Year: 2016

Sometimes voting is an exercise in prevention, as in preventing someone from gaining office; or rejection, in rejecting a failed incumbent. You are not necessarily voting for an alternative, but against a failure. Other times, and hopefully more often than not, you are voting for the best candidate for the job. And sometimes, you can do both. And Democrats can do both on September 13 in voting for Matthew Meyer, and against Tom Gordon, for County Executive. And doing both is necessary to save our state and county Democratic Party. Delaware, right now, is a one party state. Especially in New Castle County, which is more Democratic than Sussex County is Republican. The danger of one party states, or one party counties, is that they tend to become corrupt and abusive. And that is when the one party of the one party state collapses, either through the weight of its own corruption, or because outside forces have become strong and popular enough to depose him. Twice now, Tom Gordon is the leading indicator of that trend. You would have thought we would have learned our lesson the first time. He previously served two terms, from 1997 until 2004, until he was forced out during a federal corruption investigation during his second term. Gordon and his chief administrative officer, Sherry Freebery, were indicted and accused of engaging in a criminal enterprise that included using county police officers to campaign for candidates of their liking. Further, Freebery was accused of accepting a "loan" of more than $2 million from a county landowner who needed county approval for a golf course project. It was also alleged that the county settled a sexual harassment lawsuit to avoid public disclosure of a sex scandal that included intimate relations between Gordon and Freebery. Gordon and Freebery had been charged with racketeering, wire fraud and mail fraud. In the end, however, the prosecutions failed to eradicate the cancer that was and is Gordon. Freebery admitted to lying on a bank loan, a felony, and Gordon pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to provide accurate tax information for two employees who performed political work on county time. And Gordon found his way back into county government by defeating an ethically challenged Paul Clark in 2012. County voters took a chance that Gordon had changed and learned his lesson. They took a chance that he would bring back the roaring 90's without the corrupt taint. They were wrong.