In Delaware, after a hard Democratic primary race, state treasurer Jack Markell beat Lt. Gov. John Carney, Jr. to take on Bill Lee (Republican), Mike Protack (Independent) – who dropped out of the race on September 13, and Jeff Brown (Blue Enigma). Since 1992, the Governor’s seat has been in the Democrat's hands and according to the Cook Report, the most competitive part of this race to succeed Gov. Minner was to be the Democratic primary. A brief review of the news stories concerning the candidates indicates that Markell’s biggest opponent and critic will remain former Democratic primary candidate Carney.
In Georgia, Rep. John Lewis will seek an unopposed re-election as representative to Georgia’s 5th Congressional District – a post he has held since 1986. In Indiana, the race for the 8th Congressional District appears to be non-competitive with incumbent Rep. Brad Ellsworth (Democrat) favored over rival Greg Goode (Republican). The most competitive race will most likely be for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District; Chris Hackett (Republican) is challenging incumbent Rep. Chris Carney (Democrat). RealClearPolitics sums up the challenge this way:
Rep. Christopher Carney represents a Northeast Pennsylvania district that gave President Bush 60% of the vote in 2004, and where Barack Obama did notably poorly in the state's April primary. That's not a recipe for success for a Democrat, especially one who won by challenging an incumbent with serious personal problems. Republicans are enthusiastic about businessman Chris Hackett (R), who won a competitive primary. (source)
Notably, all of the campaigns have active functioning websites, though in design, style and use of new media tools – video, blogs, social networks, etc. – the sites vary by party and challenger status, Democrat’s and incumbent’s use a higher level of design in their sites. In the case of the Delaware Governor’s race, neither the Democrat nor the Republican is the incumbent and both sites are similar in design. The exception is the website for the Blue Enigma Party and their candidate for governor, Jeff Brown. It is nothing more than an online brochure with no way to engage the candidate or participate in the campaign, other than email and a link to register as a voter.
