Posted: May 5, 2016

UPDATE: LEGISLATIVE EARLY LINE 2016

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

The Republicans are not kidding about trying to take over the state Senate.

They now have four Republican Millennials running against longtime Democratic state senators, and it is no exaggeration to say not all of the Millennial candidates were even born when the sitting legislators started to show up in the Delaware General Assembly.

The latest Republican recruit is Meredith Chapman, who declared last week against Dave Sokola, a Democratic state senator since 1990, in a Newark-Hockessin district.

The other Democratic state senators getting the generational push are Patti Blevins, the president pro tem first elected in 1990, Harris McDowell, the longest-tenured state senator ever with 40 years there, and Bruce Ennis, a legislator since 1982.

The Republicans have not been searching only for Millennials to run -- it is not like no other generation need apply -- but they do not mind it is working out that way with their candidates coming from the population born between 1981 and 2000.

"It certainly is where the world is going. It was part of our calculus," said Charlie Copeland, the Republican state chair who used to be a state senator himself.

Recruiting is one thing. Winning is another.

The Democrats have been in charge of the state Senate since 1973, after a couple of turncoat Republican state senators switched sides, and nothing the Republicans have done in 21 elections since then has gotten them out of the minority.

The Republicans only need to flip two seats in the 21-member chamber to overturn the Democratic majority, which currently stands at 12-9, but the Democratic state senators they are targeting are not only seasoned campaigners, they are all in districts that favor the Democrats.

The newest race has Sokola, who stood out in state politics as the only Democrat working for DuPont until he recently retired from the company, defending the seat against Chapman, who has, it could be said, even more of an eclectic political background than he does.

Chapman, the digital communications director at the University of Delaware, was previously a Democrat and an unaffiliated voter and did not become a Republican until late February.

Not only that, she used to be the communications manager for Mike Castle, when he was the Republican congressman, but more recently she was the campaign manager for Chip Flowers, the Democratic treasurer who went rogue and wound up self-deporting.

"I very much am a moderate, no matter who my boss has been," Chapman said. "I'm hoping to be able to pull not from just one side of the aisle or the other, but to look for commonalities."

The Republicans dabbled in a Millennial challenge in the 2014 election in a handful of races for the state House of Representatives but won none of them, even in a year when the Democratic turnout was an embarrassment.

It could be even harder in this election, a presidential year when the Democrats can usually count on their more casual voters to turn out.

The only one who can reliably take out some of these Democratic state senators might be Father Time, but then what? No matter what Father Time has done to the membership of the state Senate, he keeps voting Democratic.

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TOP LEGISLATIVE RACES

 

State Senate: 12 Democrats, 9 Republicans (11 seats up)

State House of Representatives: 25 Democrats, 16 Republicans (All 41 seats up)

 

District

Democrats

Republicans

Voters

Rundown

Senate 1st

Wilmington-Claymont

Harris McDowell

James Spadola

D:56%

R:21%

O:23%

With a record-setting 40 years as a state senator, McDowell got to Dover before Spadola, a Millennial, was born, but this race is more likely to turn on registration, not generation

Senate 5th

Brandywine Hundred

Denise Bowers

Cathy Cloutier

D:41%

R:33%

O:26%

The Democratic majority is under assault, the Democratic registration in this district is enticing, so the Democrats might as well give it a try

Senate 7th

Elsmere-Prices Corner

Patti Blevins

Anthony Delcollo

D:49%

R:23%

O:28%

The Republicans are going after Blevins, the president pro tem, with a Millennial, and even if it comes to nothing, they get to keep her busy at home, so she has less time to help out other Democrats

Senate 8th

Newark-Hockessin

Dave Sokola Meredith Chapman

D:40%

R:32%

O:28%

The Republicans could do worse than run a Millennial in a district that is home to the University of Delaware, where Chapman also happens to work

Senate 14th

Lower New Castle/upper Kent counties

Bruce Ennis

Carl Pace

D:47%

R:27%

O:26%

Ennis, who is 77, is the oldest senator, so naturally the Republicans wanted to find a Millennial to take him on

House 7th

Claymont-Arden

Dave Brady

Rob Cameron

Joe Daigle

Bryon Short

 

D:48%

R:27%

O:25%

Just because Short dropped out of the congressional race to run for re-election, it did not mean the other candidates who were already in would get out of his way

House 10th

Brandywine Hundred

Sean Matthews

Dennis Williams

 

D:45%

R:31%

O:24%

Matthews ousted Williams in a primary in 2014, and now Williams wants to do unto Matthews what Matthews did unto him

House 14th

Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach

Pete Schwartzkopf

Don Peterson

James DeMartino

D:41%

R:35%

O:24%

Schwartzkopf, the last Democratic legislator in Sussex County, is taking fire from the left and the right, even if he is the speaker

House 33rd

Milford-Bowers Beach

 

Morgan Hudson

Charles Postles

Bob Scott

D:38%

R:35%

O:27%

Now that Jack Peterman, the sitting Republican representative, is retiring, it comes as no surprise the race in the district is a free-for-all

Incumbents in bold

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