Delaware Political Weekly: The (Truncated) Week Of October 16-19, 2023

1. Delaware R’s Get Their (First? Only?) Candidate For US Representative.  Donyale Hall.  They could have done much worse, which makes me think that they will do much worse:

DOVER — Local veteran and businesswoman Donyale Hall announced Thursday her run for Delaware’s at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

An unsuccessful candidate for state Senate in 2018, lieutenant governor in 2020 and Dover City Council earlier this year, the Republican said she was motivated to run for Congress for those in marginalized communities, as she could empathize with being “overlooked and forgotten.”

If elected to Congress, she plans to use her time in service and as a U.S. Department of Labor program specialist for veterans’ employment and training services to focus on issues for former military members, like expediting the Veterans Affairs timeline, so each receives the care and resources they need.

“We could come up with low-cost strategies that could be implemented pretty easily to address some of the shortcomings that we have. But I can’t stress enough that, if you put a person in a place of decision-making authority that really doesn’t have a background in that, they’re relying on stakeholders that will come to the table,” Ms. Hall said.

2. EVERY D Challenger Should Hammer House Rethug Incumbents On This.

First, the source material. Now, the excerpt that every D challenger should use:

(W)hat can you say about a Caucus that walks out because LLC’s and corporations won’t be able to vote?  In Seaford.  While, like his Democratic counterpart, Mike Ramone appears to have gone off the deep end (pool analogy deliberate), that doesn’t mean that his underlings had to walk the diving board (which hasn’t been recently inspected) with him.  But they did.

Make no mistake, Ramone has gone bonkers.  Reread the Skittles paragraph above. (If only someone had intervened at that birthday party when Mikey was seven, things might have worked out differently. But, I digress.)  Read yet more of his lunacy.  From the Meredith Newman story:

Ramone attributed the standstill to the progressive wing of the Democratic caucus. He felt Seaford is being “singled out, apparently as a means of punishing the city for opposing the establishment of a Planned Parenthood clinic there”.

My favorite, other than, of course, Skittles?

(T)here’s no motivation for us to have to pass a bond bill.”

“As a matter of fact,” Ramone said, “I kind of hope we don’t pass a bond bill so we can get that $1.4 billion back in tax reductions to all the people.”

Ramone can’t be that dense, can he?  Let his district roads, schools, parks, etc., deteriorate b/c LLC’s and corporations can’t vote in Seaford.  Oh, and he’s also threatening to try to screw up an EV bill as well?  Like Logan Roy said about his offspring, “You are not serious people.”

As you’ll recall, enough D’s relented and finally voted to allow corporations to vote in Seaford, secure in the knowledge that the bill would be killed in the Senate,  and the Rethugs took the binkies out of their mouths long enough to end this self-inflicted crisis.  They indeed are not serious people.  Every D candidate should call their opponents out for going on strike so that Seaford corporations could vote in municipal elections.  Failure to do so would be political malpractice.

3. Alleged Walmart Exec Announces For R Senate Run in Delaware.  One Eric Hansen:

Hansen said he’s spent over 15 years working in various capacities at Proctor & Gamble and then Walmart, including Head of Consumable Private Brands,  Financial Services, Marketing and Strategy, and then, Digital Strategy.

He said government needs to act more like a private business.

“In business, you expect the business to get more efficient every single year. It’s not uncommon to cut spending by 3% a year just because you’re getting better at your job, the government never does that.”

Hansen described his time living in Delaware as “years, not generations”, and said his campaign was sparked by the issues he’s seen in Delaware’s public school system, where his two children are being educated.

“Choice allows parents to put their kids in the school that makes the most sense for them, and in a school that allows their students to thrive. Choice shouldn’t be limited to public schools, we should have choice that allows them to send to parochial, or even private schools.”

Eric, can we talk?  You already have that choice.  We’ve heard what you’re really talking about–taking funds out of public education and routing them to private, parochial, and, don’t forget, ‘Christian’, schools.

4. One Month Ago–John Carney Cancels BHL Fundraiser.  It was actually on September 19.  Here is the coverage:

Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long says she is auditing past campaign finances after learning of “reporting issues” in a review while preparing for her run for Governor.

Hall-Long announced her campaign just over two weeks ago and received an endorsement from current Governor John Carney.

Friday, Hall-Long declined to elaborate on the issues or disclose how far back reporting issues could go, adding she does not know how long the audit will take, but it will be shared once they have it.

“This is a voluntary compliance, voluntary report,” Hall-Long says. “The statement stands that I shared yesterday. We’re going to go back and review and share with folks when we have it.”

Hall-Long says her campaign for Governor remains active.

“Full support, I am in the running,” Hall-Long says. “I’m running for Governor in the State of Delaware and want this to be the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”

But she has delayed further fundraising.

“I have delayed some fundraising,” Hall-Long says. “I have delayed fundraising activities at this time, yeah.”

A September 19th fundraiser to be headlined by Gov. John Carney was postponed and Delaware Online reports another fundraiser was also recently postponed. Hall-Long confirmed Friday that fundraising is suspended during this review.

I think she has resumed fundraising, but I don’t know and neither do you. Or, if you do, please tell us.  I know she is still soliciting endorsements.  Raising the question:  Where the fuck is the alleged audit?  Why did the campaign compliance person quit the campaign? Why was there a need for an audit in the first place?  What about the LLC and the role that BHL’s top aide played in it?

Oh, there’s one more question: Isn’t anybody at the News Journal capable of stepping in to cover this story?  I grant that Meredith Newman was a very good reporter, and she has wisely flown the coop.  Word on the street is that Amanda Fries will pick up the beat.  From what I’ve read, she’s a good reporter.  But, for now, we’ve lost the beat.  This is an important story, not just the radio silence from BHL, but about how the most unethical Delaware Way self-dealers are rallying around her.  How about covering it??

That’s all I’ve got.  What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?