Lopez, Snyder-Hall square off for first time

At last summer’s Democratic Jamboree, Claire Snyder-Hall was announced as her party’s candidate for the District 6 Senate seat now held by Sen. Ernie Lopez, R-Lewes.

But it wasn’t until last Thursday - some 13 months later - that Snyder-Hall first appeared with Lopez at a public forum.

Such is the nature of Delaware politics. Candidates can start knocking on doors early - Snyder-Hall began last year - but voters don’t pay much attention to the races until after the September primaries.

Lopez and Snyder-Hall both spoke last Thursday at a luncheon held by the National Association of Retired Federal Employees at 1776 Steakhouse. Lopez’s base is largely Republican and conservative, but he showed he wasn’t about to concede any moderate voters to Snyder-Hall.

In his opening remarks, made on the 13th anniversary of 9/11, Lopez noted the service of public employees and even spoke approvingly of the prime-time speech President Obama had made the night before about the situation in the Middle East. The president, he said, “couldn’t have put that in clearer terms than he did last night.”

When’s the last time you heard a Republican make a favorable comment about the president? Heck, how many favorable comments do you hear from Democrats?

Lopez played down partisanship, saying he had forged relationships with Republicans and Democrats in both the House and the Senate. He has good reason to say this, of course. With Democrats controlling both chambers, Snyder-Hall can and does point to the advantage she would have as a member of the majority party.

He also emphasized his role in passing one of the more notable pieces of legislation, the one “mandating criminal background checks for firearms purchased through private sale.”

It was a tough vote, especially for a Republican. “The gun lobby and the NRA were out in full force against this bill,” he said.

And the pressure was paying off. “It was not going to pass the Senate,” Lopez said. “The votes were not there.”

But, he said, when he became the only Republican senator south of 95 to support the bill, “I was able to give cover to two senators who were on the fence and who in turn voted yes and assured passage of the bill. I did this because it was the right vote to make, even if it was against my caucus.”

Part of his motivation, he said, was seeing similar legislation fail in the U.S. Senate. “I felt strongly that Delaware needed to move in the right direction.”

Lopez also mentioned progress in Route 1 safety. Stakeholders and legislators of both parties, he said, began working the problem, building awareness and beefing up enforcement.

Two years ago, he said, there were 12 crashes resulting in serious injuries, including four fatalities, between the Nassau bridge and south Dewey.

In 2013, those numbers dropped to nine serious-injury crashes and three deaths. In 2014, so far, there have been two serious-injury crashes and one death.

Snyder-Hall also began by recalling the lives lost on 9/11, which took place while she was teaching at George Mason University outside Washington, D.C., only about 20 minutes from where the plane crashed into the Pentagon. She praised the role played by public employees.

She said her candidacy has been well received. “I am very proud,” she said, “to have the broad support of a lot of Democrats, a lot of independents, some Republicans and even a few Tea Partyers.”

“I think we’re up to five,” she joked.

But she’s definitely running as a Democrat and that, she said, “is because of my philosophical commitment, because I believe there is a positive role for government to work in partnership with communities to help solve shared problems.

“More specifically,” she continued, “I oppose cutting government jobs and trying to balance the budget on the backs of public employees.”

While she didn’t attack Lopez directly, she placed a bigger emphasis on party.

“I believe that party matters,” she said. “When you vote for a person who is a member of a party you are voting for that party’s agenda. We have seen a lot of examples around the nation, of Republican candidates who run as moderates and then start advancing an extremist agenda.”

Her campaign issues, she said, arise from what she’s heard from voters after knocking on thousands of doors.

The No. 1 issue, she said, the one she hears “over and over all across the area is the need for more coordinated approach to development. We need to make sure we have the infrastructure to accommodate the 6 to 7 percent growth we are experiencing.”

She’s right. Development is the single biggest local concern. But it’s a tough issue for a state Senate candidate to claim for herself. Land-use decisions, which have the biggest impact on development, are made by Sussex County Council, a fact she admitted in response to a question following the opening remarks.

Snyder-Hall said she’ll work to make sure that DelDOT and DNREC, which comment on land-use projects, have accurate information. She also wants DNREC recommendations to “have some teeth in them.”

Snyder-Hall’s other top issues include improving transportation so people can get to work, attracting more doctors to the Cape Region, and being a strong advocate for education. Election Day is Nov. 4. She’s got seven short weeks to make her case.