News Journal Response

My full response to the News Journal asking about issues affecting the 16th Senate District:

 

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In the context of running as a write in candidate against an incumbent, I would have to say that obstacles to political participation are an issue statewide. I realize that given the size of Senator Buckson's caucus and his general lack of effectiveness he doesn't really have any power to constitute a threat, but since he seems to be climbing a political ladder his radical positions should be challenged by a better and more serious candidate. The barriers to ballot access are such that no one else mounted a more serious challenge to him though, so here I am. This is not the only race where incumbents aren't being challenged in this election and it's common in previous elections across the state as well. The only thing unique about the circumstances in SD16 is that I lived here for a futile and stupid gesture to be done on somebody's part.

More generally the 16th Senate District has been effectively absent from the General Assembly for the last two years. The few bills Senator Buckson introduced that actually became law were bipartisan adjustments to the code with no opposition. The sort of legislation that legislators distribute so everyone gets a turn. The bulk of his time is spent attaching his name to every partisan stunt his caucus tries. If Senator Buckson were serious about representing his district or advocating for the issues associated with his legislative virtue signaling, he would be focused more on finding ways to work with the overwhelming Democratic majority instead of recording truck videos about their refusal to take his caucus seriously.

I'm not a Democrat. I think they get several things wrong even when their hearts are in the right place but I'm confident that a less demonstrative approach more focused on engagement with the legislative process can see a correction to the groupthink that can easily afflict a Democratic super majority without engaging in performative stunts that seem to primarily serve to endear the incumbent to statewide primary voters for his climb up the DEGOP hierarchy.

Thanks for being thorough enough to interview write in candidates. Feel free to call directly for any follow ups.

Ugh

The Democrats were supposed to do this.

In 2022, it made sense.  He was a decent enough Levy Court Commissioner and was in a three-way primary with crazy and another career politician whose incumbency had grown stale.  Letting the Republicans fight amongst themselves in SD16 made sense.

Fast forward two years to the redistricted seat's turn for reelection and Eric Buckson has been a disappointment.  Aside from his folksy charm masking the same old MAGA silliness, Senator Buckson is a tragically ineffective legislature, reduced to complaining on the sidelines about process.

Yet he remains unopposed.  The Kent County Democrats had until September 1st to find a Democrat with a pulse to do this, beyond the deadline for minor parties to nominate candidates.  They didn't, so here we are.

As an independent write-in candidate, I do not expect to win this election, but as shockingly useless as Eric Buckson has been, with his delusions of grandeur telling him he should be Governor like his father some day, and with his insistence on posting signs all over the place without even a candidate to oppose him, I have submitted the necessary documentation to become a declared write-in candidate for the 16th Senate District.

At least this way, he'll actually need the votes.

Write In "Will McVay" for Senate District 16.