OPINION

Dear Friends,

The Republican Party of Delaware should count ourselves lucky. We may win the Governor race. We have a Democrat party that insists on running, in essence, a reported criminal as their leader. Our current state lieutenant governor, Bethany Hall-Long, is the Democrat front-runner for Governor, while being called out for breaking the law.

“Delawareans, all of us, deserve to be able to trust our elected officials and know that rules and laws apply to everyone, and apply to everyone equally,”  New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer says in the story below. He even called out her  “near-decade long illegal conduct.”

A complete and thorough review by a certified fraud examiner, who is also a retired FBI senior executive, found Hall-Long and her husband reportedly having committed fraud during her campaign. It runs deep. That is who the Democrats are counting on. This gives the Republicans a real chance for Governor in this election, as I see it.

See the story below to see how bad it is for Hall-Long and the Democrats. Send me your feedback on this, folks. It is welcome and appreciated.

Respectfully Submitted,

JUDSON Bennett–Coastal Network

https://6abc.com/delaware-gubernatorial-candidate-matt-meyer-calls-investigation-primary-rival-bethany-hall-longs-campaign-finances/15143861/

Delaware gubernatorial candidate calls for investigation into primary rival’s campaign finances

By 6abc Digital Staff  

Sunday, August 4, 2024 3:53PM

DELAWARE — The chief executive of Delaware’s largest county is calling for a federal investigation into the campaign finances of the state’s lieutenant governor, who is his chief rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer held a brief news conference Monday to respond to a forensic review commissioned by the state Department of Elections that uncovered significant improprieties in the campaign finances of Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long.

“Delawareans, all of us, deserve to be able to trust our elected officials and know that rules and laws apply to everyone, and apply to everyone equally,” Meyer said, decrying what he called Hall-Long’s “near-decade long illegal conduct.”

The forensic review, conducted by a retired FBI senior executive who is a certified fraud examiner, found that Hall-Long and her husband had received payments totaling $33,000 more than what she purportedly loaned to her campaign. It also found that Hall-Long’s husband and former campaign treasurer, Dana Long, wrote four campaign checks to himself but falsely reported that they had been written to someone else.

Jeffrey Lampinski, the fraud examiner, also determined that, from January 2016 to December 2023, Dana Long wrote 112 checks from his wife’s campaign committee account to himself or to cash, and one check to his wife. The checks totaled just under $300,000 and should have been reported as campaign expenditures. Instead, Lampinski found, 109 were never reported in initial finance reports, and the other four, payable to Dana Long, were reported as being made to someone else.

“The report found that Ms. Hall-Long broke the law,” Meyer said. “The report provides evidence that she tried to cover it up, and was still covering it up until the last moment, when she asked our state election commissioner to keep the report detailing the illegalities confidential and not to release these findings to the public.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware declined to comment on Meyer’s call for a federal investigation.

Hall-Long’s campaign released a statement describing Meyer’s remarks as “totally unjustified.”

“Matt Meyer’s press conference today was a desperate political attack to distract the voters from the issues that matter most,” Hall-Long said in the statement. “As I’ve always done, I have voluntarily cooperated with the Delaware Department of Elections and I will continue to do just that.”

Hall-Long has been under intense scrutiny since September, when she abruptly announced the postponement of a campaign event with Democratic Gov. John Carney that was to be held the next day, saying she needed to “attend to a personal, private matter.”

In reality, her campaign was in disarray after people brought in to lead the campaign discovered major discrepancies while reviewing years of finance reports. The scandal led to the resignations of Hall-Long’s campaign manager, chief fundraiser and campaign treasurer – who had replaced Dana Long as treasurer only five months earlier.

In late September, Hall-Long said she was working with “independent campaign finance experts and forensic accountants to thoroughly audit the finances.”

In October, she issued a “campaign audit update” declaring that an accounting firm hired “to audit records and receipts” found “no wrongdoings or violations.” She has refused to release a copy of the purported audit.

In fact, according to documents included in the report commissioned by the state elections commission, the firm hired by Hall-Long relied exclusively on information that she provided, conducted no audit, and made no determination about wrongdoing.

“We will not audit or otherwise verify the data you submit to us,” Karen Remick, owner of Summit CPA Group, wrote in a Sept. 21 letter to Hall-Long’s campaign committee.

“Our engagement does not include any procedures designed to detect errors, fraud, theft, or other wrongdoing,” Remick added.

In November, Hall-Long submitted amended campaign finance reports covering a period of several years, acknowledging that she and her husband had made campaign-related expenses using personal credit cards and loans that had not been properly reported.

According to election officials, however, the amended reports still do not bring Hall-Long into compliance with state campaign finance laws. In an email earlier this month, election commissioner Anthony Albence assured Hall-Long that he would not refer the matter to Democratic Attorney General Kathy Jennings, but that he expected Hall-Long’s committee to take “prompt corrective action.”