UPDATE: LEGISLATIVE EARLY LINE 2016 

Posted: April 13, 2016

For months now, there has been only one legislator who definitely was not coming back for the next term of the Delaware General Assembly, and there still is.

Except it is a different legislator.

What was once the case for Bryon Short is now the case for Jack Peterman, and the shakeup has two primaries popping.

Short had the big idea he was going to move on up from Legislative Hall in Dover to the Capitol in D.C., but he gave it up last week when he figured his campaign contributions were not what he thought they should be.

Short dropped out of the Democratic congressional primary and filed instead for re-election as a state representative in Brandywine Hundred. The problem is three other Democrats were already running to replace him, and nobody yet has made a move to get out of his way.

Peterman took himself out not because of politics, but health, in deciding not to run again as a Republican state representative from a Milford area district.

Peterman has endorsed Bob Scott, a longtime top officer in the Houston fire company, to be his Republican replacement, but it has not deterred two other Republicans from getting into the race -- Charlie Postles, a farmer who ran against Peterman in a 2012 primary, and Morgan Hudson, who works for a company that cleans up construction sites before the ribbon-cutting.

Unlike other years, Election Day might not be the final say on the makeup of the next legislature.

Four state senators are running mid-term for higher office, and if any of them get there, they would have to be replaced by special election.

The political-climbing set has in it Colin Bonini, a Republican running for governor, Bethany Hall-Long, a Democrat running for lieutenant governor, Bob Marshall, a Democrat running for Wilmington mayor, and Bryan Townsend, a Democrat running for congressman.

As legislators hoping not to return, they stand apart from the two usual types of legislators who are not coming back, namely, the ones who know it and the ones who do not know it yet.

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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:55%

R:21%

O:24%

McDowell already has set a record with 40 years as a senator. The Republicans are crossing their fingers the voters are in a mood to throw out people like him, but the registration is seriously against them

Senate 5th

Brandywine Hundred

Denise Bowers

Cathy Cloutier

D:41%

R:33%

O:26%

With the Republicans going after Democrats for the Senate majority, here is where the Democrats play tit-for-tat

Senate 7th

Elsmere-Prices Corner

Patti Blevins

Anthony Delcollo

D:49%

R:23%

O:28%

The idea for the Republicans is to keep Blevins, the Senate's president pro tem, busy at home, so she has less time to help her fellow Democrats the way she usually does

Senate 14th

Lower New Castle/upper Kent counties

Bruce Ennis

Carl Pace

D:47%

R:27%

O:26%

Ennis, who is about to turn 77, is the oldest senator. The Republicans are sending out a Millennial to take him on

House 7th

Claymont-Arden

Dave Brady

Rob Cameron

Joe Daigle

Bryon Short

 

D:48%

R:27%

O:25%

Short dropped out of the congressional race to run for re-election, but the candidates who thought he was out of the way are showing no inclination to give him squatter's rights

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 House speaker, has trouble in his own house

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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