Delaware Republicans endorse Jan Ting for U.S. Senate

Newszap ^ | April 29, 2006 | Joe Rogalsky

[Clintonfatigued]

Temple University law professor Jan Ting easily won the state Republican Party's endorsement for the United States Senate on Saturday, but his opponent Michael D. Protack said he would continue his quest for the nomination to September's primary.

Delegates supported Mr. Ting by a 268-53 margin. Among Downstate delegates, he rolled up a 132-11 victory. Mr. Protack's 11 votes came from the Kent County delegation.

[Clintonfatigued]

This is an important excerpt:

Mr. Ting, making his first run for public office, is a former immigration commissioner with President George H.W. Bush's administration and has become an expert on immigration issues, often appearing on national television programs.

"There are 33 Senate races this year, and the Senate race in Delaware is just as important as races in any other state," Mr. Ting said.

"The stakes are the same - the future of our country."

[AuH2ORepublican]

Maybe he can ask Robert DeNiro to cut ads for him:

"I heard tings. Good tings about Ting."

[fieldmarshaldj]

Jan Ting, one serious elephant. ;-)

[fieldmarshaldj]

Just to note there has not been an Asian Republican in the Senate since the late Sam Hayakawa of California retired in 1983.

[Clintonfatigued]

Nice pic! But more important is that Jan Ting will take a strong stand against illegal immigration. He supports the construction of a border fence along the U.S./Mexico border.

Like Robert Vasquez, Ting would help dispel the lie that only prejudiced, uneducated rednecks care about border security.

[Clintonfatigued]

Jan Ting would be a strong voice on the issue of border security.

[MassachusettsGOP]

Not going to happen, Carper is pretty popular, he unseated long time Senator Roth in 2000 by a heafty margin, and I doubt Jan Ting has huge name recognition. Unfortunatly for So. Delaware, Wilmington and New Castle County continue to grow faster than the rest of the state.

[zbigreddogz]

Completely irrelevant. Unfortunately, Carper is one of the most popular senators in the country. He won't be beaten.

[Clintonfatigued]

It's true that Carper will be reelected, but maybe Ting can poll strongly enough to be a viable candidate in the future. Also, this race may test the strength of the border security issue.

I'm thinking in a long-term perspective.

[lbjgal]

Who is Carper? He's not very popular in out West...even U.S. Senator's like Boxer state "Carper who?"

-lbjgal

[California Patriot]

Let's be real. An Asian-American law professor with zero name recognition, running against a popular incumbent, pseudo-moderate, Democrat in Democratic Delaware ... that's a complete non-starter and a waste of money. Even if Ting does better than expected by using immigration, it won't make a splash because Delaware is a mini-state not known to have an immigration problem. If it were California, it might be another story, but it's Delaware.
Most people probably couldn't find it on a map.

Let's focus on the Senate races we can win: MD, NJ, MN, WV if Byrd's senility becomes apparent to enough people, FL if someone pushes Harris aside, WI if Thompson runs. Everything else is a time-waster.

[Hurricane Andrew]

Actually, given the prevalance of the poultry industry in DE (Sussex is the #1 broiler growing county in the nation), plus the number of "questionable" laborers helping to fuel the strong construction market here, Illegal Immigration is a significant problem.

That said, Ting was also a big anti-war protestor during the Vietnam era, and that won't play very well in two of our three counties.

[California Patriot]

I'm sure it's a significant problem. But a 45 percent showing by Ting (the best he can expect) isn't likely
to be noticed except on FReep and at some immigration reform groups. I always give a guy credit for running, but we have to realistically allocate our money and energies to the people who can win -- or make a national splash.

I think a better underdog race would be whoever runs against Janet Napolitano in Arizona. Scaring her would make more of a difference.

[Hurricane Andrew]

No argument here. Until we can get Philadelphia to absorb the City of Wilmington, the Democrats will enjoy good runs in the governor's office, as well as US Senate and House races.

[California Patriot]

Ho-hum.

The Republicans will have candidates against Feinstein and Kennedy too. So what?

[BillyBoy]

You posted a thread about Jan Ting's Senate campaign in Deleware back when the election was going on. Have you seen the election results after the Delaware GOP cast their lot with Ting?

I don't know why the heck they thought some obscure Asian-American law professor who couldn't even pretend he wanted to be a Senator would resonate with the electorate. In any case, I was looking at the election results in November and I see what happened with their "electable" candidate:

US ELECTION RESULTS 2006

DELAWARE -- US SENATE
Thomas R. Carper Democratic 170,567 votes 70.20%
Jan Ting Republican 69,734 votes 28.70%

That's truly pathetic. Looks like their brilliant candidate fared as poorly as Alan Keyes in Illinois, and that's really saying something since Keyes was an 11th hour "replacement" candidate flown in from out of state. Under normal circumstances, any Republican should at least be able to get 30% of the statewide vote "by default", simply because 1/3rd of the electorate automatically prefers Republicans over Democrats.

There was another Republican running during the primary, his name was Mike Protack and he had a solid campaign stradegy. Since the party "leaders" had recruited Ting, they ignored Protack and insisted Ting was the only "real" candidate.

The Delaware GOP had a genuine chance to run a competative campaign against Tom Carper, and they blew it with Jan Ting. I think they are ultimately as reasonable as anyone else for the Dem takeover in Washington. If they had given Protack's candidacy a shot, they might have forced the Dems to spend money defending Delaware and thus preventing the national Dems from sending money elsewhere.

Hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call to the political elite everywhere to stop recruiting candidates with a slick resume who don't have any real convictions except "the party asked me to run so here I am". The sooner we let real Americans stand for election, the better our chances will be to win over Joe Schmo.

Check out some blogs about the primary campaign here:

---

Jan Ting, the party-recruited and endorsed candidate...hasn’t put forth an acceptable effort. I get emails every day asking me “Where’s Jan Ting? Is he campaigning?” These come from all over the state, from people who think I know the answer to the question. According to them, Mr. Ting is ‘mailing it in’. From his one-stop announcement to his apparent lack of a desire to vigorously campaign to his failure to articulate his positions, particularly in referring to himself in the third person in the News-Journal interview and failing repeatedly to form a concrete position either way on abortion during the WDEL debate, I have come to the conclusion that I can not endorse Jan Ting under these circumstances. His analytical, legal mind and his claim to be constantly back and forth on certain issues represents all you want in a legal scholar, but not in a candidate for Senate. It takes conviction, and the ability to assert those convictions to voters, to win an election.

[By contrast] Mike Protack knows where he stands, and he can articulate his positions. He has a wide and deep knowledge of the issues, and he shapes his arguments based on the needs of the Delaware family. I don’t subscribe to all of his positions, but they are there for all to see in detail.Protack has campaigned vigorously up and down the state, asking people for their vote. He has designed a campaign strategy and implemented it, using VFWs and American Legions in much the way that George Bush used evangelical churches in 2004. I have yet to get an email asking where Mike Protack is and why he isn’t campaigning, but I have received more than a few emails saying ‘I saw Protack there, but not Ting.’ Protack also recognizes Tom Carper’s flaws and stands ready to attack them in the general election. I appreciate Mr. Protack’s persistence, if not his positions on all the issues.

It does not please me to endorse against the candidate endorsed by my party peers, and I thought long and hard before doing so.Based primarily on his willingness to campaign vigorously for many months while his opponent reportedly did not, but also his understanding and depth on many issues where his opponent struggles to articulate a position, as well as the fact that he asked for my vote when is opponent did not, I endorse Mike Protack for the Republican primary for US Senate.
--http://firststatepolitics.wordpress.com/tag/endorsements/

---

Contrary the Lancaster Ave heavily propagandized view of the Protack voter, I’ve met many Protack voters who don’t have a consuming passion for politics or insurgency. They are simply the “I Like Mike” crowd.

They like his blue collar roots, his sappy patriotism (anti-flag burning amendment) but are willing to associate & dialogue with dissenters like me because they believe in free speech and they don’t like abortion, but they won’t go so hog wild on the topic that they won’t make an exception for rape & incest.

They also agree with Protack that something is wrong w/ the Repub Party’s habit of losing elections, its inability to get more than 2-3 statewide officeholders, its failure to register significantly more repub voters during a time when the Federal & Legislative & Judicial are dominated by Repubs, and that the reason for this unmistakable record of failure has a lot to do w/ the people who occupy the comfy chairs on Lancaster Ave. (Frankly, on this point, I think Protack’s logic is unassailably correct. It’s a marvel that anyone attempts to dispute it given the overwhelming evidence for his claims.) Accordingly, the typical Protack voters agree w/ Protack about a fundamental need for a thorough change in the DE Repub Party, but it doesn’t keep them up a night. It doesn’t make them take vacation time, or pay the childcare worker a few extra dollars, on a Tuesday simply because there is a primary and Protack is running.

So while your principle about insurgency voters is correct, I believe that your unstated assumption that Protack voters are by & large rebel rousers and insurgents is wrong. I see no evidence for it beyond the bald assertions of its truth coming from Lancaster Ave & its sycophantic apologists. But there is no external, objective evidence of its truth. Just claims & allegations—always claims that Protack voter is like this or that…just like the allegations one hears constantly that Protack said or wrote this or that outrageous claim. And if you ask for the evidence, virtually plead for it, no one can produce it, ever. No one ever has it, but (it’s further alleged) virtually everyone has seen it or heard it. But never any tangible proof.

I’m probably the furthest person in Delaware from being a Protack supporter, but fairness and honestly constrain me to say that I think a lot of the stuff that goes around about Protack and his voters is pure bullshit. Protack is not a nutcase nor are his voters. The real fanatics and cultists in the Republican Party are found on Lancaster Ave and the sycophants who hope to benefit by associating with them. They (those at the top especially) might not have the evident blue collar cant and bearing of a Mike Protack, they might belong to the swank social club, they might not use double negatives, but it is an illusion to believe for those reasons that they are not fanatics.

Just consider all the energy, manipulation, deceit, shunning that the party leadership engages in to progress the candidates it wants to succeed and stymie the candidates it doesn’t. That level of devotion, drivenness, and ends-justify-the-means orientation are characteristic of fanaticism. When DE Republican Party regulars in DE stop drinking the Lancaster Ave Kool-Aid, it will be as transparently obvious to them as it is to the rest of us.
--http://firststatepolitics.wordpress.com/2006/09/13/crunching-the-numbers/

[Clintonfatigued]

The people make good points. However, this race was never really in doubt.