EARLY LINE 2014

Updated: May 12, 2014

The "Six-Year Itch" strikes the election falling in the sixth year of a two-term president. It is notoriously unkind to the party that holds the White House.

Probably not in Delaware.

The Republicans have it so rough here, it would take more than a Six-Year Itch to worry the Democrats. Say something like the Ten Plagues.

The last time a Six-Year Itch favored the Republicans, when Bill Clinton was the Democratic president in 1998, the Republicans took three out of the four statewide offices on the ballot.

Of course, back then the Republicans accounted for 35 percent of the statewide electorate, and there were only 35,000 more Democrats than Republicans registered to vote, a surmountable disparity. Today the Republicans are 28 percent of the electorate and trail the Democrats by 124,000 voters, a gap of considerable consequence.

It goes a long way toward explaining why the Republicans have found no takers to run at the top of their statewide ticket, not even for an open race for attorney general with Beau Biden deciding to sit this campaign season out.

Office  Democrats Republicans Rundown
Senate Chris Coons    Coons has $3 mil in the bank, no opponent, and he keeps asking for money, anyway? Inquiring minds of irked Democrats want to know why
House John Carney   Carney does not make waves as a congressman. He did not make waves when he was lieutenant governor. It obviously works for him
Attorney General Matt Denn   When Beau Biden walked away from a Senate race, he made a senator out of Coons. In a similar scenario, it looks like he is making an attorney general out of Denn, the lieutenant governor
Treasurer Chip Flowers

Sean Barney

 Ken Simpler A rocky first term is a surefire way to draw a crowd. With candidates from both parties bidding against Flowers, this race feels like an auction, not an election. Going, going . . . 
Auditor   Brenda Mayrack

Ken Matlusky

 Tom Wagner Is Mayrack serious about knocking out Wagner, the last Republican in statewide office? Four fund-raisers to date in Texas, D.C., and Wilmington say she is

Incumbents in bold

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