Is a political year so in the interest of fairness I began to visit some of our candidates web sites. The first website which I resolved to visit was that of Senator Tom Carper. Carper has been a resident of the state of Delaware since 1973. He was first elected as Delaware's State Treasurer in '76 and continued in that position for three consecutive terms. At the time that he assumed the position, our state had one of the worse credit ratings available however under the expert guidance of Carper the rating improved to a respectable "AA" within six years.
After his terms as State Treasurer, he campaigned and was elected to the House of Representatives. He continued as a Congressman for five terms after which he ran and was elected as Delaware's 78th Governor in 1992. This part of Tom Carper's career entailed two terms which led to Delaware having successful balanced budgets, effective tax cuts and record increases in employment within the state. Under his leadership Delaware increased their bond rating to a triple A for the very first time.
In 2001, Governor Carper relinquished the position of Governor as he became the Junior Senator from Delaware. He was later re-election to the Senate in the 2006 campaign and has held that position to this day.
In all honesty, the web site for Senator Carper lacked the usual advertisements often found for those politicians who are seeking re-election. Generally one encounters far too many ads bragging up how the candidate would be your best choice for the position. This site had no such ads.
Upon arrival at the web page one is greeted with an abundance of data links. We could see activities related to various topics ranging from assistance by FEMA to firefighter's grants, information on our off-shore wind power projects, and various bits of data on the Senators involvement in the rededication the Newark Toll Plaza.
Other areas of the site covered news and events where the Senator will be in attendance, services which the senator's office can provide to his constitutes, a section on how he feels concerning specific issues, his voting record along with the legislation which he has promoted, and finally how the senator can be contacted.
The remaining section provides help with various federal agencies, nominations to service academies and assistance in applying for federal grants.
In my opinion there are no portions of the site intended for re-election purposes. Perhaps it is the wrong time of the year to view the site or the Senator may just feel there are more important matters pressing at this time.
On the other hand there is 100 percent of the web pages devoted to non-reelection purposes. One of the remarkable things which I noticed about the site is that nowhere on it will you view one of those button designated "Donate". To me this is unusual and is certainly an indication of an individual who has placed the interests of his constitutes over the aspirations for being re-elected. It likely boils down to the fact that if you take care of your people they in turn will take care of you when the time comes.
Delaware's newest House of Representatives member is Congressman John Carney. Carney was sworn in at the beginning of 2011. He had previously served under Governor Carper as his Deputy Chief of Staff. He was instrumental in assisting the Governor in achieving Delaware's triple A bond rating. In the past he has twice served as Delaware's Lt. Governor.
Once again I failed to sense any urgency towards promoting the candidate in re-election advertisements. Most of the data contained on Congressman Carney's site was informational. As with Senator Carper the priority appeared to be placed upon the news aspect which in this case included his schedule and appearance at various locations around the state. There were sections relating to a biographical sketch of the Congressman along with various pages detailing what his office can provide for his constituents. There were resource pages with links to constructive information and a media center where an assortment of videos, photos and recordings could be reviewed. Various popular issues which currently appear in the news are displayed on the "issues" section and the homepage concludes with the usual contact section.
As I discovered with Senator Carpers web site this one also was void of re-election advertisements. There were no displays asking for monetary support and no donate buttons appeared on the pages. All the pages on the web site were 100 percent dedicated to non-reelection objectives.
In conclusion on both sites, I noticed the two sites contained many sections that were similar in concept which supported my belief that the individuals in question truly wanted to help the people in the state of Delaware. I was totally amazed that I saw no re-election information being displayed. By visiting web sites such as this, one can quickly start to believe that there are some of our representatives who honestly want to provide useful services to their constitutes.
Copyright @2012 Joseph Parish
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