Delaware historian offers more Delaware political trivia

By Andrew West

DOVER — Odds and ends between headlines and deadlines ...

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It was good to hear from Dick Carter after last week’s column.

This editor’s short list of observations about past Delaware elections, particularly related to lieutenant governors, spurred some memories from the longtime witness to First State politics. He is now chair of the Delaware Heritage Commission and special projects director emeritus for the state Senate’s majority caucus.

In an email, Mr. Carter wrote, “One other interesting fact: my friend Eugene Bookhammer (1918-2013), a Lewes Republican, was the only lieutenant governor in Delaware history to have served under two different governors of different parties — Republican Russ Peterson from 1969 to 1973 and Democrat Sherman Tribbitt from 1973 to 1977.”

Mr. Peterson — who was known for reforms such as the state’s cabinet style of government and the Coastal Zone Act, lost his reelection bid to Mr. Tribbitt in 1972.

Mr. Carter also pointed out the losing bids of the incumbent Democrats in the 1968 election. Gov. Charles Terry and Lt. Gov. Tribbitt were seeking reelection.

“Both lost — Terry to Peterson and Tribbitt to Bookhammer,” Mr. Carter wrote.

And both races came down to less than 1% of the vote.

“The race between Gene and Sherman for lieutenant governor was so close that they didn’t know who had won until Return Day,” Mr. Carter continued. “I recall Gene telling me that when he and Sherman rode together in an open car in the 1968 Return Day Parade, they still didn’t know who’d won. Gene’s victory was announced later that afternoon.”

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Mr. Bookhammer had aspirations for governor, but in 1976, the Republican Party nominated Pete du Pont to run against Mr. Tribbitt. It was in the days before state primaries, Mr. Carter noted.

As Reid K. Beveridge writes in an interesting commentary in today’s edition, the du Pont and Mike Castle years — they each served two terms as governor — were the last of the Republican era in the state.

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And, one more “did you know?”

“Gov. Bert Carvel is the most recent one of three Delaware governors with a gap between the two terms they served,” Mr. Carter stated. “The other two were back in the 19th century. He was first elected governor in 1948 and served one term before losing to Cale Boggs in 1952.

Carvel ran again for governor in 1960 after Boggs had served two terms as governor, this time winning the election over former Republican Lieutenant Governor John Rollins.”

Mr. Boggs, of course, was a political powerhouse for decades in Delaware. Nowadays, he is well known as the U.S. senator that Joe Biden upset in 1972.