Delaware Political Weekly: Feb. 16-22, 2024
Take a deep breath. Lotsa stuff to catch up on.
1. AG Jennings has NOT endorsed Bethany Hall-Long. I’m authorized to write that by someone in a position to grant such an authorization. I disagree with said someone that, because politicians often appear in pictures together, there’s no harm/no foul with BHL’s mailer. I say there is harm when someone like BHL posts the picture that she posted along with the implication that there’s an endorsement along with it. Were Matt Meyer to post such a picture with Kathy (there is, BTW, such a picture), it would also require the same disclaimer. But that’s just my opinion.
2. We now have TWO intriguing candidates for NCC Council President. As in, not rubber-stamps for developers. Jason Hoover joins Val Gould, who I profiled last week, as candidates with credentials I could support. Hoover is the Founder of Save The Valley, has written extensively about developers’ plans to develop the area, and is a fan of the monarch butterfly, more than a fan, really. Two weeks ago, I thought we might have to settle…not any more. Now, who to support…?
3. Josue Ortega To Primary Branden Fletcher Dominguez In RD 3. He hasn’t filed yet, but he’s kicked off his campaign. I always liked his dad, former Wilmington Councilman Demetrio ‘Junior’ Ortega. Word on the street, though, is that the younger Ortega is the preferred choice of Mayor Mike and Buccini/Pollin. Meaning, make mine Branden. Here is his kickoff event:
4. A couple of questionable characters enter RD 13 race. Both a primary challenger to DeShanna Neal and an R opponent. I’ll say this right upfront–the primary challenger has shown some questionable judgement. The name might be familiar to you–Mike Spencer. This Mike Spencer. This Mike Spencer. He also, while a member of the RD 13 Democratic Committee, endorsed DeShanna Neal’s Republican opponent in 2022. Remember Carlucci Coelho? Well, Spencer endorsed him. Coelho subsequently lost to Jose Matthews for a seat on the Red Clay School Board. The ‘Republican’ who has filed for the General Election has a name that also might be familiar to long-time followers of Delaware politics–one Daniel Rappa. The Rappas were well-known as being financial backers for the Gene Reed Democratic machine in New Castle County. They–and Reed–were swept out of power during the early ‘reform’ phase of Tom Carper’s career. Rappa’s dad primaried Tom Carper in the 1992 Governor’s race and got about 10% of the vote. He had previously primaried Carper in 1990 for the US Rep. seat and got about 10% of the vote. Ron Aiello showed up at the 1992 Rappa ‘Victory’ Party. Well, now the younger Rappa is running as a Republican because they’ll take anybody. Good luck with that.
5. ‘Bland Is Better’? Not if he’s running against Jea Street, he’s not. One Dexter L. Bland, to be precise. Here’s his LinkedIn page. Self-employed for the last six years, well, let me just cut-‘n-paste:
Recording/Performing Artist – Hip Hop/ Rap
Coordinator/ Promoter
Think Tank
Skilled Laborer
Sales
Hey, nothing wrong with that. He apparently was going to run for the Congressional seat before opting for this race.
Regardless, assuming that Jea Street runs again for the 10th NCC District, I’m with Jea. What was that old Howard Cosell line–“He tells it like it is”? So does Jea. Truth to power.
6. R Primary In Suxco District 1? The incumbent is Council President Michael Vincent, who hasn’t yet filed for reelection. R Matt Lloyd has filed his committee to run for that seat:
“I’m for low taxes and for small government. I’m going to wake up every day as an elected official representing the people of the 1st district with them in mind. I want people to know that if they call me, I can guarantee you that you’ll get a call back and bring your ideas and concerns council with me,” Lloyd said.
Wow. Never have I heard such a set of innovative ideas.
7. Filings: Rep. Franklin Cooke, D/Cop-RD 16; The ‘Other’ Michael Smith, D-RD 21.
That’s all I’ve got this week. What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?
Re: No. 6. “I’m for a small government, with me on its payroll.”
That people repeatedly fall for this aligns with my theory of human behavior, which is that people actually enjoy being fooled and so get fooled at every opportunity.
This makes me gag: https://www.delawarepublic.org/politics-government/2024-02-22/hall-long-moving-forward-from-campaign-finance-report-issue
More lying. Diverting the question of people leaving by only talking about her elected office instead of her campaign – btw both lost people. That really good lady who did the paid leave stuff was hired to her office and noped right out of there in addition to the one who you said went to work for Val. That’s like half of her office right there.
And then to take the tact of being the poor/people-funded campaign? Girl, get out of here with those credit card airline points. Meyer was a teacher ffs. She might be “moving forward” but don’t expect ME to.
BHL in a nutshell:
““Never have I considered not being Delaware’s next governor.”
While Hall-Long issues/friends stench of 1990’s/early 2000’s corrupt Delaware…….it’s also concerning the other two candidates for Governor each can take out over half million dollars of their own money to run.
I don’t think I’m alone in not being enthused by this Democratic primary for Governor….
Perhaps. But I encourage you to listen to the REV’s podcast with Meyer:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/e282-in-hurry-w-98999439?utm_medium=post_notification_email&utm_campaign=patron_engagement&utm_source=post_link
He’s not just rewarming the same old stuff.
BTW, I was just at Kyle Evans Gay’s monthly Senate constituent coffee.
Despite attempts by the pro-gun, anti-choice, and anti-trans nuts to hijack it, Sen. Gay was just incredible in keeping things on track.
Both she and Meyer have one thing in common–both of them are looking at a big picture rethinking of what Delaware government has traditionally meant.
I’m now sold–voting for Meyer and Kyle.
She can’t seem to keep her stories straight. From this one article alone…. at the top:
“Hall-Long’s campaign amended campaign finance reports last November to reflect an audit it conducted that showed reports between 2016 and 2022 misreported over $300,000 in loans as expenditures.
The campaign says the amended reports also reflect around $200,000 of these loans were repaid, meaning Hall-Long personally loaned the campaign about $101,000 that has not been repaid.”
$300,000 in loans. Established by the amended reports that she said are correct and where people should go to for the unvarnished truth.
The story also says: “Hall-Long’s 2023 year-end report showed just over $688,000 cash on hand, including the $101,000 from the misreported loans that was not repaid.”
But then…
“Never have I considered not being Delaware’s next governor,” said Hall-Long. “We identified the issue. We corrected it and we are moving on. It is publicly there. And, unlike my millionaire opponents, who are putting their own money in, I am not.”
Her current story is that she did put her own money in. To the tune of 300k. They used donor funds to repay 200k of it (or so they say). And, so graciously forgave themselves the others… meaning she, herself, put in 101k. In her campaign.
And then….
In the last month of our campaign, we’ve brought in $171,000. *[We’re] not self-funders,”* said Hall-Long. “If you go in and look at others who have entered the race, they’ve *loaned themselves over a half-million dollars each.”*
She is a self funder. She put in hundreds of thousands of dollars – *if* you believe her story. $300k specifically. The other story, the much worse one, i is they use wrote themselves a bunch of checks to their personal bank accounts. I don’t believe they’ve accounted for where that money went.They say it was for campaign expenses but they haven’t accounted for those dollars.
500k is more than 300k, that’s correct, but it’s a lot of money and its certainly self funding.
Bethany is lying about things that one can show and prove are false. What else is she lying about?
A young guy named George Frankel showed up in my Instagram as a Democratic Candidate for NCC Pres. lives in Trolley Square. No idea about his positions but his fave restaurant is Scalessa’s😎
Yeah, he filed a committee awhile back. Don’t know anything about him.
The other candidate is a former cop/ ex-Wilmington City Council member Robert Williams.
Bob Is also a Nurse and led the effort when he was on City Council to have cops carry NARCAN. He did not succeed in the effort while he was on Council but definitely hastened the adoption when it finally happened. He is a decent guy.
I know George well, we went to school together. You’ll definitely be hearing his name more and more. He’s been a Delaware native his whole life and was born to do something like this. He’s very well versed and has tons of experience in the field even while being young. I honestly can’t wait to see how much good he brings to the community, he just has a really good heart and can connect with just about anyone.
RE 3. I know for a fact that Josue Ortega will run a positive and transparent campaign. “Listen” he can be preferred by many politicians for his work ethic and his likeable ways but understand that he has no control over who wants to support his campaign. One thing I can tell you is that Josue Ortega is a true people’s person. Not only because being a born and raised resident of the West side of Wilmington and knowing the capabilities Wilmington can be but he has also been around politics as a young kid ever since his dad Demetrio Ortega was in office and just in case you didn’t know he now has been serving our communities for the past 15 years. From working as constituent service officer in the city of Wilmington for a decade and seeing firsthand the needs of our city’s constituents to now working as the project manager and community liaison for the New Castle County in which now he serves a whole county. “ALSO” As you’ve seen in the kickoff campaign video, he is fully bilingual and that’s a vital piece especially in such a diverse district in which there is a high percentage of Latinos. I’m with Josue Ortega!! Why? Because we need experience and real leadership and to me Josue Ortega has proven that and more.