Delaware gubernatorial debate

I enjoy leaving my secret cave and attending political debates, drawing the candidates live as they snipe each other with one-liners and canned “zingers” they’ve been practicing for months.

 

This morning’s gubernatorial debate between incumbent Democrat Jack Markell and Republican challenger Jeff Cragg wasn’t exactly a high-octane affair. At one point, I hoped Green party candidate Mark Perri would pull an Alex Pires and challenge the two other candidate to jump on stage and start doing push-ups, but Perri forgot to take his no doze prior to the debate – he seemed dozy and aloof. As WDEL talk show hose Rick Jensen noted, Perri’s greatest moment was noting, “Corruption is bad.”

You have to feel sorry for Cragg. Markell is a popular governor in a solidly blue state whose unemployment rate is far below the national average. Still, Cragg doesn’t do himself any favors by towing the hard-right line against gay marriage and unions in a democratic state.

Cragg’s most potent moment was dropping the F-bomb (Fisker), going after the Governor for “wasting taxpayer funds” on the struggling car manufacturer, as well as Bloom energy. “Think of what we could’ve done with the $21 million we blew on the Fisker deal.”

Governor Markell insists that he is a “proud, card-carrying capitalist,” and that the state’s investments in both companies will pay off. I guess it comes down to whether voters think Markell’s gamble to create green energy jobs in the state was a good one.

My takeaway from the debate: Governor Markell thinks a gay marriage bill will make its way through the legislature during the next session, Cragg thinks the government has no role picking “winners and losers” in the marketplace, and Mark Perri needs to go to bed earlier before the next debate.

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Rob Tornoe is a political cartoonist and a WHYY contributor. See more of his work at RobTornoe.com, and follow him on twitter @RobTornoe.