I warned Republicans not to get too triumphant and self righteous last Thursday when it was revealed that Dana Long, the husband of Senator Bethany Hall Long, was caught stealing GOP signs that threatened Delaware with a return to their Depression-causing economic policies. What Mr. Long did was wrong, and he will pay the consequence for his crime. But certain Republican Party officials and commenters here acted like all Democrats engaged in sign stealing, and no Republican ever did. I warned them because, at that moment, I was aware of an incident in Kent County allegedly involving La Mar Gunn, the Republican candidate for Kent County Recorder of Deeds, who allegedly and personally removed the signs of his opponent, the Democratic Recorder of Deeds, Betty McKenna. I commented that I knew some evidence had been turned over to the Delaware State Police at the Troop 3 barracks. We held off on publishing the allegations until I had the evidence in hand and reviewed it. I received it last evening.
First, we have a sworn affidavit of the witness, Ronnie Allen. He testifies under oath that, on October 18, 2014, between 4 and 4:15 pm he personally witnessed Mr. La Mar Gunn remove a McKenna sign. Here is Mr. Allen’s affidavit:
The surveillance video from the Royal Farms is below:
From the video you can see Mr. Gunn’s vehicle pull up to the pump at the top right of the screen. At :39 of the video you see a gentleman in a white shirt walk from the vehicle up to the grassy embankment on the side of Rt. 13 where some political signs were located. You see him remove a sign and then walk out of the camera shot. At 2:43 of the video, you see the same man walking from the bottom right of the screen back into the camera’s view, towards his car, allegedly after disposing of the sign. At 6:00 of the video, the gentleman finishes gassing up his distinctive car, and pulls away, going through the other pumps and moving closer into the camera view, showing the car to be the same car as pictured below in a newspaper article.
I am unaware of any charges being brought against Mr. Gunn. Indeed, while we have sworn eyewitness testimony that Mr. Gunn was the man involved, that cannot be definitely proven from the video. All the video proves is the theft and the fact someone fitting Mr. Gunn’s description and driving and/or riding in Mr. Gunn’s car committed the removal of the sign. So perhaps that is why the police are delaying. Or perhaps it’s because Mr. Gunn is a Republican. Who knows. [Update: I’m told that this case is being reviewed by the Attorney General’s office]. The point of this post is to back up, with sworn testimony and visual evidence, the assertion that Republicans lack clean hands in this matter. For those braying for Mr. Long’s head and Mrs. Hall-Long’s defeat should now do the same for Mr. Gunn.