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

WILMINGTON, Delaware (AP) — The leader of Delaware’s largest county is calling for a federal investigation into the campaign finances of the state’s lieutenant governor, his main rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer held a brief press conference Monday to respond to a forensic investigation commissioned by the state Elections Office that uncovered significant irregularities in Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign finances.

“All of us, the citizens of Delaware, have a right to trust our elected officials and to know that rules and laws apply to everyone and apply equally to everyone,” Meyer said, condemning what he said was “almost a decade of illegal conduct” by Hall-Long.

The forensic investigation, conducted by a retired FBI agent certified as a fraud investigator, 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 herself but falsely stated they were made out to someone else.

Fraud investigator Jeffrey Lampinski also found that between January 2016 and December 2023, Dana Long wrote 112 checks from his wife’s campaign committee account to himself or cash, and one check to his wife. The checks totaled just under $300,000 and should have been reported as campaign expenses. Instead, Lampinski said, 109 checks 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 found that Ms. Hall-Long violated the law,” Meyer said. “The report provides evidence that she tried to cover it up and covered it up until the last moment when she asked our state election director to keep the report detailing the violations confidential and not release those findings to the public.”

A spokesman 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 calling Meyer’s comments “completely unjustified.”

“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 always, I have voluntarily cooperated with the Delaware Board of Elections and will continue to do so.”

Hall-Long has been under intense scrutiny since September, when she abruptly announced the postponement of a campaign rally with Democratic Governor John Carney scheduled for the next day, citing a need to “take care of a personal, private matter.”

In reality, her campaign was in disarray after people hired to run the campaign discovered major discrepancies while reviewing several years of financial reports. The scandal led to the resignation 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 auditors to thoroughly review the finances.”

In October, she released a “campaign audit update” in which she said an accounting firm hired to “review records and receipts” found “no wrongdoing or violations.” But she refused to release a copy of the alleged audit.

According to documents in the report commissioned by the State Election Commission, the firm hired by Hall-Long relied solely on the information it provided, conducted no audit and made no findings of wrongdoing.

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

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

In November, Hall-Long filed amended campaign finance reports spanning several years, admitting that she and her husband had made campaign-related spending through personal credit cards and loans that had not been properly reported.

But election officials say 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