Kathy McGuiness Trial Winners and Losers
Winners
David Sokola, Bryan Townsend, Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman – Plainspoken truth: “…a brazen willingness to circumvent the same open government laws and accounting standards she was elected to enforce.” “Any public official engaged in these behaviors is unfit for public office, but especially the state’s top financial watchdog,”
Steve Wood – Mr Razzle-Dazzle took what looked like an open and shut case and created enough doubt in the jury room to beat the most serious charges.
Highlands Bunker (REV & BILL) – The daily coverage was really good. It was a great test case for their style of new media. Treading the razors edge between comedy and tragedy, they won admirers among Kathy haters and Kathy lovers alike.
Lydia York – Probably wouldn’t have been moved enter the Democratic primary for the office of Auditor of Accounts is the current auditor wasn’t so awful.
Losers
Peter C. Schwartzkopf – Even more exposed as corrupt a-hole for his tireless support for his corrupt buddy.
John Carney – Such weak Tea. Doesn’t call for her removal but…“He finds it difficult to understand how the auditor, who swore an oath to place the public interests above any special or personal interests, can continue to serve the people of Delaware effectively given the circumstances,” said spokeswoman Emily Hershman.
Kathy Jennings – Her office didn’t come off great with the win. Does Woods really have grounds for appeal? He sure seems to think so.
Kathy McGuiness – Says it was “political” which is ironic because she didn’t do a goddam fucking thing in office that wasn’t “political”.
Delawareans – We’ve had a self-aggrandizing, do-nothing auditor for years and still do.
I’d classify Jennings as a winner because she’s the first and only AG so far to go after blatantly corrupt public officials. I hope she doesn’t stop.
Good point. And three of five charges is pretty good. I’m probably overly swayed by REV’s early coverage when I felt a conviction slipping away.
The office botched the prosecution and settled for conviction on the lesser charges. Wood ran circles around Denny.
That said, it should end Park City Cathy for good. Not because she will lose to York, I think she beats York. Its because she is going to get impeached once Sean Lynn stops being an obstructionist for some strange reason (his inner defense lawyer is annyoing at times)
How is she gonna defeat York? With very little else of interest on the primary ballot statewide (if anything), D voters are going to see this as a referendum on KMG. I don’t see how she wins. Who is actively coming out to support a convicted criminal?
No one knows who Lydia York is. There is like 70 days to the primary. Don’t doubt many of the sheep to vote off name recognition and she still harbors lots of blind loyalty
Winners: Corrupt agencies which are still free from long-overdue audits.
I think Dave Sokola and Bryan Townsend at best come out even since they endorsed her in 2018.
Add to the losers Valarie Longhurst, Bill Carson, Trinidad Navarro, Trey Paradee (although he took her to task in most recent budget hearings) and Bryon Short. They were also on the list of endorsers along with Schwartzkopf.
Carney at least understood ethical behavior enough to say it would be inappropriate to endorse someone for that office when he was asked back in 2018. I think he’s now saying to Schwartzkopf “it’s your effing mess, you clean it up.”
Good comment.
Carney, though, can’t do anything officially until/unless the House and Senate vote to have her removed from office.
It IS Pete’s mess, and I think he’s trying to clean it up. But when you’ve enabled someone as delusional as KMG for so long, that’s no easy task.
Seems like Governor can do it himself…
ARTICLE XV. MISCELLANEOUS
§ 6. Behavior of officers; removal for misbehavior or infamous crime.
Section 6. All public officers shall hold their offices on condition that they behave themselves well. The Governor shall remove from office any public officer convicted of misbehavior in office or of any infamous crime.
Calling Governor Milquetoast.
Seems like he can get an easy win…. You know…considering his endorsement…. He will get to talk out of both sides of his Milquetoast mouth. Just like Speaker Pete and Our Pal Val…
I seem to recall that then-AG Oberly ruled that Herman ‘The Lesser’ Holloway was eligible to run for office b/c misdemeanors did not constitute ‘infamous crimes’.
But ‘misdemeanors’ are indeed cited as reasons for removal if the General Assembly moves to remove her.
Man, that bleeping constitution needs some clarifying.
I think that, because of these seemingly-conflicting elements in the Constitution, the most likely outcome will be an Alphonse-Gaston standoff where the House pushes for the Governor to act, and the Governor pushes for the House to act.
That way, nobody acts.
Agree 100%. I really think we all need to vote the whole lot out in order to get the most “commonsense” ethics reform…. I have an idea…lets put Our PAL Val on an ethic committee…. Like the UN puts Iran on a Women’s Right Board.
Our PAL Val chairs the House Ethics Committee, hardly a suitable role for Delaware’s least ethical legislator.
Yet one more reason why the Kop Kabal needs to go.
“The Governor shall remove from office any public officer convicted of misbehavior in office or of any infamous crime.”
That sound unambiguous to me with no mention of the legislature. Though I think Carney has found cover from some lawyer who asserts that he somehow would need a supermajority vote in both houses.
Actually, Charlie Oberly may have gotten that one right. How can a crime be infamous if everybody’s doing it?
One of our eagle-eyed barristers set me straight on Charley Oberly and Herman ‘The Lesser’ Holloway:
“Herman Holloway Jr. was ruled eligible to seek his former seat by Judge Bifferato, not by Charlie Oberly. On June 25, 1992, Judge Bifferato ruled that Junior’s conviction on personal income tax evasion, two counts of attempting to evade or defeat tax and two counts of making false statements, all misdemeanors, were not convictions for ‘infamous crimes’ as contemplated by the Delaware Constitution, and therefore did not prevent him from serving in the General Assembly.
It bears mention that the Attorney General’s office, headed by CMO3, argued on behalf of the Department of Elections that Holloway should not be able to run, with Malcolm Cobin, a deputy attorney general long assigned to election matters, arguing the case.”
In other words, Oberly DID get it right.
Agree about REV’s trial coverage. It’s the kind of thing local newspapers used to do (but without the humor).
Much appreciated.
Also, shout out to the man behind the scenes, Karl F Stomberg. While coordinating the start of several insurgent campaigns and supporting Working Families Party legislators through the end of the GA session, he got our daily episodes up for everyone’s morning commute. Some recordings didn’t wrap till 11 p.m. and they were posted at 8 a.m.
Plus regular Friday episodes with Shyanne Miller, Sophie Phillips and Madinah/Kristen W. Karl’s going to be a prominent leftist organizer in this state for a very long time.
Karl rocks. He and the WFP give me hope that we will soon elect a sufficiently-progressive House.
Reply to Puck:
I think we can all agree that ff there is a fig’s leaf worth of cover anywhere to be found that chickenshit motherfucker will use it.
What king should do is first thing Tuesday she should start auditing every cabinet secretary to see who has family working in their department and how they were hired, what their pay is and the hours they work.
Do you mean McGuiness? Until she is removed? Very unlikely. Whatever little bit of leverage she still has flows from her Delaware Way bonafides. She wouldn’t piss that away.