General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, January 23, 2025
Spotlight Delaware has today’s Big Story–aka Bethany Hall Long proves herself to be a political hack to the very end. I had seen the nominations to the Wilmington Port Corporation Board a couple of days ago, just assumed that Matt Meyer had made them–although I couldn’t believe he’d let Jeff Bullock anywhere near the site of his many screw-ups. Turns out it wasn’t Meyer after all:
On Monday, one day before Meyer’s inauguration, then-Gov. Bethany Hall-Long nominated a slate of five new members to the Port Corporation’s board. The nominees include Bullock, three prominent labor leaders – James Ascione, William Ashe and Curtis Linton – and the former chair of the Board of Pilot Commissioners, Robert Medd.
It was a surprise move that was roundly perceived as a political repudiation of Meyer, who just four months earlier had defeated Hall-Long to become the Democrats’ candidate for governor following a bitter primary election campaign.
Hall-Long was able to serve for two weeks as governor in January after former-Gov. John Carney resigned early to become mayor of Wilmington. As the state’s lieutenant governor at the time of the resignation, Hall-Long succeeded Carney.
Hall-Long, through her staff, did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
When asked about the nominations Tuesday, Meyer said he plans to withdraw the names from consideration. He subsequently sent a letter to Delaware lawmakers asserting that the names had been withdrawn.
I can confirm that none of these nominees ever made it on to a list of those to be considered by the Senate Executive Committee. However, as the article makes clear, it is unsettled as to whether Meyer can legally withdraw the nominations. What is clear is that all this was orchestrated ahead of time and designed to exclude Meyer from the process. Un-fucking-real.
The article also lays out a long-simmering feud between Meyer and Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend:
During the previous week, two Delaware Democrats took steps that appear to limit the new governor’s ability to shape the board of the Diamond State Port Corporation, the state entity responsible for overseeing operations at the publicly owned, privately run port.
The first occurred on Jan. 15 when Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend sponsored a bill that would, in part, strip Meyer of the authority to nominate a chairperson for the Port Corporation’s board.
If lawmakers pass the bill and can override a possible veto, the powerful chairperson position – held for years by former-Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock – will instead be decided by the Port Corporation’s own board members.
Asked last week why he sponsored the bill, Townsend said via text message that the state’s Port Corporation should be governed more like private companies that allow boards of directors to choose their own chairpersons. He also stressed that the bill not only removes Meyer’s ability to nominate a chair, but also the Senate’s ability to confirm the choice.
No way the timing of this was coincidental. Meyer and Townsend are gonna have to reach some sort of rapprochement going forward. I think the perfect intermediary is the new Lt. Governor. (You’re welcome, Kyle.)
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report. The two notable bills I discussed yesterday each got the fates I think they deserved. HB 6 (Osienski), which authorizes The State Auditor to issue subpoenas directly, cleared committee and is in fact on today’s House Agenda. HB 32 (Shupe), which would provide a $24 mill sop to in-school cops, failed to clear the House Education Committee. To quote from the record: ‘Motion to Release Failed’. Good.
HB 6 is the only notable bill on today’s House Agenda.
Only one item on today’s Senate Agenda. It is not clear whether any nominations will be considered as the Senate Agenda usually references nominations from the Executive Committee on the Agenda, and there is no such designation as of yet.
Well, less than a week in, and we’ve got a full-blown battle over the Port Of Wilmington on our hands. Not an ideal start for either the new Governor or for the General Assembly. BHL can now skulk back to her golf course enclave, secure in knowing that she’s thrown sand into the works. She didn’t act alone.
Just gotta ask–Does the State Senate REALLY intend to force these nominees through for the Port? What a disastrous way to deal with the new Governor. I understand the desire by everyone to create and protect good paying blue collar jobs. But, thanks to the secrecy and incompetence of the outgoing administration, we’re nowhere near doing it.
The whole thing is ill-considered and should be dropped.
I mean, it’s not as if a new governor shouldn’t look at the mess it has been left by the Carney Administration. He would be derelict in his duties were he not to do so.
When I read the Spotlight article this morning, I was shocked to see what BHL did on her last day. I think that she technically had the right to nominate, morally and ethically she should not have done so. Oh, but wait she is neither moral nor ethical. Smells of insider Delaware Way shit.
Let me get this straight: Onetime progressive darling Townsend thinks the port should be run more like a business? It’s been run by business and they lost a shit-ton of money at it. Running it like a business would entail stinting the unions the state supposedly saved it for.
I always found Bryan Townsend to be first and foremost motivated by his own self interest and this only confirms my suspicion.
I call bullshit on that. Like Kyle Evans Gay, Townsend is near the top of the list when it comes to Delaware’s best attorneys.
They both could easily make much more money if they didn’t dedicate so much time to public service.
Which is not to defend what he appears to be doing here. There’s a rift between Meyer and Townsend, and I don’t know what caused it.
Listen, “K,” this better be your last screen name change or you’re outta here.
This brings up a philosophical question: Who needs an opposing party when you get poison pills from your own?
Because Townsend is another wolf in sheep’s clothing union-busting scab-loving anti-worker Democrat, full stop.
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New Castle County Executive and governor candidate Matt Meyer met with dozens of port workers in Wilmington last night in a sign of solidarity.
“These union workers are the backbone of our economy. They keep goods moving, businesses running, and Delaware connected to the global marketplace. It is unacceptable for them to face wage stagnation, and uncertainty about their futures,” Meyer said in a prepared statement. “As governor, I will fight for policies that ensure workers are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.”
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If Townsend is a wolf-in-sheep’s clothing, why would he have endorsed three labor leaders for spots on the Port board?
I honestly don’t get the anti-Townsend chorus that occasionally surfaces here.
Which is not to excuse his role in BHL’s scheme.
Probably because attempting to parody a typical blog comment hot take runs into the problem is that the genre defies parody.
With all due respect, you tend not to be the first one to notice when one of these supposed progressives has clay feet. Some of us are a lot more suspicious.
Finally got around to watching the inauguration video yesterday. Sounds like there was some sort of outburst or shouting in the back of the gallery. I didn’t hear of any planned protests, does anyone know what was going on?
Pretty sure they were protesting the Israeli-Gaza war. At least one reporter mentioned it.
You mean the governor of Delaware hasn’t stopped the violence in Gaza? Oh, right, he’s a Democrat so it must be his fault.
Guess they couldn’t afford tickets to DC to protest in front of someone who could do something about it.
He can’t stop it but he can repudiate it. Consider how much tech our state and local police agencies is purchased from Israeli companies. Maybe we shouldn’t be sending our $$ to state sponsors of terror.
How much?
Oh FFS. I know you’re into theater, but rebuking shit is for babies. Grow up.
I rebuke your comment.
Oh noes I’ve been rebuked. How can I go on?
Townsend is shrewd. I truly believe, had he known about BHL’s plan, he would have held his bill. He is not one to ignore optics, even if BHL was creating some sort of optical illusion. Perhaps would have waited for a bill that would implement the same self-selection of leader in other entities, such as the NCC Council.
Meanwhile, wonder if BHL will be paying out overtime. The state was closed Monday. She may have been in DC that day. Just so odd.
Being positively unsettled by all of the zone flooding by Trump, it seems that we’re in an all hands-on-deck mode of all Democrat led states standing united. That being the case, what the hell is going on with BHL and even Townsend playing offense against the newest Democrat governor?
There are still a lot of people working under the absurd notion that kowtowing to unions is somehow progressive.