2024: The Good. The Bad. The Ridiculous.
The Good:
January 30: Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick Voids Elon Musk’s Tesla Compensation Package, Calls It ‘Unfathomable’.
Feb. 13: Conviction Of Former State Auditor Kathy McGuiness Upheld.
Apr. 25: Hospital Care Cost Review Board Bill Passes House. It subsequently passes the Senate and is signed into law, prompting two ChristianaCare opponents of the bill to run in Special Elections.
May 23: Bills Protecting Health Care Of State Retirees Achieve Final Passage. Go to Delaware’s Worst Governor for action. What ever will he do?
June 15: A DL Thought Experiment Doesn’t Go Awry.
June 25: Paul Baumbach’s Right To End Of Life Options Bill Passes. Goes to Governor. Lt. Governor BHL disappears from podium so that she won’t have to cast possible tie-breaking vote.
July 1: Karl Baker Breaks The BHL Opioid Slush Fund Story. On the ‘good’ list because it otherwise might not have surfaced. Cris Barrish follows up. One of this year’s ongoing themes is that, if a news story is worth breaking, the News Journal won’t break it. The Year Of Spotlight Delaware and WHYY.
August 11: City Councilwoman Shane Darby Proposes Limits On Rent Increases. Of course this is opposed by the evildoers seeking to drive renters out of the City.
September 6: Wilmington Agrees To Stop ‘Towing Cars For Ransom’.
September 10: Best Primary Day Ever? Kam Smith, Claire Snyder-Hall, Frank Burns, Matt Meyer, Kyle Evans Gay, Sarah McBride in. Bethany Hall-Long, Val Longhurst, Kathy McGuiness, the Other Michael Smith, out. I include, for (my) gloating purposes, my day-after parting salute to Our PAL Val.
September 17: State Auditor Lydia York Finally Releases The Report On Double Dipping By Government Officials. Among the miscreants named–BHL, Mimi Minor-Brown, Larry Mitchell, Andria Bennett, and Rae Moore.
October 4: Wilmington Moves To Foreclose On The Congo Legacy Center. The same Congos who BHL can’t throw money at fast enough.
October 24, 2024: Nick Stonesifer’s Excellent Three-Part Series On BHL’s Opioid Slush Fund. Stonesifer is inspirational in that he graduated from a second-rate journalism school (Penn State) as opposed to my superior Syracuse Newhouse School education. Proof that one can overcome humble beginnings:
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2024/10/22/delaware-opioid-fund-part-1/
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2024/10/23/delaware-opioid-fund-part-2/
https://spotlightdelaware.org/2024/10/24/delaware-opioid-fund-part-3/
November 5: In general, a good General Election in Delaware. Progress was made.
December 2: Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick once again said ‘no’ to Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package.
The Bad:
Jan. 22: BHL’s Campaign Finance Reports Make No Sense. Nobody investigates.
Feb. 8: Carney Administration Continues Court Battle Against State Retirees.
Feb.24: Superior Court Judge Mark Conner Disgraces Himself. Strikes down early voting. Not the final word, though…
Mar. 31: State Still Not Conducting Criminal Background Checks Two Years After Legislation Was Signed. You know, ‘technology issues’.
April 4: Retired Legislators To Get Pension Windfall. Something about not having codified something 27 years ago. Spoiler Alert: This year’s General Assembly did nothing to change the law. Neither did Delaware’s worst Governor:
“Delaware Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend said lawmakers weren’t aware of the pension payout problems until local reporters reached out seeking clarity on the issue, and are still trying to gather information.
“My understanding is that the (pensions) office has been looking at this for 12 months now and to me, it defies statistical probability that there would not have been some kind of outreach to the legislature to let us know of some kind of discrepancy whether 27 years ago or 27 days ago,” Townsend said. “We should have been informed that something was amiss.”
After refusing to provide the total costs associated with the snafu, the Office of Pensions on Monday said the one-time payment amounted to $900,000 and the changes will add an additional $9,000 per month cost to the state pension plan.”
May 9: WHYY Breaks Story About A Department Of Labor Supervisor Stealing From The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Because presumably Carney trusted, but didn’t verify. Did try to cover it up, though.
May 23: Uber-Lobbyists Scott and Rebecca Kidner Hold A Bundling Party For Legislators Who Don’t Need The Money. Trey Paradee gets his knickers in a bunch (read the comments).
May 31: John Carney’s Secret Plan To Build The Container Port. Karl Baker tells us what Carney won’t. In fairness, it’s only $195 mill. Why does the public deserve to know about that? (Psst, it’s the unclaimed property slush fund, don’t let any other states know.)
June 11: Here’s how a good bill providing free school lunches ends up in the ‘Bad’ column:
HS 2/HB 125 (S. Moore) ‘requires all public schools to offer only students who qualify for a reduced-price meal, under the federal School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program, a free breakfast and lunch every school day.’ This is a significant dial-back of the universal free school meals proposal, no doubt due to John Carney serving as gatekeeper.
The princely sum of $250K annually is all that Carney could stomach for school lunches. More $$’s for the Port, apparently.
June 13: Paul Baumbach Announces Retirement. A true progressive stalwart and very effective legislator. Only Carney’s veto pen was to cast a sour note on Paul’s retirement.
June 17: Ho-hum. Just more BHL Campaign Finance Corruption.
June 25: John Carney Vetoes Bill Protecting Retirees’ Healthcare. Yes, the veto is subsequently overridden two days later, unanimously, but if you can’t see a theme in this magnum opus that Carney has been a truly horrible governor, I don’t think it’s because I’ve been too subtle.
July 10: One notable political development this year was the obscene spending by Third Party PAC’s on the Governor’s race. It’s never been this prevalent before in Delaware. This story serves as a default. So does this one.
July 16: Delaware Sucks When It Comes To Senior Healthcare. In every category.
July 25: Bethany Hall Long Broke The Law. Elections Commissioner says he won’t do anything about it. Story broken by Cris Barrish.
August 12: The obscene amounts of Third Party money polluting Delaware’s primary for Governor.
August 14: BHL, Staff Did Campaign Work On State Time.
September 5: Branden Fletcher Dominguez Drops Out Of RD 3 Race. Turns out he didn’t reside in the district. Just a depressing story.
September 10:. Turns Out BHL’s Office Just Ignored FOIA Requests For Several Years. Election is over, but her incompetence lingers on.
September 20: Delaware’s Worst Governor Ever Vetoes Paul Baumbach’s End Of Life Options Bill. Waits until after his mayoral primary is over. You see, he just wasn’t ‘comfortable’ with it.
October 26: ‘Delaware Way Equals Delaware Delay’. Yes, we’re talking education funding.
October 29: Federal Judge Rules That Army Corps Of Engineers Violated Law When Granting Permits For The Proposed Edgemoor Port Project. Depending on your perspective, this could also be included on the ‘Good’ list.
November 7: Mayor Mike And His Cops Go After The Homeless. Most utterly-despicable Delaware story of the year? It’s on the shortlist.
November 8: House Elects Truly Shitty Leadership Team. Oh, and admits they required staff to sign NDA’s.
November 9: Kent County Fires Administrator For Exposing Levy Court Commissioner Corruption.
November 22: Local Delaware Governments And Municipalities Fall All Over Themselves To Screw Up Legalized Marijuana Sales. That article is emblematic of all of the other articles about this.
December 1: Delaware Ranks #1 For Most Impaired (aka Contaminated) Waterways:
“Delaware leads the United States in terms of how many impaired waterways lie within its jurisdiction, the recent study cited. According to the 2022 Environmental Integrity Report, which the study refers to, 97% of Delaware’s rivers and streams and 100% of its estuaries are classified as impaired. An impaired waterway is one that contains a high level of contaminants and does not meet current water quality standards.”
December 9: Revenge Of The Losers. Tired of getting their asses whipped in legit primaries, Delaware Way insiders and corporate lobbyists use caucus process to nominate two corporacrats to replace Sarah McBride and Kyle Evans Gay. Which reminds me–here’s one way that Ray Seigfried’s odious campaign sought to tip the scales.
December 13: Mayor Mike Proves He’s Merely Netanyahu With Less Weaponry:
“It is somewhere between disturbing and amusing to me how little it takes for members of the clergy and other neighborhood groups to so loudly signal their virtue when they have heard only one side of a story,” Purzycki wrote. “To be very clear, the city welcomes working in partnership with our faith-based and non-profit organizations to address the needs and concerns of our residents.”
But, the mayor continued, “the misstatements contained in your letter are not only counterproductive to a collaborative partnership, they undeservedly defame members of an outstanding police department doing a difficult job.”
Too bad the statements from Father Burke were all too true.
December 15: Mayor-To-Be Carney’s Would-Be Chief Of Staff Indicted On 6 Counts Of Shoplifting.
December 17: Departing Suxco Council Members Reject Wind Farm Approval.
December 26: NCC Executive Matt Meyer Vetoes The First Developer Fee Increase Since 1999. Disingenuously claims it would impact affordable housing, which it wouldn’t.
The Ridiculous:
Jan. 4: Delaware Rethugs go to court to overthrow electric car mandate. Specifically, Mike Ramone, plaintiff; Julianne Murray, plaintiff attorney.
Jan. 24: Teeny Tiny PAC Turns Into Massive Money-Bundler For BHL.
Mar. 5: In his delayed, but sadly not canceled, State of the State Address, John Carney calls for a constitutional amendment to codify budget-smoothing in the State Constitution. Spoiler alert: It, uh, doesn’t happen.
Mar. 7: Millsboro stinks. DNREC has no clue why. Don’t they have experts ‘n equipment ‘n stuff?
Mar. 20: James Maravelias expresses his undying love for Aunt Jemima. You know, to prove he’s not a racist.
Mar. 27: The Delaware Unemployment Compensation Fund is ‘unauditable’. Thus says the State Auditor, who should know. As should Carney, who doesn’t.
Apr. 19: Delaware Chamber Of Commerce Comes Out Against Everything Good. This has now become an annual event.
May 6: El Somnambulo Waxes Rhapsodic Over Collin O’Mara. Too rhapsodic, as it turns out. He does the same for Kamala Harris last year. So embarrassing that no link will be provided.
May 17: Total Wines Magnate David Trone Spends $62 Mill Of His Own $$’s On Senate Race In Maryland. Loses by double digits. Hey, it’s his money. Or was.
May 21: Rehoboth Beach Pays A King’s Ransom To Lure New City Manager.
June 17: Matt Meyer Channels Reverend Ike. ‘Cept w/o the, wait for it, throne.
August 1: I’m cheating b/c this happened just across the line in Maryland, but this headline belongs on the list: “Pickleball Group Protests Erupt At School Board Special Meeting”.
August 5: Another great headline, this one b/c whoever wrote it can’t write: ‘Delaware Troopers Round Up School Supplies’. Apparently they were loitering around the Friendship House. The supplies, I mean. We already knew that the cops hang out there.
October 24: Monique Johns Asks The County For Money For An Inauguration Party Even Though She Hasn’t Been Elected Yet.
November 14: SOS Jeff Bullock Whines That Poor L’il Delaware Has Been The Victim Of Misinformation In Port Suit. I grant you, however, that, when it comes to misinformation, disinformation, or just plain no information, Bullock ranks right up there with Delaware’s Worst Governor.
November 17: Newark Raised Parking Rates. Stores Lost Business. Who possibly could have foreseen that?
December 13: Rethugs Reject Cloutier Candidacy, Nominated Certified Loser For SD 5 Seat. They decided to lose the seat with Budge than to win in with Cloutier, and, yes, she would have won. Insiders chose Burdge, 5-4.
December 26: Matt Meyer Vetoes Ordinance Raising Developer Fees For The First Time Since 1999. Because he can.
Add to the ridiculous list? It’s December 31, and BHL still hasn’t corrected her campaign finance reports.
The Dept of Elections found that her reports are wildly inaccurate. She admitted herself that the reports are not accurate. The Election Commissioner ordered her to correct her reports.
Delaware law says if she doesn’t correct her reports within 30 days, she’s committing a criminal offense. But it’s been 5+ months, and still no corrections. And no one’s holding her accountable.
And she still gets to be governor for 2 weeks, despite her open and flagrant disregard of the law.
Yep. Someone who shares my bizarre sense of humor forwarded me the invitation they received.
I wrote back that I hope that everything in the Governor’s Mansion has been micro-chipped.
Everything about BHL should go in the ridiculous pile.
“September 10: Best Primary Day Ever? Kam Smith, Claire Snyder-Hall, Frank Burns, Matt Meyer, Kyle Evans Gay, Sarah McBride in. Bethany Hall-Long, Val Longhurst, Kathy McGuiness, the Other Michael Smith, out. ”
This is the only thing cushioning the blow of Trump’s win, IMO. That and the hope that Carney will lose when he runs again for mayor… fuck that guy.
Never disliked BHL on a personal level but her campaign finance insanity made the party look terrible.