From Randall Chase of the Associated Press:
Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s office staff was in regular communication last year with her husband and other people involved in her campaign for Delaware governor and worked during office hours to help facilitate the use of campaign funds, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
The emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show that Hall-Long enlisted her office staff, working with her husband, to help with matters bearing little if any relevance to her role as lieutenant governor. They include renewing her memberships in various women’s groups and making donations to community groups. Some of those expenditures were made with campaign funds.
Under Delaware law, state employees are prohibited from engaging in any political activity during work hours. As an elected official, Hall-Long is exempt from that provision, but her office staff is not.
This reminds me, Speaker Our PAL Val Longhurst illegally enlisted her Chief Of Staff, who was parked there by Bethany Hall-Long, to call an ’emergency caucus meeting’ to address BHL’s financial misdeeds when the story broke in late September of 2023. How do I know? Because multiple members of the Caucus complained that they were called to the Caucus via state e-mail. (Randall, feel free to ask for the e-mails.)
I think this is a Big Story. But BHL has gone full-Trump, brazening out violation after violation. It remains to be seen whether Delaware Democrats will deliberately ignore the obvious the way that Rethugs did, and continue to do, with Trump. The State Party is already in the tank.