State treasurer Jack Markell launched his campaign for governor on his Web site Wednesday night, ending months of speculation and setting up the first Democratic primary for the state's top office since 1992.

With a 4 1/2-minute video on www. markell.org, the Democrat chose the political trail less traveled in Delaware -- the one without the escort of party leaders.

Instead, Markell will face Lt. Gov. John C. Carney Jr. in a September 2008 primary, rejecting a deal Democratic Party leaders proposed -- that Markell run for lieutenant governor and Carney for the state's top elected office. Carney announced his intention to run for governor in June 2005.

Markell, who will meet the press at 1 p.m. today in Dover, declined the deal.

"It's a matter of conviction that Delaware can do better," Markell said. "It's no secret that I've been looking at the governor's race for a while, and I just really believe now is the right time."

Now is the time, Markell said, because of Delaware's poor public high school graduation rate, its sluggish creation of new businesses, its 100,000 residents without health insurance, and its middle-class families being squeezed by rising costs. The state needs bold leadership to succeed in the changing global economy, he said.

He wants to tackle that from the front office, not the waiting room.

"My heart's in this race," he said.

Markell called party leaders, including Carney, on Wednesday to tell them of his decision.

"It's disappointing that we're going to have a primary on the Democratic side," Carney said. "Everyone I talked to in the party hoped to avoid that, and a lot of effort went into trying to find a resolution where we could spend our time and resources against the Republicans and not against one another. I certainly believe there is more that we have in common than divides us.

"Having said that, I look forward to the opportunity to go to voters and talk to them about the vision I have for Delaware and the new ideas I have to make the state a better place -- in economic development, strengthening the economy, improving our schools, making health care affordable and accessible to all Delawareans, and working on a series of initiatives to improve our environment."

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who was among those working to broker the deal, said the two sides came close.

"The good news is we have terrific talent to help lead our state," he said. "The bad news is that a couple of them want to do the same job at the same time."

State Democratic Chairman John Daniello bristled at the notion that a 2008 primary is a certainty.

"To say anything is inevitable at this point is laughable," he said. "The election is in 2008; this is 2007, and a lot can happen between now and then."

Uncommon practice

Democrats haven't had a primary in the governor's race since 1992, when Carper, then a five-term U.S. congressman, pummeled businessman Dan Rappa with 89 percent of the vote.

Carper easily won re-election as governor, then beat the late Sen. Bill Roth, R-Del., in 2000 to return to Washington, where he is in his second term in the Senate.

"Neither party welcomes primaries for major statewide offices between two very talented people," Carper said. "But having said that, at the very least the conversations John and Jack had over the period of a month or two -- I think those conversations may have changed the tone of the campaign and enabled them to reconnect as friends in a way that maybe they had not been connecting for the last year or two."

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said she was disappointed by Markell's decision to run but vowed to continue working with him on issues. Minner endorsed Carney as her successor three years ago, when Carney was launching his re-election bid as lieutenant governor, and is unwavering in her support of him.

While a primary looks likely now, Minner said there are still options for the two, including possible runs for either the Senate -- if Joe Biden's bid for the presidency gathers steam -- or Congress. The future of Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., has been the source of constant rumors since Castle suffered a minor stroke during the 2006 campaign.

While the primary will cause some splits among legislative Democrats, Minner didn't think it would intrude on state business.

"You can probably count on one hand the number of party-line votes we have around here," Minner said. "There was a time when it might have been a problem, but that's not today."

Republican calls it 'a shame'

Sussex County Republican William Swain Lee, a retired judge who lost to Minner in 2004, knows plenty about gubernatorial primaries. He beat two opponents in the Republican primary in 2004 and forced a primary against John Burris -- the party's pick -- in 2000, losing to Burris by 0.2 of a percent.

"It's a shame that we haven't moved the primary back to the spring," Lee said Thursday. "That would provide a chance to heal wounds and restock treasuries. But for both Jack Markell and John Carney, finances aren't going to be a problem. They'll recover fairly quickly there, but it's hard to run a primary between two political heavyweights without inflicting some damage. From the Democratic side, primaries are not much of a plus except to determine a winner if you can't do it in a small room.

"From our standpoint, it's great to see the Democrats fighting," Lee said. "But I think it reflects a feeling on the part of a lot of Democrats that the Republican Party is impotent, that they can go to war with each other and no matter how badly they are wounded, they can still win."

One Republican hat is in the ring so far -- that of Hockessin pilot Mike Protack, who announced his second run for the office in April. Protack also has run for the Senate.

Longtime Happy Harry's drugstore chief executive officer Alan Levin is considering the race.

"I haven't made any decision as of yet," Levin said Wednesday. "It's certainly something I'm thinking about, and exploring all the options and issues that are out there. ... The decision for me is really how I view the position for me, what I can bring to the table and the leadership I think I could bring to the job and the desire to do it."

Lee hopes Levin will run.

"Alan would make a great governor," Lee said. "He's a tremendous executive and knows how to run a major operation effectively and knows what many of the problems in the state are -- especially in the health care field. But he has to determine whether or not he can win the election. Republicans are big on nominating well-qualified candidates that can't get elected."

Records of success

In three campaigns for treasurer, Markell, 46, of Centreville, has proven he can get votes.

He beat incumbent Janet Rzewnicki with 58 percent of the vote in 1998, kept the job with 66 percent in 2002 and won re-election again with 70 percent -- collecting more votes than any other candidate on Delaware's 2006 ballot.

Carney, too, has been popular with voters, winning the lieutenant's office in 2000 with almost 62 percent of the vote and re-election with another 62 percent.

Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams, D-Bridgeville, said he will stay a Carney supporter.

"Jack Markell called and said he was letting me know he was going to be running. He thought I should know because of my position in the leadership," Adams said. "I told him that I appreciated that, but said I'm staying with John because of all the work I've done with him in the Senate."

Carney wants to reach out

Carney has had his hand in Dover politics for more than two decades.

The second of nine children born to Jack and Ann Carney of Claymont, he helped quarterback St. Mark's High School to a state football championship and went on to earn degrees at Dartmouth College and the University of Delaware.

He started working for the state House Democratic Caucus as an intern in 1984, while pursing his graduate degree at UD, and has worked on party business ever since.

"I've been working in the trenches for a long time, and that explains why I have so much support at that level right now," Carney said.

Carney believes the campaign will be "less about vision and ideas and more about who supports whom and who works with whom, and personal relationships with groups of voters."

But, he said, he will introduce his own ideas.

"We're in a very pivotal point in our state and our country," he said. "The economy's changing. Kids are going through school now and the bar is raising for them. They're competing not just against kids in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but against kids in China and India. We've got to be at the top of our game. Health care costs are rising. More are left without insurance, and we ought to make the commitment that everybody has access to affordable quality health care in our state.

"I'll have new ideas, different ideas than the current governor's," he said. "And my experience working with Carper and Minner will help inform the best way to actually get something done."

Markell's corporate experience

Markell is the youngest of three children born to Leni and Bill Markell, of Newark. His mother was a social worker with the state Division of Public Health. His father was a professor at UD. They were active volunteers in the community, in their synagogue, Temple Beth El, and with the United Way.

With degrees from Brown University and the University of Chicago, Markell succeeded in business at a young age -- the 13th employee of Nextel and in upper management with Comcast.

He took his business savvy to the public sector in 1998, defeating Rzewnicki for the state treasurer's post.

Since then, he has installed several programs to increase financial literacy in Delaware, provide incentives for better health for state employees and help low-income taxpayers find better financial footing.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who was a co-founder of Nextel and has known Markell for about 20 years, said he borrowed some of the ideas Markell implemented as treasurer and used them in Virginia.

"When you're talking about being governor, you're really talking about being the CEO of a major organization," Warner said. "With the private-sector training Jack has had, coupled with his service as treasurer -- that's a pretty good set of skills to bring to the table."

In his announcement video, Markell promised to fight for civil rights for all -- "whether African-American, white, Hispanic, Asian, gay or straight" -- and presented himself as a candidate for change.

"We need to raise our expectations, we need to demand more of ourselves," he said. "We can and we must do better. The issue in this campaign is whether we're going to continue along the path that we've been following or whether we're going to take bold steps toward a stronger, healthier Delaware."

But Democratic chairman Daniello said the only winners in such early political announcements are media outlets.

"I almost wonder if you've been blocking out the ad space already," he said.

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Contact Beth Miller at 324-2784 or bmiller@delawareonline.com.
Contact Patrick Jackson at 678-4274 or pjackson@delawareonline.com.