Posted: May 2, 2007

ALL THINGS ATKINS CONTINUE TO AMAZE

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

If the write-in vote for John C. Atkins is heavy enough and the results close enough, it is possible the outcome of the special election Saturday in Sussex County will not be known until Monday.

Write-in votes are not counted as soon as the polls close, when the machine votes and absentee ballots are tabulated. The paper rolls with the write-ins are not examined until two judges, sitting as the Board of Canvass, meet two days later to certify the election -- in this case on Monday.

It figures. Nothing has been straightforward since Atkins went on the radio six months ago, the day after he was arrested for fighting with his wife, and denied he had been drinking, although two police forces later said he had. Why should the election be different?

Atkins, the Republican ex-representative whose resignation for misconduct is the reason for this election, has overshadowed what is nominally a race involving Democrat Lynn R. Bullock and Republican Gregory A. Hastings plus a minor-party candidate in the 41st Representative District, which includes Millsboro, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville and Long Neck.

It has shaped up as a referendum on whether people are angry because of what Atkins has put them through or because of what he has been put through.

Election officials expect to know by Saturday night how many write-in votes there were, but they will not know whom those votes were cast for. “It should be an interesting day,” said Kenneth L. McDowell, the administrative director of the Sussex County Elections Department.

It is a fair guess that almost all of the write-ins would be for Atkins, but who knows?

There could be votes for Mickey Mouse, or there could be a boomlet for, say, Charles P. West, the Democrat who represented the district before Atkins did. West has the attitude of a troll who does not want anyone to cross his bridge, so he is well-positioned to capture the cantankerous vote.

If somehow the write-ins barely outnumbered the total for highest vote-getter, it would take the Board of Canvass to count the names on them and sort the election out.

The polling can be that close. A Sussex County Council seat in 2004 was decided by three votes.

A clue to Atkins' strength would be the absentee ballots. When they are tallied after the polls close, election officials will know how many of those voters wanted to send him back to Dover, despite a warning that the state House of Representatives may refuse to seat him, as is its right under the state constitution.

The House was moving toward expelling Atkins last month after its Ethics Committee decided he brought the chamber into disrepute by trying to use his influence to extricate himself from two encounters with the law. To finish off a night of carousing on Oct. 29, Atkins beat a traffic stop in Ocean City, Md., where he and his wife Heather went to a Halloween party at a nightclub, but he was arrested hours later in Millsboro for offensive touching. Atkins is on probation for it.

The House still was trying to exorcise Atkins as recently as last week, when the Ethics Committee voted Tuesday to ask the attorney general to look into an allegation that he had coerced a babysitter, a possible witness to the domestic dispute, into silence.

If there was even a glimmer that the Attorney General's Office could wrap up its investigation before the special election, it was snuffed out when the information from the Ethics Committee did not arrive until late Friday.

In an age of the Internet, fax machines and overnight packages, not to mention hand delivery from one state office to another, the House sent its correspondence through the post office by registered mail, return receipt requested.

State Rep. Richard C. Cathcart, the Republican majority leader, said the House simply was trying to ensure that its mail arrived, but its timing has been suspect all along -- with the decision to forward the allegation coming as the write-in campaign for Atkins got rolling.

"It's hardball politics," said Charles M. Oberly III, the former Democratic attorney general who is Atkins' lawyer. "If I'm attorney general, I'm not constrained by resolving this before the election. We're talking about a minor case."

With Atkins as a wild card, the Democrats and Republicans are doing what they can to promote their candidates. The Democrats appear to have an edge in the election. Not only has Atkins created a politically-dangerous disruption on the Republican side, but the Democrats have a 500-vote registration edge.

In a particularly disturbing sign for the Republicans, the Democrats out-raised the Republicans' vaunted money-churning operation, according to campaign finance reports filed Monday. The Democrats collected nearly $38,000 for Bullock, while the Republicans brought in $33,000, although a personal loan from Hastings hiked his take close to $41,000.

Furthermore, the Democrats raised their money with ease, most of it coming in contributions recycled from other politicians, like the $600 checks from "Carper for Senate" and "The Minner Campaign." It is a lot less painful to recirculate existing dollars than to ask people to dig into their own pockets, as the Republicans mostly did. The Democrats are becoming an election machine.

As if this special election was not enough of a circus, it happens to fall on Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday commemorating a famous battle in 1862 but mostly celebrated in this country as an excuse for partying -- as if another one was needed, since the election also coincides with Derby Day.

Under state law, liquor stores have to be closed while the polls are open for the special election -- although restaurants and bars are not affected. It means that buying a bottle of tequila is off-limits that day in the 41st Representative District, but ordering a margarita is all right.

Still, the law is clearly an infringement on Cinco de Mayo festivities. "I can't do a darn thing about that. The only one that can help is the General Assembly," said John H. Cordrey, the alcoholic beverage control commissioner.

The General Assembly just might. A bill, hastily introduced Tuesday, would let liquor stores stay open during special elections, if it can be approved by both the House and the Senate and signed by the governor before the week is out.

It is somehow fitting that an election that originated with an excess of drink for Halloween in Ocean City would come full circle to end with a question about a scarcity of it for Cinco de Mayo in Millsboro.

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