Let's take some time to discuss' a recent Senate race and to contrast the two-party candidates from two individual states. For this, I have selected the following:
States selected: The State of Delaware and its neighbor the State of Maryland.
Election year involved: Both campaigns take place during the 2010 election year.
State one - Delaware (O'Donnell (R) vs. Coons (D)
The first campaign and election I would like to discuss is the nationally televised campaign to fill the senate position left vacant by Joe Biden. Since Biden had progressed to the position of Vice President by law he was required to resign from his Senate seat. The Governor of Delaware had assigned Biden's Chief of Staff to complete Biden's term of office. A special election would than be held along with the 2010 elections to select a replacement for his senate position. What made this campaign remarkable was the involvement of the tea party candidate Christine O'Donnell and her ability to win out in the primaries over long time Republican Party candidate Mike Castle. Although Castle was looked upon as the "Golden Boy", O'Donnell made a respectable showing and won the nomination for the Republican representative.
O'Donnell based her campaign primarily upon the major issues of her pro-life stance, her opposition to embryonic stem cell research, negative support for human cloning, and opposition to increasing taxes. She was in favor of a balanced budget amendment and supported the premise of a simplified tax code. In an effort to reduce American dependence upon foreign oil she supported more refineries being established within the United States. She promoted the use of Delaware agricultural products to create gasoline alternatives and opposed the cap and trade legislation. One of her major oppositions was the Health Care Bill and she vowed that if elected to the senate she would work to have it repealed. Her immigration policies centered upon increased penalties for any employer who happened to hire illegal immigrants as well as support for the raising of the social security retirement age.
Her opponent for the Senate seat was Democratic contender Chris Coons. Coons had been nurtured and groomed by US Senator Tom Carper during his service as Delaware's governor. A few of Coon's political beliefs were revealed during the first debate. These major issues were shown to be raising taxes in order to balance the budget and to cut the militaries C-17 bomber program in order to trim money from the deficit. Chris Coons has stated he is pro-choice, actively supports the stimulus bill, opposes off-shore oil drilling, and believes in providing a pathway for illegal's to achieve legal status. His responses to the issues were in general opposite of those expressed by O'Donnell.
As the debates were convened both parties involved were knowledgeable of the issues at hand. Unfortunately after O'Donnell had such a successful showing in defeating the nine term Castle, the Wilmington Delaware resident lost the November 2010 Senate election to Democrat Chris Coons.
State Two - Maryland (Mikulski (D) vs. Eric Wargotz (R)
Moving to Delaware's nearby neighbor Maryland we encounter their candidates for the 2010 Senate position. In this report we will discuss Democratic representative Barbara Mikulski and Eric Wargotz. Mikulski being the current incumbent had a bit of an advantage over her opponent. Elected to the office initially in 1977, she had been able to accumulate years of experience over her potential competitor.
As far as the major issues were concerned Mikulski had much the same repertoire as most other Democrats such as being anti-abortion, pro-economic recovery packages as provided by the president and increased stimulus proposals. She voted "no" consistently for suggestions towards a balanced budget and believes in prohibiting same-sex marriages. She is for a national energy tax, she supports a no drilling policy but at the same time she is opposed to funding renewable or solar energy projects. She supports providing the illegal immigrants a path towards obtaining their legal status. Barbara is against placing any caps on foreign aid, and of course she voted yes to increase the pay of our congressional representatives.
Her losing republican opponent for the US Senate seat was Eric Wargotz. Eric was a previous Queen Anne's County Commissioner as well as a doctor by profession. Wargotz provided a very limited campaign in this race but he somehow managed to draw the highest percentage of election votes against Mikulski that were seen within the past 10 years.
In contrast to Barbara Mikulski's political thoughts on the major issues, Wargotz provided rather simple responses with little in-depth understanding to questions as they were placed before him. His ideas were that we should demand a balanced budget program and he was against the government bailouts. He provided no stance what-so-ever on issues relating to corporations, crime, environmental concerns or drugs. His concept towards education was that the federal government should only ensure that the requirements are properly met. His energy goals were for developing alternate sources of energy such as wind, solar etc. Worst of all he had no opinion on any foreign policy issues. In his favor as far as the Republicans were concerns was his support of the second amendment which likely won him a few votes. All in all Wargotz was ill prepared to campaign again a seasoned political veteran such as Mikulski.
There really are very little differences between the two states in regards to the major issues. This could be a result of their close location and similarity in industry. Both the democratic candidates supported the general democratic policies and ideals while the republican nominations centered their conversations upon the party's policies as well. Both candidates from the two states agree on supporting alternate energy in the form of gasohol since both are agricultural states. Although illegal's are not as large of an issue in either state the candidates adopted the party platform in both situations, the democrats supported making it easier for them to become legal while the republican members desired to make it uncomfortable for them here in America. Both O'Donnell in Delaware and Wargotz in Maryland supported a simplified tax change indicating one of the major issues which crossed the state lines.
In the majority of the issues it was found that the in-state candidates were usually opposed to each others beliefs while supporting the overall party policies. Little was agreed upon other than changes were required in most situations. Candidates on both sides of the fence failed to offer any solutions to problems which were facing the nation often leaving one to wonder what they would actually do once in office.
Copyright @2012 Joseph Parish
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