is facing.”
{ 1 trackback }
{ 31 comments }
Well thought out statement, Greg. Thanks for considering the seat and good luck in your re-election bid for the DE House….we need excellent people like you in the seats!
Greg has a beautiful and very young family. One can certainly appreciate his desire to put his family first. It is a thoughtful decision by a political figure who lives by the ideals he espouses. Lavelle will have other opportunities and his continued service in the House will only serve to enhance the citizens of Delaware.
The only aspect of Representative Castle’s leadership that is “independent” is in regards to the Republican Party platform, which he often ignores in voting against fellow Republicans. Delaware would do better to elect a Democratic senator, who could be trusted to vote with his party, than to elect a Republican that gives a false sense of bipartisan representation in Congress. Although I don’t believe Christine O’Donnell can defeat Castle in a primary (and don’t care, really, I’m registered independent), it would seem that Mr. Lavelle is playing party politics by supporting the insider, Castle, over the more conservative candidate.
What’s the story with the others? Copeland quiet, Wedo bending the residency and registration rules? Dave has the answers.
oh yeah, and whatever this is… http://fredcullisforcongress.com
Well now….Thats certainly interesting!
I feel a bit saddened and relieved at the same time.
I am sad because I like Representative Lavelle and he is a good legislator even if not right for the Congressional seat. I also now owe my collegue, The Medici, 50 dollars because I thought that Representative Lavelle would run and I hate losing money. Though I suppose that I deserve it as it is his home state.
I am relieved because now the game has shrunk down in terms of players reducing the chances of a bad primary. On one side, you have a serious legislator who has shown his ability to win. The same legislator that has the je ne se qua of an established statesman and will appeal to swing voters throughtout the state. On the other hand, you have a man that is not even registered to vote in the state. He has never lived here nor has he ever been involved in the party in his home state let alone in Delaware and is supported by the great Vance Phillips.
ummmm I wonder who will win?
“Delaware would do better to elect a Democratic senator, who could be trusted to vote with his party, than to elect a Republican that gives a false sense of bipartisan representation in Congress.”
You are out of your gourd. Common math will tell you that 60% is a higher number than 0%. Anyone who would say otherwise is a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
Here are my thoughts. Cullis’ candidacy is a manifestation of the huge outpouring of frustration out there concerning the direction we are being taken. There are thousands of Fred Cullises out there who fear the growth of government, and rightly so, but very few who will put their name on a ballot line for their cause. So I can’t hate on the guy. Good for him for putting his name where his frustrations are.
I thought we were talking about serious candidates, not bad jokes!
Let’s be honest. He’s not a seriously considered candidate. But I just can’t hate on anyone concerned enough to put his or her name on the line out of that concern.
Question about his website…the pic of him talking with Rick Jensen with that WILM logo in the back. Does that look super-imposed (the logo) to you? What genius did that?
“Question about his website…the pic of him talking with Rick Jensen with that WILM logo in the back. Does that look super-imposed (the logo) to you? What genius did that?”
LOL LOL LOL…I can’t stop. Good catch! OMG…too funny. I don’t want to make fun..but from a pure comedy standpoint RSmitty is right.
Lets just face it you have one serious candidate in the running, possibly two, then you have an uncle fester look-a-like, a manical asphalt man, man that has never been in the state, and lets not forget the Sussex county wonder….
I’ve been around long enough to know that you never know what you have until you have it…
Davey, I have not been around your state to understand all of the players, in fact I am not even in it now, however I have been around long enough to understand that waiting for a savior on high in politics is tantamount to political suicide.
go Tony Wedo!
I’ve been around long enough to know that you never know what you have until you have it…
You don’t know what you have UNTIL IT’S GONE, c’mon man.
Constituent, I am sure he will go…. once he gets into the state, and gets residency, and gets registered to vote, and beats the court challenge, ad infinitum
Laertes — You seem to have a decent base knowledge of Delaware for someone who’s not here.
What I meant was that sometimes you end up with a bunch of good candidates, sometimes you end up with none, and sometimes you think you have one and at the last minute you end up with the other.
I’m not big on waiting, either.
Thank you Dave!
I really have no basis outside of those who I work with in my day job. It is at best borrowed information, I am usually tasked with a more national scope. I view things on a more national basis in terms of maintaining our numbers in the House of Representatives and possibly expanding them. A loss of this seat will not help and a poor candidate or token opposition will allow resources to flood into other congressional races across the country.
There are right now three choices:
One is Anthony Wedo. He has some signifigant problems including conflicts regarding financial resources with the candidate and his own team. He has the residency problem and questions in other areas that will be used by the Democrats. Still he has money.
Second is Charles Copeland.
The third is House member Tom Kovach
Everyone else are crazies.
The two candidates that actually live in the state are preferable to the guy that doesn’t live in the state, has baggage, and can’t get along with his team already.
LD – I try not to encourage people to anonymously post charges like “can’t get along with his team” or “has baggage” or “signifigant problems including conflicts regarding financial resources with the candidate and his own team.”
If you have details and you want to lay them out, by all means do so, but anonymous couching and alluding to things that may or may not be there is not encouraged here.
Dave,
I wasn’t offering anything more than my own opinion. We’re all adults, we all know how this works.
1) I give out too many details that lead to my source(s), the springs dry up and future sources don’t trust me to guard their privacy/anonymity.
2) I might not be allowed to say what I might otherwise, as a result of contractual and other ethical limits.
3) I hate paying off a friendly wager to the Medici on those rare instances when he’s right about something. So, I may not want to push the cart too hard.
Then don’t hint about controversies that may or may not exist.
I’m a big fan of freedom of information and transparency. The paradox is that, sometimes, to get the right information in a timely way, the right “tip” at the outset, one cannot always be transparent about one’s sources.
How many years did it take before we learned the identity of Deep Throat? If he had been “outed” in 1973 would the nation have learned the truth about illegal behavior at the highest levels of government? What purpose would it have served to lay him on a table to be carved up by political operatives?
It would have been Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame to the nth power. Sometimes, info is just unattributable. In those cases, editorial opinion may still be just as valid.
I didn’t hint. I said he has “in my opinion” specific potential liabilities.
How many times in 2008 did we hear the mainstream press report “rumors”of infighting between McCain’s pros and Sarah Palin?
Even she now admits the rumors were true.
Were any of the sources in 2008 trotted out to make statements on-the-record that Governor Palin was not playing well in the sandbox with everyone else?
Your comments may prejudice the many Republicans who come here against a potential candidate. I’m not down with that.
This statement is not opinion:
“He has some signifigant problems including conflicts regarding financial resources with the candidate and his own team.”
I’m a bit surprised at the response here to Lavelle’s “I’m putting my family first” reason for not running for US Congress. Really, now, how many times have we heard that one before? My hunch is that some polling was done and Lavelle didn’t fare well against Carney. Lavelle probably doesn’t have much statewide recognition and his moderate voting record wouldn’t play well during these tea-party Republican days. He wouldn’t draw many voters downstate. His running for the seat always was a pipe dream.
You’re just speculating, Dana. I have to go with the statement directly from Rep. Lavelle.
Laertes, I am not sure what you mean about the “residency issue” ? There will be no court challenge as there is really no real Residency requirement for running for U.S Congress.
The language for requirements for the U.S. House of Representatives is laid out in the U.S. Constitution they are:
“No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen. ”
IF a candidate establishes Residency on 10-31-2010 they have fulfilled the requirements for being a U.S. Representative. This is long established.
Whether or not this is smart politically is another issue.
Comments on this entry are closed.