I’m torn, but it is hard to blame Denn for this call
Just paying casual attention to politics is a nauseating grind. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be to be in it. That said, if true public servants like Denn sit out politics, that means the grifters hands are strengthened.
After 14 years in elective office, Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn will return to the private sector when his term is over next year.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page Monday afternoon, Denn said it was a “very tough decision” to step away from politics. “I am ready for a change. Although my term does not end for another year and four months, I thought it was responsible to let people know my plans now,” Denn wrote.
He gave two reason for his decision; the first he called a selfish reason. “Politics these days can be grueling, with endless fundraising and traveling and constant attacks, which can be tough on a candidate but are even tougher on his family.”
Denn’s twin sons were born five days before he first took office as Delaware Insurance Commissioner 12 years ago. “Given the time required and the tone involved in politics these days, my boys deserve a change, my wife deserves a change, and I would like a change as well.”
He needs to get paid to fund his run in 2024
This is Tom Carper’s fault. No, seriously, hear me out. There is no political path upward for Matt Denn thanks to Carper’s plan to run for re-election. If Carper were stepping down, LBR could step up and Denn could make a play for her seat.
The dugout is getting crowded, and Denn just stepped out into the bleachers to stretch his legs. You also have Trini Navarro, who isn’t going to be content with the IC’s office for long. Toss in Townsend, Barney and Sherry Dorsey Walker (don’t forget her strong second-place showing for LG), and you have an ambitious group of other Dems in the wing. And don’t forget Markell, fresh off his bike ride with a “HIRE ME” sign taped to his jersey, or our current LG herself.
Faced with no opportunity for a promotion or raise for the next six years, and with a thankless job handling the nuts and bolts of investigations and prosecutions and civil junk, why not head to the private sector or a nonprofit or D.C. to put some money in the kids’ college funds?
I don’t blame him. But I do blame Carper.
My view is he understands the days of the middle manager politician is over. The skill-set of negotiating deals between the various business interests and making boilerplate remarks at ribbon cuttings and being overly cautious in most dealings is no longer needed in public service. John Carney please take note..
This says nothing about the person Matt Denn. I’m sure he’s a perfectly fine fellow, but he’s develop particular political skills that are obsolete. Step aside… Fair enough.
RE.. You would make sense if we didn’t have a president who held his lack of experience in Government and extensive expertise in business as a new model for a successful government leader. We sure could use someone in the White House that is overly cautious.
I see it the other way. All these middle of the road fourth rate attorneys, etc. are useless to me. That’s what Trump proved. Denn, Carper, Carney, Coons, spent a lifetime building a CV and checking the boxes. Nobody fucking cares about those prerequisites. Those days are over.
By the way, the idea that Trump has “extensive expertise in business” is a joke. He’s a PT Barnum, Billy Mays type whose old man had money.
I’m not looking for that either.
I think you have to be a lawyer to be AG, the potential candidates are:
1. Brian Townsend
2. Shawn Barney
3. Ciro Poppitti
4. Bill Oberle
5. Shawn Lynn
6. Kathy Jennings
7. Melanie George Smith
Just say NO to Barney and Poppiti..help us all from those two guys.
….Townsend is BEST name. but would be huge loss to Dover.
The AG does not have to be an attorney.
Hmmm… I thought that was one of the rules. That the issue was just whether they had to be an attorney that passed the Delaware Bar.
And I hope that SAPD meant Charlie Oberle. Bill is a Republican.
It’s Charles Oberly. Doubt that he wants that grind again.
Hey, Matt can take a couple of years off and challenge Carney, if Carney even decides to run again. I’m calling it now.
Hey, if you didn’t have to pass the Delaware Bar, Mark Brainard could run. Except he couldn’t afford the severe pay cut. But it would open up Del-Tech for Melanie George.
If anyone is on a “short-list” of potential political candidates for any office, burn that fucking list and start over.
I hate to rain on the Matt Denn love parade, but I feel that he’s very far from being a progressive AG. I encourage you to read the Slate article “How to tell if a prosecutor is only pretending to be a criminal justice reformer”: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/trials_and_error/2017/04/how_to_tell_if_a_prosecutor_is_only_pretending_to_be_a_criminal_justice.html
Denn fits the description perfectly. He pays a lot of lip service to “reform” but then turns around and consistently pushes for more mandatory minimums, longer sentences, more people in prison. I hope our next AG is serious about reducing the prison population, in both word and deed.
Denn has done a lot to try to reduce receivism and the prison population, including pushing for reform of the habitual offender sentences so career criminals go to jail and criminals who commit lesser crimes have a chance to get out and rebuild their lives. Also, he would have done a lot more in the drug treatment and crime prevention realm had JFC not raided the money he and Beau Biden got from the banks in mortgage settlements.
Would also like to throw out Sean Lynn’s name as a progressive possibility. Understands the challenges of the various courts and most importantly is leading the fight to repeal the death penalty in the House.
Regarding Denn’s habitual offender “reform”- it was Karen Peterson’s idea back in 2014 to reform the habitual offender laws, and she introduced a bill to that effect. Here’s what Matt Denn did to that bill- he got it watered down as all hell and then quietly made a change to it that actually INCREASED mandatory minimums for many defendants. Mark my words, because of what Denn did, that bill will increase the prison population overall, not decrease it.
And the idea that the bill got rid of mandatory life for habitual offenders is FALSE. Proof:
http://www.wdel.com/news/wilmington-habitual-offender-gets-years-in-prison-years-probation-in/article_7370c77c-6e58-11e7-8bde-0ba2a35552fc.html
http://www.wdel.com/news/habitual-offender-gets-years-after-being-convicted-of-dealing-drugs/article_87f70644-8446-11e7-834c-7f490ee48c1e.html
These 2 men got mandatory sentences of 50 years and 120 years (essentially life sentences) under the new “reformed” habitual offender law for crimes that did not even involve an act of violence. Both cases happened within the last 6 weeks. This is what Matt Denn’s idea of reform looks like.
Matt Denn’s progressive cred, such as it is, comes not from his time as AG but before he was steered into this job. The whole idea of getting him to take the job was to destroy his progressive cred.
The Republicans could run JoJo the dog-faced boy and win Woodburn in 2020.
I was told that the powers that be would never let Denn be Gov. or anything higher than AG years ago.
And I am not talking about the Democratic party, I am talking about the REAL party. You know they guys that wear $2k suits that sometimes sit at the front of the Dem Dinner if someone famous shows up yet you never see them anywhere else. The one that always gives us centrist pro-business practically 80’s republicans for the statewide seats that count.
SussexWatcher is right. Denn saw no path upward, and continuing as AG meant he would only continue to piss off everyone, including the cops and the black community (that in itself is an impressive feat), disprove the myth of his progressive street cred (you do realize DOJ attorneys were DEFENDING the death penalty during Denn’s tenure? some progressive!), and not do anything to appreciably fix crime in Wilmington. 2018 was going to be a tough race for him and he knew it. Why bother? The “spend time with my family” trope is cover for a savvy political move to stop building negatives, make some quick money in the private sector, and then re-enter politics on his own terms when a US Senate seat or the Governor’s Office presents a clearer shot. Of course, he’ll have to either win the powerball or get in line behind Markell, LBR, BHL, Carney, Navarro, Townsend, Short, Barney, Meyer, Young, McGinnis, Longhurst, Dorsey Walker and the long list of Democratic horribles. Clearly he gave the State Party no warning. The chair’s statement is just a polite way of saying “we had no frickin’ clue.” And way to invite a six-way shit show circus of a primary. Contrast to the GOP message which calls for unity behind a qualified candidate. If only…
To use the great Carlin trope, they may not have a plan now, but they will. And the one thing we can be certain of, we won’t be fucking consulted.
FWIW – Karen Peterson’s bill had no chance of passing in 2014. Denn made it into something that could pass. And those two cases you cited involved armed drug dealers – i.e. people walking around with guns breaking the law. I’m sorry, but that’s a violent crime.
Denn a progressive lol, I think some contributors on here are really not progressive too.
he raised the mandatory limits. Told the FOP he was for the death penalty ! Black man was shot 30 times in a wheelchair. Still waiting for an answer, plus a dover cop kick a black mans head like a football. AG defended the cop even after the tapes. Real progressive NOT. Townsend sponsored the coastal zone watered down act and is a corporate lawyer REALLY a progressive ! Plus you do not need a law degree to have that office
Townsend is no progressive, if only the people on this blog would figure it out. What would it take? Sheesh.
I love seeing the purist progressive circular firing squad get in formation.
This feels like the first step in an organized game of musical chairs. I think El Som’s theory makes the most sense, time will tell.
If we are talking about who has the ability to do the job of AG, Kathy Jennings stands out in that list like a redwood in a field of Christmas trees.
@Stewball – Peterson’s bill passed the Senate, so it had some viability. Perhaps some compromises needed to be made, but they could have passed a bill that actually reduced the prison population. Instead, Denn successfully pushed an alternative bill that actually increased the prison population by jacking up mandatory minimums for many, many defendants.
Yes, those 2 men illegally possessed guns. But does that mean they should never get a chance again for the rest of their natural lives? If they had committed murder or raped a child, I’d say maybe they don’t deserve a second chance. But for possessing a gun they never even used? Maybe they deserve some prison time, but not a life sentence. And even if you disagree about that, shouldn’t the final decision be made by a judge and not mandatorily imposed by a legislature that has never even met the defendants? Matt Denn doesn’t think so, apparently.
The “purist progressive circular firing squad” is 3/5ths GOP concern trolls.
Man, the Denn haters are out in force. I think he’s been a very good public servant.
As AG, he also helped to put together the package reducing the minimum mandatories, legislation largely enacted during the so-called War on Drugs. Those mandatories and piling on of charges were created by demagogues playing to racist dog-whistles–Tom Sharp, Jim Vaughn, Wayne Smith and, yes, then-AG Jane Brady.
AG Denn, along with justice reform progressives, helped to roll those back. That’s real achievement.
Denn also decided NOT to challenge the Delaware Supreme Court’s ruling on the death penalty.
He also worked to address Wilmington’s gun violence issue, and would have accomplished more had (a) the General Assembly not raided the housing fund $$’s he helped the state to acquire and (b) the mayor of Wilmington not been a boneheaded bozo.
Denn’s also always been someone who works well with others. It may be a little thing, but I like the fact that the press releases we get from his office are different than those we received from previous AG’s. Denn’s releases invariably shine the spotlight on those public servants who did the hard work in securing convictions, not on Denn.
I’ll write a longer analysis of his work later on, but I can’t let the ad hominem attacks stand unanswered. Was I disappointed in certain things he did or did not do? Yes, and I’ll address them. But I appreciate what he HAS accomplished and I hope this is not the last we’ll hear of him.
@scuttlebutt: There’s no clearer sign that you have no political soul than to wish we were as lockstep as the GOP.
That said, this is bullshit:
“2018 was going to be a tough race for him and he knew it. ”
Not a shred of evidence or common sense to support this statement.
You also placed Denn far down a list of Democrats who can’t hold his shoes and are not “ahead” of him in any line worth standing in.
Overall, I rate your comment as four turds, or “full of shit.”
RE Vanella–You talk enough shit about running, people in office, and how we got to fix the system. What are you running for? You got your papers to file yet?
If not you, maybe some others on here with half baked ideas will run. That way you can see how easy this thing, why it does not take time, money, any how being a purist is simple. You also can see why you don’t need a intelligence or experience to run the office–all you need is bloggers.
Nikola – You have no idea what I’m doing. If you did you’d cool your jets. But I don’t have to answer to anonymous commenters. So far as I know, in a representative democracy, whether I run for office or not I can talk all kinds of shit. And you can rest well knowing that I will.
You’ll notice I didn’t offer any half-baked ideas or speculation on who should run for what. I simply don’t believe conventional wisdom does anyone any favors.
@nikola: While it does indeed take time, money and commitment to run for office, that has nothing to do with what compromises people decide to make in doing so.
Meanwhile, nobody owes a damn thing to politicians. The debt runs in the other direction. If you’re in the job for pats on the back, too bad. If you want a job where you have no accountability to the public that pays your check, be a cop.
@El Somnambulo – Sorry to say, but Denn pushed for mandatory minimums more often than he pushed against them. And while he supported a couple bills that reduced mandatory minimums, those same bills also increased mandatory minimums or created new mandatory minimums for many defendants. I encourage you to find those bills and read them carefully.
He also opposed Chief Justice Strine’s efforts to rewrite the criminal code to eliminate redundancy and the “piling on of charges” (which Denn denied was an actual problem).
I get that Denn deserves credit for some things he did, and I’m glad you pointed those out. But to me, fair sentencing and reducing the prison population is a hugely consequential issue, and he appears to be firmly on the wrong side of that issue.
@alby: “Not a shred of evidence or common sense to support this statement.”
ummmm, except for the fact that Denn isn’t running?
He must know something we don’t know.
And I agree he’d be better than most listed, but by stepping away from politics, he’ll have to muscle or buy his way back in past all the clowns who have managed a perch in the meantime to have another shot at governor or senator.