Trouble In BOTH Of Dave McBride’s Houses

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on January 13, 2020

By both, I mean this House…:

Image result for Legislative Hall Delaware photos
 

and this house:

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/35759-Tarpon-Dr_Lewes_DE_19958_M62424-40232

Estimated value: $838,000.  Not bad. I wonder if there’s a single residence in SD 13 that is worth that much.

McBride and his wife have resided in that house since 2005.  It was a newly-built home at the time.

To be fair, Dave McBride maintains a residence in SD 13. He has to in order to legally run in that district.  This is that house.  I’m sure it’s just coincidence that there are no cars in the driveway.

Tom Sharp maintained a residence in SD 9 when in actuality, he had moved to Ocean View, or some other beach community. I forget the name. Even used suburban street money earmarked for SD 9 to pave streets in his new beach community neighborhood, two counties away from his district.  Melanie George Smith contemplated renting an apartment after having moved away from her district so that she could technically run again. Some ethical watchdogs, including the State Chair, called her out on it.

Bill Oberle and I’m sure many others have done the same thing.  Some, understandably, have beach houses. Not to be confused with an $838K manse in a gorgeous part of Lewes.

The voters in SD 13 now have the opportunity to decide whether they’d rather have a senator who, for all intents and purposes, is living comfortably in Lewes and has lived comfortably in Lewes since 2005, or a young professional woman who is deeply involved in the community.

Well, we started with the second house first. Let’s talk about Legislative Hall and view the quandaries facing the erstwhile President Pro-Tem. McBride’s hold on leadership becomes more tenuous with each election cycle as (a) more progressives enter the caucus, and (b) Nicole Poore, who has far surpassed Val Longhurst as Dover’s #1 backstabber, plots and schemes in the wings. She is abetted by Tony DeLuca’s Significant Other, who now works only for her. (BTW, there’s a subtext here.  Neither DeLuca nor the ethically-bankrupt Nancy Cook have ever stopped seeking to influence events in the Hall. The influence of both would decrease precipitously if progressives took control of the Caucus.  More about Cook tomorrow.) 

So, even were he to run for, and win, reelection, he increasingly finds himself surrounded.  If he runs for reelection, will he start this session by unbreaking the solemn promise he broke, and allow the gun bills to be voted on? Will he unbury the minimum wage bill he buried, and allow it to be released to the full body?  Regardless of what he does, he will either piss off donors or constituents.   Constituents, BTW, who he has already pissed off?  Where does Stephanie Hansen’s sham ‘gun summit’ figure in all of this? Was this designed to be a fig leaf from Hansen to McBride and Poore, as in ‘We’re engaging in productive discussions, so any consideration of gun bills is premature’?  Will his “#2”, Nicole Poore, abandon him if/when it looks like he’s gonna lose in September? That’s a rhetorical question. Of course she will. If she hasn’t already. Will progressives increasingly challenge his beleaguered leadership? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

Well. I’d planned to weave all of this into tomorrow’s (It’s ba-a-a-ck!) General Assembly Pre-Game Show.

Getting this off my chest gives me more space to set my sights on other deserving targets. That’s a tease, and this is a wrap.

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Comments (24)

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  1. RE Vanella says:

    This is a wholesome post.

  2. Bane says:

    El Som. He is so blatant with his residency scheme. Word on the street is, his son graduated from Cape Henlopen High School a couple years ago. The same person who told me that swears they bumped into his wife at the polls voting for Pete in 2016. How is this allowed!?!

    • Stewball says:

      Voter registration records are public in Delaware. Would be easy to check where she’s registered if you knew her first name.

      • Jason330 says:

        Spouse: Margaret

        • Stewball says:

          A quick Google search shows Mrs. McBride seems to be registered to vote at the Lewes address and appears to have been so for a good number of years. If we can figure this out, a reporter should be able to as well. And it should be a story that the wife of the Senate President Pro Tem isn’t registered to vote in his district. By the way, I don’t know if there is anything named in McBride’s honor in his district but there is something named for him at Cape Henlopen State Park – in Lewes!

  3. Jason330 says:

    The $838,000 estimate is from 1985, Zillow pegs the McBride mansion on Tarpon Drive at $1,123,230.

    A comparable mansion sold on McBride’s street for $1,275,000
    on 10/03/18

  4. RE Vanella says:

    Drop out, Dave. You ain’t up for it. We’re going to grind your old ass into the dirt. You’re a soft rich dude. You cannot handle this. Save your dignity.

    Or not. I mean it’s great content for me, so.

    • Jason330 says:

      Wholesome. That appeal should work. Awaiting McBride’s inevitable drop any minute now. Also Take the poll->

      • RE Vanella says:

        hehe…. it’s true tho…

        I can’t answer the poll because I couldn’t care less where the dude lives as long as he will no longer a member of the Delaware General Assembly and hence will not have a “district”.

  5. mediawatch says:

    If he can survive 2020, Betcha there’s a way to for the redistricting committee to draw a thin line along the Route 1 right of way from Lewes to New Castle so both of McBride’s homes can be in the same district.

  6. jason330 says:

    Three homes are listed for sale on the street where McBride resides, all of them listed for over $1.1 million

  7. jason330 says:

    Point of Order – Since Ernie Lopez is McBride’s Senator, does McBride call Lopez when his potholes aren’t getting fixed?

  8. PointerOuter says:

    How come you haven’t done this with Cloutier yet? Only vague mentions of her living outside her district with zero proof.

    • Jason330 says:

      What’s her real address? I don’t mind outing people like McBride and Cloutier on stuff like this.

      • PointerOuter says:

        I’m all for them being outed as well. Just wondering why this hasn’t been done for Cloutier. She is the one actually in a competitive race. Is it because you don’t have proof, or the proof doesn’t exist?

        • We did point it out. I thank Pointer Outer for pointing out that Republican Cathy Cloutier lives with a SO outside the district.

          Are you claiming it’s not true? Or are you just demanding proof?

          Have you asked Cathy whether it’s OK for us to provide that proof?

          I’m happy she’s found someone, and I’ve seen no need to delve into it further. But if you and she insist, I’ll get right on it.

          I mean, seriously…I’m not making this up. And people, including R’s, know it.

    • Oh, please. We have raised the issue. There’s proof. Like McBride, she ‘maintains a residence’ in the district. Unlike McBride, it’s not two counties away.

      But thanks for reminding us about this. I’d forgotten about it, and it deserved to be mentioned.

      BTW, in politics, your remark is what we call an ‘unforced error’.

  9. jason330 says:

    What’s with the four people in the poll who say McBride shouldn’t have to actually live in his district?

    I mean, there is Dave and Margaret, but who are the other two?

    • DELdude, twice?

      BTW, I don’t think this guy is related to Linda Gray.

      I’m thinking more a former low-level Biden guy who has been in losing campaign after losing campaign.

      Someone like…Vince D’Anna.

  10. jason330 says:

    This story has legs. A person who has never spoken to me about politics asked me about McBride today.

    • Alby says:

      And it has been sitting there in plain view for more than a decade.

      Does the media uphold the Delaware Way? You tell me.