The IC’s Office Resorts to Pay to Vote

Filed in National by on August 29, 2012

A variation on Pay to Play, to be sure. I don’t know that this got much attention by the NJ, but recently, Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart claimed that the Captive Insurance section was suddenly generating a surplus AND that she was having that “surplus” returned to the General Fund to be specifically directed to the City of Wilmington. This is a pretty sweet deal and interesting that suddenly this program has a “surplus”. It is even more interesting that she just sends a big chunk of that “surplus” to the City of Wilmington, which is the source of one of the few Party endorsements she received.

If you pay close attention to the press release linked to above, this is what you get:

  1. Excessive backpatting on the “success” of the captive insurance program.
  2. The announcement of directing “surplus” funds to Wilmington, couched in a whole lot of legal citations — making it tough to tell if this authority actually exists to direct money to a single entity.More backpatting about the captive insurance program, but now the backpatting expects you to buzz by the crucial questions:
    • Why report the 2011 revenue number when you are returning money based on the 2012 revenues?
    • What is the net revenue from this program (anyone remember all of the pricey contracts awarded to KWS campaign contributors?)
    • And if this program has been so successful for each year KWS has been in office, why is it that only 2012 generated “surpluses” that could be returned to operating funds?

I doubt I’ll get answers to any of this, but Mitch Crane’s campaign has sent out a press release that sorts out some of the issues here. It is rare that I’ll reproduce a press release like this, but will do so here, because it tells how that “surplus” came to be:

Commissioner Stewart uses budgetary gimmick, calls it a surplus

Wilmington, DE – Current Insurance Commissioner, Karen Weldin Stewart, today announced that the Captive Bureau at the Department of Insurance has recorded a surplus. Upon further review however, the “surplus” is merely a budgeting gimmick intended to distract voters from the more than a million dollars in no-bid contracts for her political supporters.

During the first three years after the creation of the Captive Bureau in 2009, Commissioner Stewart awarded no-bid contracts totalling over $1.7 million to hire 3 individuals. One of those contracts totalling $196,080 per year, was awarded to Steve Kinion, who donated more than $2,000 to the commissioner’s 2008 political campaign. Mr Kinion was contracted as the Director of the Delaware Captive Bureau despite the fact that he lives and maintains a law practice in Springfield, Illinois.

While the current commissioner claims responsibility for an alleged surplus of $250,000, she is misleading voters about the origin of these funds just weeks before the Democratic Primary. The source of the “surplus” can be traced back to these no-bid contracts. With the recent non-renewal of two of the three no-bid contracts, over $370,000 was freed up from the Captive Bureau. Commissioner Stewart had contracted with Ed Ianni for a whopping $196,000 a year and Mary Jo Lopez for $174,000 a year, from FY 2009 through FY 2011, but their contracts were not renewed for FY 2012; leading to the alleged “surplus.”

The Democratic Party’s Endorsed Candidate for Delaware Insurance Commissioner, Mitch Crane, wasted no time in criticizing the current commissioner’s handling of the Captive Bureau. “The current commissioner is engaging in budgetary gimmicks in order to distract voters from her failed record and anti-consumer policies. The fact of the matter is, she has dumped millions of dollars in no-bid contracts into the captive bureau, which only serves the interests of corporations, while allowing constituent complaints to go unanswered due to an understaffed office of constituent services.”

Crane continued, “If I am elected commissioner, I will terminate the exorbitant, six-figure contracts for the current commissioner’s political backers, and instead use that money to fully staff the office of constituent services with merit employees to once again serve the needs of Delawareans.”

Residents of the City of Wilmington are surely glad to have the extra funds, but how is this not a new(ish) page of the Delaware Way? Not only in having a government official pretty much making up the rules as she goes along, but making up “surpluses” (and why not tell the world you’ve released part of your pay to play crew? *That* might be welcome news.) and deciding to suddenly send funds to Wilmington when you are desperate to get votes in the City is a sign of an office that badly needs adult supervision. It’s not clear to me that what she’s done is entirely kosher, but I’m not going to pretend that I’m clear on the legalese cited, either.

So we have an ICs office who has de-prioritized consumer services, sends out secret RFPs by which her friends get hugely lucrative contracts, lets DE Blue Cross be absorbed in a deal that is going to look pretty bad to those insured in a couple of years and can’t get interested in a real patient issue until the Senator from West Virginia gets involved. There’s plenty more, but it still doesn’t add up to an ICs office that works for the citizens of Delaware. And apparently this office decided that the way to catch up on the work that should have been done for people in Wilmington was to deliver a fat envelope to City administration, who are the last people you call when you have an insurance issue.

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Comments (64)

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  1. Idealist says:

    I’m sure JP has an answer for all of this.

  2. cassandra_m says:

    After he cashes his checks from the campaign, of course.

  3. Jason330 says:

    What is the ratio of Wilmington primary voters to Dem primary voters in the rest of the state?

  4. JP Connor Jr says:

    It speaks for itself. Cass you will win the “Dead Horse” award for the 1,000th mention that I have been compensated by KWS. The prize is that you are now Mitch’s new Treasurer He seems to need one:)

  5. Idealist says:

    Jason, probably 1:3 or so.

  6. Geezer says:

    JPC: Worst. Press agent. Ever.

  7. SussexWatcher says:

    Any surplus should be turned over to the general fund. The IC, or any other independent official, should not be allowed to cherry-pick recipients. What a fucking joke.

  8. Aoine says:

    Im with sussex watcher – and call bull shit on Wilmington getting most of it

    OR

    Give us a damn good reasom why wilmington gets the lions share- other than that iswhere her political base is while Mitch has Sussex and kent
    And surprise surprise- more of wilmington that one might know 😉

  9. Mitch Crane knows the formula. He knows the city gets a million every year from the IC revenue and when there is extra, why not give it back to the city that is generating the surplus. Yes, there is a surplus. The Captive Bureau is successful and making lots of money.

    For you bright bulbs, the city is where the money is being made. They need the revenue. They deserve it. Not Dover. Not Kent. Not Sussex. Not unincorporated NCC.

    Can’t Cassandra call the IC and get some data instead of making shit up? This is pathetic. Crane is desperate to divert attention from his campaign fund bundling bungle?

  10. george says:

    Outrageous but no surprise from this corrupt joke of an IC. The captives organization always operated in the red because she maintained it strictly for her and her cronies to bleed dry. Companies go to Vermont because she’s making Delaware too expensive, but not for the benefit of the state. She can thank her equally corrupt political connections for still being in office.

  11. The crushing irony of Mitch Crane’s whine about some of the high dollars for expertise hires is that HE was the one who was always pestering the IC for more pay. He whined and was given a promotion and then whined again.

    Believe me, with all that whining and now his public demonizing of IC staffers in customer service and elsewhere in the department, they do not want him back in there.

    An aside, I checked on whether Matt Denn hired him on a RFP that stated the position required an attorney – out of state license would do – and I was told that it is impossible to trace the Crane hiring documents because Matt Denn SHREDDED ALL OF THE PAPER in the office before he left. What is up with THAT??????

  12. liberalgeek says:

    If I recall correctly, the surplus should go to the general fund. As far as I know, there is no way of transferring those funds to a municipality unless the expenditure is authorized by the legislature.

    Also, the IC is supposed to adjust their fee schedule year-to-year, based on whether there was a surplus the previous year. So my guess is that this is actually more devious, since next years Insurance Commissioner will have to trim their fees and be more likely to run at a deficit.

  13. liberalgeek says:

    Nancy – the shredding conspiracy, again? Seriously, do you think that things like contracts aren’t stored electronically?

  14. Geezer says:

    “the city is where the money is being made. They need the revenue.”

    In what way is the city where the money is being made?

  15. puck says:

    ” I was told that it is impossible to trace the Crane hiring documents because Matt Denn SHREDDED ALL OF THE PAPER in the office before he left. What is up with THAT??????”

    Nancy, just about every document is created and stored on one or more computers nowadays, and is very hard to get rid of. Even if your story checks out, which I doubt, shredding documents ain’t what it used to be during the Nixon Administration.

  16. liberalgeek says:

    Excellent question, Geezer.

  17. The IC is very open about what is going on with these funds and she works closely with her deputy Attorney General, Harding Drane. If you REALLY believe this is a slick trick illegal to boot, why don’t you give someone a call down there. Ask to speak with the AG rep. – 577 – 5280.

    This blog would be a few heads above the rest if you guys actually bothered to check your assumptions at the door and tried to vet them before hitting the publish key. Seriously! You are solidly in the joke category for the bullshit you spring without any fact checking a’tall. Cred gap city.

  18. I will FOIA the document right now and see what comes to light, Geezer.

    But as far as I know to date, there is no way to verify Mitch Crane’s story about how he was hired.

    I asked Mitch about it a few times over the last month. He is using the term Counsel: in house Counsel and Regulatory Counsel on his mailings and on one televised forum. Y

    et, per the Supreme Court clerk, Crane never registered – as DE Code demands – to practice law as in house or otherwise in the State of Delaware.

    I can surely run this by Matt Denn and hopefully get some of the missing pieces to that story cleared up. But as it stands, there is something really fishy about Mitch Crane’s claim that he acted as Counsel in the IC office.

  19. You know the expression as the city goes so goes the county and even so goes the state. The finance capital of America etc. etc. etc. (or was that the credit card capital…). They aren’t working out of Dover or Georgetown etc. They are working out of Wilmington. The money is being generated out of the city and has created a pretty solid economic engine via testimony by the local lawyers and accountants, not to mention DEDO’s Levin and Governor Markell.

  20. liberalgeek says:

    Nancy – is it an unfair assumption to think that a state office cannot spend surplus money by fiat? THAT is what this is about. Imagine if Paul Clark found a million dollars lying around and he “gave” the money to the city for… well… whatever.

    Or why wasn’t the money sent to New Castle County? Certainly the case can be made that New Castle County is where all of the money is made.

  21. Geezer says:

    “The Captive Bureau is successful and making lots of money.”

    Is what Crane asserts true — that it’s in the black because the big-money contracts weren’t renewed?

  22. Geezer says:

    Nancy: In other words, “Wilmington” did not “produce” the surplus. It just happens to be where the office is. That is a piss-poor reason for the commissioner to funnel funds to her political “base,” which really is no base at all. It’s a bunch of supporters-for-hire.

  23. Idealist says:

    This is what the final death rattle of an incompetent campaign for reelection looks like.

  24. liberalgeek says:

    http://delcode.delaware.gov/title18/c003/index.shtml

    All supervisory assessments, examination fees and any rate filing or form filing fees paid by insurers and collected by the Commissioner pursuant to this title shall be deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of said Insurance Commissioner Regulatory Revolving Fund to be used in the operation of the office as authorized by the General Assembly in its annual operating budget. All other fees and/or taxes collected by the Commissioner shall not be deposited in said Fund but shall be deposited in the General Fund of the State.

    Not seeing where the commissioner is authorized to transfer funds to another entity.

  25. cassandra_m says:

    What is pathetic is that the IC can’t put out a press release that can’t represent the work of her office her stepping in it. Or I guess I could do what Nancy does — say that I call and the make shit up.

    It is sorta choice that the person with the legendarily tenuous relationship to reality has the nerve to lecture anyone about credibility. Especially since she’s the so-called progressive supporting a slate of the most unprogressive Democrats left in Delaware.

  26. liberalgeek says:

    The code around this is mind-numbing…

    http://delcode.delaware.gov/title29/c023/index.shtml#2311

    (a) All fees which are by law taxable by and payable to the Secretary of State, except those fees collected pursuant to § 9-525(d)(3) of Title 6, § 15-1207(b) of Title 6, § 17-1107(b) of Title 6, § 18-1105(b) of Title 6, § 3813(b) of Title 12, § 391(h) of Title 8 and § 2318 and § 4307 of this title, shall be collected by the Secretary of State and paid into the State Treasury, provided however that an amount equal to 23% of all fees assessed pursuant to § 9-525 of Title 6 (excluding any fees assessed pursuant to § 9-525(d)(3) of Title 6 and any fees assessed pursuant to § 9-525(a)(2) in excess of $15), and an annual amount not to exceed $1 million equal to the sum of:

    (1) All fees and taxes collected pursuant to Chapter 69 of Title 18 [LG: this is Captive] required by law to be transferred to the General Fund, and

    (2) Those fees collected pursuant to § 3813(a)(2) and § 3862(1) of Title 12,

    shall be remitted monthly to the treasury of the City of Wilmington. To ensure implementation of this subsection, the Insurance Commissioner shall, transfer any amounts collected subsequent to June 30, 2007, pursuant to Chapter 69 of Title 18 and required by law to be transferred to the General Fund to the Secretary of State.

  27. http://www.mitchcranefordelaware.com/news/index.html

    I am wondering where Cassandra got a hold of this supposed campaign press release? It isn’t on the candidate’s web site. Did Cass make it up too?

    I did call Karen to get some better idea of what happened with the funds. Her surplus goes to the General Fund via the Dept. of State.

    By statute, DoS must give Wilmington a million each year and evidently, this year had a shortfall that the IC gladly made up with the CB surplus. Sure she could have waited until next year to transfer the funds but why? They need the money now. Cass won’t dispute that.

    Money her office generates goes to help Wilmington. Why shouldn’t she get credit for it? Na na na na na.

  28. Jason330 says:

    That’s the explanation? That’s what they are going with?

    You get a sense for all of the minutes of thought that went into this.

  29. Paul Clark is throwing tons of money at the City via his small business /slash campaign finance team chair Terry Reilly. Remember the story written about how George Beers wrote a fundraising letter to his developer pals a few short days after his $250 K in grants cleared. That money is earmarked for a joint venture with Sam Congo construction (I think includes Pettinaro his partner) for a city project. The list goes on ad nauseum. He just sent a million plus down to the Rte 9 corridor for an economic development study filled with promises of rosey times ahead in an area rife with drug sales and prostitution. Sure, good on Paul but don’t hurry to write the headlines now….

    For those who attended last night, Clark couldn’t name drop enough about the city blacks on his top payroll Yvonne and Marcus – etc etc etc.

  30. liberalgeek says:

    “city blacks”? really?

  31. puck says:

    As I recall, there is even a portion of IC revenue going to police pensions. Everybody’s got a hand in that cookie jar.

  32. saveourcity says:

    “For you bright bulbs, the city is where the money is being made. They need the revenue. They deserve it. Not Dover. Not Kent. Not Sussex. Not unincorporated NCC.” Great Post Nancy!!!!!!!

    “Wilmington, Delaware; Corporate Capital of the World” Need I say more.

  33. Geezer says:

    So, to review: Money that goes to the city by law brings credit to the IC, who claims credit for it. Money that the NCCo exec steers to Wilmington brings discredit to him.

    You have no idea, do you, about how much you have become a part of the Delaware Way you claim to despise? What are you but someone who seeks out insider status with two of the most odious insiders to hold office in Delaware in the last 25 years?

  34. Geezer says:

    “Wilmington, Delaware; Corporate Capital of the World” Need I say more.

    Yes, if you intend for it to stand as anything but a proclamation of your stupidity.

  35. I guess a call is in order to Jeff Bullock to verify that they had a shortfall this year on the city payment – they only had 400k to give. Even with the IC surplus it isn’t going to make up the difference. That is my understanding but I do like to get it from the horses mouth. [byw My FOIA has been sent Morgan Coble, IC Paralegal, to hopefully unearth Mitch Crane’s hiring docs –if that is still possible. Thanks.]

    You have to pity the people suffering from administration cut backs. Statewide, the school tax payers are getting hit harder every year as the education cost burden gets shifted to local property taxes off of the state. The costs after RTTT money dries up will be something to behold. And all of this when federal law may work against our interests in coming years to threaten our tenuous hold on the out of state revenue we are currently living off of as what, 70% of all revenue collected? (I may be way off on 70 percent but that number came to mind.)

    Then, speaking of pressers, there is the whole item concerning Markell’s veto of the Wilmington pensioners fund — another interesting example of how the truth gets twisted to fit an agenda, the presser gets sent and the News Journal stenos start to copy and paste.

    If Starkey had bothered to call around he would have seen that a person could just as easily claim that the state tax payer has been enjoying spending city pensioner money for years — because the IC more-than-half share wasn’t matched by Wilmington administration.

    Find a Wilmington city pensioner and ask them what they are getting. Compare it to the other munis.

    For I don’t know how many years now, all of that IC dept. money earmarked for the Wilmington retiree pensions was sent back to the General Fund. For no fault of their own these folks lost access to it all. The state took it all.

    The IC share was given to all other muni pensioners whose cities paid their match.

    Also, I understand Mitch is busy trying to find dirt under rocks over at the AG office and Election dept. – probably hopes to have some ammo for the debate tomorrow night.

    LIVE 5:30 WDEL people!! Thursday night IC hopefuls will be in the studio.

  36. For Geezer et al, if the city can’t clean up the crime, the businesses may not stay.

    Matt Denn and Jack Markell made a lot of hay off of the funds they managed to garner for Wilmington out of the Criminal Justice Council – what 300K – right after the Eden Park massacre.

    I don’t see bloody headlines on this blog about buying votes with THAT money that EVERYONE KNOWS the city desperately needs. The IC office is generating funds from city business. Is Crane really going to hold a position that the funds surplus should not be released to the city (via the DoS but IC funds nonetheless)?

    COME ON!!!!!

  37. Geezer says:

    Let’s play spot the logical contradiction:

    “I understand Mitch is busy trying to find dirt under rocks over at the AG office and Election dept. – probably hopes to have some ammo for the debate tomorrow night.”

    “I do like to get it from the horses mouth.”

  38. Geezer says:

    Come on yourself. Your meddling on behalf of another unqualified candidate destroyed Common Cause of Delaware (though to be fair, you had the help of other self-styled “reformers” on that one). Now you want to return a convicted politician to office and foist on the state a second term for a career incompetent.

    I don’t think we can survive any more of your “reforms.”

  39. Geezer says:

    “For Geezer et al, if the city can’t clean up the crime, the businesses may not stay.”

    Then make that case in the General Assembly.

    “The IC office is generating funds from city business.”

    The IC office is generating funds from all businesses, not just those in the city. Fail.

    “Matt Denn and Jack Markell made a lot of hay off of the funds they managed to garner for Wilmington out of the Criminal Justice Council – what 300K – right after the Eden Park massacre. I don’t see bloody headlines on this blog about buying votes with THAT money.”

    Because they don’t need to buy votes. For all practical purposes, they’re running unopposed. And that’s because, unlike your gal, they’ve done a competent job for the past four years. And, just BTW, I saw nothing made of the money you’re talking about, so how much “hay” did they make out of it?

  40. mediawatch says:

    Last time I remember a pol gift-wrapping some cash for the city, it was Tom Gordon in 2004, spending some of his highly publicized surplus as a sort of going-away present. (Ulterior motive: trying to convince city residents that his gal pal Sherry would be a great friend to them as county exec.)
    Perhaps that’s where KWS is getting her ideas. A couple of familiar names are acting here as surrogates for Tommy Boy and KWS.

  41. cassandra_m says:

    The IC’s office is generating revenues (fees) from the captive program, but it is not generating a net profit from the operation. Until that office turned loose a couple of the pay-for-play contracts they put in place to run this business.

    Now if I read the law that LG posted up correctly, certain fees generated by the captive program are to be transferred to the city. This sudden “surplus” looks to me the first time this program is running in the black (18 months ago they weren’t), and it is this money (not the fees) that is in question. And the question is whether she (or anyone outside of the Legislature) has the authority to direct “surplus” funds from the Captive Program to anywhere.

    But the so-called “explanation” that Nancy offers makes me wonder why the ICs people didn’t just say THAT — that the payment to the City was short and they had these “surpluses” that could fill the hole. But hey, this is what happens to a press release spun up to make you look like a hero of some sort.

  42. cassandra_m says:

    I don’t see bloody headlines on this blog about buying votes with THAT money.

    Are their headlines on your blog about buying these votes? Because I’ll remind you again that this is what your very own blog is for, you know.

  43. Geezer says:

    “Last time I remember a pol gift-wrapping some cash for the city, it was Tom Gordon in 2004, spending some of his highly publicized surplus as a sort of going-away present. (Ulterior motive: trying to convince city residents that his gal pal Sherry would be a great friend to them as county exec.)”

    But…but…Tom Gordon is wonderful because he’s Not Paul Clark!

  44. I have no interest in creating headlines like that for the Governor or for Matt Denn. I just enjoy pointing out the hypocrite here. By the way, thin-skin Starkey is on the war path over what I wrote above. Now he is accusing me of taking money for what I write. He is also trying to figure out a way to accuse KWS of paying Joe to write here. I told him to grow up and grow a pair. Anyone who takes DL seriously is a fool. None of you write for content over effect. It is all effect over content. And it is a trash pile for anony assholes like george who would be held for certain charges should she show up around here in person.

    I think all of you know that I don’t accept any money for anything I do on the blogs. And I think you know that Joe doesn’t either.

    Playing loose with accusations like that got a really fine reporter, Adam Taylor slimed here. Shame on you all.

    Now, I just sent Jason and Geek some really good stuff on the SEU from one of Harris McDowell’s opponents. Make me proud, guys. I guess I should send it over to Aaron Nathans too.

  45. Idealist says:

    “Anyone who takes DL seriously is a fool. None of you write for content over effect.”

    Speaking of effect over content…

    Nancy, do you read your own headlines? DelawareWay is pretty much the DrudgeReport of Delaware.

  46. George says:

    Ms willing… Your stuff iis too funny. You’re more likely to see your girl “held for certain charges”, or yourself for complicity. But thanks for making me a woman, other than yourself or your idiot protege the gentler sex.

  47. cassandra_m says:

    Somebody would have to read Delaware Way for it to be the Drudge Report of anything.

    No one knows what you are doing, Nancy. Other than ginning up accusations and sideways smears and repeating the misinformation your friends send to you, blithely making you look like a fool every damn time.

    Even though you won’t understand this — Markell and Denn and even Clark are operating within their authority to move along or help the projects that you note. If you had an objection to how these projects got done — especially for Clark — you would have been all over this a long time ago. The Route 9 study has been on the slate for awhile so you can consider this bit of creative fiction nothing but FAIL. What is central to this post is whether the IC has the authority to earmark funds to anybody AND the interesting news that some of her infamous pay-for-play contracts have been terminated.

    Interestingly, you should have recognized the kind of blog behavior that made those wrong accusations about Adam Taylor. Because you trade in that kind of BS every damned day. So you can stand down on calling out anybody until you fix your own habits.

  48. Aoine says:

    Ahhhh the smell of a dying campai

    Like napalm in the morning- the wheels are grinding to a slow halt

    And nancy wiling and JP smell the loss in the air

    Keep crying the blues- its over. Mitch has strong support in Wilmington DESPITE the Harris McDowell Minoans issues

    Sorry for ur luck

    And BTW. The IC office should heve been paying monthly- not annually
    Read the code again!

  49. jpconnorjr says:

    Meowwwww 🙂

  50. george says:

    JP you’re as pathetic as your boss who screwed you out of so much money. I’d STFU if I were you since there’s nothing in it for you and you’re just showing your ass.

    Well said, Aoine. Keep up the good work. The IC office couldn’t comply with the code and pay monthly because KWS and her overpaid cronies sucked up every cent and then some until their exorbitant contracts weren’t renewed this year.

  51. jenl says:

    “But…but…Tom Gordon is wonderful because he’s Not Paul Clark!”

    Geezer, I know you were responding to a prior comment so I don’t want to take this out of context, but I have to say that this is the argument I hear for Clark more than Gordon. Ok maybe not the “wonderful” part.

    This race continues to puzzle me. Clark and Gordon clearly both have detractors. Gordon seems to have supporters. I am really trying to figure out if Clark has any as well.

  52. mediawatch says:

    Yes, Gordon does have supporters.
    Clark’s supporters write big checks but, on Nov. 6, each of them will have only one vote (assuming they live in New Castle County).
    The two other guys, clearly better choices if ethics and integrity are among the characteristics you’d like elected officials to have, both suffer from a crippling inability to organize and finance a campaign for any office more significant than dogcatcher.

  53. jpconnorjr says:

    Morning quiz: What current IC candidate was rated as NOT qualified by a Bar Association to be a District Judge in PA, as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer? Mmmmmmmm

  54. george says:

    Morning quiz 2: What current IC has neither a high school diploma nor any post-secondary education that can be documented, nor any business experience that can be verified?

    Morning quiz 2(a): What current IC slandered and smeared her opponents in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 primaries because she herself was unqualified?

    Morning quiz 2(b): What current IC is slandering and smearing her opponents in the current primary because she is an incompetent failure and has no record to run on?

  55. Josh says:

    All I see are Clark signs on my street 3 of them all on different properties. I also have gotten a ton of direct mail from Paul Clark, more than anyone else.

    O and the KWS commercials are ridiculousness.

  56. Newport. says:

    Ed Willing Was NEVER on NCC Levy Court. Never served.

  57. YES, my father, Edwin Glenn Willing, was indeed on the NCC Levy Court!!

    He never was elected to the position. He was appointed some time mid-1950 before I was born.

    When the DEM Levy Court rep. died in office, the GOP Governor appointed my dad and he served the remainder of the term. (I don’t have the names at hand but it isn’t difficult to look them up.)

    My family owned a house in Deer Hurst and dad, a manager in the DuPont Elastomer’s dept. was a very active neighborhoood civic leader.

    But while he served on the Levy Court, he was needled from the left by the Brandywine Hundred DEM who felt HE was entitled to the seat, one John Daniello.

    And dad was needled from the right by a fellow GOPer, Harry Roberts, who represented the lower county. Dad’s goal for NCC was to expand park holdings and evidently, Roberts took exception.

    So, GREATLY DISGUSTED by the political shenanigans he experienced at the hands of elected county government, he requested and was granted Chairmanship of the NCC Park Commission where he continued his public service through the late 1960’s. Dad was responsible for the purchase of many hundreds of acres of NCC parkland including Banning, Canby and Iron Hill.

  58. Cass, I am averaging 1,100 page views a day. Not too bad. 🙂

    Delaware Liberal is a top feed to the DE Way blog – I guess people like to come here to use the blog roll links.

  59. cassandra_m says:

    Now that’s funny — the only thing you want to defend are the hits on your blog.

    🙄

  60. SussexAnon says:

    I was unaware that the IC had to be certified by a Bar Association in another state to be IC in Delaware.

    If that is true, what state is KWS certified in?

    “State of Confusion” is not a state.

  61. Newport. says:

    No. He wasn’t. Prove it.

  62. I have ancient News Journal articles and editorials about my father’s activities RE: Levy Court from the family archives. Come over and take a peek if you are so inclined. Beyond that….you can go to the archives in media or in the county and satisfy yourself there. Sorry if you are losing sleep over this!

    As for Cassandra Marshall. I don’t have to defend anything to you, darlin’. For real. You are not a serious person in the political sphere. You can’t take a sincere criticism. You rarely enjoin actual debate. You answer questions with questions and enjoy turning every discussion you don’t like on its head with diversions and irrelevancies. And when cornered, you turn to personal attack and innuendo.

    No doubt, some of our powerful DEMs appreciate your sided loyalty. Unfortunately, it makes a mockery, at times, of small d values.

  63. Wingnut for IC says:

    OMG OMG poor will girl KWS. If you don’t know her history then shut up. What happend to the businesses she owned,fabric store, Ins. consulting firm? Oh thats right they went bankrupt. What happened to the credit card companies who sued for default. Oh thats right she didn’t show up in court. What happened when she worked in the IC office under Donna Lee Williams? Oh right Donna fired her for being incompentent. How many times has she been in the NJ and other press for her lies, excessive misuse of funds and her hacks replaced for similar charges? She couldn’t get elected on her own she had to have shill candidates run to take votes from her compition, oh right she’s doing that this year too. How often has Harris had to save her because she couldn’t hold a real job, oh yea thats why Wilminton is the only place she got endorsed. How many elected officials requestd her web site remove the fraudlent endorsements listed there? And lets discuss her adv on the radio.. 24 years of doing what? As for running the IC office she doesn’t. just ask her a question that her staff hasn’t prepared a index card for her to read from you will will figure it out. Nancy, JP no matter how much you want us to think this wax mask is a living viable person she is nothing but a fake version of what she thinks she is. She should go back to selling jewelery then at least you knew when you were being sold a fake. Oh and just in case you think this is personal or innuendo it is all provable fact if you want to check and I have left the personal out. This isn’t 2008 she won’t slide in on a wave.

  64. george says:

    Thank you, Wingnut for IC. I couldn’t have said it better myself. In fact I’ve said it many times but all the sanctimonious assholes on here, chief among them Nancy Willing and JP, shot me down for their own selfish reasons even thought they know KWS is a figment of her own imagination. Making into the IC’s office by a bunch of lies is the only thing she’s ever achieved in her sorry life.