BREAKING: Bethany Hall-Long Broke The Law:
Delaware Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s political campaigns repeatedly violated Delaware law by not disclosing $298,000 in payments to her husband, and by failing to record advances the couple made to her campaigns as loans, a report from the state Department of Elections concluded.
Hall-Long’s campaign reports for 2016 through 2023, even after being amended in December, still have not disclosed $91,000 in payments to Dana Long, who had been his wife’s campaign treasurer and wrote the checks to himself, the report said.
The investigation, conducted by a former Philadelphia FBI chief Jeffrey Lampinski, found several instances of wrongdoing, sloppiness and incompleteness in how the Committee to Elect Bethany Hall-Long accounted for expenses.
“I find the Committee’s account of expenditures in its public campaign finance reporting incomplete, inconsistent, and often inaccurate, leading to an unreliable picture of its financial affairs,’’ Lampinski wrote in the damning 16-page report.
“Further, I find that several reported expenditures [especially in 2016] are questionably personal, and not campaign related. Finally, in those five instances in which the Committee misrepresented the true payee of an expenditure, I find its public campaign finance reporting misleading.’’
This, of course, being Delaware, Carney flunkie and Elections Chief Anthony Albence said he would not refer the report to the AG’s office. This, of course, being Delaware, the State Senate unanimously and without any questions, approved Carney’s nomination of Albence to serve another term as Elections Commissioner.
(AG Kathy) Jennings wrote that if charges were brought, a defense attorney “could credibly attribute the committee’s errors to carelessness. We cannot pursue charges where the law does not provide the standards to do so; but neither should we abide a precedent that flouts the spirit of the law when committees demonstrate negligence.”
Jennings wrote that the report “reveals critical failures in a campaign committee’s financial structures and official explanations from that campaign that do not survive scrutiny. That Delaware’s campaign finance laws are unclear enough to permit those inadequacies — not just of this campaign, but theoretically of any — tells me that they beg for reform.”
I needn’t add, but will for clarity’s sake, that BHL did not respond to the reporter’s questions.
Outside PAC Money Boosting BHL’s Threadbare Campaign Coffers:
A fundraising disparity that once plagued Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign for governor could be closing after several outside groups entered the elections landscape – capped last week by a well-funded political arm of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association.
The group, called the DLGA PAC, said in filings to state regulators that it received $475,000 on July 15 from a separate political action committee, called People for a Healthy Delaware – a group founded nearly a decade ago by former state Sen. Patti Blevins.
Stop the presses! Remember this magnificent magnum opus we published right here on Delaware Liberal? Read. Marvel.
But, I digress:
The DLGA PAC is the latest outside group supporting Hall-Long to announce its intention to influence the 2024 election campaign, which plans to spend $1 million to support Hall-Long’s bid for governor. In late spring, two others filed with the state elections department.
The organizations – called First State Forward and Workers for a New Delaware – each list the same Philadelphia address on their contact information in their registration with the state.
Property records show the address belongs to Jimmy Cauley, a Pennsylvania political consultant who last year ran the unsuccessful campaign of Philadelphia mayoral candidate Jeff Brown.
In order to fund its July contribution of nearly half a million dollars, People for a Healthy Delaware had to raise roughly $400,000 during the first half of 2024, according to state elections records.
But, the question of who gave it the substantial sum remains open, as Delaware’s deadline to file updated campaign finance reports is weeks away.
This is great reporting. It’s the work of Karl Baker. You will note, however, that the News-Journal has chosen not to credit the reporter with a byline.
Couple this with the BHL Opioid Slush Fund (we’re working on it, we’re working on it), and one can only conclude that Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign is the single most corrupt and incompetent in Delaware history. She simply must be defeated in the primary.
(Personal To The Leaders Of DSEA: Is this the kind of behavior you want your members teaching their students?)
Rupert Murdoch Tries To Keep His ‘Liberal’ Offspring Away From His Right-Wing Media Empire:
Rupert Murdoch is locked in a secret legal battle against three of his children over the future of the family’s media empire, as he moves to preserve it as a conservative political force after his death, according to a sealed court document obtained by The New York Times.
Mr. Murdoch, 93, set the drama in motion late last year, when he made a surprise move to change the terms of the Murdochs’ irrevocable family trust to ensure that his eldest son and chosen successor, Lachlan, would remain in charge of his vast collection of television networks and newspapers.
The trust currently hands control of the family business to the four oldest children when Mr. Murdoch dies. But he is arguing in court that only by empowering Lachlan to run the company without interference from his more politically moderate siblings can he preserve its conservative editorial bent, and thus protect its commercial value for all his heirs.
Few media stories have been watched as closely as the succession battle over the Murdoch empire, both because of the irresistibly Shakespearean nature of the drama, and because of the empire’s outsize political influence. Mr. Murdoch’s decision in 2018 to formally designate Lachlan as his heir put to rest years of speculation over his wishes for the company.
What it did not do, though, was ensure that Mr. Murdoch’s wishes would survive him: The existing trust gives all four of his oldest children an equal voice in the company’s future.
Just wondering: Is there a Tom Wambsgans in the mix?
Trump Chickens Out. BTW, did he name Vance to the ticket so that they’d only have to change the first two letters of the VP candidate’s name?:
“Given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee. There is a strong sense by many in the Democrat Party – namely Barack Hussein Obama – that Kamala Harris is a Marxist fraud who cannot beat President Trump, and they are still holding out for someone “better.” Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”
Ho-kay.
As to Barack Hussein Obama:
“Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” the former president told Harris on a phone call joined by his wife, according to the video.
The former first lady said she is proud of Harris and expects the upcoming election to be historic.
“I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl, Kamala, I am proud of you. This is going to be historic,” she told Harris.
Next excuse.
Starting to think that Harris wins this thing pretty handily.
What do you want to talk about?