The slate of candidates is set for the Fourth District special election next month, with the Republican Party announcing its nominee Friday.
The election is to fill a seat vacated by former State Rep. Gerald Brady, who stepped down early this month.
The seat, controlled by Brady for 16 years, has gone largely uncontested by Republicans.
But this year, Delaware attorney Ted Kittila announced his effort to take the seat, facing former Wilmington city council member Bud Freel.
“The state has become even less balanced than it was when I ran for office before,” says Kittila. “I think that there needs to be fresh debate, I think there needs to be real discussion — and I’m for civil debate on these things, I really want to have a real discussion with people about policy choices and what it means.”
While Freel says he’s planning to hold the seat just through the end of the session, when the district moves to Sussex County — Kittila has higher ambitions.
“That’s something that’s very important to me, is to make sure that there’s continuity on what happens and on the policies that I’m putting forward,” he says. “These are not just simple ideas to just kick the can down the road; I really wanna see change coming to Delaware, and I think that’s really important.”
While a Kittila victory in the upcoming election wouldn’t mean Democrats lose control of the House, it could hamper efforts to get some of the more controversial bills passed, such as recreational marijuana legalization, gun control and police reform — all of which garnered support from Rep. Brady.
Both candidates now set off to get the support of Fourth district voters before the special election in just three weeks time on March 5th.
Roman Battaglia is a corps member withReport for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
