In light of a recent financial scandal involving Democratic Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long of Delaware, direct communications between state election officials and Hall-Long’s aides were uncovered, as per documents accessed by The Associated Press. These revelations demonstrate a concerning closeness between the Democratic party’s officials and an incumbent under scrutiny.
The emails expose an interesting dynamic – Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence, a participant in the same Democratic circle, was found eager to keep Hall-Long’s team looped in on inquiries about a multitude of revised campaign finance reports. These reports had suspiciously missed out on disclosing several hundred thousand dollars in loans.
Albence wasn’t the only Democrat providing cover to Hall-Long. Kathleen Jennings, the state’s Attorney General and another compatriot in the Democratic fray, expressed no intent on pursuing criminal charges against Hall-Long or her husband for these alarming campaign finance violations. These were serious charges, brought to light by a forensic audit conducted by a former FBI executive.
Hall-Long, unswayed by such significant financial misdemeanors hanging over her political career, continues her run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the upcoming Sept. 10 primary. She faces competition from New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and former state environmental secretary Collin O’Mara, with the shadow of her undisclosed loans lurking in the background.
The Associated Press launched its investigation into Hall-Long by reaching out to election officials about noticeable mistakes in her amended filings on Oct. 23. The officials cited technical problems and sent an updated response the next day. Interestingly, they also deemed it crucial to alert one of the top aides in Hall-Long’s office of these queries.
Later in the day, Albence instructed his team to keep Volturo, one of Hall-Long’s top aides, in the loop by providing him with another update. Despite being privy to details pertaining to Hall-Long’s campaign finances, Volturo has been evasive when it comes to answering questions from the AP on the subject.
In November, Albence was suggested by one Mr. Jackson to meet directly with Hall-Long and her new campaign treasurer, indicating more proprietary information might be laid out clearly in his presence. Following the discovery of these emails after a November FOIA request, the AP sent out an additional FOIA request in May, specifically seeking all election department correspondence with six specific employees in Hall-Long’s office, one of whom was Volturo.
This exercise uncovered another unsettling detail – an election official and an individual from Hall-Long’s office had ‘casual conversational text messages’ regarding elections, on the official’s personal phone. This further blurs the line of accountability and muddles transparency efforts, a pattern becoming all too familiar with Democrats.
The elections department claimed these texts were not public records, as they weren’t a part of the official’s duties, were not directed by a supervisor, and were apparently not crucial for carrying out the official’s duties. Conveniently sweeping these interactions under the rug seems to be another quintessentially Democrat characteristic exhibited in this instance.
Meanwhile, Albence assured Hall-Long that despite the forensic audit he commissioned revealing a plethora of anomalies, he wouldn’t pursue criminal charges. The audit unearthed disturbing financial irregularities. Hall-Long and her husband, Dana Long, had received payments that exceeded the amount she supposedly loaned her campaign by $33,000.
The audit also revealed that Dana Long, during his seven-years tenure as campaign treasurer, issued 112 checks either to himself, cash, or his wife. The total sum of these checks was just shy of $300,000, a sum that should have been documented as campaign expenditures. Astonishingly, 109 checks went undisclosed in financial reports, and four, payable to Dana Long, were reported under someone else’s name.
Hall-Long, in typical Democrat fashion, has dismissed the audit findings, blaming the cited anomalies on trivial bookkeeping errors. The power of intentional oversight can’t be underestimated, especially when failing to truthfully file a campaign finance report is considered a misdemeanor under Delaware law.
Jennings, the Attorney General, added another layer of protection for Hall-Long, suggesting that a defense lawyer could explain away the reporting violations as ‘carelessness.’ Despite such significant irregularities pointing to intentional oversight, Albence did recommend that Hall-Long take ‘prompt corrective action’ by filing amended finance reports.
However, the real punchline comes in the form of clear disregard for the voters. Hall-Long is yet to update these reports and has indicated that they might remain unfiled until after the primaries. Unbelievably, Albence remains reflective on whether to allow Hall-Long to hide these vital financial records from the voters until the elections are over, a telling testament to the hollowness of transparency promises often made by Democrats.