Who Is A Constitutional Scholar? Not Don Ayotte

   Those of you who were at the candidates forum last night in Milton, may already know the reference point of the tittle. If not, keep reading, I’ll get back to it.  So first let me thank Delaware 105.9 for hosting the forum, and all of the on air personalities who participated. Dan Gaffney as MC, Susan Monday as the Moderator, Matt Monks and Kelli Steele asking the questions. As always from this group, a very well run, and professional event.

I will give what I found to be the highlights, in my opinion, starting with Republican candidate for governor, Colin Bonini. The Democrat candidate, John Carney, was unable to make the event due to a scheduling conflict.

State Senator Bonini gave his usual stump speech, with a couple of notables inserted which caught my attention. Not for the first time.

In trying to point out the problems with one party rule by the Democrats in Delaware, Sen. Bonini made the statement, “if you keep voting for the same, you keep getting the same”.  This is a favorite line used by Republicans in Delaware, one little problem for Sen. Bonini, the people have been voting the same for him, for twenty plus years. Or doesn’t that count? Sen. Bonini can be a good campaigner when he tries, and I’m not sure who is giving him advice, but they might want to work on the message. He has already had to alter his campaign signs which did say, “Colin Bonini, Delaware Deserves Better”.  It’s the little things.

Secondly,  not sure constantly repeating, “we’re the underdog” is helpful either. I also personally have a problem with his stance on legalizing pot, but when you are facing the kind of deficit Delaware is facing, I guess even so called conservatives have to get a little crazy.

And finally, Sen. Bonini pointed out he had never voted for a budget, in an effort to show his fiscal creds. Well not voting for the budget is all well and good, unless you have played a hand in padding that budget. If you have pushed for, and voted for bills which add to the bottom line of the budget, you are just as responsible for the cost of government, even if you vote no on the overall budget.

One example is the thousands of dollars that goes to Wesley College, with the help of Sen. Bonini. Now I have no problem with a Representative, or a Senator working for funding of things within their district, which are important to their districts. What I do have a problem with, is when they try to have it both ways. When they attempt to pad the budget with pork, and then vote no, because they know it will pass anyway, and then campaign as if they are against the out of control spending of government. Man up, if you feel it is important, then own it. That, I can respect.

Next were the two candidates for the 41st Rep. District, Republican incumbent, Rich (I can’t make that meeting, because it’s an election year) Collins, and former Dagsboro Mayor, Brad Connor.  I have to  say, I didn’t think anyone could be more dry and sleep inducing than Rich Collins, but Mr. Connor may have pulled it off.

Rep. Collins continues to peddle his pet issues concerning DENRC  and development.  Mr. Connor believes the most important thing in the 41st is a bi-pass around Millsboro, and I would have to say he is probably right according to the people I have talked to from that area.

The next race was the 3rd District for Sussex County Council between Republican I.G. Burton, and Democrat Leslie Ledogarr.  Their is no incumbent, since long time Councilwoman Joan Deaver will retire at the end of this term.

The 3rd District can only be described as a left leaning district. This would explain Ms. Deaver’s ability to remain for so long. This might also explain why both of these candidates are pretty much in line with each other on the main issues for the 3rd. That being, development, and traffic. Both candidates seem to be stating they would be very restrictive in the future in approving new growth.

Mr. Burton has actually said, the Council’s job is, “to decide where we want them to go, and how many we want over there”,  in regards to the influx of people moving to Sussex.

Both Mr. Burton and Ms. Ledogar seem to feel the traffic which is created by growth has a negative impact on the quality of life. When asked about his reversal on the Lingo Townsend project on Gills Neck Rd in Lewes as a member of the Sussex Planning and Zoning Board, he stated he changed his vote from no to yes because the developers down sized the proposal. He also compared his yes vote for the Lingo project to his no vote on the Overbrook project, by saying, he felt the project in Lewes was better for the area because it wasn’t on Rt. 1 and would keep the traffic off of Rt.1 HELLO! Anyone familiar with the area knows, you can’t get to Gills Neck Road, without using Rt. 1.

Mr. Burton, and Ms. Legodar may word things differently, but they are on the same page of anti-development. In a district which leans left, a Republican such as Mr. Burton seems to be having a problem differentiating himself from the Democrat, and in that case, may find the voters feel, if I’m going to vote for a Democrat, I might as well vote for the real Democrat.

We can look back not so long ago, when Judson Bennett was running against Joan Deaver. He ran pretty much the same race I.G. Burton is running now.  Then he got taken out in a primary by Mark Baker who jumped in at the last moment, and Bennett couldn’t pivot back far enough right. Baker lost the general by the way to Deaver.

Mr. Burton is safe, he won the primary, but one has to wonder, how long before someone catches on to the fact, when he list his years of involvement in the community, and his work on planning and zoning, what he is really saying is, “I have been a part of how we got where we are”?  Oh, wait, someone just did.

The next race was the 20th with Smyk, Vaughn, and Ayotte, but sorry you’ll just have to wait, I want to save that for last.
That brings us to the race for the 14th with Democrat Speaker of the House Pete Schwartzkopf  defending against Republican James DeMartino. Oh this one was good. It started with a bang during DeMartino’s opening statement when Susan Monday cut him off as time ran out, by saying, “ I’m going to have to cut you off”, to which he responded, “oh no you’re not”. He then caught himself and stepped back. During Rep. Schwartzkopf’s opening statement, DeMartino sat on a stool provided, with his arms crossed and looked very angry. By the way, he was the only person the entire night to take advantage of the stools.

Mr. DeMartino then made a ham-handed attempt to claim Speaker Schwartzkopf had somehow lost touch with his district because he hadn’t had a challenger in years. To which Speaker Schwartzkopf responded, he had a challenger in 2012, but didn’t expect DeMartino to know that since, “you haven’t been here that damned long”. This was a clear shot at DeMartino’s questionable residency qualifications to run for office in Delaware.

DeMartino’s response was an insult to libertarians in the room, he said, “yeah but that was just a Libertarian”.

It seems as though the race in the 37th between Rep. Ruth Briggs-King and Democrat Paulette Rappa will come down to flood waters. Seemed to be the number one issue, at least last night. Rep. Briggs-King fell a little flat in her response to what she has done in her time to mitigate the problems of flooding in the Long Neck and Oak Orchard areas of the district. She said, “when we have these storms, I am one of the first down there, I am riding around with the fire companies, looking at the water”.  Okay. And that helps how?

Ms. Rappa was not on her game either. She seemed more interested in communicating she is one of us, more than a vision of what she would do if elected. Rep. Briggs-King has a record, she has to defend it. Ms. Rappa needs to verbalize what it is she sees as her goals if elected.

My apologies to the two candidates for Sussex Clerk of the Peace, Norman “Jay” Jones and Charlie Koskey, I had lost interest by the end of the night. Good luck to both.

Now for what you have all been waiting for. Who is a constitutional scholar? Not Don Ayotte.

Look, Republican incumbent Rep. Steve Smyk is a one trick pony, he can’t seem to get away from law enforcement issues. Even his latest issue, noise ordinances, is a law enforcement issue. Though it is better than his proposal to count condoms to shut down massage parlor prostitution.

That being said, he is running against what seems to be a very sweet, and community minded grandmotherly lady, the Democrat, Barbara Vaughn. I could be wrong, and maybe I am judging unfairly, but being a state Representative, requires a bit more stamina than being on the board to build the new library.

He is also having to again share the stage with the proverbial candidate, Don Ayotte of the Indpendent  Party of Delaware, or as I like to call them, the “Island of Misfit Toys”. So I’m going out on a fairly thick limb and say, Steve Smyk has little to worry about.

That being said, Don Ayotte never fails to provide entertainment. I happened to see a video of his appearance at Sussex County Association of Towns, or SCAT. (WOW that has to be the worst acronym ever). In the video, Don Ayotte describes himself as a “constitutional scholar”.  Oh! Really?

So I arrived last night in time to place a question in the basket, asking Mr. Ayotte to list his credentials, which qualify him as a scholar of the constitutions of the U.S. and Delaware. (Not knowing he was going to read from the exact same prepared statement this night.) And I got just what I expected. He again listed his degree in English, which he can barely speak, his concentration in journalism, and then he said what I don’t even understand, that he “nearly had a minor in political science and history”.  What? What the hell does nearly had a minor mean? Did you not finish the course? Run out of money? Teacher threatened to shoot themselves if you didn’t leave?
He went on to say, and here is the good part, that he had read the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, (Wonder if he knows how to spell it yet?), and the Federalist Papers, and the amendments and articles, which by the way are parts of the Constitution.

This man cannot help self aggrandizing behavior. What do most people think of when someone says they are a constitutional scholar? Well I think of someone like Justice Antonin Scalia, Not Don Ayotte.

Here is the video, the question and answer comes at about the 5:20 mark, but watch the entire video, just for laughs.