Delaware’s Most Intriguing Primaries Of 2024: #2–RD 15

Two in one day?  Why?  Because early voting has begun, and this story just HAS to be told to as many voters as possible.  Besides, I finished it early.

Pull up a chair, folks, this is gonna be a long one.

Incumbent Val Longhurst, heretofore to be referred to as Our PAL Val, embodies everything that is toxic about the Delaware Way.

She uses her position as Speaker to bury good legislation, to hire refugees from BHL’s campaign staff for key positions b/c BHL can’t afford to keep them,  stops any and all legislation to hold police accountable b/c she owes her job to those same cops, and treats employees like shit.  Then she fires them.

Oh, that job?  I wrote about it.  Here. An excerpt:

From the time she was elected, Val complained to anyone who would listen and to many who wouldn’t that she needed a job.  Not just any job, mind you.  After all, even Val could likely have secured an entry-level job despite her lack of any career experience beyond her elective office.  That’s not what she wanted, though.  She and her then-drinkin’ buddy Sen. Nicole Poore wanted jobs that paid well and that secured a lot of funding from the legislators with whom they served.

Nicole got hers at Jobs For Delaware Graduates, a useless money pit if ever there was one.

Finally, Val, leaning on ex-cop and Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, along with a board full of ex-cop legislators, got the job as Executive Director of the Delaware Police Athletic League.  The PAL halted a candidate search in order to hand her the job.  Her real role is to secure funding for the Hockessin PAL, which was the brainchild of disgraced former NCC Executive Tom Gordon, who was an ex-cop and who lived in Hockessin.   Oh, and serves nobody who lives in Val’s district.  Except Val.  Her salary and benefits are now well in excess of $100K annually.  A large portion of her windfall is funded by legislators who she, as Speaker, assigns to the committees who fund PAL.

That alone should disqualify her from holding office.  You can either represent your constituents or the cops to whom you owe your job.  They can’t help but conflict in certain instances.  These kind of jobs used to be more plentiful in state government.  Ruth Ann Minner and Mark Brainard gave then State Senator Tony DeLuca the job as head of Labor Law Enforcement.  The Labor Department refused numerous FOIA requests to disclose his work hours.  They also refused to disclose the work hours of his then paramour who also was working for both the State Senate and the Department of Labor.  That controversy, among others, had curtailed most of this double-dipping.  That’s why PAL is not technically a state agency, meaning that Our PAL Val gets paid regardless of whether she ever shows up for work so long as she keeps the money spigot open.

But there’s more.  Our PAL Val had loved and lost at the political game of romantic musical chairs, which will be a chapter all its own in the book I will never write.  Her husband left her for the daughter of a State Senator who had been abandoned by a State Representative whose father was a State Representative, who took up with a legislative aide who was the daughter of one of Dover’s least distinguished representatives.  So Val went and rented from the guy who runs Crabby Dick’s and who was the Mayor of Delaware City at the time.  It was there where Val, Nicole ‘No Longer’ Poore, the Crabby Dick’s guy, and assorted insiders, cooked up the scheme to create the Underwater City At Fort DuPont.  A boondoggle that continues to cost the state millions upon millions of dollars annually.

There are literally dozens more reasons why she should be nowhere near a seat of power in government.  If you wish to revisit them, simply put her name in our search feature.  They will keep you entertained for days.

Now here’s where I confess that I’ve been in the 15th something like twelve or so times now knocking doors and canvassing for Kamela Smith.  Unlike Val, who claimed that she had work experience because ‘I once ran a call center’,  Kam has spent 15 years advocating for people and families in need of mental health services. She is the Director Of Community Education & Engagement at Chrstiana Care, and ‘work(s) with a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, social workers, and nurses daily.’   In that capacity, she ‘works passionately to ensure all communities have opportunities to receive the health services they need and to break down any barriers that may prevent someone from receiving such services.’ In other words, a real job focusing on the real problems of people in need.  She is also ‘a James H. Gilliam, Sr. Fellow through the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, a Member of the Kalmar Nyckel Board of Trustees, and the Social Action Co-Chair for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.’  To be fair, though, don’t think she’s ever run the Babe Ruth League canteen.

Having campaigned both for and with her, what strikes me most is her empathy.  When someone wishes to engage with her at the door, nothing and nobody is more important.  From experience, she is the type of person who would be a great representative.  When constituents have concerns, she is someone I would want to address them.

I find the district fascinating, not least because very little of it has been represented by Val in her time in the General Assembly dating back to her first election in 2004.  Many of the communities are new, and virtually all of them are self-contained, leaving little opportunity for interaction.  Val has not sought to jointly engage these communities, Kamela intends to.  The district is primarily in Bear, and goes from Route 72 south literally to the foot of The St. Georges Bridge.

It is overwhelmingly Democratic–10,446D; 3636 R; and 5460 I.  Here is the district map.  The term ‘creatively-gerrymandered’ comes to mind.  It had to be to get all the angry voters in Delaware City out of her district.

Three things really surprised me during my door-to-door–(1) the large proportion of Black and minority voters.  I haven’t checked, but I think this may be a minority majority district;  (2) the lack of any Val strongholds–I mean, I was sure there were a few, but I’ve been pretty much all over the entire district now, and there aren’t any;  (3) the lack of any really knowledge about Val.  She’s the bleeping Speaker of the House, but you wouldn’t know it by talking to voters, who either don’t know it or don’t care.

Looking at recent history, being a leader in your chamber is far from ensuring victory.  Do the names Dave McBride, Tony DeLuca, Terry Spence, Patti Blevins, Greg Lavelle, Larry Mitchell, Nancy Cook (not technically in leadership, but was the Queen Of Dover) ring a bell?  If there’s a constant, it’s that they became enamored of the power that Delaware Way insider status accorded them and ignored their constituents.  You know, like the head of the Police Athletic League who has fattened her coffers while spending her time in Dover.

I remain puzzled by the lack of much of a grassroots ground game on Val’s part.  Yes, there are now signs, all of them on right-of-way, don’t think I’ve seen a single sign on someone’s lawn.  I only bumped into a Val volunteer in one community so far and, although I’ve seen a few scattered examples of her lit, they are few and far between.  I’m sure she’s sending out a shitload of mail, but ask, say, Tony DeLuca how that worked out for him.  Plus, with so much focus from the bottom-feeders on BHL’s campaign, there just aren’t enough Delaware Way types to detour into RD 15.  Especially since, truth be told, they can tolerate her even less than they do Bethany.

Sending Kam to Dover and ridding Dover of Our PAL Val would strike a near-lethal blow to legislative Delaware Way shit.  And, it’s right there for the taking.  Join the team, get out there, I guarantee you, it’s fun!