Perry Mitchell to take on Hocker in Senate District 20

Former Ocean View councilman Perry J. Mitchell filed May 13 as the Democratic nominee for Senate District 20.

Sen. Gerald Hocker, a Republican, has held the seat since 2012. Prior to the that, Hocker was Representative District 38's legislator from 2002 to 2012. He filed to run for re-election March 18.

Senate District 20 encompasses an area beginning at the Indian River Inlet, south to the Maryland state line, west to U.S. 113 and then north to Millsboro and Long Neck. The district includes all of Representative District 38, and portions of representative districts 41 and 37.

Mitchell, 77, served on Ocean View Town Council from 2004 to 2011. In a prepared statement, He described Hocker as a do-nothing senator.

“Hocker has not used his legislative powers to improve the local economy nor done anything to stop the rising inequality in Delaware,” he said. “Too many people have not recovered from the recent recession and are living from paycheck to paycheck and are doing it rather miserably.”

Mitchell said he is running to bring jobs to Sussex County to help the local economy.

“I will work on job legislation for the residents of the 20th Senate District.”

Mitchell said the richest 5 percent of households in Delaware have average incomes 10.5 times as large as the bottom 20 percent of households and 3.6 times as large as the middle 20 percent of households.

The inequality between the richest and poorest in Delaware is striking, Mitchell said.

“If elected, I will have the support of the majority party to implement my ideas to bring jobs to Sussex County and stop this rising inequality,” he said.

Mitchell is married to Jill Goodwin Mitchell, a native of Rehoboth Beach, and worked as a professor of political science at Northern Virginia Community College for more than 40 years, moving to Delaware in 1996.

He has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Connecticut and completed further studies at Catholic University. He is the owner of Perry’s Computer Repair and has also served on the Ocean View Planning and Zoning Commission.

Dr. Eric West, Friends of Perry Mitchell Committee treasurer, can be contacted to send contributions at ericewest@mchsi.com.