It’s official. Chris Coons is in for US Senate (delawareliberal has the email here). We’ve known this was coming and elected officials at the state and county levels have been scrambling for the past week trying to amend the state law regarding to succession for the county exec. This is how it stands now:
Whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of County Executive by reason of death, resignation, removal from office or other cause, the President of the County Council shall serve as County Executive until the latter office is filled as a result of an election. If a vacancy in the office of County Executive occurs more than 30 days prior to the date of a primary election in which county officers are nominated, the vacancy shall be filled for the remainder of the term in the next succeeding general election and the County Executive elected in this manner shall take office on the first Tuesday following such election. If a vacancy in the office of County Executive occurs less than 30 days prior to the date of a primary election in which county officers are nominated, the vacancy shall be filled for the remainder of the term by the President of the County Council. If the President of the County Council becomes County Executive, the President’s office as an elected official of the county governing body shall become vacant.
Which means we could end up with County Executive Paul Clark until 2012. And that’s what making most of our elected officials nervous – especially Chris Coons as Delaware Grapevine reported in December:
There was more to it, though. The county has raised taxes, and the Republicans are never happier than when they are running against someone who has raised taxes. Nor could Coons figure out what to do about Paul Clark, the Democratic president of the County Council.
It is one thing to leave in mid-term. It is something else to leave with Clark stepping up as the county executive. Clark’s wife is a land use attorney, a complication that has left him coping with conflicts on a scale second only to Jon & Kate.
What a dilemma for someone like Coons, who went to Yale Divinity School to study ethics.
Coons tried to get around it. He quietly approached legislators to gauge their support for a bill that would change the county succession. Not that he wanted to talk about it –“I may just have to leave you to speculate about all that” — after the alternatives simply did not fly.
Coons loses with 32%. This point is moot.
Terry Spence is saying he’ll run as a D in a primary.
Paul is great fun to drink with so give the guy something.
From RealClearPolitics.com
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2010/02/announcing_campaign_coons_prom.html
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