Good afternoon,
The upcoming Democratic primary for New Castle County Executive is heating up.
Earlier, a New Jersey-based political action committee Building Stronger Communities sent out a mailer supporting Maggie Jones in her effort to limit incumbent Matt Meyer to one term.
The slick paper piece ties Meyer’s tactics to those of President Donald Trump.
The Meyer campaign struck back with a mailer of its own claiming Jones isn’t much of a Democrat.
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Despite the photos of Barack Obama and Joe Biden on Jones’ mailer, the Meyer camp claims she switched to the GOP in the year Obama was elected. It is true that Jones has yet to produce a photo that shows her with Joe Biden, something Delaware Democrats roll out in their campaign literature.
A campaign report from the Jersey PAC shows it is sent a couple of hundred thousand dollars to a consulting firm in the same that produced services used in pitching Jones and long-time state Sen. Bruce Ennis D-Smyrna.
Jones, a retired state employee, has gained endorsements from a number of politicians as well as organized labor, a powerful constituency in county executive races.
Meyer, who scored a surprise victory over incumbent Tom Gordon in 2016, did not build ties to labor and went through contentious negotiations with the police union.
While credited with bringing a degree of stability to county government that always eluded Gordon, Meyer has been dealing with a County Police sexual harassment scandal.
Meyer also took some heat for what some described as belligerent conversations with public officials who endorsed Jones. Meyer also pushed through a hotel room tax that is adding to pandemic-related woes in the hospitality industry.
The race for county executive has been closely watched in the business community and a look at Meyer’s campaign finance report shows contributions from movers and shakers. Meyer says he does not take PAC money.
The county is sometimes described as the state’s largest construction company, due to its powers in land use.
Meyer and New Castle County ended up with a $300 million windfall, under the federal Cares Act. The county has slowly divvied up funds in cooperation with the state for such things as Covid-19 testing and recently grant programs for businesses and nonprofits
Meyer comes armed with advantages like the photo ops that come with doling out a big chunk of change.
But primaries can produce unexpected results. One of those results was Matt winning the top county office the first time around. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer.
