Atkins still alive as write-in candidate
Voters in Delaware’s 41st district will go the polls on Saturday to choose between three official candidates to fill the state representative spot left vacant by Republican John C. Atkins early this year when he resigned amid controversy.
Republican Greg Hastings, Democrat Lynn Bullock and Independent Party candidate John Burton will vie for the spot Saturday, potentially against Atkins himself.
John Townsend, a 38th District registered Democrat, is leading an extensive write-in campaign to get Atkins re-elected after he left the state House of Representatives earlier this year in the wake of an Oct. 29, 2006, drunk-driving stop and domestic violence charge, and ensuing ethics controversy.
Atkins did not return calls to his home and has made no official statement regarding the write-in campaign, though he did recently issue a letter thanking his constituents for their support over the years and reviewing achievements.
Hastings, who could be hurt most by the former representative having a presence in Saturday’s polling — since they are both in the same party — said he is not worried about Atkins’ potential impact on the election.
“I can’t be (worried) because quite frankly I don’t have time to be,” Hastings said. “We have a lot to do and we’re just focused on our campaign and going as hard as possibly can.”
Hastings, a husband and father of two sons, served on the Indian River School Board from 1993 to 2005, and in his two-year stint as president oversaw the approval of the largest capital improvement referendum in school history, to build new Sussex Central and Indian River high schools.
The Delaware Technical and Community College Graduate also owns a home design business in Ocean View, G.A. Hastings and Associates. Hastings emphasized Tuesday the need to reduce pollution and improve air quality in the area and protect Sussex land owners’ property rights.
“Simply put, I am passionate about serving — always have been since my early adult life. I enjoy being involved,” Hastings said. “I enjoy helping others and serving others.”
His Democratic opponent is also a longtime public servant. Bullock retired as a captain in the Delaware State Police after serving for 20 years and then moved into politics, serving for nine years — eight of them as mayor — on Millsboro’s town council.
Since his retirement from the state police, Bullock has also worked for 16 years as an emergency planner for Sussex County. Bullock, who cited traffic and energy issues as the biggest for the area, said he plans to go to Dover with an “open door-, phone-number-published-type career.
“This is just another way of continuing public service,” Bullock said. “That’s what my whole life has been. I’m going to Dover with no agenda. I don’t have a personal agenda. My plan is to serve the constituency in the 41st.”
Independent candidate John Burton, an Army veteran, is not as well-versed in public service but said that fact is negated by his lifelong residency in the Millsboro area and familiarity with the people.
He also cited traffic and runaway development without supporting infrastructure as the biggest issues facing the 41st district.
“I’ve lived here all my life; I’ve grew up on a farm,” Burton said. I’ve seen the changes here and I got to the point where I didn’t like it. They weren’t for the better.”
All three candidates might have trouble, though, in a district where Atkins received nearly 63 percent of the vote last year and a even larger percentage in 2004, to begin his second term.
Townsend said Atkins received a “raw deal,” through press coverage and committee hearings in Dover regarding the incidents on Oct. 29, 2006.
In a House Ethics Committee report issued Feb. 23, Atkins was determined to have broken House of Representatives rules and put the House into “disrepute” by using his legislator identification card to avoid a drunk-driving charge, disregarding officers’ instructions not to drive a car that night, being charged and eventually pleading guilty to “offensive touching” against his wife, and attempting to sway a Millsboro police officer and the House Ethics committee itself.
“He’s admitted that he was wrong,” said Townsend, who has been placing Atkins signs throughout the district and placing advertisements touting Atkins in local newspapers. “That should be put behind him. We should be moving forward.”
Despite Townsend’s claims that the three official candidates are “running scared,” Hastings reiterated Tuesday that an Atkins’ impact is not worrisome.
“I’m going to depend on the conscience of the good people in the 41st and let them vote their conscience on the character and the stands of the candidates,” he said.