It’s fair to say that the future they’re protecting isn’t Delaware’s, but the Delaware Way dominance that has polluted this state for decades. And, of course, there’s lots more. Check out pretty much any campaign finance report of these four. You’ll likely not only find additional contributions from Parkowski, Guerke & Swayze, but you’ll also see contributions from some of those behind this Third Party PAC.
Also, if you check out this F-Minus website, which tracks lobbyist infiltration of the political system throughout the country and which rates states on transparency or lack thereof (Delaware gets a D-minus), you will see the other corporate lobbyists who keep legislators like these four swimming in campaign cash.
While they may carry the ‘Democratic’ banner, these four are literally bought and paid for when it comes to their legislative allegiance. The Delaware Way requires having legislators who will do the bidding of the Corporate State to flourish at the expense of those who can’t match the coffers of the fat cats. I’ve been railing against this since I started blogging here in 2009.
Running against these four corporate shills are Shané Darby against Nnamdi, Adriana Leela Bohm (against Dan Cruce), Dr. Rob Bahnsen (against Krista), and Shay Frisby (against Ray Seigfried). They will not accept corporate donations. They are running people-powered campaigns and have promised to govern on behalf of the constituents who live in their districts.
So. When deciding who to vote for, you’re really deciding–would you rather vote for the person committed to representing you–or the person committed to carrying out the agenda of all of their corporate supporters and financiers?
One more quick item before I get off my soapbox. As you all know, I take a back seat to nobody when it comes to praising Spotlight Delaware. However, this at least raises a concern. The very same ‘Alliance To Protect Delaware’s Future’ is the ‘sponsor’ of this Civics 101 series in Spotlight Delaware. Here’s how they describe it:
Civics 101 is a continuing explanatory series by Delaware LIVE and the Spotlight Delaware content marketing team, designed to help readers understand how state government works and how budget decisions affect everyday life in Delaware. As leaders across the state confront a critical moment for public finances, it’s more important than ever for us all to appreciate how money can impact policy and drive Delaware’s future. The series has been sponsored by the Alliance to Protect Delaware’s Future.
Am I the only one who finds it a little ironic that a cabal of corporatists is behind a series purporting to ‘appreciate how money can impact policy and drive Delaware’s future’? I can only hope that the wall between the content and advertising arms of Spotlight Delaware is secure.
Oops, one last item (I promise). This piece was thanks to the diligent research of one of my fave DL Spies. I can’t thank them enough.
Dave Swayze’s obit was on the bulletin board in my building where he kept a Wilmington hideaway after he moved to his waterfront manse west of Bethany years ago. His reach beyond the grave is so Delaware Way! I am quite sure that this PAC is just one of many that will be pouring money into maintaining the rotting Delaware Way. This stuff will make our work more challenging but people power can and will prevail, Adriana, Shane’, Rob, Will, Shay, Pam , Michelle, and more of our comrades will rise above the stinking ooze of corporate cash and The General Assembly, will be a more representative body in November!
Re: Spotlight – Allison Levine announced that Spotlight Delaware appointed a new member to their Advisory Council. It’s none other than Alan Levin. I’m guessing he bought his way on with a generous donation.
Delaware Electric COOP isn’t a “corporation” its a member owned coop. Fantastic organization.
Which, of course, is not the point.
For example Bobby Byrd’s clients include, I think, Americans For Gun Safety.
That doesn’t negate the fact that virtually all of his clients have special interest legislation they want the General Assembly to pass or defeat, and that they count on Byrd to essentially pay off legislators.
That’s why I included the ENTIRE list of Parkowski, Guerke & Swayze’s clients. It would be dishonest to do anything else.
One common trait between the far left and right is that they both ostracize anyone who dares oppose their views. It is always followed with claims of those people being owned, bought out, puppets, the enemy of the people, etc.
The working families party “owns” their candidates as well. It is just done with even less transparency than most third party spending. Most of their candidates are propped up with third party spending from their national PAC. They take large donations for business interests and even conservative donors but they don’t need to disclose their donors on delaware campaign finance forms because they funnel it through the national PAC.
Medinah was reading talking points on the house floor debate of SB21 directly from an email sent to her by corporate lawyers who essentially cut a check to WFP to get their support to oppose the bill.
They pay for canvassers, mail, digital ads for the WFP candidates in Delaware. No different than what you’re discerning here. WFP just gives their candidates cover by essential saying go campaign and tell people you’re not accepting money from special interests, we will do that for you behind the curtain.
WFP knows that if you’re not spending outside money you’re not going to go far. It’s all game theory until it is outlawed which won’t happen anytime soon. Their candidates generally are not viable without outside financial support besides the likes of the prolific personalities like AOC and Mamdami.
Just to clarify: Dr Rob is not a WFP candidate. Your statement does not apply to him.
Where did I mention WFP anywhere in that piece? Please show me–I’d really like to know.
WFP Derangement Syndrome is real, bro
As someone who is managing canvassing for a WFP-endorsed candidate, I can tell you we haven’t paid a canvasser a thin cent and you’ve got no evidence to support such a supposition.
Bet you won’t respond with your name attached.
While true as of now I believe WFP is a huge proponent of paid canvassers and paying them a living wage. I had a couple on my campaign. If you can do it without it great I think a better canvasser is always someone who is doing just because they believe in the candidate but some people can’t afford time to donate without compensation.
https://network-jobs.democracyfund.org/companies/working-families-party-2/jobs/39366188-philadelphia-canvasser
It is widely known the WFP pays canvassers for their candidates. They’ve even gone so far as saying that it’s important canvassers are paid a livable wage.
Who cares? Tell all the fatass lobbyists to get their walking shoes on then. They make a lot more money from these shallow duds like Siegfried and cruce than some canvassers making a few bucks an hour do. Or, maybe you can pay canvassers too? I know you all like to deal in cash but that’s another story, huh?
It really feels like you’re capitulating already and it’s not even July.
I mean you’re blaming George soros because you let a bunch of inbred lobbyists choose terrible candidates? Who represents democrats more – wfp or Sean finnigan and Kim Gomes?
Times a ticking. Better get your fatasses out on the block and start knocking some doors. Sing for your supper you fucking losers.
I’ve knocked doors in Delaware on behalf of WFP candidates going on four cycles now.
WFP believes that canvassers should be paid a living wage IF they are paid canvassers.
I am not familiar with ANY campaign on behalf of Delaware WFP candidates that has paid canvassers.
Prove me wrong before you float this ‘widely-known’ stuff.
Another case of folks not knowing campaign finance law. We don’t do paid canvassers for candidates in Delaware because (a) we don’t have a whole lot of money, and (b) we have a max donation limit of $600, even for in-kind donations, so even if we wanted to it wouldn’t be that much help to do a total of like 30 hours of paid canvassing for someone. In PA there are no contribution limits, and people actually care about their elections. Very few people outside of Delaware, other than the billionaires who are mad at our courts, care about Delaware elections. That’s why we have a base of local members who do stuff as unpaid volunteers!
Evidence, please, of the “business interests” and conservatives that donate to WFP. The WFP claims they take no corporate donations.
SB 21 is specialized legislation written for insiders by insiders. That one set of lawyers is for it and another opposed is hardly a secret, and those opposed are allies in fighting it. Given that most pro-public, as opposed to pro-capital, politicians argue the same way, I don’t see the sin here.
The issue, since you’re intent on obscuring it, is caping for Corporate Delaware, which includes some special interest (like construction unions) that are not corporations. You’re just upset that WFP is fighting back.
I’ll say this, your screen name fits.
You’re full of shit. As a WFP member, all I got was this T-shirt that says ‘Working Families Party’. That’s it.
I dare you to look at the campaign finance statements of those who have been endorsed by the WFP and find anything remotely resembling what you’ve said.
I’m trying to recall a more disingenuous statement having posted on this blog.
I can’t. WFP is really a people-powered grassroots movement. We pretty much know that we will be outspent in virtually every campaign we participate in. We win a lot. Why? Grassroots democracy. People support it.
First off, I must be right since you tried to ban me. Another commonality between the far right and left.
Nobody’s questioning your T-shirt or your personal commitment. Grassroots volunteers are real, and the people knocking doors for WFP candidates are genuinely motivated. That’s not in dispute. You essentially have a small grassroots volunteer base on the ground backed up by significant astroturfing with dark money from the national party. You wouldn’t get paid to canvass for them because you are helping out the candidate directly. The paid staff the national party employs has to keep a distance so that they’re not “coordinating” with campaigns as an outside group which is a crime.
You want to look at campaign finance statements? Great, but you have to look at the right filings. The spending doesn’t show up on the Delaware candidate’s CFR because it’s not goin to the candidate. It’s coming from the WFP national PAC, which operates as a hybrid Carey Committee that only partially discloses its donors to the FEC and routes money in ways that bypass Delaware’s own disclosure requirements. The money is there. It’s just structured so you won’t find it where you’re looking.
And the source of that money is documented by IRS filings, FEC disclosures, and the Open Society Foundations’ own publicly searchable grant database. George Soros has directed $23.7 million to the Working Families Organization since 2016.. The Tides Foundation, a San Francisco-based dark money pass-through whose own founder Drummond Pike once acknowledged that “anonymity is very important to most of the people we work with,” has funneled over $65 million to the WFP’s organizational arm since 2018, at one point comprising nearly half of their entire annual budget. The tides foundation is the money gets “washed” before its spent on local races.
Dustin Moskovitz, gave $1.44 million in 2019 and another $1.5 million in 2021. Pierre Omidyar, billionaire founder of eBay contributed $950,000 since 2021. The Sixteen Thirty Fund funded by Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, a non-U.S. citizen whose foundations have directed $280 million into American political operations has also contributed to the WFP network.
These aren’t working families. These are some of the wealthiest and in some cases most legally questionable political donors in the world funding a political operation that then instructs its candidates to campaign on having taken no outside money. Your comment about WFP candidates being outspent is only true if you are just looking at the candidates committee.
The reason WFP candidates can honestly say they run people-powered campaigns is because the money never touches their hands directly. The national PAC pays for the mail, the digital ads, etc.
First of all, nobody tried to ban you, asshole.
Second, provide sources.
You know, like I did.
I can tell you that the most recent campaigns that I’ve volunteered for–Marie Pinkney, Kamela Harris, and Shay Frisby–have run on month-to-month budgeting. No massive insidious dark money mailers.
None of the people you listed are conservative. They are all progressive to one degree or another. Few of the interests represented on that list of clients are.
As I said, you’re choosing a battlefield where, typical of conservatives, you can whine about hypocrisy because you’re guilty as charged.
The source seems to be this investigation of Working Families Power, which is a completely separate entity to the one that spends on elections: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/working-families-power/
Of course, you can just go to the FEC site and see who actually donates to WFP, the organization that can work in elections. Nothing particularly scandalous, especially in Delaware: https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00606962&two_year_transaction_period=2026&contributor_state=DE
I work on the coordinated side with candidates, so I can confirm that they’re not running with that outside money in mind. Everyone’s putting out their own mailers and their own ads, and of course relying on the door-knocking to really reach voters. In 2022, we basically got no outside support, and in 2024 I think we got a couple mailers for a few of our target candidates, hardly enough to flip a race. Unfortunately, people just like our candidates and our message better.
Ty for telling the real Truth, let it set you free
Ah, the Data Centers shill chimes in.
Madinah*
WFP doesn’t “own” me and it’s funny that you think conservatives donate to WFP. You must be living in some weird universe where rich conservatives are not just class traitors but enjoy spending against their political interests too? I don’t think we legalized whatever you’re smoking, but I do support decriminalizing all drugs so…maybe one day I’ll get to partake in whatever you’re high on.
As for SB21, I was never reading emails given to me to read. I spent countless hours meeting with corporate attorneys on both sides of the issue (ask the folks at Wilson Sonsini & RLF & Sec. Patibanda-Sanchez), and I made up my mind *on my own* on 1. which side was truthful and 2. acting in the best interests of our state. Then I spent countless hours being briefed by professionals I sought out, and pushing back on them too (ask Chris Feilds, Joel Fleming, et al). I take the job seriously and I’m proud of the work I have done since being elected. And for the record, SB21 wasn’t the first time I had a crash course in corporate law. It was the third year in a row for me.
WFP has supported me over the years, but I was elected in 2020 without them & before the DE chapter was established. I was elected with the backing of my community in an extremely tight race. I was reelected without national input by a landslide. I, contrary to your assertions, donate my time and expertise to help get other people-centered candidates elected and have spoken on many WFP panels, at conferences, on zooms, workshops, etc…for free…not because I’m *bought* or paid for, but because I’m *bought in* to the idea that working class people need to be more involved in the halls of power and that it’s my duty to share the knowledge and experience I have with those likeminded individuals across our country. Some of us do things because we care, with no monetary skin in the game. My guess is that idea terrifies you.
Lies, I’ve canvassed for WFP candidates. Everytime I missed the part w the payout… People powered
The difference between Madinah using advisors’ talking points and the corporate House Dems using corporate defense bar talking points is Madinah understood what she was saying lol.
House leadership barely have one brain among the 3 of them.
I’m glad Mimi isn’t arranging meetings with the Transperfect/Shawe people though. (She is. She has to. She does not understand the issues at hand.)
Well I’ve been doing this a long time and I know when the groups that I align with have struck a nerve. Simple, the other side freaks out. Seems a bit early it’s over 100 days to the primary typically this level of incoming verbal shrapnel doesn’t start until mid August. But we’ve got Johnny Boy apoplectic over a few of us stopping by his house for a chat a couple times. Now we have hired guns adopting identities to berate, accuse and bloviate. Welcome guys/ladies please continue to engage it’s enlightening. As some know my resume includes Employment at a now defunct non profit working with the imprisoned, homeless, addicted etc. I learned about the Non Profit elite, who are the chosen protectors of Delaware Way benevolence and 4 of this groups favorite legislators are in WFP crosshairs. And based on the body language and general attitude of a couple of them at the parade Saturday night they are not a happy bunch, nor should they be. To my friends in the non profit elite. We see you, both those of you and there are many, who are doing good work and those of you that do the contribute and get the deal thing. Those of you in the latter category I can’t with any surety say the game is up. But I can damn sure say it’s gonna get harder. No evictions at Christina Park!
I appreciate this article. I live in the area where Doctor Rob / Rep. Krista are battling for their seat. I have seen these silly AI slop ads all over my socials.
I will certainly be looking into their upcoming financial reports to see who is really in charge of them. Hopefully the district makes the correct choice in September
I’ll be going over those reports, starting with the 30-day report due by the middle of August, and posting what I found.
One thing I agree with you on, though–those ads are slop.
You can look at Krista’s financial reports right now and see who owns her.
I didn’t spot a single corporate donation on Rob’s finance reports, however. He says he does not take PAC or lobby money so unless I see otherwise on the 30 day, he’s got my vote.
Rep. Griffith’s last report was from before she knew she had an opponent. I am way more interested in the next one in August. Is she still taking all the RLF and PAC money (how arrogant) or did she clean things up because people are now looking into it (too little too late).
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