Having lost the election, Gordon now tries to disqualify Meyer
You just knew he could not be a gracious loser, right? Years of authoritarian entitlement and corruption do not prepare one to accept the will of the people, so what do you do? You file suit to have the winner disqualified. From the News Journal:
Gordon’s personal attorney Sidney S. Liebesman on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Delaware Department of Elections saying tax documents filed by Meyer prove he has not lived in the county the required five consecutive years to be executive. […] Officials said the complaint could lead to the county’s Democratic Party internally nominating a candidate. That candidate could be Gordon, and the issue may lead to a protracted legal fight over the state’s residency rules.
Meyer has denied his residency is an issue and said the complaint is a “farcical” allegation spun by “people who want a government that is not led by public service, that is led by something else.” “The voters have spoken and they have chosen a county government that is based on public service, not self-service,” Meyer said. “There is absolutely no legal question about whether I have been a resident for the past five years.”
Gordon declined to comment for this story. The complaint was filed on his behalf as a former candidate and registered voter, not in his official capacity as executive.
Under state rules, Meyer has to have been a resident of Delaware since November 2011 to qualify for executive. The complaint states that Meyer in 2011 filed a non-resident income tax return in which “he swore under penalty of perjury that he was a non-resident of Delaware for the full year of 2011.”
Gordon’s attorney said that they did not actually have the tax documents, but that they obtained this alleged information from “reliable and credible sources” that he declined to name. Meyer denied the allegations and said he will submit his response to the Department of Elections with the appropriate documentation that will disprove Gordon’s pathetic last ditch attempt to hold onto power.
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I would say that this is Gordon tossing his last shred of dignity in the trash can, but that last shred was dispensed with long ago.
The Dept. of Elections let a resident of Utah run for Lt. Governor, so why would they give a shit if it turned out that the NCC Executive has only lived in the county for 57 months as opposed to the required 60…
Excellent point Prop Joe.
Shades of Trump
The Guy Lied pure and simple. Let him explain himself.
Hi Tom! (or tom’s remaining friend)
look.. you lost. Try to at least be better than Trump.
Rules are rules He is a lawyer let him go under oath and defend himself:)
Punctuation and grammar rules are also rules.
Rules are rules unless you’re Tom Gordon.
FTFY
This stuff should be fairly cut and dry. If Meyer was sloppy, he should get tossed. He is an attorney and should know better —the rules mean something. I am no Gordon fan, but candidates have to comply with the law. The County Committee could name a replacement if need be , but it should absolutely NOT be Tom Gordon.
Officials said the complaint could lead to the county’s Democratic Party internally nominating a candidate.
Is this even possible? Haven’t ballots been printed?
If it comes to this, I will work to ensure that the party selects someone other than Tom Gordon. It won’t come to this, though. Also, THANKS PARK CITY!
And or course DL never exhibits hypocrisy. The clutching of pearls when Cathy succeeded was so endearing. Trust the process.
A five-year residency requirement? Seems ridiculously long.
Of course, if they actually had the documents he would have revealed them. He has a long history of this sort of thing — his lies are always almost true.
Cathy who?
Pete leaned on Manlove to get the result he wanted. (for all the good it did him)
For Park City, we had actual documentation that she had voted in Colorado. She had quit a public job with the explanation that she was moving to CO. There was an abundance of evidence that she had violated the requirements.
Gordon literally filed a lawsuit based on a rumor. No public documentation whatsoever.
Or as Gymrat would say… Same thing.
The Delaware makes a distinction between Governor/Lt Governor and other offices relative to qualifications.
The Governor and Lt Governor must be ‘citizens of the United States and INHABITANTS of Delaware for six years.
Other offices must be held by people who are “citizens of the United States and RESIDENTS of Delaware…”. The NCC Executive must be so for 5 years.
I am not going to opine on what those words mean, but the US Supreme Court issued a ruling many years ago leaning towards intent. Its words were “Where a man hangs his hat is his home”.
The courts traditionally lean towards allowing people on the ballot and giving the voters the right to decide.
It will all come down to DMV records, tax returns, voting registrations, etc..
Elections department should really certify this stuff before we hold elections, rather than after the fact.
Here’s the Trump effect in action. Make a wild claim, say you have evidence… everyone turns to the accused to prove the accuser wrong.
Trump has Birthers, Gordon has …. i dunno Residencers.
Interesting that Gordon should bring this up. In his first administration there was a big flap over whether his chief of staff or legal counsel, I forget which, was a county resident. And there was some evidence a year or so ago that the head of his community services department is a resident of Kennett Square.
I don’t know the current legal residency requirements for the county exec’s top appointees, so maybe living outside the county is OK now, but Gordon, as we well know, has a long reputation for playing fast and loose with the rules.
Interesting that Gordon’s “oppo research” comes up with this now. Gordon’s people spent much of the end of the primary throwing all kinds of base accusations at Meyer, which I think helped people understand just how fed up they were with Gordon.
So a side question here — any chance that John Carney appoints Gordon to anything in his administration? I *really* hope not, but this just feels like the kind of thing he would do.
Here’s the thing that I’ve seen with Gordon, he is never interacting with other Dems at public functions. He has his little circle ofhenchmen staff that he whispers to, but I can’t tell you the last time I saw him do anything more than a cursory handshake with any Democrat that doesn’t work for him.
It’s striking to me.
I should add that I think this makes a Carney hire unlikely, but not impossible.
Remember two things going forward “Under oath” “ODC” if the guy tells the truth all is well, if not, not so much.
Silly me. I had expected the gymrat to scurry back to his nest after his candidates got smoked.
Gordon is an island unto himself. Carney not appointing him to anything. Gordon has pensions and a dubious political history to ponder in retirement/ exile.
OK, reality-check time.
First off, you don’t need an attorney to file a complaint with the Department of Elections. That’s just an intimidation tactic. You need an attorney to file a lawsuit. If he had any real evidence he would have produced it.
“It will all come down to DMV records, tax returns, voting registrations, etc..”
Highly doubtful. It might if it ends up in the courts, but the Dept. of Elections doesn’t make public the materials used in determining its decision. I don’t know if anyone has tried to FOIA it, but it would probably be deemed “work product” not subject to public view.
Now think about this. AFAIK it really is too late to put another Democrat on the ballot, and even if it can somehow be accomplished that would greatly increase the chances of the GOP’s Mark Blake winning. Manlove was so malleable with Park City because she’s a Democratic Party hack. Why would the party want to take that chance, or the bad publicity this brings? My guess is it won’t and doesn’t, and Manlove will rule Meyer eligible.
“The courts traditionally lean towards allowing people on the ballot and giving the voters the right to decide.”
Sorry, Mitch, but in Delaware we lean towards letting people live wherever they want, no matter what the rules say. That’s certainly the approach Gordon took whenever someone he wanted to hire broached residency requirements. It’s also the approach the General Assembly takes to the residences of certain members of the General Assembly — yeah, lookin’ at you, Dave McBride and Harris McDowell.
Manlove will rule for Meyer no matter what. She will kick it back to Gordon and they will need Court to make the real decision.. stay tuned…
If Gordon is looking for work next year, he can ask his police chief about how to secure a cushy sinecure patrolling an estate in Chateau Country.
In order to get a court to decide, Gordon would need standing, which I doubt he has.
WDEL just reported they have seen Meyers Drivers license documenting that the “reliable source” is probably just more Gordon Bulls_t. But the attorney did get lots of work and made lots of money from the county under Gordon fighting Barley Mill, so I guess he is already missing the crony sweetheart deals he was getting, like so many of the Gordon cronies.
http://www.wdel.com/story/77802-gordon-challenges-meyer-on-residency-as-election-looms
“Meyer provided a federally compliant driver’s license for WDEL dated September 30, 2011, which he would’ve had to met residency requirements with the Delaware Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain. ” (Amy Cherry, WDEL).
Once again, thanks to Amy Cherry, for doing the extra investigative work that the News Journal Missed. Why didn’t the news journal at least ask for a driver’s license before reporting the Gordon Bullsh__. Are they incompedent or just still in love and biased tjoward a crook like Gordon?
County employees are counting the days till he is gone! This episode just reinforces what an egomaniac he is – it’s 100% about him and his cronies, nothing else matters. Wait till the next administration gets a look at the books…
It’s the difference between pinning down facts and doing a story about “what’s next.” Also the difference between being a veteran reporter and someone a few years out of college.
Good point, SW. What reporter worthy of the name would merely report the allegation w/o checking out whether the allegation was true or false?
I’m sorry to say that that’s a rhetorical question.
BTW, I hope that the County Auditor makes sure that no taxpayer $$’s were spent in pursuit of this ridiculous Hail Mary.
“Wait till the next administration gets a look at the books…”
Saw Matt Meyer and Ron Morris dining together last week.
El Som, be careful, sometimes a ridiculous Hail Mary actually scores!
County employees are counting the days till they have to change all the forms he’s plastered his name or face on, not to mention the inevitable hiring freeze. Despite all that, it’ll still be worth it to not have him in that office anymore.
Mark Blake is the most experienced with working with the communities and government. He has the leadership and best interest of the people.
People need to start voting with their minds, get educated on the candidates and not depend on who the should vote for by rags.
So, just who used DELJIS to look up Meyer’s DMV records? Has anyone looked into that? It’s wouldn’t be the first time Gordon and his carnival of idiots did it, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
The biggest benefit of having Gordon out of office is that it limits his access to DELJIS to those he can cajole into breaking the law for him.
anonymous, Explain something to me. Why is Joe Biden such a big Tom Gordon fan?
It goes back to the day of the Crime Bill. Vince D’Anna and Tom Gordon (I believe he was the Chief of Police then) helped with the crime bill that Biden drafted. That was back before he decided to go all Machiavellian on NCC. His now CAO, former County Attorney, Tim Mullaney, left the County to work for Beau, eventually becoming his Chief of Staff. There are many other ties there. It was just one of those things that started a long, long time ago, in a Delaware far, far, away.
So, just who used DELJIS to look up Meyer’s DMV records?
And who retrieved Meyer’s tax records to claim that he wasn’t paying taxes as a resident?
^^Cassandra^^
The NJ posted a breathless followup to their story, gaming out what might happen. Unfortunately, they still aren’t reporting on Meyer’s Federally compliance driver’s license that he got in September 2011. A license that would have required that you demonstrate citizenship PLUS residency.
WDEL reports that Meyer has submitted his driver’s licence plus a bunch of tax data showing his residency. Decision today from Elaine Manlove, they say.
“Why is Joe Biden such a big Tom Gordon fan?”
They go back together to before Biden was elected to County Council. He and Gordon worked together at the prosecutor’s office, IIRC. I don’t think Gordon was even a cop yet.
So the poll question should be, Will Joe Biden find Tom Gordon a job in the Carney administration?
Meyer is cleared to stay on the ballot.
Carney is a product of the Freel machine; Biden has his own. Carney does not need the PR hit hiring Gordon would produce.
BTW, Meyer’s attorney, Chuck Durante, was a past campaign treasurer for Gordon, so those allegations of shady dealings on accessing tax records carries some weight. It’s not like Durante is simply some Gordon-hater.