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Delaware gubernatorial candidate calls for investigation into primary rival’s campaign finances
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — 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 main 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 Elections Department that discovered significant improprieties in Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign finances.
“Delawarens, all of us, deserve to be able to trust our elected officials and know that rules and laws apply to everyone, and they apply to everyone equally,” Meyer said, condemning what he called Hall-Long’s “nearly decade-long illegal conduct.”
The forensic review, conducted by a retired senior FBI executive who is a certified fraud examiner, found that Hall-Long and her husband received payments totaling $33,000 more than she allegedly 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 were written to someone else.
Fraud examiner Jeffrey Lampinski also determined that from January 2016 through 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 expenses. Instead, Lampinski found that 109 were never reported in the initial financial reports, and the other four, payable to Dana Long, were reported as being made out to someone else.
“The report concluded that Ms. Hall-Long violated the law,” Meyer said. “The report provides evidence that she attempted to cover this up, and continued to do so until the very last moment when she asked our state election commissioner to keep the report detailing the illegalities confidential and not release these findings to the public.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware declined to comment on Meyer’s request for a federal investigation.
Hall-Long’s campaign released a statement describing Meyer’s comments as “completely unwarranted.”
“Matt Meyer’s press conference today was a desperate political attack to distract voters from the issues that matter most,” Hall-Long said in the statement. “As I have always done, I have voluntarily cooperated with the Delaware Department of Elections and 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 scheduled to take place the following day, saying she needed to “address a personal and private matter.”
In reality, her campaign was in disarray after people brought in to lead the campaign discovered major discrepancies while reviewing years of financial 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 just 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” stating that an accounting firm hired “to audit records and receipts” found “no irregularities or violations.” She declined to release a copy of the purported audit.
Indeed, according to documents included in the report commissioned by the state election commission, the firm hired by Hall-Long relied solely on information provided by her, performed no audits and made no determinations about irregularities.
“We will not audit or 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 involvement does not include any procedures designed to detect errors, fraud, theft or other irregularities,” Remick added.
In November, Hall-Long filed amended campaign finance reports covering a period of several years, acknowledging that she and her husband made campaign-related expenses using personal credit cards and loans that were not 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 “immediate corrective action.”
Randall Chase, The Associated Press