The Intriguing Campaign of Alex Pires and Other Delaware News

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Warm up the tubas and bring out the drums. It's time for another Delaware post, this from an insider into the world of Delaware politics. Who would be…..ME!

Let's begin with the mention that the Sheriff issue continues on and the legislators are determined to get their way. The Sussex county council has fired one of Sheriff Christopher's deputies and is refusing to allow him to hire a replacement for one deputy who left.

The council is exercising its hold on the purse and it's a good strategy, of sorts. EXCEPT there are three out of the total of five council people up for election this year. ALL three now have challengers.

And I should know. I am the campaign finance chair for two of them.

Don Ayotte running to unseat Joan Deaver

Maybe the challengers won't win, it's not easy to unseat an established incumbent. But Sussex county is angry at this council's rather cavalier manner in flipping the citizens the bird over their duly elected Sheriff. If nothing else, having to actually compete in an election should sober them up, get them out into the world to hear the concerns of those they represent, show them that citizens CAN challenge them, that they do not OWN their position.

A detailed, and longish, post about the Sheriff can be read here:

One of the bigger issues of this day, and an issue always on the docket in Sussex county it would seem, involves setting caps and/or requiring justifications for increases in lot rent by owners of manufactured housing parks.

Okay, let's discuss.

A person invests their money in a large swath of land and proceeds to design its use for the renting of individual plots to allow owners of manufactured homes to settle on. The manufactured home park owner is responsible for providing water, septic and other utility access. Snow removal, trash pickup and other services must be provided. Some sort of guard/safety service must be provided, the park should be kept clean, often a community meeting place or swimming pool is provided to the manufactured home owners.

It's really a bad idea for anybody to put their manufactured home on land owned by someone else. This is especially dumb in that Sussex county has a very liberal land use policy and most places allow manufactured homes to be put on plots of land. But those living in manufactured housing often aren't the richest in the surround. Purchase of a plot of land beyond the manufactured home is often not in the budget.

It begins with a modest monthly fee. I worked for an owner of manufactured home parks and at that time, some ten years ago, monthly fees ran around $300 a month. These lot rental fees vary based on amenities offered, location and such, of course.

As salaries for the security guards, as costs for maintaining the grounds, as fees for trash pickup and snow removal increase from year to year, so must the lot fee the owners must charge.

In due course you have a scenario where a little old lady cannot afford her monthly lot fee (or so she says). The situation becomes sticky. Manufactured houses aren't that easy to move even though the concept is that they are movable. Even if moving the manufactured house was possible, where to move it to? The purchase of a private lot on which to place the manufactured home is almost always out of the question. Moving the manufactured home to another park probably won't solve anything. Costs are costs. It costs a certain amount to keep a manufactured housing park working and in shape and monthly lot fees vary little from park to park.

Enter the MHA, also known as the Manufactured Housing Association, mostly a bunch of crybaby communists who found a perfect vehicle to fundamentally transform America as we know it.

So park owners are suddenly the bad guys, how dare they deem to make a profit on grandma who must eat cat food for the cost of the monthly lot fee.

Every year since I've been living in Sussex county there's been an uproar over these manufactured homes. Currently there is an existing fund, contributed into by both the residents and the owner of a manufactured home park. This fund is meant to be used as a means of financial assistance should a manufactured home resident have to be re-located for the very real inability to pay the monthly rental fee.

There's all kinds of rules about who gets this financial assistance, as well as limits to be paid based on the age and condition of the manufactured home.

But the MHA, God bless their dark communist souls, want manufactured home park owners to be tortured, burned at the stake and be forced to provide their land free of charge to the owners of the manufactured homes living on their land.

If a restaurant owner raises the price of hamburger you don't have a bunch of Hamburger Eaters of America demanding relief from the cost of their favored food. IF the grocer charges more for his potatoes, the communists aren't boo-hooing on the TV that they must eat cat food for the potatoes denied them.

Owning a manufactured housing community is a business is what I'm saying here. And while the communists argue that since the manufactured housing residents are in a bit of a bind in that it's not so simple for them to up and move should the monthly lot fee go up beyond their ability to pay, this is nowhere near the reality of it.

Because running a manufactured home park is a business, the owner gains nothing if he prices his residents out of existence. What the communists in the MHA argue is nowhere near what happens in reality.

The reality is that few manufactured housing residents get in so far over their heads they are in danger of being thrown out alongside a country back road. The reality is that manufactured housing park owners work with residents who are in financial straits because it does them little good to throw out a resident, perhaps getting no rent as opposed to less rent than needed. The reality is that the manufactured housing association isn't out there fighting to save those soon to cast aside with no place to live. There is already a law to help those few and far between manufactured housing residents in that situation.

The reality is that the communists in the manufactured housing association just want to control how much a private business person charges for their goods and the restauranteur or grocer or even the private school isn't subject to government control and do not forget, ever, that this silly proposed law requiring manufactured housing park owners to justify their rate increases is nothing but an attempt to insert more socialism into our society.

And just what happens when the manufactured housing park owner gets fed up and the land is sold to, oh I dunno, somebody planning to build a mall on the property? This is exactly the result when un-intelligent people allow control of free market pricing.

Senate bill 205 would have the owners of manufactured housing parks have to justify when their annual rates exceed a threshold. In this case the bill wants justification if the increase goes over the annual CPI-U of the prior year. A panel of "experts" (ie political friends of those currently holding office and a few of the communists in the MHA) would oversee this justification and decide if the proposed lot increase is justified.

Seriously, is this where we want this country to go?

Again, bearing in mind that the uniqueness of this situation is that sometimes a manufactured housing resident gets into a situation where he or she cannot afford lot rent. More often than not the individual cannot afford the lot rent at all, not any minor increase. Whatever, there is already a law in place, already a fund in place, to help these people. Further, like the apartment complex resident suddenly without a place to live for want of rent money, we do have social service departments to deal with this situation.

Do not be fooled by the communists who find an inch and demand millions of miles. Call your representative and tell them to vote AGAINST this bill 205.

Elections, Primaries, and Such

Who in the world is Alex Pires and what the hell is his story?

Alex Pires

I understand that Pires is part-owner of several businesses in the area, including Jimmy's Grill and the Rusty Rudder. He is indeed an upstanding resident of this shore area and goodness knows we've got no great love for Tom Carper.

For Alex Pires is running against Tom Carper. Carper is a Democrat and has been around since Christ was a kid. Carper is a Democrat. Pires is NOT a Republican. There is already a Republican running against Carper. His name is Kevin Wade and while the Delaware Republican party is a bit fractured at times, Wade is respected and supported by Delaware Republicans up and down the coast.

Pires is running against Carper as an Independent and there's the puzzle.


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Logic has it that the candidacy of Pires will likely take votes away from Wade and in the end, actually HELP Tom Carper.
Even more intriguing, even surprising, heck a bit amusing, are the interviews Pires gave after his announcement.

I paraphrase "We got the goods on Tom Carper. He's as corrupt as any politician in the senate and we're going to throw everything we know out there."

I did, of course, sit up straight and smile at these words. A politico who's been living on the government teat for all of his life as has Carper (and rumor has it that he's not, ahem, the sharpest knife in the drawer) does have a tendency to slide into side wheeling and dealing that flirts with impropriety if not outright illegal. We need to purge these ingrained politicos out of congress and I'm with Pires.

Kevin Wade

Even odder, Pires' few campaign commercials exhort listeners to vote for him or even vote for his "opponent", Kevin Wade.

Damn. How many political commercials urge viewers/listeners to vote for their opponent?

I suspect that Pires doesn't want to win this election. I think he's using the cover of an actual political campaign, however unlikely it would be for him to get elected, to get out some damning information he's got on Carper. Maybe it wouldn't be fitting for the Republican candidate to put it out there though I admit I can't imagine why not. Maybe Pires is working with Wade to spread the dirt and in the end the goal is to get Wade elected.

Sounds far-fetched and maybe it is. But it's certainly adding some sparkle to yet another boring Delaware senatorial election to elect either a Biden or a Carper.

Three of the Sussex county council people are up for election this year: Mike Vincent, Sam Wilson and Joan Deaver. All three of them have Republican opponents taking them on. Deaver is the only Democrat of the five members of the county council. She's being challenged by Don Ayotte. Sam Wilson is being challenged by John Christensen. I am the campaign treasurer for Ayotte and Christensen.

There once was a time when the Sussex county council was revered locally, the body being very representative of the conservative Sussex county citizenry.

The sheriff issue has somehow changed former conservative council people to suddenly up and take command of the very offices us citizens elect. There's only one thing to do when you're abjectly opposed to the guys holding the elected position.

RUN AGAINST THEM.

Eric Bodenweiser has announced his candidacy against Joe Booth for the Delaware senatorial position of the 19th district. Joe Booth too was once a fine fellow who represented his citizens, which includes me, very well. Then Joe Booth got a job with Sussex Tech watching the grass grow and as conservatives across the fruited plains gripe, suddenly they become RINOS, thye reach ac ross the aisle as they slap those who elected them, they consider the elected position rightfully theirs and any happening do-nothing jobs that come along become their rightful prizes of the office they hold.

It's going to be an interesting year here in the swamps of Delaware. It's not easy to beat an incumbent but Bodenweiser only lost by 120 last time he challenged Booth. It's not unheard of and the natives are restless.

RINOs and moderate Republicans might just get booted out along with their liberal Democratic buddies.

Finally, heh, speaking of elections….it would seem that every Republican ED and RD (electoral district and representative district) committee member in the Republican party is now up for re-election. This is due to the re-districting of Sussex county in the 2010 elections.

Folks have been moving into our wonderful paradise of Sussex county in droves, many from New Jersey and Merryland to avoid their prohibitive taxes. Sussex county now has one new state Senator and new state Representative. There is a 6th senatoral district and a 20th representative district.

Even all the Sussex County Republican party executive committee must go for re-election.

It's a hoot. Below the announcement should any of yon reader want to seek a position. Take your choice, they're all up for grabs.

Just a reminder that June 25th, 2012 at 12 noon is the last date to file for any of the positions (3 tier election) for the Sussex County Executive Committee. The Secretary will be at headquarters until 12 noon on June 25th to receive the filing forms for all the open positions.

The election will take place July 9, 2012 at the Cheer Center, Georgetown, DE. (More information on Elections will be forwarded at a later date).

If you are interested in running for any of the positions please file with the Secretary before the date stated above. I am enclosing the same form that is offered on the Sussex GOP web site that can be used to be sent to the Secretary via e-mail or by Postal Service. All the information on how and where to file is on the form.

Please remember this is a very crucial year for us Republicans in DE to have a well filled Executive Committee and in that way we can help our candidates to win the elections. Please take a few minutes to fill out the enclosed form and send it to the county Secretary, Carol Bodine, winning elections for our candidates will be our reward.