If you don’t look closely at her run for Governor, it appears that it has all the trappings of a normal campaign.
If you examine it, really examine it, it looks more like a Potemkin Village, with perhaps one or two people keeping the skimpy scenery standing. Presumably political hack Ann Farley and that guy from the Democratic Lieutenant Governors’ Association. And perhaps Val Longhurst stopping by when she’s supposedly ‘working’ at her PAL job.
We know that a bleepload of the people who worked on her campaign have left the campaign, leaving nothing but stories of a shit-show in their place. We’ve been told that virtually nobody is left. We know that her husband, who had served as her treasurer since she first ran for office, was forced out of that role earlier this year. He was replaced by a so-called campaign compliance expert, who either left or was terminated. She was replaced by a clerk who has no serious accounting experience.
We know that Dana Long has been a walking scandal for close to 10 years now, having advanced from stealing signs to using confidential info on Section 8 residents in BHL’s district for political purposes to turning his inside Section 8 connections into an LLC in partnership with BHL’s then-top aide. (A brief aside: Can you imagine how many signs Dana Long had to steal in order to impel BHL’s opponent to take the step of installing a camera?)
We know that Bethany Hall-Long has admitted to improperly categorizing over $300K in loans as donations. You know, because they had such a hard time transitioning from a ‘mom and pop kitchen table’ campaign to a statewide campaign (although she saw no reason to replace her ethically-compromised husband/treasurer until she had to this year). We know that she suspended her campaign for about a month to supposedly audit those campaign finance records. We know that she hired a one-person firm to conduct that audit, and that said one person had no background in auditing campaign finances. We know that BHL is retroactively submitting updated reports that supposedly will comply with campaign finance law. The audit? She won’t release that. Answering questions? She won’t do that.
Her message? ‘I’m done answering questions, let’s move on.’ Yet another brief aside: Some of the information about her campaign has to have come from people who used to work or volunteer on her campaign. It could have come from nowhere else. We have verified some of it, but it’s time for those of you with direct knowledge to stop holding our coats for us and to come forward right here on DL. If you really believe that her election would be disastrous for Delaware, then tell us what you know. On the record.
Now. Let’s look at the recent Collin O’Mara boomlet in the wake of a fading campaign from the once-presumptive leader. You can’t beat somebody with nobody. John Carney’s enmity for Matt Meyer is well-known. If he now sees that BHL ain’t gonna fly, could O’Mara be an alternative? Sure, if he runs. Al is dubious, but it seems likely that someone wants him in the race. I’m not talking Richard Korn or Dennis E. Williams, either. I think the Leg Hall lobbyists and former Bethany Hall Long supporters are searching for an alternative.
Why? Because they see that BHL’s campaign is in its death throes, likely to expire around the time that the year-end campaign finance reports come out.
Time to strike the set.