Has Senator Dave Wilson Been Arrested Yet? If not, why not?
Senator Dave Wilson was in clear violation of Delaware law, Title 29, section 5954, by using his senate staff and letterhead to endorse Matt Bucher for the at-large seat on the Milford School Board. The smoking gun is attached. h/t Even More Patriotic Patriots for Delaware on FB
FTR – I know that nobody is going to jail over this, but fines? Ethics investigation? C’mon Pete.
Pete has nothing to do with this … he’s a senator.
Let’s not lose sight of the long and bipartisan tradition of incumbents using government resources for campaign purposes. The very low-hanging fruit is the use of government email accounts for one’s campaign filings. A few familiar names over the last decade include:
Steve Smyk, Ron Gray, Tim Dukes, and Danny Short … https://elections.delaware.gov/archive/cddt/genl_fcddt_2020.shtml
Deborah Hudson … https://elections.delaware.gov/archive/cddt/genl_fcddt_2018.shtml
Harris McDowell (a repeat offender over the years) … https://elections.delaware.gov/archive/cddt/prim_fcddt_2016.shtml
Bruce Ennis, Gerald Hocker, Melanie George Smith, John Kowalko, and Harvey Kenton … https://elections.delaware.gov/archive/cddt/genl_fcddt_2016.shtml
Bob Venables … https://elections.delaware.gov/archive/cddt/genl_fcddt_2014.shtml
Nick Manolakos … https://elections.delaware.gov/archive/cddt/prim_fcddt_2012.shtml
Dave Lawson, John Viola, or John Atkins, Bill Bell, Henry Supinski, and Loretta Wootten … https://elections.delaware.gov/archive/cddt/genl_fcddt_2012.shtml
If what they’ve done is use their state e-mail as their campaign e-mail for mere purposes of filing, yes, it’s likely a violation, but minor and possibly inadvertent.
But if they’re using their state e-mail on campaign materials of any kind, those are SERIOUS offenses, and need to be litigated.
As I said, it’s low-hanging fruit.
Thank you.
C’mon Tizzy Lockman, Chair of the Senate Rules and Ethics Committee.
C’mon President pro tempore, David Sokola.
C’mon Majority Leader, Bryan Townsend.
Or is BRAZEN criminality just something we need to get used to?
This comment is not meant to be snarky or mean, but you have to stop getting your panties in a bunch. Nothing will happen. I’d be surprised is a Delaware politician was on video shooting someone a dozen times, then stabbing them a dozen times and then dismembering them and had any actual repercussions occur.
You are overestimating the bunchitude of my panties.
In my defense of hyperbole, every once in a while when I yell “HEY, MEDIA TYPES AND PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO HAVE THE PUBLIC GOOD AT HEART – LOOK AT THIS SHIT!!” media types and people who claim to have the public good at heart actually look at this shit.
Will anything happen? No. But at least the inaction will be happening in the light of day.
Ineptitude is not a crime for politicians- in fact it’s a job requirement
It is indeed a violation of state law. Everybody knows it. I fully expect the Senate Rules And Ethics Committee to address this. (They’re out of session one more week.)
You may recall that Monsignor Greg Lavelle pulled a similar stunt by having his staff send out a political e-mail on the state server right before the 2018 election. Fortunately, Laura Sturgeon rendered any legal action moot.
Senator Wilson may have violated some other law or legislative ethical rule, but I don’t see how there was any violation of 29 Del. C. sec. 5954. Chapter 59, of which section 5954 is a part, deals with the State classified service and legislators and their aides are not in such service, But more importantly, if you parse any of the subsections of section 5954, none of the statutory text in any subsection speaks to the factual situation of using state letterhead or state office prestige to procure the election of a non-classified service school board member. Someone might want to point out the real law that governs in this situation.
Like this, I believe:
“No person shall use or promise to use, directly or indirectly, any official authority or influence … for the purpose of influencing the vote or political action of any person.”
But I’m not a lawyer.
Dave will just Auction off the letter one night when he is hustling low number tags to pay his nonexistent legal bill:)
I’m not sure, but are school board elections considered “political?” They certainly don’t fall under other election rules since you don’t even have to be registered to vote in them.
They are ‘non-political’ in the sense that the parties of the candidates are not on the ballot. In that way, they’re like a lot of municipal elections, like Newark’s, where the parties are not mentioned.
However, they’re really not non-partisan. In Brandywine, where we had a contested seat in 2020, everyone knew who the candidate was who had a Democratic perspective on education, and who the Republican was.
So, I guess the answer is no, but yes.
I understand they are definitely political in spirit, but according to law I am not sure. If the law says they aren’t political, I think Senator Wilson is ok. I would imagine he’s been around long enough to have checked with an attorney before he did it.
No, he likely didn’t. Especially if you know the guy. It doesn’t matter whether the school board office is political per se, what matters is that he used his State of Delaware stationery to deliver a political endorsement.
He is/was perfectly within his rights to deliver an endorsement in any manner that does not do so in his ‘official authority’.
Endorsing someone on his State stationery pretty much defines the term ‘in his official authority’.
You’re both confusing and misusing the terms “political” and “partisan.” Any election is inherently political. School board elections are political. They are just non-partisan.