Governor Markell appointed incumbent Kent County Recorder of Deeds Betty Lou McKenna to the Recorder of Deeds post, as is his right under Delaware election law when a race is certified as a tie. It seems to me that this Delaware law is wrong, for the Governor can simply do what he did, appoint one of the candidates that did not win, and that doesn’t seem right to me. Of course, it does not seem right to me that we elect a Recorder of Deeds in the first place. And if there was a Republican Governor right now….. I’ll wait until you stop laughing….. he or she would definitely have no regrets in appointing La Mar Gunn to the post. Still, up until Pete Schwartzkopf became Speaker, we Democrats used to care about fairness and transparency, and not just power for power’s sake.
The story is not over though.
Markell’s appointment of McKenna was done to give the court the necessary time to decide Gunn’s appeal. It also avoids the possibility that there would be an interruption in the office’s day-to-day functions, the statement from Markell‘s office said. McKenna’s term would have expired on Tuesday. The recorder of deeds is the person responsible for indexing and maintaining copies of legal land documents, like mortgages.
I wonder what policy, partisan or ideological difference there is between Republicans and Democrats on the filing of deeds, easements and mortgages.