By Maddy Lauria
Local elections for county seats across Delaware are being decided by and large with a few thousand dollars, even though those elected positions can hold power over a vast amount of local decisions from where multimillion-dollar developments can go to how residents’ tax dollars are spent.
One exception is the race for New Castle County’s next executive, which has seen two Democratic candidates spend $275,000 ahead of the Sept. 10 primary. That’s more than double the amount spent at this point of reporting in the last primary race for that seat in 2016 between Matt Meyer and Thomas Gordon, and is multitudes more than some county-level campaigns reporting negative balances this August.
Influence from special interests isn’t reserved just for the millions circulating in campaigns for statewide seats, either. Special interests like developers can contribute funding to political campaigns as individuals or by hiding behind LLCs, corporate entities and political action committees (PACs). Those influential dollars, albeit at much lower amounts, can be found among county-level campaign finances and behind flurries of mailers to voters attacking various candidates, as is the case in at least one Sussex County Council race.
All candidates with primary races and reportable expenses must file campaign finance reports ahead of the election. The following review only includes reportable contributions made directly to key county-level candidates with primaries this fall, as described in reports that are required to be filed with the Department of Elections about 30 days ahead of the primary. Individual donations to candidates are capped at $600 in each non-statewide election cycle, according to campaign finance law, which outlines different rules for political parties, PACs and third-party advertisers. Third-party advertising (which legally must be done without coordinating with a candidate or their campaign) spending is not included in this analysis.
Delaware Coalition for Open Government spokesman John Flaherty described Delaware’s campaign finance system as “antiquated,” raising concerns about a lag in public disclosure of contributions and expenditures as well as the “legal secrecy” afforded to PACs and LLCs donating to those entities.
“It’s very, very difficult to discern those reports and come to some kind of conclusion about what this candidate represents or what that candidate represents,” he said. “One good thing is you can download the reports. It used to be you’d have to go down there and get paper copies.”
While individual candidate campaign finance reports can only shed so much light, let’s start from the south and move north to find out who — and what interests — are supporting key county-level primary candidates in this year’s election cycle.
There will be two Republican primaries for Sussex County Council races: District 1, which covers the southwestern corner of the county, and District 2, which covers from the western Maryland border along the Kent County line into the Milford and Slaughter Beach area.
Longtime incumbent Mike Vincent, who represents the 1st District, held the largest war chest of all the Sussex County Council candidates with primaries. According to his campaign finance report, more than 60 individuals, companies and LLCs — including businessman Alex Pires, family farms, committees connected to other current and former politicians and developers like Riverside Apartments near Millsboro — contributed a collective $22,300 to Vincent’s run for re-election. His campaign reported a starting balance of $2,388 and expenditures adding up to $3,663, leaving the campaign with an ending balance of $21,024, according to campaign finance reports. Vincent also reported just over $11,000 in outstanding loans.
This is Vincent’s first primary since 2012, he said, and he relies on his volunteer-treasurer to handle the finance reporting — so he said he couldn’t weigh in on whether the dollar amounts in this campaign cycle are at all unusual. Although he noted that even with over $20,000 on hand ahead of a primary, advertising can quickly eat away at that balance. And if PACs get involved in any sort of advertising, it’s hard to compete with entities that don’t have $600 contribution limits, he said.
“I don’t see the need, in my case, at my level of government, to get money from a PAC,” Vincent said. His report for this period showed no contributions from PACs.
Vincent’s primary opponents, Republicans Matt Lloyd and Christie Shirey, each raised a total of $1,050 from a handful of individual donations. Both ended the reporting period with balances below $5,000, along with thousands in outstanding loans.
In District 2, Republican incumbent Cindy Green and her Republican opponent, Steve McCarron, who kept pace with Vincent by holding $19,233 in his coffers at the end of the reporting period, have been impacted by third-party advertising aimed at supporting Green and discrediting McCarron. Mailers sent to residents in the Milford area were paid for by Preserve Sussex, a PAC funded by developer dollars.
“I would always be concerned when you see one industry go all in for a certain candidate,” said McCarron, who said his efforts have been largely “self-funded” due to lending himself about $40,000 in loans for his campaign so far. “I haven’t asked or coordinated with any PACs to support my candidacy.”
Green also said she has not coordinated with any PACs, including the Preserve Sussex entity that’s been sending flyers in support of her candidacy, thanks to tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from well-known Sussex County developers and LLCs responsible for building projects in southern Delaware.
“You will see when you get my report I’ve received no money from any PAC and my campaign is mostly self-funded,” she said, noting that local races can be won over advertising. “You can have a campaign loaded with the established Republicans, does that mean you vote like they tell you to vote?”
In total, these Sussex County Council primary candidates raised $47,778 ahead of the Sept. 10 primary and spent a few thousand more: $54,447. McCarron’s campaign spent the most, with nearly $35,000 in reportable expenses, which included several payments to Facebook, local businesses and advertisers and Republican causes.
Between the two Democratic candidates running for the District 5 seat on Kent County Levy Court, the total ending balance of the primary opponents would be in the red because of one candidate.
Susan Lanyon reported an ending balance of -$1,294 on campaign finance documents due in mid-August. According to the report, she raised $1,150 from three individual donors and spent $2,444. It is not a violation of state campaign finance laws for a committee to operate with a negative balance, according to the Department of Elections.
Lanyon’s opponent, incumbent Commissioner George “Jody” Sweeney raised $3,625 from a handful of donors, including Kent County’s John Paradee and state Sen. Trey Paradee’s candidate campaign. Sweeney spent just over $5,000 ahead of the primary.
In total, these Kent County candidates received — not including loans — a collective $4,775 in contributions and spent $7,465.
In New Castle County, the Democratic primary for the New Castle County executive seat held by gubernatorial candidate Matt Meyer has seen the highest dollar amount of the county-level races analyzed here, with more than $275,000 spent by the two candidates. The majority of spending is linked to candidate Marcus Henry, who started with nearly $140,000 in his campaign’s coffers, raised $79,268 and spent $257,487 to end the reporting period with $47,476 (thanks in part to a recent $86,000 loan to his campaign).
His opponent, current New Castle County Council President Karen Hartley-Nagle’s $20,425 in contributions received came from dozens of donors including individual supporters, real estate companies, several LLCs and PACs related to building and trades, among other interests. She spent just a little less than that — $19,260 — to end the reporting period with about $20,000 on hand, thanks to a $13,151 starting balance and several loans totaling $27,700.
Henry’s high-dollar campaign also has a total $211,000 in outstanding, self-funded loans (including the $86,000). The nearly $80,000 in contributions received for his candidacy ahead of the primary came from dozens of individual donations from Delawareans as well as from engineering, construction and trades-related councils, companies and PACs, the 23rd Representative District Democratic Committee, the Delaware Asian American Business Association PAC, former politicians like former state Rep. John Kowalko and former state Sen. David McBride, and Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki.
Meanwhile, five Democrats running for New Castle County Council President raised $59,510. They spent $48,878, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Candidates Jason Hoover and George S. Frankel raised the most, with $22,004 and $12,651 in contributions received, respectively.
Most of Hoover’s funding came from dozens of individual donors, as well as from the campaign for New Castle County Council candidate John Cartier and $600 from the Democratic Delaware Stonewall PAC. Frankel’s $12,000-plus in contributions was linked to individual donors and the ABC Merit Shop PAC; he did not receive any other direct donations from any other PACs, businesses or LLCs.
The three other candidates, Val Gould, Monique Johns and Robert A. Williams raised smaller amounts at this point in their campaigns. Gould received $11,319 in contributions, according to campaign finance reports, mostly from individuals including current state Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton. The report also noted that a cumulative $4,400 of those receipts were from small, individual donations under $100. Contributions to candidates that are less than $100 do not have to include identifying information like the donor’s name or address.
Johns’ campaign funding has relied largely on $6,725 in contributions from individuals as well as real estate, remodeling and contracting companies. Williams’ campaign collected $6,811 from individual donors as well as the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council and the Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge.
There are two other Democratic primaries for County Council seats: District 7 and District 12. District 7 candidate Michael A. Brown started and ended his campaign in the red, with a reported balance of -$9,732. His opponent, George Smiley, raised $1,770 and ended the reporting period with about $1,288 after expenses totaling $27,000.
A few thousand dollars circulated among the candidates in the District 12 primary contest. Kevin Caneco raised just over $4,300 from individual donors including Councilman David Carter and state Rep. Eric Morrison, as well as the 9th Representative District Democratic Committee, ending the reporting period with $5,659. His opponent, George Dudlek, raised nearly $3,800 from individuals as well as PACs linked to building and trades. Dudlek ended the reporting period with about $2,000 on hand.
In total, the candidates with primaries in New Castle County that were analyzed here raised a collective $172,442 and spent $370,502. Aside from Henry, council president candidate Jason Hoover raised the most with $22,004 in donations.
Want to learn more about who’s funding Delaware politicians? Visit https://spotlightdelaware.org/tag/election-2024/
The Delaware Journalism Collaborative is a project of the Local Journalism Initiative.
