Delaware Democratic Party: Chris Kenny Singlehandedly Trying To Prop Up Three Rethug State Senators
From The Delaware Democratic Party:
Finance Reports tell a clear story: Anti-worker dark money is trying to buy a Republican State Senate
Chris Kenny is single-handedly trying to buy the Delaware State Senate for Republicans, and recently filed campaign finance reports make it crystal clear.
In total, Kenny has contributed nearly $500,000 to three GOP-aligned political action committees, with one – A Better Delaware PAC – spending nearly $180,000 in independent expenditures between August 29 and October 7.
These third-party expenditures have exclusively benefitted just three Republicans – Cathy Cloutier, Anthony Delcollo, and Dave Lawson. The filings show each Senator has already benefited from as many as eight mail pieces and two digital ad campaigns, with three weeks still to go before Election Day.
“A Better Delaware isn’t pro-business; it’s anti-worker,” said Delaware Democratic Party Chair Erik Raser-Schramm. “It is a conservative organization that is desperate to thwart future increases to Delaware’s minimum wage, opposes expanded benefits like paid family leave, and in the state with the lowest tax burden in America, is an advocate for further tax breaks for wealthy corporations that would make it impossible to properly fund things like education reform. As they attempt to buy these three Senate seats, Delawareans should be concerned about the kind of legislation they’re buying in the process.”
A glimpse at the 30-Day finance reports indicates just how beholden to A Better Delaware these three Senators are. Cloutier raised just $12,000 into her campaign committee in 2020, while Lawson raised just $26,500 and Delcollo tallied $38,000. All three spent minimally on their own campaign communications.
“Taken together, the campaign finance reports tell a clear and deeply concerning story: these Republicans are willfully skirting campaign finance laws by knowingly outsourcing their campaign communications to A Better Delaware PAC,” Erik Raser-Schramm said. “The fact that these campaigns are doing virtually no political advertising of their own indicates they knew that assistance would be coming from a dark money entity like A Better Delaware and it raises questions about what kind of influence the campaigns had over that messaging.”
As Title 15, § 8002 of the Delaware Code clearly states, it is not considered an independent expenditure when “[t]here is any arrangement, coordination or direction with respect to the expenditure between the candidate or the candidate’s agent and the person…making the expenditure.”
Further, the Code states a communication does not qualify as an independent expenditure when “[t]he expenditure is based on information provided to the person making the expenditure directly or indirectly by the candidate or the candidate’s agents about the candidate’s plans, projects or needs.”
Kenny’s nefarious foray into electioneering isn’t confined to these three races. The K3C PAC, which has spent thousands of dollars on incendiary mailers targeting Kent County Democrats, was seeded with $45,000 from Kenny Family Shoprite stores.
This goes hand-in-glove with the story from a couple of weeks ago in the Delaware Call that prompted Jason to say Kenny was trying to buy the GOP outright.
What I find interesting is that these donations do not align with any claim by Kenny to represent moderate Republicanism. Cloutier and Delcollo might be able to argue that, but Dave Lawson is as retrograde as any Republican in the General Assembly.
A guy who funds Republicans regardless of their actual positions on the issues is a guy who’s buying influence, pure and simple — not over these individual lawmakers, at least one of whom is doomed to defeat, but over the party itself.
That’s what happens with distressed assets.
Since the Department of Elections is useless, I think the D’s, and the respective campaigns, should file complaints with the Attorney General.
Delcollo is a lawyer who should know better. The other two are just dummies.
At any rate, brazenly illegal activity is becoming the hallmark of GOP campaigning. They can’t win without cheating.
I may have a dawg in this hunt, but you can shop–anywhere but Shop-Rite.
The Democratic Party has filed a complaint with the Department of Elections.
Is there evidence of coordination? What is the basis of the compliant?
Well, the Cathy Cloutier stuff all has her pictures on them. And they sound like they’re coming right from Cathy Cloutier.
Can’t get much more coordinated than that.
Question: Are you dense, or just a troll? How about doing a little research on your own?
Ok, we’ll see the results of the complaint. Having photos and similar messaging doesn’t necessarily equal coordination. If it did, many Dem related PACs (like those that flipped SD4) would be in trouble. These complaints usually go nowhere. Calm down El-Som.
The photos are clearly photos that were shot for her lit pieces. I even know her photographer, who BTW is great.
Bottom line, Kenny is paying for this b/c she can’t afford to.
Too much money spent on birthday cards I guess. Lol
Omg no – she spends state money on those! Happy bday, your taxes are wasted with Cathy in office.
What I find telling is that the three Republicans being supported are not ideologically aligned. Cloutier and Delcollo are trying to make the case that they’re more moderate than the party’s downstate faction, while Lawson is emblematic of the radical right.
That indicates to me that Kenny is not seeking to influence the individuals being supported, but rather to signal his intention to become a major funder — and therefore a major driver — the Delaware GOP moving forward.
Imagine trying to be a king maker in the delaware republican party. Better luck opening a ski resort in milford.
I imagine such a venture would involve a sweetheart deal from DelDOT for the land. The developers could hire the firm that built those giant dirt ramps at Indian River Inlet.
They may not be aligned with all the issues. But they are aligned on taxes, eliminating regulations, and slashing state spending for programing. At the end of the day, thats all people like Kenny care about. You can be a xenophobe like Lawson, a supporter of legalization like Delcollo, and a supporter of unions like Cloutier; None of that stuff matters to an old fashioned capitalists like Kenny.
Taxes, Regulations, and State Spending; Everything else is bar talk for the peasants.
They all support the NRA position on gun control.
Good point.
Also, Bar Talk for the Peasants is a good name for an album.
I think that what’s more dangerous than cash and its pretty dangerous, is the Kenny Foundation. It does some legitimate public facing work in the area of Criminal justice reform and selectively donates to community organizations. However a closer look will reveal a cynical effort to leverage these “good works” to gain the cover of a “diverse” footprint. A quick examination of their activities around public low income, school and senior feeding projects is a case in point. One could reasonably conclude that Kenny is leveraging his non profit to gain financial benefit (profit) for his company to the detriment of several non profit’s in Delaware. They use their tie to the business to underbid contracts often under cost. A notable victim is the Food Bank of Delaware and I experienced it directly at a non profit that employed me until late ’18. If you must shop at his stores at least don’t “donate” that buck!
Just saw that Kenny’s Delaware Live website published a retort of sorts to the Democrats’ charges a few days ago. The illustration is priceless, and News Journal readers should recognize the byline; the former features and, later, “local content” editor.
For a piece of propaganda, it doesn’t really show Kenny in the best light, as it ends by repeating most of the Dems’ charges. A counter showed 266 views in six days, so you can’t say it’s really getting wide circulation.
https://delawarelive.com/2020/10/14/dems-attack-republican-supporter-chris-kenny-as-anti-worker/
Never thought I’d say this–if that article had only 266 views in six days, then DL is a juggernaut compared to them. A JUGGERNAUT, I tell you.