Even More Key Staff Resign From Bethany Hall-Long’s Staff, Calling Into Question Her Run for Governor of Delaware

OPINION

JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network

https://spotlightdelaware.org/2024/07/31/lt-gov-hall-longs-campaign-team-is-getting-shaken-up-again/

Lt. Gov. Hall-Long’s campaign team is getting shaken up — again

by Karl Baker

Following a week of audit-fueled turmoil, Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s gubernatorial campaign team will reorganize under a new manager who previously worked in the lieutenant governor’s office.

The new campaign manager, Matt Dougherty — who starts on Friday — also previously served as a Congressional aide for various lawmakers, including Delaware’s U.S. Senator, Tom Carper, according to a spokesman for Hall-Long’s campaign.

Dougherty’s ascension to the top spot coincides with the departures of Hall-Long’s campaign director, Quentin Heilbroner, and her finance director, Sydney Diewald.

Asked if Dougherty is replacing Heilbroner, Hall-Long’s spokesman Dan McCormick said that is “fair-ish” to say.

He said Dougherty will give a new “focus to the campaign going forward in the final few weeks.”

When pressed, McCormick also acknowledged that frustrations exist among the departing staff members, but asserted that Heilbroner and Diewald are leaving the campaign amicably.

Following the release of the report last week, Hall-Long’s Democratic opponents in the governor’s race – Collin O’Mara and Matt Meyer – separately called for further investigations.

O’Mara, Delaware’s former top environmental regulator, said the state attorney general should appoint an independent counsel to probe further into the controversy, according to a WHYY report.

Meyer, who serves as New Castle County’s executive, said U.S. prosecutors should open an investigation.

Meanwhile, Hall-Long has denied the report’s central finding but hasn’t provided details to support why she believes the report’s conclusions are in error. Last week, she released statements to several media outlets, saying “our family has loaned the campaign more money than we have been reimbursed.”

The release of the audit report followed months of scrutiny and suspicions around Hall-Long’s campaign finances that began last fall with another shakeup of her campaign staff.

At the time, several staffers resigned from Hall-Long’s then-fledgling gubernatorial campaign after learning that her previous candidate committee had made large and unreported cash transfers to Dana Long.

In the subsequent months, Hall-Long hired a small Dover accounting firm to conduct a review of her finances. By November, she released to the election department a string of amended campaign finance filings going back to 2016.

Since then, her opponents and members of the media have repeatedly called on Hall-Long to release the accountant’s review, which she claimed only discovered financial reporting errors that were subsequently corrected in her amended campaign finance reports.Noted, thanks!Incredible turmoil!More updates?