Bethany Hall-Long Copies Trump, Slings Mud in Desperation
Today marks the fourth day in a row I’ve received a mailer from Ms. Creant and the sleazy unions backing her that compares Matt Meyer to Donald Trump. You’d think they were running against a Republican, but no, all they have is that he once contributed to some Republicans – while you contributed to the NRA, Bethie dear – and someone filed a sexual harassment suit just in time for the campaign. The lawsuit names Meyer, but not the plaintiff’s alleged abuser, as a defendant, which shows you it was bullshit from jump.
That’s a Trump-like attack, but what choice does she have? She’s been in office for years, while Delaware ranks in the bottom 10 states in lots of things, including education, so she’s not running on her record. Instead she’s stooped to running an entirely negative campaign, just like Donny Boy. Indeed, accusing others of misbehavior to cover for his own worse behavior is a patented Trump move. Watch out – if he finds out you’ve stolen it he’s liable to sue.
If you’re trying to make an impression, it’s working, but it might not be the impression you’re shooting for. It’s impressing me that you and your backers are not just sleazy, you’re really, really desperate, too. Which makes me wonder why the construction trades are so hellbent on getting her elected. They’re spending like they have a lot to lose, because in my experience people only act that way when there’s a lot of money at stake. What’s the trough those unions are afraid of losing access to?
As a strategy, it is definitely a “Hail Mary” pass but likely to fall way short of the endzone.
My analysis of the likely outcome of the strategy:
#1 – Amongst lower information voters, it possibly will shave off a couple of points from Meyer (how many, who knows)
#2 – Yet also true that it is pushing some who were passively Meyer, into being firmly Meyer (how many, who knows). Anyone that does a Google search, and a little bit of critical thinking, can see that Meyer had nothing to do it. That may even push some people towards supporting him, that weren’t going to. Especially since the robo-texts were directly from the BHL campaign.
#3 – But even if it in total it causes some people who were going with Meyer, to not vote for him, on average that person is most likely not going to vote for Bethany Hall Long, but probably isn’t voting, or is going to O’Mara
Bingo. Low information voters aren’t voting in this primary and they’d probably vote for her anyway. Because anyone with any shred of information wouldn’t vote for this bumbling and nasty crook.
Al wrote:
“Which makes me wonder why the construction trades are so hellbent on getting her elected. They’re spending like they have a lot to lose, because in my experience people only act that way when there’s a lot of money at stake. What’s the trough those unions are afraid of losing access to?”
I think it’s Jimmy Maravelias who may have everything to lose. He accessed all that labor money, most of it from New Jersey, HE will find himself the odd guy out if BHL craters. I mean, will labor want to follow this guy after his vendetta has put the construction trades in particular in such a weakened position?
I’m betting no.
OK, so then why are the New Jersey unions doing him this expensive favor?
They’re not. He’s the agent for those Laborers’ locals. He has the purse-strings.
It’s just like it was when Brian McGlinchey had a similar situation and he leveraged those checkbooks into electing–Dennis E. Williams.
Why? Because Bob Valihura had defeated Brian’s brother.
Ya think there was a single member of the NJ Laborers’ Union who even knew who the fuck Dennis E. Williams was?
Jimmy has retired from his business agent position. He is just the AFL CIO DE President/DE Building Trades Council President anymore.
I don’t buy personal animus as the sole, or even the primary, motivation for this splurge. I have never gotten this many mailers from a candidate before.
Meyer is doing just as much negative advertising. The anti-Meyer ads must be making y’all nervous or you wouldn’t have written that post.
Matt Meyer has about a million dollars on tv right now and Bethany has a bunch of shitty mailers. So not. It’s really not the same.
I don’t watch TV so I haven’t seen any of them. I’m online so I see the candidates who advertise there and I have a mailbox so I see the candidates who advertise there.
In what form do you watch TV where you see these ads?
I can’t recall the other networks where people reported having seen these ads but I can tell you they are on CNN at almost every commercial break.
BHL is running ads on Salisbury, WBOC and MSNBC.
You see ads for both Meyer and BHL on MSNBC. Come to think of it, O’Mara’s ‘Talk To The Animals’ ad too.
She’s running ads in Sussex because she’s losing. The fact that anyone is pretending she can win when she’s losing her hometown. I don’t know what to tell you.
No. Betcha Matt is running ads down there as well.
Which is not to say she’s not losing.
He’s been running ads there for months and months.
I’ll take the bet that she loses Sussex. We will see I guess.
The difference being that Meyer’s negative advertising is accurate. You must be nervous or you wouldn’t be wishcasting.
I wrote the post because shitbirds piss me off.
To clarity for the obtuse: The issue isn’t negative advertising. It’s the lying nature of her negative advertising.
Just as all her positive ads have been nothing but image-based bullshit – grip-n-grin photos, endorsements, BHL with a stethoscope – all the negative ads are image-based bullshit. Matt Meyer’s minimal involvement with sexual harassment suits against the county leads to picturing him with Trump, an adjudicated? All while co-opting Kamala Harris’ slogan, too.
I’ve made clear my reservations about Matt Meyer. Lots of commenters here have brought up valid points in the case against him. I would not tell anyone else to vote for him.
One factor people steeped in politics might overlook: Negative advertising turns off a lot of people. One commenter here said they voted O’Mara because the other two went negative. In that vein, all these over-the-top BHL ads have done is strengthen my decision to vote for Mike Ramone in the general if BHL wins the primary. The Democratic Party insider cabal must be broken up one way or another.
I get it. A woman shouldn’t be able to advertise her decades as a professional – in this case a nurse – or her work in the community, but it’s perfectly fine for Meyer to play up his 2 years a teacher in Wilmington? Got it. And I say this as a man, baby.
No, you don’t get it. Both of them are entitled to advertise their past, whether it be as a nurse or as a teacher. And both of them also have to stand on their records, as well as on their ideas on how to improve the state. As a voter, we are responsible for judging those careers, those records, those promises. Neither candidate is perfect, but Meyer’s imperfections are far less egregious.
Is it too soon to repeat “Thick as a Brick” as the song of the day?
Sure she can. I was pointing out that it’s using that image to play up her health care bona fides as opposed to talking about the state’s great record in health care under her stewardship.
She supposedly has a record, right? Yet Delaware’s rankings by all sorts of measures are poor. So should she take responsibility for that record, since I’m supposed to credit her experience?
I never touted Meyer’s teaching experience. If he thinks it was representative he’s deluded, but it is more recent than Hall-Long’s hands-on nursing work. “A woman.” Yeah, she’s played that card really hard. Based on the first woman to hold the office, that’s not a point I’d be playing up, but weak-ass candidates have to go with what they have.
Even if she weren’t a crook she’s unqualified for the post. Baby.
“Ms. Creant” lol. Nice one 😉
I’ve gotten those mailers making Meyer look like Trump (to idiots) and the end result was the person I live with being so annoyed that they are now voting for Meyer.
It’s not just negative campaigning that’s pissing people off, it’s beating them over the head with specious propaganda. It’s insulting to one’s intelligence and voters have had it.
I am voting for Collin but Meyer is not an incoherent moron. He did well at the YWCA debate and he’s never been inarticulate when I’ve spoken to him or heard him speak at other events.
I DO think Matt should have responded and put an end to this.
Had a few people ask me if it was true.
But that’s just me.
Your “Nurse Governor” has a PAC called “People for a Healthy Delaware” which took a $600 contribution from…….
Tobacco Field Inc.
A smoke shop.
This from the Nurse State Representative who voted against the smoking ban. She is so greedy for money she is willing to take $600 from a smoke shop. For a PAC called “People for a Healthy Delaware”.
It’s beyond parody at this point.
That’s the second time I’ve seen someone make the claim about the smoking ban. SB 99 passed in 2002, which was before Bethany was elected to the House.
You only show up when you condescend to criticize someone’s else remarks.
Haven’t been posting much lately, have you?
I know why. Because about 90% of the shit sticking to BHL is true.
I believe it was the tobacco tax that she voted against increasing. She was on the Delaware Health Fund Advisory Committee at the time too, which dispersed tobacco settlement funds. Making decisions about how to reduce tobacco use in the state and voting against the number one measure that reduces youth smoking.
FWIW, she voted in favor of at least three increases in the tobacco tax in the GA…
2003: https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=14881
2007: https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=18217
2009: https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=19562
BHL has also taken numerous contributions from opioid makers and distributors.
What happened with the Auditor’s report that was supposed to expose some really bad stuff about BHL and her staff with the opioid fund?
Funny you should mention that. Guess who it turns out is hundreds of thousands in arrears on their taxes.
The Congos. Same family that BHL has gifted half a mill in opioid funds with no oversight.
Source? Is this the new scandal that the Auditor is trying to prevent from coming out?
No.
I hope and expect that the Auditor will conduct a serious audit of all the opioid fund recipients, with particular attention being paid to (a) those who got the most money; and (b) those who aren’t providing direct services to those with opioid issues, i.e beds and/or treatment.
The report the Auditor is declining to release before the primary addresses those getting two pay checks from the State. I have been told from numerous sources that the report will reveal that BHL was billing the state for work hours at the University of Delaware that she, in fact, did not work.
This report, much like the report the Elections Commissioner is sitting on, could have an impact on the primary, but public officials are running interference for Bethany.
A complete and utter disgrace.
BHL threw money to the Congos and yet they are still arrears on their taxes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
What. The. Hell.
And on top of all the other scandals she was fraudulently billing the state?
These people are not just crooked, they’re greedy as hell. It makes me wonder if some of them are addicts. I don’t see why they need to pilfer that much loot. Even if one were morally bankrupt you wouldn’t expect them to continue risking legal peril.
Unless of course they knew The Delaware Way would keep them safe and sound…
If I were the average voter, I might be turned off by the mud being slung, sure. But as me, I’m more turned off because she and whatever team of campaign leftovers are desperate enough to work with her don’t realize they are flinging the mud that they’re already knee deep in. The Matt as a manager allegations are a good example of this — 1) It’s not like the buck stops with Bethany either, a down-department issue is the fault of the executive but her own husband is not her fault? ok… and 2) As I heard a lady in Starbucks say “she’s never even managed a big department let alone a big government” — and she was right — but even still, turnover on BHL’s mini-staffs over the years is way higher than in county gov.
If you’ve ever had a kid be bullied, you know that the bully projects their insecurities upon others. This is such a textbook example that BHL could teach it at UD, that is, if she taught classes.