A Not-So-Casual Stroll Through The Annual Campaign Finance Reports
Bethany Hall-Long’s statement is some kinda weird. I hope somebody is investigating it. She supposedly ‘raised’ $829K, an amazing amount. However, when you go through the statement, you find that $540,000 of that was transferred from her other account, her Lt. Governor’s account. Which raised over $440K this year. Now I know that you can transfer from one account to another. However, this has the effect of enabling people to contribute to her Lt. Gov. account in 2023, then have the money transferred to her Gov. account, thus evading the campaign finance limits. That can’t be legal, can it? Not to mention that, according to her Lt. Gov. account, she kept upping her own contributions to $191K, then transferred it. I’m not a forensic accountant, and I know that neither is the person BHL hired to do her phony ‘audit’. but I know financial trickery when I see it. It’s about time for the AG to do something. Her entire campaign is based on evading the financial campaign laws.
Yep, Our PAL Val starts out the year with a massive war-chest of around $159K. She’ll need all of it and then some to turn back the challenge of Kamela Smith in RD 15 and to get all of her Mindless Minions in the caucus reelected.
Is Karen Hartley-Nagle eating her way through her campaign contributions? She raised $10,715, also lent her campaign $22K. Ya just gotta check out those expenditures:
4 meals at the Bellevue Diner; 1 meal at the Metro Diner; 1 meal at Mrs. Robino’s; 5 meals (or something) at The Legend Restaurant & Bakery; A $443 tab at Appleby’s; plus a $3652 tab at Carmen’s Kitchen. Leaving her a year-end balance of about $13K, with that $22K in loan liability. I can’t even…but at least she’s still eating.
In contrast, a pretty darn impressive report from Marcus Henry, who is running for NCC Executive against KHN. $45K raised, plus $200K in loans. Almost all donors from in-state.
Branden Fletcher’s campaign finance statement reads like you’d hope and expect a first time candidate’s statement to read. Raised $15K. Spent $3500. Prudent. I’m calling it–he’s the next State Rep from RD 3.
As anticipated, Sarah McBride raised a bleepload of money for her congressional race. Although the official federal numbers won’t be released until Jan. 31, her campaign spilled the beans–‘She closed the end of 2023 and Q4 with $1.23 million raised and over $850,000 on hand.’ Not gonna lie, I legit feel sorry for Eugene Young.
In contrast, Velda Jones-Potter has a closing balance of slightly over $21K at year’s end. Even that’s misleading, though, as that balance includes over $19K in loans. BTW, nice to know that David Grimaldi is still around as he ponied up $600.
The Kyle Evans Gay Lt. Governor campaign is looking like a juggernaut–$221K raised, $182K cash on hand. Maybe BHL should offer to change places with her on the ticket?
Sherry Dorsey Walker, WTF? OK, I’m confused. (Insert joke here). Rep. Dorsey Walker has two committees–one is her committee for state rep, the other is her committee for Lt. Governor. She has just posted both reports. It looks to me that she’s included all the contributions she’s collected for her LG run in the report for her state rep committee. Started the year about $25K in the bank, raised a respectable (for Lt. G) $37K, and ended the year with over $45K in the bank. If you bring up her report for her committee for Lt. Governor, which was formed on Oct. 27, 2023, you’ll see zeroes across the board. Zero starting balance, zero funds raised, zero expenditures. Look for amended reports in 3-2-1…
Nick Beard has raised about $26 K in her challenge to Michael Smith in RD 22. I think that’s a great number.
Marty Rendon has raised $10,700 in his RD 14 bid, plus has lent the campaign $22,678.
Monica Shockley Porter has raised over $8500, a good number for a campaign that filed on July 28. She’s challenging Bill Bush, so, well, here. After all, she’s one of the best and brightest candidates running this year.
Tracey Miller, who is challenging Rep. Lyndon Yearick in RD 34, raised an encouraging $8600, and has spent prudently. This is my darkhorse race of the year.
David Lamar Williams is the only donor to his quixotic campaign for Lt. Governor.
Serial Bloviator Colin Bonini hasn’t raised Dollar One for his campaign to be Register of Wills of Kent County.
Happy to see that Sen. Russ Huxtable raised over $38K this year, and has about $42 K in the bank. His presumed R opponent Kim Hoey Stevenson has raised $6870, which doesn’t suck.
As you might expect, Kathy McGuiness’ campaign donated $300 to Bethany Hall-Long.
Anyone doubting that Rep. Minor-Brown is now a total captive of special interests should check out her report. A total sell-out, befitting her leadership position.
Great to see former State Rep. David Bentz donating $600 to Marie Pinkney. He is class all the way.
Everyone says that Ol’ Lumpy Carson ain’t runnin’ again. Didn’t stop him from collecting almost $20K from the Special Interest Usual Suspects in 2023. Perhaps he has a burning desire to expand his pickaninny collection…not to mention the $650 he donated to BHL.
Someone ought to take a look at James Taylor’s campaign report. I did. Instead of itemizing expenses, he listed $1975 in expenditures to–his campaign committee. He also lists a shitload of loans to his campaign–otherwise he’d have a negative balance. Looks hinky to me.
What’s Mike Houghton up to? A big D fundraiser, strong supporter of both Carney and BHL. Anyway, he’s filed something called PAC302. Dumped in $60K of his own money. Spent $15K on a polling firm that has done work for some Delaware D politicos. Gee, you don’t suppose that the firm is behind the latest BHL push poll, do you? No, it couldn’t be the case. After all, PAC’s like this and candidates can’t collude, and BHL’s people put out a press release regarding the poll.
Looks like Kathy McGuiness has her own little PAC–Prescription For Change. She has played the role of a pharmacist in the past, get it? One $500 contribution all year–from Kathy McGuiness. Oh, and she paid out $231.90 to herself. Perhaps the PAC was supposed to be called Prescription For Chump Change.
Somehow Michael Brown, who may or may not still be suing the City Of Wilmington for age discrimination (I submit it’s ‘incompetence discrimination’), has managed to plunge his campaign for NCC Council District 7 some $10,850.42 into debt. Proving my point.
The FAKE Michael Smith (RD 21) really raised a bunch of money. However, you won’t believe how little of it comes from Delaware. A shitload of it from Cali. You really ought to check it out. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that large a proportion from (way) out of state. Has about $25K on hand.
The REAL Michael Smith (RD 22) ended the year with about $41K in the bank.
Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro raised an impressive $98K. Kinda makes you wonder if he is looking to run for something else moving forward. BTW, looks like Roger Roy has moved to Naples FL. I mean, why shouldn’t he?
Gotta move on. Still waiting for a few reports. Any updates will appear in the comments section.
Not much yet but Marty Rendon posted with 31,500 on hand
Since today is the filing deadline, the reports we don’t yet see are b/c Department of Elections hasn’t received them yet. And/or some candidates are missing the deadline.
I’ve figured out how to order them by date of filing, so we’re up to date as of now…
Did you find an annual report for 2023 that was filed by Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign committee related to her runs as Lt. Gov.? (Committee to Elect Bethany Hall-Long), I could not find one posted on the DoE website,
There are two active committees for BHL. One is her long-standing committee that would cover the years she’s been Lt. Governor.
The other is the one for her run for Governor.
Neither report has surfaced yet. Although, as you know, there’s a shitload of ‘amended reports’ dating from 2022 on back.
But, yes, she needs to file reports for both committees. Can’t wait to see how much she paid the non-auditor auditor for the non-audit of her previous campaigns…
Have to run some errands. If you spot anything newsworthy as new reports are released, please post it here…
Curious to see the report for Mike Smith in the 21st District… he mentioned he raised $21,000 as of September 2023, in a Facebook post. I am curious to see how much of that money came from the 21st….and/or via self-loan.
Always good to check that out. What’s really important is how much the campaigns have raised from contributions.
I’m also curious to see what the REAL Michael Smith (22nd) has raised as his challenger has raised about $26K. That’s a super-impressive total for a first-time legislative candidate who is not bankrolled by the Special Interests.
Gotta head out for a couple of hours. Please cover for me until I get back.
Well the reports for both Mike Smiths are up now. Time to do some digging.
Someone should tally the 21st’s Mike Smith out of state donations….out of curiosity.
How can Bonini fail with his campaign promise “I will register zero wills!”
Serial candidate Monique Johns is back for her 187th run for office….NCC President again…. filing with a whole 987 dollars….
Whoa! Looks like a PAC is essentially THE campaign surrogate for BHL, with hirings and a whole lot more coming out of it. Formerly under the wing of BHL acolyte Patti Blevins. (Hey, she owed Bethany that Animal job she had for 15 minutes…)
Can’t write the story today, but I’ll have it up by midweek. Simply an end run around corruption. Or, perhaps more accurately, criminal liability.
Gonna be a big one…
It was hard to parse BHL’s multiple filings (which I imagine is the point).
From my math, her total raise in 2023 is $621k, with $688k on hand. After the scandal broke, she raised $174k in the last four months of the year.
I think the clear takeaway is she is going to find it VERY VERY hard to raise money going forward. $174k over four months is paltry for a gubernatorial candidate.
Collin O’Mara’s report was also just posted….eye popping $750k candidate loan. So his total raise is $874k….with $870k cash on hand.
Matt Meyer’s report hasn’t posted, but I think it’s safe to assume BHL is in a distant third in raise and cash on hand.
Also, worth noting that Kyle Evans Gay raised more money than BHL from September to December, 2023.
I think we have to imagine BHL’s days as a candidate are numbered….with Collin’s huge self-loan, I think a lot of people will be taking him very seriously as a candidate to invest in. I’m not sure who BHL will be able to raise money from anymore?
Happy to see O’Mara for Delaware in with $850K on hand!
Why?
An $850 K loan says nothing about one’s ability to raise money and/or to attract voters. Just means that, absent any other evidence, someone may try to buy an election.
850k is a strong statement and even more so raising 100k+ in the month of December.
Yet also sticking out is at least 95% or more of the contributors are from out of state.
Right. Can he translate out-of-state $$’s into in-state support?
Indeed, raising $100K on an exploratory committee, in one month, is a strong statement.
I think this will boil down to messaging. Meyer doesn’t have any and BHL is an empty suit who belongs in a prison cell with her husband and Tanner Polce.
It’s all national money because he’s on the national stage. He’ll get just enough of the vote to throw it to BHL.
Has anyone seen that BHL personally contributed over $600,000 to her Lit. Governor account in the Fall of 2023? WTF is that?
Donald Trump and BHL share one thing in common: they both belong in jail and it is time that Kathy Jennings get up off of Lewes Beach and investigate.
I can’t make heads or tails out of it. If somebody isn’t investigating all this stuff, somebody is not doing their job.
Agreed, it is some “kind of odd.” An auditor’s worst nightmare.
There are actually two 2023 annual reports for BHL – one covering expenses raised for the Lt Gov race from first nine months of 2023.
Second was created around September for the Governor’s race.
Both have the same name, making it even more confusing.
The 829,000 is all the money that was previously gathered by the LT Gov account since it was created years ago, through about August of 2023. Then transferred over to a newly created account set up just for the Governor’s race.
It looks like BHL raised about $400,000 in 2023 not including new money added from personal accounts.
Kyle Evans Gay as a reader pointed out did outraise BHL last 3 months of the year by a bunch.
Cash on hand going into 2024 is reported at $688,000 putting Meyer with a decisive advantage in cash even if he raised $0 in 2023.
Here’s the thing: BHL raised over $400K for her Lt. Gov committee IN 2023, then transferred those funds to her gubernatorial campaign.
So, we need to see how many people maxed out to the Lt. Gov. campaign in 2023 and then maxed out to her gubernatorial campaign. Since this year’s Lt. Gov. contributions were folded into her governor’s run, you could have a bleepload of people/PACs/LLCs who have exceeded the permissible max donation.
BTW, I know that some reports haven’t been filed due to DOE glitches. I know that Marcus Henry is one of those (I saw him at last night’s Arden Town meeting).
Hope the screw-ups aren’t as bad as they were for Sarah McBride back in 2022. Got so bad that DOE had to put up a disclaimer that the screw-ups were their fault, not hers.
Good run down. Others noticeable things
O’Mara seeming to fund his own campaign. This could throw a wrench into Matt Meyer’s plans as they to me eat more of each other votes then from BHL.
Who is Michael Brown and why is he spending over 10k on “t shirts” and other ridiculous campaign items in his campaign against Smiley? He is the only candidate I know in debt. Funny stuff.
No Marcus Henry report yet? Extension? KHL reporting insanely low numbers, def banking on name recognition. Sad that sometimes that actually works.
The Democrat Mike smith giving himself 8k. Isn’t he like 24? I had a 2k bank account at that age. Good for him? Also why is he paying some guy in DC 8k. Rookie mistake.
No serious candidate emerging for NCC County President. When will they do away with this elected position? It’s just a silly office with no other special power.
GOP LT Governor and Governor numbers don’t look serious.
Caneco raising money to replace Bell. Bell has yet to file his report? Word is retirement. Seems like most people are rallying around Caneco to step in who seems to have the inside track so far.
No Labels Delaware filed. That’s funny.
BHL still pulling down healthy and IN STATE money. Say what you want about her, but that campaign is still very legitimate.
Dem LT Gov race seems to be rallying around Kyle. Dorsey walker will hope on a low key Wilmington based pull but thatsa gona be tough.
The 21st RD and 22nd RD are going to be very close finishes in November…..again
All I got for now…..
The Marcus Henry report was filed and is now online. $45K raised plus $200K in loans. Doesn’t look like he’s wasting his money either.
I think he’s likely the favorite in that race for now.
BTW, I’d LOVE to see Kevin Caneco replace Bill Bell. Big upgrade–except for the developers who run roughshod over Council.
It doesn’t matter if BHL changed accounts, it does not reset the individual donation amount. Any money raised after the 2020 cycle counts toward the 2024, in this case, it all counts toward the 2024 Gov Primary. Based on the press coverage BHL wasn’t raising money from the end of sept-nov. So it seems the 176k that came in after was from the last 6 weeks of the year or so.
I imagine O’Mara doesn’t spend any of that money and bows out. He has been MIA in the state since he filed the committee(and since he left the Markell Admin). Was probably going off the conspiracy theories that didn’t materialize. Not to mention he was voting in Delaware while he was working in DC(still is) and his wife was running for Governor of Maryland in 2018.
Odd that Meyer’s report is out yet, one would assume DOE issue. I imagine we will see a lot of money from anti-union big businesses, republicans, and out-of-state donors. Maybe he will lend himself another 400k?
On another note, it looks like Marcus Henry will walk into the County Executive’s office, thankfully.
It still shocks me every cycle that incumbents down the ballot hardly raise any money, do they even try? Political gravity will only keep you in office for so long.
Ommarra doesn’t loan himself $750,000 just to give it back next week. BHL has a lot of answering to do about the personal contributions she gave her LTGOV account between January and December totaling over $600,000. I thought she only lent her campaign $300k or so? Shes a liar. And, where’s this audit report? If it is so squeaky clean why not release it and get it over with? Hint: it doesn’t exist.
Your screen name is interesting. BHL didn’t even hire a forensic accountant even though she ran around the state like a chicken with her head cut off telling everyone she did.
That reminds me–let me see where–and whether–she lists that expense in her reports. Then I’m taking a nap…
I could not find any entry for that Newark Accounting firm BHL herself represented as having done the audit. We, of course, don’t have the audit since BHL has refused to release it.
Hey, maybe she never conducted it.
It’s listed under Summit CPA on her Lt Gov report. She paid $16,000 to cook her books
My name is a nod to El Som saying “I’m not a forensic accountant” right after giving his conspiracy-minded opinion of the finance report.
Just making the point that the never-ending conspiracy theories coming from this blog discredit anything said on here. The conspiracies are also all aimed at the most powerful women in the state, which I don’t think is unintentional.
For example, you just said she lent her campaign $600,000 this past year and has a lot of answering to do, that is a lie. If you read the reports, the answers you’re looking for are in there, the old committee transferred $654,675.66 to the new Gubernatorial account.
I would say this primary is Meyer’s to lose if he hadn’t burned every bridge he’s crossed in the past 7 years. Extra money doesn’t make up for bad behavior in a small state.
New to the blog? If there’s been an overriding theme of my blogging here since 2009, it’s been recording and challenging the casual corruption and ethical bankruptcy of the Delaware Way.
If you think that the fact that some ‘powerful’ women happen to be engaging in the worst behavior currently is a good thing, have at it.
The future of the progressive movement in Dover is decidedly female. But BHL and Val Longhurst are ethically bankrupt. For a more progressive Delaware, they need to be called out and then shown the door.
Playing the woman card? How interesting. Some of the worst lawmakers in the state happen to be women. Should we let them continue to line their own pockets because they’re female?
If O’Mara runs, BHL wins. Simple as that.
That’s if she can survive to stay in. Who would trust BHL after this debacle and these messy finance reports that lead one to believe she’s hiding something from all of us.
But, if Meyer wins, then Alan Levin calls al the shots in the admin.
Who would trust BHL after this debacle?
I’ll say “The kinds of people who vote in primaries.” That is to say people who know the candidate(s) personally or have a work/business reason for voting. For example, the last statewide primary (McG v York) brought 50,500 to the polls out of 355,000 registered Democrats. In a three person field someone can win easily with 20,000 votes.
What do I win?
LOL. I’m a BHL supporter in the same way I’m a police officer-involved shooting supporter.
Just because I know what will probably happen doesn’t mean I like it. And FTR, I have come by my low opinion of voters by having eyes. But I hope you are right. Maybe the jig is up. Strange shit happens from time to time.
O’Mara is running.
You’ll need more than that to convince anyone.
He must be loaded if he’s willing to burn all that money just to finish third.
Personal attacks are impermissible. If your messages have been placed in moderation, you know what is impermissible.
To be more precise, accusing someone of breaking the law is libelous and won’t be allowed.
If your comment doesn’t post, changing your screen name won’t fix it, so don’t try that, because posting under two screen names will get the comment bounced automatically.
Where’s Mr. Meyers’s campaign finance report, and how much out-of-state-miney has he taken. If you don’t publish this, I will, and I’ll as report you to the FTC, for misleading reporting.
Go fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw, asshole. The FTC. Are all BHL supporters as stupid as you? They must be to support her.
Seriously? What a ma-roon!
Here is what Meyer reported:
“Key Fundraising Highlights:
Total Raised in 2023: $875,857.57
Cash on Hand: $1,702,409.12
Donor Composition: Nearly 80% of all contributions are from Delaware residents
Total Delaware Donations: 3,415 donations from Delawareans.
The report’s online at the Department of Elections if you think you’re capable of looking it up. Feel free to report your stupidity to the FTC, which I don’t think even has jurisdiction over Delaware campaigns.
Who cares about the out-of-state money? Delaware is a small pool, we should get used to people going out-of-state. It’s where it’s coming from and what favors he’s promising these people.
Sorta agree. However–Colin O’Mara hasn’t raised any money from Delaware. My question being–how does someone who has hardly been in the public eye and who hasn’t raised any in-state money compete in a primary where both of his opponents have literally thousands of Delaware folks who have contributed? That’s name recognition, which you need if you’re gonna get elected.
Unless he’s going to use all that money to run a negative campaign against two better-known candidates simultaneously, I don’t see his path to election.
BHL has a dedicated voting bloc, which puts Meyer at a disadvantage. If uninformed voters, which is most of them, have to choose among a woman and two guys, guess who’s going to get the plurality of the votes.
True. But a closer dive into the finance reports shows that BHL really only raised about $200K this year, and that Meyer raised over $875 K, with the bulk coming from Delaware contributors.
If I get a chance, probably as part of tomorrow’s Delaware Political Weekly, I’ll break down the reports for all three candidates.
I agree O’Mara has a lot to prove, and will need to run a very well-oiled-machine of a campaign to win. He’ll need to hire the best in every category, AND equal MM in fundraising.
But, I also agree that it doesn’t seem like average voters (even higher info primary voters) care at all about out-of-state money. In this kind of crowded primary, it’s going to be all about paid media money and message in those ads/mailers.
Maybe on the margins field could matter. But that’s also money, because you need to hire a field team. Plus the congressional will dominate field so getting volunteers is going to be tough.
So, if O’Mara can raise enough to compete (regardless of where it comes from), and seems likable in his ads…then he’ll be a credible candidate. Just like LBR in 2016.
Also, idk how anyone can think BHL is going to be competitive. Primary voters were savvy enough to kick out McG even though Lydia York didn’t exactly set the world on fire with her campaign. Even though voters don’t care about out-of-state money, they DO care about obvious ethical violations–we’ve seen that time and again.
And in this case, at the very least MM will have plenty of money to “educate” primary voters on BHL’s malfeasance. PLENTY.
O’Mara cannot win. Disabuse yourself of that notion. He can only act as spoiler, and if he runs he will.
McGuiness had no constituency outside of Pete and the SuxCo real estate crowd, and had never built up any goodwill in office due to outright ineptitude. BHL has generated goodwill, and she has a much larger voting bloc behind her that’s already shown her ineptitude doesn’t matter to them.
LBR was one woman against two men. So is BHL. That’s the lesson you should take from that primary.
I might be forgetting someone, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an advertising campaign win a Delaware election.
Lydia York had no built-up goodwill when she crushed McG in her home district…voters care about ethics. Full stop. That will play against BHL, particularly because her opponents will have money to run negative ads.
Also, it’s odd to say LBR won only because she’s a woman. She also self-funded and was on TV much, much longer than her opponents. Even though she and her opponents raised similar amounts as I recall, LBR spent it on TV and her opponents didn’t.
Same with Markell, up on TV for weeks longer than Carney in 2008, raised and spent a ton more money. Carney invested more in field and lost (though, barely). Also, Carney had tons “goodwill” from the DE establishment, just like BHL. But it couldn’t overcome money. And Carney didn’t have the ethical problems.
Finally, I’d point to the AGs race in 2018. Several qualified candidates, but Kathy had more money, had very effective TV ads….and won easily.
Those are three races that were won using ads.
I guess we’ll find out in a few months, but at this moment I’d say it’s a two-person race and BHL has no path without finding some buried treasure. (Or illegally outsourcing her campaign to PACs).
Lydia York didn’t need built-up goodwill, she was running against a nobody who generated plenty of her own negative publicity.
Voters who don’t know about ethical violations can’t vote against them.
I called the LBR victory well before the voting. She ran against multiple males and would have won regardless. Jennings ran against a bunch of nobodies and would have won regardless.
Markell spent lots on ads, but he won because he convinced lots of Republicans to switch registration as much as because of the ads.
Besides, that was back when people watched ads. They don’t anymore.
At this point I’d say BHL loses only if her malfeasance becomes widely known. It is not currently. I had dinner just five weeks ago with four fairly active Democrats who knew nothing about it.
“I’ll report you to the FTC.”
Man, that the funniest thing you’ll read all day.
Anyone with a sense of humor would do well to check out Val Longhurst’s report. Although she ‘only’ raised about $14 K this year, her report had so many typos and/or misspellings that they will tickle your funny bone. Report generated by AI or Stupid Humans, you decide.
A sample:
Thanks for sharing Rob Buccini’s phone number, although you spelled it Bucchini. Gonna call him and ask for $600…
How about Bobby Byrd associate ‘Kimberly Gnomes’, who is living a Gnomadic existence?
Let’s have a hand for Chesapeake Untilities: “We provide utilities until you really need it.”
There’s a slew of other, less humorous, ones. Gee, kinda reminds me of BHL’s reports and the Healthy Delaware PAC. I wonder whether that BHL buddy who Our PAL Val hired as the House Chief of Staff prepared ALL of these reports.
That’s my hunch, and I’m stickin’ to it.
O’Mara didn’t form his finance committee until the last month of the year. It seems his fundraising was mostly family and professional associates, primarily out of state. You can’t compare what he raised with Meyer or Hall-Long. Both had long-standing committees and knew they were running before 2023. If O’Mara can’t raise significant in -state funds in the next 6 months, then he may not be viable.