WFP will ‘wait and see’ about working with Dems; some still see hostility

By Bradley Vasoli

In November, a Working Families Party (WFP)-backed candidate picked up a Delaware House seat for the Democrats, growing an overwhelming majority.

But those groups’ shared interest in Frank Burns’s capture of retiring House Republican Leader Mike Ramone’s Pike Creek-based District 21 seat came after fierce disagreements between the two left-of-center parties. And while some within them hope that old wounds will heal and the two factions will align closer, they haven’t yet.

Kamela Smith

This spring, WFP’s Delaware chapter endorsed Kamela Smith who successfully primaried sitting House Speaker Valerie Longhurst (D-Bear). Smith was only the latest WFP-backed Democrat to unseat one of her party brethren in General Assembly leadership. Marie Pinkney beat Senate Pro Tempore David McBride (D-Stratford) in 2020, and DeShanna Neal bested House Majority Whip Larry Mitchell (D-Elsmere) two years ago.

And the WFP has opposed other Democrats in primaries, notably Kent County incumbent Bill Bush who prevailed over the WFP-favored Monica Shockley Porter this year.

WFP’s Delaware chapter describes itself as a “grassroots political party building a movement to elect people who will better the lives of the multi-racial working class in Delaware.”

Democratic caucus leadership elections brought no WFP endorsees to the head of either chamber this autumn. (House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris had the hard-left party’s support when she unsuccessfully challenged retiring Democratic U.S. Senator Tom Carper in 2018, but WFP’s vetting team decided against endorsing her this year.)

WFP leaders also registered disappointment when Democratic Party members picked Ray Seigfried and Dan Cruce over more stalwart populists to run in special elections for two New Castle County-based state Senate seats. The progressive outfit doesn’t foresee getting involved in either Seigfried’s or Cruce’s efforts this winter.

Stomberg: Better relations with Dems requires more attention to WFP concerns

Nevertheless, WFP political director Karl Stomberg told Delaware Live he hopes to see improved relations between his organization and the Democrats who control the legislature as long as it entails Democratic leaders attending to WFP concerns.

“I think we’ll have to see,” he said. “It’s a new situation.”

He observed it’s hard to tell how much of his party’s agenda will get advanced in the next legislative session since all members of the state House of Representatives leadership are new to their present positions.

“It’s a completely new leadership ticket, so obviously that is exciting and we have a new governor as well which will make things very interesting but right now it’s sort of a wait-and-see type of thing,” Stomberg said.

The WFP’s top goals for Delaware include providing universal free school meals, passing rent-control legislation, and reviving community workforce agreements (which contain progressive rules for public projects). This year, Governor John Carney signed a version of the school-meals bill that was leaner than what the WFP desired and another bill with progressive support died in committee this year. Representative Larry Lambert (D-Claymont) has championed the rent-limitation bill, which did not get a vote this year.

Neither of the Democratic legislative caucuses provided comment on whether they foresee making these issues top priorities or if they expect close partnership with the WFP.

Should WFP be more flexible?

Kent County Democratic Party Vice Chair Tracey Miller, who unsuccessfully ran against Camden-area Republican representative Lyndon Yearick this year, said she would hope a working relationship between her party and the WFP can develop. But she believes the third party should show more flexibility. After hearing from party colleagues who interacted with WFP members during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August, she concluded that Democrats and WFP devotees often cooperate better elsewhere.

“I really think they [the WFP] have some good ideas,” Miller said. “I don’t however like how they have moved through the [Democratic] Party. They’ve been quite divisive and that’s sad to me because in other states they work very closely with the rest of the Democratic Party and I feel like in Delaware it’s taken quite a divisive divergence.”

And she hasn’t forgotten WFP’s participation in Porter’s challenge to Bush, which she recalled was rancorous. That party’s messaging in Porter’s favor characterized the incumbent as responsive not to “the people [but] corporations and lobbyists.”

“I was very disappointed in their behavior toward Bill Bush, trying to basically remove him from office,” she said.

State GOP’s Murray: I expect Dems, WFP to continue being adversarial

State GOP Chairwoman Julianne Murray said she expects the relationship between her party’s main rivals and the WFP to remain adversarial. She perceives the third party as having proven its strength against the Democratic establishment.

“I do think they’re a force to be reckoned with,” she told Delaware Live. “They were ahead of what I would consider both the Democrats and the Republicans in terms of tapping into that grassroots involvement.”

She ascribed WFP’s occasional big successes to solid organization, adding that their fundraising, even when outmatched by the Democratic Party, can make a bigger difference in a small state like Delaware than it can in many others. (e.g., WFP spent $20,000 on a direct-mail campaign for Smith against Longhurst.)

Murray thinks such robust matchups between WFP endorsees and establishment Democrats will end up moving moderate Democrats even further toward the center.

“I think that as they keep pushing and inching into seats, there may be a disconnect between the Democrat side of the General Assembly and the Democrat electorate,” she said. “What that tipping point is, I don’t know yet, but when that tipping point happens, it’s actually going to push more moderate Democrats more conservative; they’re just not going to align with the Working Families Party and so, in a general election context, that will actually favor the Republican Party.”

In Miller’s view, a more grassroots, populist orientation could benefit the Democrats by satisfying some of the interests that seem to drive progressive Delawareans to side with the WFP.

“In my election, I knocked, I think, on over 6,000 doors over the year,” she said, describing her effort against a longtime GOP incumbent. “The big piece of feedback I got was, ‘Wow, no one’s ever knocked on my door before.’ And these are Democrats, and so that tells me that whether it’s Working Families Party or the Democratic Party, we have to get back to the people.”

What’s ahead for WFP and the Democrats?

Stomberg said WFP association with Democratic campaigns going forward will depend on who the Democrats nominate.

“If people are operating in the best interests of working families, then they should be all good,” he said. “If they are sort of doing things that are hurting working people or if they’re getting in the way of good things, then we’ll be watching.”

All the while, his party plans to encourage the Democrats to rely less on corporate donations and embrace more progressive messaging. Candidates who run in that mold, he said, are largely poised to win.

“When we run on these issues and actually back them up with real results, people tend to take notice,” he said. “All of our people have continued to get reelected even in the face of some pretty stiff opposition in many cases, so I would say that our electoral victories so far can sort of speak for themselves. These are issues that people care about and are supportive of when people run on them.”