It is a match made in heaven. You simply take unlimited money from developers, mixed with the ability to manpower elections, join them together,…. and you get whatever you want.
But the question I’m about to ask, is whether this what WE want? WE as in WE, the people.. That is the question….
What I’m about to show is not news…. Everyone connected already knows it. Even the News Journal knows it, but this “arrangement” sort of sits out there, completely hidden from most voter’s views…. Idealistic first time candidates are usually caught off guard, when they get sucker punched.
It is known by the euphemism: The Delaware Way…
It is how we explain to outsiders why here in Delaware, labor backs Republicans; even to the point of assisting Mike Castle,… protecting him by running interference among the Democrats to insure that only a weak candidate like Mike Miller, or KHN, or another patsy Democrat ever gets the opportunity to climb into the ring…. I understand that Liz Allen is up for the next round.
It also explains why UDC (Unified Development Code) laws get watered down in New Castle County, by those who won their various primary contests, through importing out of state labor to man the polls on election day.
There is nothing scandalous about this… It is the way things are done… and if it served to benefit the interests of New Castle County citizens, or the state of Delaware, then more power to them….
But the goal of turning our state into another Harlem (as we are slowly starting to realize), is not in our states’ long term interest. Today, one city stretches from Washington to Boston. Wisdom dictates that only if Delaware is unique from its neighbors, such as being the only green diamond showing up on Google maps of the East Coast, will we be able to maintain control over our destiny, to keep residential property values high…..and keep our quality of life…even higher.
Obviously, if Delaware’s quality of life becomes rated as the best place to live on the East Coast, more people will want to move here… more businesses will settle here; more investment will come here…. But to achieve that high mark of quality, we need to understand our state’s need to build housing slowly, leveraging the increased demand for our houses to our advantage, thereby keeping our prices a little higher than housing developments of surrounding states.
But that is not how it works… The Delaware Way, often a way rejoiced by Delawareans promoting congenial bipartisanship, simply means that a handful of people are really pulling the strings of both parties. They pull just enough strings to get things done… That is, the things THEY want done… And THEY want to build, build, build.
The smoking gun of all this interactivity is embedded within our state’s campaign finance reports… A simple cross referencing shows some illuminating patterns… Obviously those who receive developer’s funds, will support developers… Equally obvious, is that those who receive labor’s support …will support labor….In the comparisons illuminated below, we see similarities between Republican candidates who always seem to miraculously have a weak candidate running against them, and Democrats who have tons of unionists lined up at every poll….. Whereas much effort is spent by us and the press hounding our politicians, in truth, they are just supporting those who actually put them there…. The campaign finance reports show us, it’s just a handful of men who are running our politicians ragged.
It is this mysterious connection which provides the first insight into the inexplicable foot dragging done on Bluewater Wind…. It also explains to outsiders exactly why the eminent domain bill was first passed, then vetoed, and finally defeated by those who passed it the first time…… Furthermore, it is this connection that explains to outsiders, the watering down of the UDC codes to allow workforce housing to flood lower New Castle County….
This connection is hard to trace by the unconnected; but here is a smoking gun….
Since many of you are facing this for the first time, let us begin by opening this can of worms… “the Hammer and Nails” Club… Here is how they describe themselves….
It is operated solely for the purpose of influencing the nominations, elections, or appointments of candidates for local, county, and state public offices in the State,.. and to assist and promote incumbent elected officials by raising funds
(Keep in mind the maximum amount allowed in state legislative races is $600.)
Here is their 30 day primary report.
Here is their 8 day primary report.
Here is their 30 day general election report.
Here is their 8 day general election report…
If you have never read these before, here is a brief primer… The first page is the cover;..the second is the financial synopsis. The next group covers the contributors: whereas the fourth group covers the expenditures… If there are loans, they are covered by the fifth group… (One has to say “group” instead of page, because on large statewide campaigns, it takes quite a few pages to fill out a group, since everyone contributing over $100 is listed…)
So if one clicks on the 30 day primary report, one sees that the large amounts were given to:
Terry Spence, Republican
Sean Lynn, Levy Court
Senator Bonni, Republican (incidentally not recorded by him)
Senator Adams, Democrat (report not available)
Rep Joe Booth, Republican
Mr. Pam Scott, Democrat (listed under Home Builders Association, same address)
Chris Coons, Democrat (also not listed by him… but if you want to see how to hide things..)
Senator Tony DeLuca, Democrat
Bill Carson, (also not listed by him)
Rep. Dick Cathcart, Republican
Rep. George Carey, Republican
Rep. Gerald Hocker, Republican (listed under Home Builders Delaware, same address)
Deborah Hudson,
Findley B Jones, (who?)
Rep. Greg Lavelle, Republican
Rep Greg Hastings, Republican
Rep Pam Maier, (no report filed)
Rep. Nick Manolakos. Republican
Rep. Miro, Republican
Outten’s Campaign,
Lynn Rogers, (no report filed)
Sorenson, Republican (not listed on her report)
Again Terry Spence, Republican ($250 over maximum)
Donna Stone, Republican
Pam Thornburg, Republican
Bob Valihura, Republican
Nancy Wagner, Republican
Bob Walls, Republican
Bob Gilligan, Democrat (listed as Home Builder’s Assc. of Delaware)
Ben Ewing, (no report filed)
And on the 8 day report…
Mark Baker… Republican.
Notice both Republican and Democrats are heavily funded.
Here are similarities among the financial reports of those “Labor Endorsed” candidates… Carney, Coons, Clark, Bell, Smiley.
x John Carney: Mario Capano, David’s Floor Coverings, DELPAC, Lawrence DiSabitino, EDS, First Brandywine Investment Group, Local 3384, MAPAC, Bill McCloskey, Toll Bros.,
x Chris Coons: (my neck hurts) Petrucci and Assoc.,John Petrillo, Lawrence DiSabitino, Local 74 PAC, Local 19 PAC, Apex Engineering, Local 42 PAC, (and as noticed above, the Hammer and Nails entry was missing)
x Mr. Pam Scott: Stoltz, Home Buiilder’s Association of Delaware (same address as Hammer and Nails Club), Y,C,S,Taylor LLC, Emory Hill Real Estate, Frank Capano, ABC Merit Shop PAC, Bancroft Construction, AFL-CIO AFSCME, CCS Investors, Artesian Water, Laird Stabler III, Stanley Builders
x Bill Bell Lorraine Ferrara, Lester Reality, DiSabitino, Mario Capano, Francis Julian. Robert Lee Maxwell. Artesian Water
x George Smiley(What’s up with Commerce Bank’s $19,515 and a mysterious $13,000 Certificate of Deposit?) Robert Lee Maxwell, Delaware Building Trades PAC, Lorraine Ferrara, Local 19, Saul Ewing, John McGrellis III, Local 42 PAC, Artesian Water
Ok, now so pick some candidates who would be the political exact opposite of the Clark, Coons, Smiley, and Bell contingent?
x-Gerald Hocker: Artesian Water, ABC Merit Shop PAC, Home Builders Delaware Association (same address as Hammer and Nails Club),
x-George Carey ABC Merit Shop PAC, Artesian Water, Hammer and Nails Club,
x-Charlie Copeland ABC Merit Shop PAC, Artesian Water, Mark Baker, Bancroft Construction, Bancroft Homes, BPGS Construction, Brendon T. Warfel Construction, Christiana Properties, DE Citizens for Economic Development, Delaware Valley Development Company, EDIS, First State Manufacturing Housing Assoc., Francis Julian, Laird Stabler III, Luke Real Estate, Nason Construction, Non Partisan Citizens for Business Expansion, Petrillo, WILMPAC, Y,C,S,Taylor LLC,…
One sees a lot of the same people (organizations) pulling the strings attached to both parties.
It is unlikely that the euphanism, The Delaware Way, will ever mean the same. What we thought were politicians putting self interests aside and working for the Delaware People, are instead, putting the Delaware People aside, and working for these few selfish interests…
But where do these groups collude?
Here is one: The Delaware Workforce Investment Board.. Check out their minutes. (Or for different players, here.) The other is in Legislative Hall.
The way to break the chain of always doing what we always did, and always getting what we always got…. is to apply enough force to snap this chain, despite their money and the amount of support that flows through Delaware’s Way.
The clearest example is to rally sufficient troops (voters) to make their money irrelevant. Essentially by telling the truth about how our government works, we will rectify the balance needed for the people’s will to prevail… Instead of their buying votes in secret, these Delaware Waypersons will have to argue their case like the rest of us, and if their argument is sound, they can still prevail… If their argument is faulty, then we should hold our politicians accountable for choosing the better alternative… But the first step is identifying and campaigning against their toadies.
For example, last season electing Bill Dunn would have stopped the greased slide of money from “out of our pockets“. Voting for Northington, could have shaken up things on the national level… Voting for Gordon, despite his previous record, could have put a slight dent in our county’s slide towards the Harlem Shuffle….Our vote for Markell over Carney, does the same…Likewise, each vote for Scherer or Laura Brown, or Joan Deaver down south….certainly doesn’t hurt….
An example of what is possible, actually has already taken place in the middle of our state. Kent County didn’t receive the funds and manpower provided by PA & NJ union workers. Because of that, citizen voters were able to flip their Levy Court out of control of its developer bought flunkies…
Bottom line is this: If we are truly serious about taking care of Delaware first, it means putting, at least for a while, our local developers and their dedicated union flunkies… last at the feeding trough….
kavips 
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December 1, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Call It
“to maintain control over our destiny, to keep residential property values high…..and keep our quality of life…even higher.”
So I have a legitimate question, and it doesn’t necessarily reflect my own opinions, I am just curious about your thoughts.
What about the young, native Delawareans who want to move home after college? For me personally, I grew up in Dewey Beach, and were I ever to consider moving home, well I would also have to consider a $1 million + price tag for a home. That would not be the case if land was allowed to be developed a few miles inland.
I guess I’m just curious about your take on this. Delaware is a great place to live, but isn’t hoarding land that could be developed so the current market place values rise the same as cutting back on oil production to get gas prices to rise, or the same as destroying diamonds to raise the price, … etc.?
I understand the importance of preserving open space, but at the expense to future generations of Delawareans?
Thank you in advance for clearing this issue up for me!
December 2, 2008 at 1:18 am
kavips
I have an alternative legitimate question.. Would the same concern hold true if you were from Park Avenue New York, or Beverly Hill’s Boulevard California?
Sometimes things just move out of one’s price range.. If one wanted to live in Delaware, New Castle County and Wilmington still have plenty of abandoned houses….
What I’m saying, is that whereas your question may be a concern, sometimes the scenario you describe, happens… And the alternative, that of forcing slum lords to set up shop in either of those two areas, under the banner of “equality”, and being fair, ultimately when thought out, does not make sense..
So developing Sussex County by forcing cheap housing between existing developments, has the effect that you propose, but destroys that essence which your neighbors moved down there to achieve…. It also decreases the price of their investment… ie, their home….
So the argument boils down to who was there first, and what do they want to happen… or better put….
Who should win? You or the previous occupants?
It’s a judgmental question and the answer depends upon which criteria one uses to arrive at their answer.
The criteria of being economically fair, equitable, benefactorial, or imposing upon those who have money so those who don’t can live freely, eventually leads one to the point of supporting what has become known as workforce housing. We used to call it section 8.
The criteria of being democratic, allowing existing homeowners to choose their neighbors, of preserving the quality of life in one’s surroundings, of being environmentally conscious, of protecting one’s investment, of being allowed the option of treating the cancer of over development, instead of succumbing unwanting towards it…. leads one to my opinion…
The real question is: of the two. which is a better choice? Obviously both have merits. And the answer I reached for can be explained by my methodology.
I simply looked at historical data over the past 100 years here on the East Coast, and looked at the differences those two places provided….
The best example of workforce housing that was progressively pushed through during the late 1800’s, can be seen in Harlem, Northeast Philly, South Philly, Annacosta, Virginia and the suburbs of Boston…
On the other hand, planned communties built during that time are still ideal today. Various suburbs are still livable 130 years later because of zoning ordinances that were strictly adhered to… Our town of New Castle itself has a strict review committee in place to preserve the “essence” of that historical village….(Yes it pisses off homeowners who must pass review before making changes) but no one can deny that over time, its worth has been justified….
Economically the similarity is there between collecting oil and unused land…. Although no one would “hoard” the land under my plan, what I propose is that it just gets taken off the market through legal rezoning. Whereas the cutting back of oil production is done to hurt others, the cutting back on development is done to protect one’s value as well as protect the earth over which one is appointed steward….
So the real question is which is better in the long run… To light up our economy for the benefit of a few puffs of benefit, or to divest ourselves from a habit that we know one day will uncontrolably turn cancerous, and feed off the host that once allowed it to nurture.
December 2, 2008 at 8:00 am
John Tobin
Maybe public financing would resolve some of the potential conflict by taking campaign contributions out of the public policy equation. Several states and localities offer full or partial public financing of elections. Below is a link to a document about public financing throughout the United States:
Click to access public%20financing%20map%202007.pdf
from the Center for Governmental Studies which appears to be a project of the
North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections.
http://www.ncvce.org/
December 2, 2008 at 9:13 am
kavips
I used to be a big fan of public financing… but several years ago upon reading Washington’s biography, I changed my mind… At the seed of my swinging shift was the author’s excellent description of how Alexander Hamiliton and George Washington put together our economic system, which works principally because “they with the money” are a balanced competitior against the people for power….
If the people ever became too democratized, as they did before the Bastille, or the Winter Palace, the financial resources would not be there to support the country thereafter.
Large money cannot vote… But if the country is about to shift in a dangerous direction, on in which the plebians do not understand the devil of the details, then large money certainly has the obligation to prevent such an occurance by spending to maintain their own self interests….
Public financing is still needed to prevent one party rule from ever happening…. The possibility still exists of large money eliminating the message from the other side so it may never reach its constituency. Our current system of volunteering 3 dollars a tax time, seems to work well.
Even with large money entering politics… all hope is NOT lost.
There is a defense against large money… That is the fourth estate that is skeptical of both parties and holds each side accountable… That used to be an amalgamation of newspapers… Today it has probably been handed over to the blogosphere; a group of savvy citizens who are not under commercial agreements to bite their tongue……
Out of all this mess, usually comes the better candidate…. usually. If we err, we learn from our mistakes…
I laugh, because that is a big change for me coming from 8 years ago……
The other problem is where does one draw the line.. Public financing is controllable (barely) in one national race… If one draws the line from President to 3rd Seat of Sussex County Council, as it is outlined our our state’s election results, how can one fund all of the above? How much money do we have to spend?