Stephanie L. Hansen to primary Gordon
Stephanie Hansen, environmental and land use attorney and the President of New Castle County Council from 1996 to 2001, will primary Tom Gordon according to unconfirmed reports.
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Thank goodness. Can we PLEASE get Gordon out of there? Why we keep re-electing that guy is one of life’s greatest mysteries. He’s one of Delaware’s greatest political embarrassments, somewhere down a notch or two from Tom Capano, but not far.
I really liked her…until she got involved with Chris Roberts. Yet another ethically-challenged pol.
This has not been confirmed yet, more of a tip than a report.
But it makes sense.
If she runs and wins, she’d be a huge upgrade. I don’t pretend to know anything about the feudal politics of NCC, but I hope her husband’s associations don’t trip her up.
I have learned from a reliable source that she and Roberts are no longer married.
She, too, is in line for an upgrade, and (my source tells me) has found one.
She is tremendously smart, very incisive, and knows county government inside and out. I think she’d make mince meat of Gordon.
That’s how out of the loop I am. Good for her.
I have known Stephanie Hansen for over twenty years. She is not married to Chris Roberts. She has been and will continue to be committed to the residents of New Castle County.
Seems like she’s even more committed to trading up in the matrimony market — whatever happened to her first family, anyway? And while voters frequently forgive serial marriage by male candidates, I don’t think we can be sure they’ll do so for a woman.
It’s not hard to imagine the sort of mud Gordon might throw at her. The tales of her hook-ups with Roberts during their romance period can be spun quite steamily.
“That’s how out of the loop I am.” Jason330
That says it all!
Anonymous, you add nothing and you are about as self aware as a horseshoe crab. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you found a hobby better suited to your mental age in 2016.
Why the put down of Horseshoe Crabs?
Horseshoe crabs are the original bluebloods.
Maggie’s Mom: She WAS married to Chris Roberts. You’re not saying that they were never married, are you?
Look, I’m inclined to support her. But putting out statements that are factually correct but clearly deceiving do her no favors.
Who cares who she was married to? I’m excited that this very qualified experienced woman is willing to primary Gordon with the promise of delivering us from 4 more years of his misery
Now, will a qualified candidate please step up and primary Carney.
@Godfather: She hasn’t committed to running.
I wouldn’t care if she had been married to a horseshoe crab, and I don’t see why it would matter to anyone else. Do all marriages work out? No. And, OMG, a young person may have engaged in romantic dalliances? To the fainting couch!
A person’s character usually speaks for itself. Obsessive voyeuristic prudery says more about those who engage in it.
Jaws, that’s not it at all. Fact is that Roberts was an ethically-challenged County Councilman who may have helped feather his own nest while an elected official.
Specifically, a ‘federal grand jury in July ’02 indicted New Castle County Councilman J. Christopher Roberts on charges of bribery, extortion and tampering with a witness, capping a 45-month investigation into his vote on a county housing development.
The former New Castle County councilman accused of soliciting a bribe pled guilty in federal court to a lesser charge of accepting $4,400 that he did not report on his income-tax return.’ Colm Connolly couldn’t make the major charges stick, but he nailed Roberts for not reporting a ‘bribe’ as income.
To me, that raised questions about Hansen, who I had held in high regard.
With Roberts out of the picture, I feel much more confident about how she’d govern.
To me, the analogy is/was the extent to which Pam Scott influenced the decisions of hubby Paul Clark. That was germane, even as an election issue.
A behind-the-scenes Roberts would have raised similar questions, at least to me. He’s gone, I feel a lot better.
Liked your purple prose, though. “Obsessive voyeuristic prudery”? Pretty cool, if completely off the mark.
Ah, the old “I don’t care who he/she is fucking” line.
We’re talking about politics here, sonny. Lots of people DO care, and if you think it won’t be brought up by Gordon’s people you haven’t lived in New Castle County for very long.
I happen to care who these people are fucking because, in my experience, they too often spend more time thinking about who they’re fucking than they do the public’s business.
Who Chris Roberts was fucking, or trying to, led to a Gordon-engineered settlement with Roberts’ aide — a $266,000 expense that was hidden in Gordon’s budget. That was going on in the background to the “romantic dalliances” Hansen and Roberts were engaging in. In short, she spent a couple of years acting, at best, as if her brains were between her legs. The uglier way to spin it is that traded up for a richer model, which I understand she has since done again.
The reason I wondered about her first family is that she included them in every campaign mailer back when she was trustworthy because she was a wife and mother.
You don’t care? Fine. You still don’t get to tell others what they find important.
Don’t get me wrong — I think she could do the job and I’d vote for her. But let’s put off her canonization for a bit.
Geezer.
Your post is a monologue that intelligent people may find amusing, but more likely offensive. The last time I used that many “F” words in my speech was when I was in 8th grade but I have since grown up. There is a term in classical psychology called “Psychological Projection” that comes to mind when I read the comments you have posted. Google it. Apparently your mind is between your own legs and you wish to ascribe your own feelings to others. In other words, get your head out of the gutter (if you can). Posts like yours do the dirty work for the folks you call “Gordon’s people,” so congratulations for beginning the slime war before her candidacy has even hatched.
Stephanie was a young mother with 3 young children whose husband left her shortly after taking office. In order to support herself and her family, and make a life going forward that didn’t rely on someone else for support, she concurrently served as President of County Council and went to law school – all while raising 3 children by herself. She spent much more time devoted to the public’s business and her family’s business than her relationship with Chris Roberts. To suggest that her time on County Council should be judged by her relationship with Chris Roberts is narrow-minded and uninformed. But maybe your post was just to bring it up that OTHERS (not you, of course) might feel that way and we should be prepared. Well, thank you for that public service announcement, you good fellow you.
To suggest that she was only trustworthy when she was a young wife and mother is incredibly galling and sexist. She had her family on her campaign literature because she actually had an intact family at the time. In your post, you make it sound like she somehow just got rid of them as she was “trading up”. What the heck, man, really? She raised them basically alone and under difficult circumstances. The ugliness of your comments is appalling.
And since you brought family up (yeah, even family gets a nasty shot from you), Stephanie has 3 awesome adult children, a son-in-law and a grandchild that are all still a major part of her life. If she decides to get back into politics it will be with their full support as well as the support of her “richer model”, who by the way is neither rich nor a model.
FWIW – The comment above was misidentified as spam by the site’s spam filter.
“To suggest that her time on County Council should be judged by her relationship with Chris Roberts is narrow-minded and uninformed.”
Says you. To me, it says a lot about her judgment — that she spent a good bit of time having an affair with a crook is an awful lot to lay on her ex-husband. She gets a full pass from you, though. Says a lot about your judgment, too.
“She spent much more time devoted to the public’s business and her family’s business than her relationship with Chris Roberts.”
How do you know? Were you in charge of the condoms?
“In order to support herself and her family, and make a life going forward that didn’t rely on someone else for support…”
How do you know? If you’re Stephanie or her press agent, just say so. Otherwise, fuck off. You don’t know that.
“To suggest that she was only trustworthy when she was a young wife and mother is incredibly galling and sexist. She had her family on her campaign literature because she actually had an intact family at the time.”
So? I’m supposed to pretend she didn’t use them as campaign props? If the marriage was in bad shape, that adds giving people a false impression to the list.
“In your post, you make it sound like she somehow just got rid of them as she was “trading up”. … She raised them basically alone and under difficult circumstances.”
So let me get this straight…when she had a family, that was admirable. When she lost her family, that was admirable too. As I said above, some people are trying to canonize her.
“The ugliness of your comments is appalling.”
Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. You really think that’s the worst she’s going to hear? Howazabout you stick to the subject and lay off the messenger? She’s tarnished, pal, whether you like it or not.
“congratulations for beginning the slime war before her candidacy has even hatched.”
Ah, now we get to it. You apparently ARE her press agent, and you’re upset that I tarnished the halo you were fitting her for.
Fuck off, sport. Whatever grade you’re in, fuck off.
Not a press agent, but a friend who has known her for a long time, certainly much better than you. Your suppositions are way off base and I stand by the comments I made in my last post. Engaging your closed mind further is merely a waste of time and internet bandwidth.
Geezer: I find your vile personal attack of Stephanie Hansen to be sexist-no actually misogynistic. To justify your right to judge who’s fucking who in this instance is patently absurd . You certainly might question her judgement in marrying Roberts as questionable(which I might guess she may now agree with), but FUCKING? Your comments are inane, tasteless and inappropriate. On a progressive blog like this,I’m surprised progressive women haven’t called you out and that whoever manages this blog hasn’t taken them down
I really don’t care how you find my comments.
Yeah, fucking. That’s what people do, you know. And then they try to hide it when they’re doing it on the side.
You know why Chris Roberts’ sexual harassment case cost the county taxpayers $266,000? Because the woman’s lawyer, Dick Wier, rejected the original offer of $16,000 and told Gordon that if the offer wasn’t increased he would release an answering-machine tape (this was years ago, obviously) that would reveal that Gordon was — let’s see, you don’t like “fucking,” so we’ll go with “involved with” — his CAO.
And from what people whisper, nothing has changed: Word is that Grimaldi was “involved with” Gordon’s daughter for a time, which might explain why he wasn’t shitcanned sooner.
So your offense aside, who’s fucking whom often has an indirect bearing on county politics. I wish it weren’t so, but there it is.
Yes, taking down the remarks would be the usual progressive response. Go ahead.
Geezer: She was married to him, you misogynistic moron. What purpose and what right do you have to post an unsubstantiated rumor about Grimaldi and Gordon’s daughter. They are two individuals who may or not be DATING and entitled to personal privacy. How is any of this relevant to who;s running for County Executive or the public interest.You really do need aggressive psychiatric counselling
Horseshoe crabs are so cute. I was just holding one the other day on the beach and it lovingly looked at me and wagged its tail when I tickled his belly!
Are we playing marry, fuck, kill here? Because you seem to be trying to distinguish between the first two. You seem to be unaware that the second preceded the first by enough time for it to become an open secret. And nothing needs airing more than an open secret.
I have no idea whether those people are dating, and I don’t care personally, but I find it incredible that you think such a situation would not affect the public.
What was done in the Roberts’ aide case amounted to blackmail by Wier, and it worked. That’s what can come of shitting where you eat.
If you don’t care about that sort of thing, that’s your right, but I’m not going to follow your orders to not care (or talk) about it myself. Stephanie Hansen first dated and then married a known crook. Tut-tutting won’t make that go away.
Wild and misplaced accusations of misogyny, check.
Ruminations on whether the progressive women contributors should take down comments, check.
Policing people’s language, check.
Something disgusting is happening here and it isn’t from Geezer. Ms Hansen made her bed now she can lie down in it.
Who are the liberals here? That digression by The Godfather at 00:14 about whether somebody else should delete comments here is especially heinous and cowardly and I’m not letting it go by without comment. If you think somebody should be censored than say so directly.
I cop to the misogyny, which doesn’t change the facts.
Well, popping around here over the years I believe both you and I would have the same things to say if Ms Hansen were male and her criminal ex-spouse ex-counsel member were male or female. I fail to see how gender has anything to do with it actually.
But if you want to plead guilty… 🙂
Enough women have told me I’m misogynistic that I believe them. I trust them more than men.
Fair enough. I can’t speak for you personally because I don’t know you. I was commenting on this thread only. Your criticism, while vituperative and perhaps crass, isn’t misogynistic. Just because the target of your criticism is a woman doesn’t make the criticism misogyny.
She’s certainly better to look at than he is
Damn misandrist
No human being is immune from making mistakes. If falling in love with and marrying a “bad boy” ~20 years ago in her 30’s is the worst thing that can be said about someone, then I’d say she is in pretty good shape.
The true measure of a person is not by their mistakes but by how they recognize them, correct them and learn from them. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if all of our politicians behaved that way?