The Republican candidates challenging incumbent Governor Jack Markell (D) and Lt. Governor Matt Denn (D) officially launched their respective campaigns Tuesday. Jeff Cragg of Wilmington, seeking the governor's office, and Sher Valenzuela of Milford, running for lieutenant governor, made the traditional three-county tour of the state to begin the race.
"Elections are about choices, and today we are going to choose to make Delaware first again," said Cragg. "I am here to challenge the Governor. We are here to challenge the very questionable decisions the Governor and his administration have made."
"I'm standing here today because those we expected to lead have not delivered," said Valenzuela. "I'm standing here today because we expect to turn the tide. It's time to turn the tide."
GOP candidate for Governor Jeff Cragg discusses his decision to run and his top campaign issues.
GOP candidate for Governor Jeff Cragg discusses his decision to run and his top campaign issues.
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Cragg and Valenzuela stood in front of a truck displaying the number of unemployed in Delaware, 30,611, during their Kent County stop at Legislative Hall in Dover. The GOP candidates for the state's top two offices said they threw their hats in the ring in order to cut into that number.
"[Creating] jobs is a very important issue because I think a lot of the other social and budget issues all revolve around jobs," said Cragg, who owns a Mail Boxes Etc. in Brandywine Hundred.
Cragg and Vanezuela contend that their backgrounds as small business owners give them unique insights into how to create jobs.
"We have an issue when it comes to supporting the major creators of jobs, which statistically in Delaware and the United States is small businesses," said Valenzuela, co-owner of First State Manufacturing in Milford, named the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2012 "Small Business Person of the Year" in Delaware. "They need our help to keep their doors open. They need our help to grow. They don't need our help to put new regulations on their doorsteps everyday."
Cragg took aim at one of the Markell administration’s efforts to bring jobs to Delaware: the deal to lure Fisker Automotive to the former General Motors Boxwood Road plant in Newport. Recently, Fisker officials indicated that the automaker might not build its next hybrid electric model as planned in Delaware if a deferred federal Department of Energy loan is not renegotiated. Cragg says he hopes Fisker will come to Delaware with its promised jobs, but he called the Markell administration's effort to woo the company with $21.5 million in Strategic Fund money an "elephant hunt." He believes state money is better invested in helping small businesses in the First State thrive.
"If we spend resources and time hunting for jobs and bring home no jobs for Delaware, you don't blame the elephant—in this case, Fisker. You question the hunter's strategy and the hunter's effectiveness," said Cragg. "Jack Markell's Fisker hunt has not produced. We cannot afford to tax productive small business to bag the elephant we may never land. The Fisker debacle is just plain bad strategy."
Valenzuela emphasized another issue she and Cragg say the current administration has failed to address adequately: public safety.
"When this administration took office it promised it would create a public safety plan that would—and I'm quoting now—'make every street in Delaware safe,' "said Valenzuela. "Four years later, we don't have safer streets. We've got streets that are more dangerous. We've got home invasions up and down the state in formerly safe communities."
Neither Cragg nor Valenzuela has run for public office previously, but Cragg, a former co-chair of the New Castle County Republican Committee, says new candidates with new ideas are needed.
"If you have the same politicians run election after election and you have them switch from one chair to another chair and you expect a different outcome, you're kidding yourself," said Cragg. "If we're really going to have effective change, you need to change the players."
The three-county tour by Cragg and Valenzuela also included a morning stop in Sussex County at a small business, the Glass Doctors, in Lincoln, and will conclude in New Castle County with an event at the Elsmere Fire Hall.
