It’s Official: House Democratic Caucus A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary Of BHL’s Campaign
Thanks to Our PAL Val, who has stated that she supports BHL because she can manipulate her. Which is why the current House Chief-Of-Staff is only there for the paycheck while still working as BHL’s operative. On the state’s dime. Kinda what you have to do if the campaign has no money and no volunteers. Since there’s no enforcement, they can get away with it. As long as the Caucus is complicit.
Here is the joint fruit of their labors. No doubt all precautions were surely taken to divorce this activity from their state jobs. Not.:
Take a close look at those who have self-selected themselves as Delaware Way hacks. 6 D senators. 10 D state reps. And James Maravelias’ flunkies. Y’know, 6 out of 15 senators, and 10 out of 26 reps ain’t all that impressive. Perhaps that’s a sign that those who don’t support BHL stand against campaign finance violations and are opposed to unethical behavior. What we do know is that those who have signed onto this event are untroubled by BHL and her husband having shoveled $300K into their own personal bank accounts and are untroubled by BHL’s continuing refusal to release either the so-called audit or the bank records that would presumably demonstrate that BHL put entire campaigns on a credit card.
I suspect that some of you may be attending, perhaps not as willing participants. Please give us your observations following the soiree. If not on the blog, then on the tipline.
Serves as a fine reminder that Delaware’s unions are cesspools and enormous barriers to progressive policies in this state. Fuck them with a rusty chainsaw.
Well, the construction trades and, of course, the police unions.
I still have some residual good feelings towards AFSCME and the teachers’ union.
Yes, the unions that will benefit from progressive policies are progressive. Those that benefit from regressive policies are regressive. In either case they are acting foremost in their own interest, which they will claim is the public’s interest.
So rather than take the position of “fuck the ones I disagree with,” I say fuck ’em all.
Only a far-left winger like yourself would openly denigrate the American labor movement. People like you are a bigger threat to the Wagner Act than all the freakish “conservatives” on the Supreme Court combined. Labor Now, Labor Forever. Fuck you too.
Another intelligent response. You assholes are just full of them, aren’t y’all?
Try to answer what I said instead of hiding behind slogans. Y’all are good at that. Reasoned thinking, not so much.
See, the “American labor movement” is a nebulous thing that’s easy to support. I support labor AS A MOVEMENT. Individual unions? Most of them suck, and none of them puts public interest ahead of its own parochial interests.
I sat there and listened to the unions at the Delaware City refinery testify against putting scrubbers on the smokestacks, which would have benefitted not just the public but their own unions that would have done the installation. They were afraid management would replace them with non-union workers, though, so they said what management wanted them to say. Is that consistent with your sainted “labor movement”?
I could list examples like that all day – my current favorite one is how all the construction unions in Philadelphia are lobbying hard to destroy Chinatown for the 76ers’ proposed arena. Those jobs would exist wherever such a facility were built, but the unions are ever eager to suck capital’s dick in exchange for money – gee, what do we call people who do that again?
So though I wasn’t aiming my “fuck you” at anyone personally before, I am now. Fuck you.
This reminds me. On November 27, I sent the following to Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence:
“Commissioner Albence:
I am writing to respectfully request answers to the following questions:
1. How does one go about requesting that DOE conduct an investigation into possible campaign finance violations?
2. Who in the Department is responsible for, and capable of carrying out, such an investigation? What are said person’s or persons’ qualifications?
3. In the past, the Commissioner of Elections has issued opinions on various campaign violation inquiries. I’m not sure that any have occurred during your tenure. However, your predecessor, Elaine Manlove, issued such opinions. Who assisted her in arriving at her decisions, and are they still working for the Department?
4. If the Department of Elections doesn’t conduct investigations, does it at least forward pertinent information to the Department of Justice?
I thank you in advance for your response to my request.”
No response from Commissioner Albence as of yet. Is he being incentivized to sweep this under the rug, or is he just incompetent? Or corrupt?
Buyer beware! Ya get what ya pay for! The buyer’s remorse will set in on or before 1/31/25. The folks on the lower part of the sponsor’s list may come down with a severe case of buyer’s remorse much sooner. Looking at you Kerri. Mimi and DeShanna., when you sell out there are no refunds.
Really disappointed to see Deshanna on here. What did BHL ever do for her? And what could she promise that Meyer or O’mara couldn’t???
Well, If ever an office was wired for someone it is this one.
Young picking the congressional primary makes a little more sense to me now.
I just want to take a moment to note that we can add Kerri Evelyn Harris to the list of people who run as progressives or champions of the public but fall in line with the Delaware Way at the first opportunity.
Just take a breath and remember what KEH’s opponents were like and be thankful that district didn’t end up with way worse.
True. But I wouldn’t have expected her to almost immediately make common cause with Longhurst.
The word ‘sell-out’ comes to mind.
Eh, be careful what you wish for. It might be harder to dislodge her.
I also want to point out that all those unions except the Teamsters are in the construction trades.
One of the knocks on Matt Meyer is that he’s pro-development. The money for that development comes from the private sector, and a lot of the labor is non-union.
These BHL-supporting unions, OTOH, get a lot of jobs on big public projects. Much of that construction is paid for by government.
Does this explain why so many are so invested in BHL? Keep the public works flowing?
The construction unions get a much lower share of state construction contracts than non-union firms. Since government has to go with lowest bid, it puts union contractors at a disadvantage when bidding; Unless the state has a Public Labor Agreement (PLA) like on federal contruction projects. The unions want similar PLA requirements on state projects in Delaware, mandating union participation on projects over a certain size. Obviously non-union contractors, who currently win the lions share of public bids, would fight to the death against PLA legislation. Carney did a few PLA pilot projects this year which gave the unions a handful of projects to test out PLAs in Delaware. It was pretty controversial along party lines, but it stopped the unions from pushing PLA legislation that year, gaurunteed unions a lot of jobs over the next 3yrs, and essentially kicked the can to the next administration. Meyer and Hall-Long will be a proxy war for Public Labor Agreements on the State’s billion dollar construction portfolio. I expect that Bethany has quietly told the unions that she will support PLA legislation.
Thanks. Don’t they have to pay union scale on state jobs no matter who wins the bid?
Generally yes if it’s set up as a prevailing wage contract
There is no difference in wages of union vs non union labor on most public sector sponsored construction contracts in Delaware. This is because the wages are set by the state ($40/hour or more).
The Union laborer is getting paid around $40/hour and so is the Non-Union laborer in Delaware.
Building trades aren’t as competitive as they would like to be for a number of self-inflicted reasons.
One being their bureaucracy and overhead.
Another is the nature of the union rules. For example, carpenters can only do carpentry work, iron workers can only do iron work, so lots of standing around etc. There is a large degree of inflexibility that they have been unwilling or unable to shed, and that puts them at a disadvantage versus non union companies.
If the building trades was willing to embrace composite crew model, they would be more competitive.
Instead of becoming more flexible with the times, they have to rely on coercion of certain elected officials, to try and impose their inefficiencies on the rest of the state.
Jimmy M is a wannabe kingmaker but really just a two-bit thug, with just as many brain cells as bits.
This is a great list of the dumbest elected officials in the state. Not totally exhaustive, but it’s a nice start.
Kerri and Deshanna – what are you doing? Mimi, lost hope in you a long time ago.
When Val goes, all of these people need to go too. I really think the state will continue to survive without Spiros and Hoffner in office. just saying.
When Val goes, the dominance of Pete ‘n Val acolytes on the most important committees goes with her.
Which reminds me–if you’d like to contribute to Val’s challenger–Kamela Smith–feel free to do it right now:
https://www.kamelasmithfordelaware.com/
if someone wants to be a hero just record whatever disgusting stuff that bhl and val have to say at the event and post it online. you can do it with your phone in your pocket.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser/
who knows, maybe val will say “jew cult” again.
can’t WAIT for that story to go national…. I dont know if val is ready for the spotlight she obviously craves but it’s going to shine really bright soon once the national guys pick it up
Hope she doesn’t introduce Kerri and Mimi as ‘my colored women’.
Is the Debbie on that invitation Tony delucas girlfriend? Debbie allen? I don’t know. But it makes sense.
Like most things the labor movement is not monolithic. There are multiple buckets of categories with some common interests and widely divergent interests. When I was a labor executive which is an eon ago in the 70’s and 80’s I spent a lot of time locked in battle with other sectors of the movement.
I worked for the UFCW which is a service worker dominant organization that represents then and now retail employees, Health care workers, food processing operations and assorted service sector workers. The service sector unions represent a large number of women and minorities and tend to be more progressive. This has led to the Amazon and Starbucks union explosion.
The manufacturing sector with among others the UAW of recent notable success is less progressive but represents a diverse group including a decent percentage of women and minorities. Next, we have the public employee’s unions like AFSCME and the teachers. Again, a diverse and generally progressive group.
Now let’s look at the Building trades. Traditionally a closed exclusive group that controlled who they “let in”. In the 70’s if you were a minority the only trade open to you was the laborers, the traditional bottom rung of construction work. The building trades are conservative, self-protective and anything but progressive. The Teamsters are mostly a part of this category as well.
Finally, we have Police “unions” In my view they are not unions at all but rather protection rackets that intimidate and “lobby” government to advance their repressive agenda.
Ergo BHL is appealing to the worst of the Labor movement, big surprise!
I love when everyone with bad information and opinions help to pass that information along.
I can start with my Union, the Teamsters, to correct some incorrect information on this site regularly. The Teamsters are in all 3 sectors (public, private and building trades). I guess with the thinking in this group, that makes us worse than every other group because we exist as such. The building trades part is the lesser part of the local with only about 50-150 members depending on which projects are going on, but we support the Trades agenda. The public sector includes municipal and State workers which include many municipal police departments (mostly south). The State workers are ones working with the courts, environmental, parks and fish& game. I guess that makes us part of really bad people because we advocate on behalf of those police officers. The bulk of the local would be private (UPS, port workers, warehouse workers, drivers, production workers, school bus drivers and monitors, etc). You might recognize those members as the persons that worked every day during the pandemic while most of America stayed at home to protect themselves from the horrible virus. They didn’t develop the shot, but they delivered them to all the hospitals and pharmacies. The public sure had a little more respect for those Unions and their members while they stayed at home and ordered everything on the internet.
Our job, as the Union, is to advocate for workers, even for those that are not union. Those “terrible Unions” were the ones pushing for the increase in minimum wage even though their members were making more than that. I was in the committee rooms when it was being discussed and almost everyone in there was a union leader. Not many other members of the public including most of the people following this blog.
Let’s get back to the question of why the Unions would support BHL over matt meyers. Why would any organization support a man that has shown through his actions that he wholly opposes the concept of organized labor and worker protection? He treated his own county workers like crap. While creating high paying positions for political payback, he refused to give raises for the people that needed them most. I remember this site saying how bad police are because the chief of NCC was sexually harassing within his department. I agree that doing the things he did were terrible and inexcusable, but you failed to mention that meyer was the one that put him in place. Even worse, he continued to protect him when all the information came forward. That has cost NCC money in lawsuits and all of those that are still in the process. Please make a plausible argument as why someone would support that. If you are going to make a criminality argument for campaign finance violation and not the sexual harassment, your opinion is at question.
Joe, your view that the Teamsters as “exclusive, conservative, self-protective, and anything but progressive” is just shit. Our organization is representative of the U.S. I would compare our companies and municipalities record of inclusion with any other in this country. Occasionally, there is less female participation in some careers that are historically male dominated. Having identified that decades ago, there has been a concerted effort to remedy that. We don’t even pick our members. The companies under contract hire persons from the outside and we only have them as members after they pass the probationary period per their contract. Our leadership is 100% voted on by the varied membership. I can spend so much more writing about the labor movement and its continued support of social and economic issues for the working class, but I don’t think I would change many minds of the group in here that considers themselves mentally and morally superior. It is easier to criticize any group that you do not understand. If you were truly a leader in the 70’s and 80’s, I suggest 2 plausible explanations for your comments. 1) It has been so long ago that you have lost touch with the people and explanations of why things are done. 2) you are bitter because you are no longer part of the group whether removed or voted out. Either way, your comments are uneducated.
Thanks for your perspective.
I think it’s disingenuous to blame Meyer for the actions of a high-ranking police official that took place years before he ever got involved in politics. The police are a political force unto themselves, as you well know. Very few politicians have stood up to police over the years, and I doubt someone who can’t control her husband is going to control the state police.
The fact that you advocate for police officers is
While I can’t blame meyer for the actions of the Chief, BUT I can blame him for the hiring when there were apparently previous issues that were known by him before the hire. Second, when he continues to try to hide those actions once he becomes aware is reprehensible.
The laws are clear as to what an executive branch person may do in regards to controlling any police department. These were set up to prevent any person in power from using that force for their own advantage. Conversely, they also provide avenues to remove the department heads if they are not doing the job correctly. Most of them have contracts with termination dates as well.
I agree that some of the Unions that represent police Officers have some political pull in this State as well as others, but I suggest that they are working on behalf of their members just like everyone else in this State which includes(but not limited to) realtors, medical professionals, pharmacists, builders, company owners, accountants, teachers and so many more. If you are running a Union, you are required by law to represent those members (Railway Relations Act, National Labor Relations ACT, Etc.). A failure to represent is just as prosecutable and a lawsuit waiting to happen. If the general public understood what really happens with the interaction of law enforcement depts., the DOJ, the courts, and the Legislature, they might be surprised at the why things are done a certain way.
The State Police are NOT controlled by any governor.
Please finish that last statement. “The fact that you advocate for police officers is…”
I wrote post that was supportive of your description of the Teamsters representing multiple sectors and that some of the darker traits of the Building trades don’t apply. For some reason it did not post. However, Teamster’s leadership going back to the days when I interacted as a young rep with Frank Sheeren, yea the Irishman when we needed the support of his guys in Supermarket strikes has generally and consistently bent towards the dark side. That I know from direct experience. My position back then remains well known to folks of a certain age. My career ended due to internal politics fueled by bad decisions I made at the time. I was reckless in my actions on and off the job and likely my career change extended my life:) I am a proud supporter of the Labor movement and the cause of working men and women and since I really should have been dead many times over I’m grateful for every day I’m granted.
My apologies if you were being supportive but that wasn’t the post I saw. I believe you when you say that not all of the post came through.
My group has a checkered past from 50-60 years ago, but people keep trying to lump us in with those same old times. It is very aggravating.
Left over when I was reworking my response. I was going to say “is problematic when it suits police interests against the public.” As it quite frequently does.
As you point out, the union is there to advocate for its members. That’s all I said in the first place. What’s good for a union in a given situation is not necessarily what’s good for the public, so I’ll support them only when I think they are acting in the public interest.
Can you give an example?
Of what? The police union being against the public interest? All the special protections police enjoy, particularly in terms of non-transparency, demonstrate that.
BHL keeps on begging. Now she’s worried about some mythical mid-month deadline.
Key portion of today’s email:
“I have an important ask, so I wanted to reach out to you personally. My campaign’s mid-month deadline is tonight, and my team is projecting that we might fall short.
Every dollar gets us closer to our goal – and with less than nine months until the Democratic primary, this is a critical time to build campaign resources so we can reach every corner of Delaware. Will you consider making your first donation?
I’ll drop a personal donation link for you here: “
She sent me a different, but no less disingenuous, plea yesterday:
“Stephen – Bethany’s first GOP opponent has thrown his hat into the ring! Chip in here to help elect Bethany as the next Governor – not a Republican with zero political experience >>
Time and time again, Republicans have shown what public service means to them: taking away women’s bodily autonomy, denying climate change, and banning books – just to name a few.
These policies have no place in Delaware: they don’t empower working class families and they certainly don’t create a brighter future for the First State.
For Bethany, public service means bringing people together to address the real-world problems facing our communities, including the creation of the nation’s first Overdose System of Care and expanding access to substance abuse treatment. It means providing elementary schools with additional resources to meet students’ needs. And it means empowering small businesses by partnering with the private sector.”
I’ll spare you the plea for donations. Suffice it to say that the Rethug is only ‘Bethany’s first GOP opponent’ if she’s the nominee.
“And it means empowering small businesses by partnering with the private sector.”
Does anyone know what that even means? That’s a meaningless phrase. Does anyone that works for her even have experience doing anything other than hopping from one politician to another?
I do think the unions are going to be a game changer here thought. Jim is a pretty savvy guy and the list of electeds there, together, have a lot of power behind them. Spiros, Kyra, Mimi, Deshanna. These are dynamos and institutions. Once they turn on their machines then I’m not sure there will be much you can do to stop them and the power of their influence.
I mean we wouldn’t have county executive Maggie jones without the political force assembled here. That’s a good lesson for Matthew Meyer.
I’ve found the construction trades to be pretty impotent politically. Especially recently.
Tony Tony DeLuca, Dave McBride, Larry Mitchell, to name just a few.
They act big, but perform small.
It seems like a lot of the energy in this campaign is anti-Meyer. I’ve still never heard anyone say anything that’s actually positive about BHL beyond the most basic compliments about her involvement in things.
He sounds like the kind of person who’s less appealing the better you know him. I don’t know him, so I don’t dislike him for anything specific, just his cozy relationship with Republicans.
Meyer strikes me as a cross between our last two governors: not quite as imaginative as Markell and not quite as boring as Carney.
Just here to thank Avi for this:
I do think the unions are going to be a game changer here thought. Jim is a pretty savvy guy and the list of electeds there, together, have a lot of power behind them. Spiros, Kyra, Mimi, Deshanna. These are dynamos and institutions. Once they turn on their machines then I’m not sure there will be much you can do to stop them and the power of their influence.
You almost had me until I read the next part:
I mean we wouldn’t have county executive Maggie jones without the political force assembled here.
I appreciate any humor we can infuse into this joyless race. Sucks to have to choose between two flawed, uninspiring candidates.
And about that list of BHL supporters, some are surprising but what is also telling are the many who are glaringly absent.
The construction trades have proven to be no match for the Working Families Party and volunteers from Network Delaware
Hear! Hear! THEY are the real game changers. And bonus! WFP supports organized labor writ large.