LAUREL, De. - It's now been over a month since the elections, that brought in a wave of new faces to the Delaware General Assembly. One of those Republican newcomers that beat out a long time Democrat Incumbent was Sen. Elect Bryant Richardson.
Richardson won his race for Senate District 21, over 26-year incumbent Robert Venables. On Wednesday, WBOC caught up with Richardson to talk to him about his victory, his plans, and about the obstacles that Delaware is facing.
Below are excerpts from a much larger interview. To get access to the entire interview, you can visit www.wboc.com, and click on the Web Xtra tab in the top right corner of the screen.
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Question 1: What is your background?
"I started in the newspaper business several years ago as a reporter. In a few years, I was running the whole operation...
"You're sitting on the sidelines for a long time, you've been watching the game a long time down on the field, and you start to think, maybe I can contribute something to that."
"First year, I'm probably going to do a lot of listening, a lot of learning, and then hopefully I can make some contributions."
Question 2: What are your goals for the position?
"The main one is to do anything I can to improve the climate in Delaware as far as businesses."
"Business is all about confidence and cash-flow. The confidence comes from knowing the government is on your side. That they're not going to keep increasing your taxes."
Question 3: You unseated a 26-year incumbent. How do you plan to fill those shoes?
"I know I surprised a lot of people when I did win this election. But I think the people of Delaware just wanted a change."
Question 4: What are the biggest obstacles facing Delaware and Sussex County?
"I'm going to be on a learning curve. I know that I need to respect the people that are already in those seats. That have been there for a long time. I've got to learn from them."
"We've got to make sure that anything we do doesn't - helps to promote those industries and preserve those industries."
Question 5: What can we expect from the first year in office?
"I'd like to see a little more transparency. I'd like to learn what's going on in the different departments in the state to make sure that - where we're spending our resources, where we're putting our energies makes the most sense."
"I feel good about the people I'm going to be working with and associate with. I'm willing to work with anyone on either side of the aisle that has good ideas that wants to advance to improve the state of Delaware."
