2: Paragraph 1 A people gets the kind of government it deserves and
deserves the kind of government it gets. If you believe in karma, you
have to wonder what evil deeds Delawareans committed in former lives to
deserve the kind of government they've got.
2: Paragraph 2 Although parts of the story were told to me by
various people, the following account of what happened in 1966 and 1976
is taken mostly from Joseph Donald Craven's 1978 book 'All Honorable
Men'. There are many parallels between this book about what happened to
me at E. F. Hutton and that book about what happened to him in the
antiwar movement in Delaware.
2: Paragraph 3 Craven was a lawyer who was elected AG in 1954, the
only Democrat to win that office between 1912 and 1974. Despite having
been a stalwart Democrat from childhood, by 1966 Craven realized that,
no matter whether the players labeled themselves Republicans or
Democrats, in Delaware there was only one political party, and that was
the Establishment. So he helped start the Constitution Party to run
antiwar candidates for the U. S. Senate and House in that year's
election. AG David P. Buckson and both Senators then were Republicans,
and the Congressman and Governor were Democrats.
2: Paragraph 4 At that time Delaware had no provision for
independent candidates or write-in votes, so the only way a person could
be a candidate was to be nominated by a political party. Under the law
in effect since 1955, to rate a place on the ballot for its nominee a
party had to submit petitions signed by 500 citizens of one county and
250 citizens each of the other two counties; that's what minority
parties had been doing for a decade to be on statewide ballots, but none
of their candidates had gotten as many as 500 votes, so they hadn't been
a real threat to the Establishment.
2: Paragraph 5 In March the Constitution Party put an announcement
in the newspaper and started collecting signatures door-to-door. In May
the Democrats introduced in the General Assembly a bill changing the law
to require any new political party to submit signatures of 50 citizens
of each senatorial district, and each of those signers had to be
registered to vote but not registered as a member of any other political
party. There were then only four categories for registration: Democrat,
Republican, Independent, and Decline; so the signatories had to be
registered as Independents or Declines.
2: Paragraph 6 The last date for changing registrations that year
was 23 July. The General Assembly Would adjourn on 17 June, and the
state constitution provided that no bill could become law after the
Assembly adjourned unless the Governor signed it within 30 days of the
adjournment. The senate passed the bill on 6 June, and the house on 16
June; the Governor didn't sign it until 21 July, which was 34 days after
the legislature adjourned and only 2 days before the deadline to change
registrations.
2: Paragraph 7 Of course the Constitution Party did not have enough
signatures of voters not registered as Democrats or Republicans, so the
elections clerks refused to include its candidates on the ballots. The
Party sued those clerks in Superior Court, which kicked the case
upstairs to the state Supreme Court; although by law the AG is required
to represent all public officers, in this suit the clerks were
represented by William S. Potter who happened to be Delaware's
Democratic National Committeeman, and he had also been the lawyer who
had won the earlier case ruling that the AG had to represent public
officers, so he must have known what he was doing was illegal.
2: Paragraph 8 There were three justices on the panel that heard the
case: Chief Justice Wolcott was a friend of Potter's and a former
partner in Potter's firm who was appointed by the former governor, the
same Democrat who had appointed Justice Carey and was a close friend of
Lyndon Johnson's, and Justice Herrman had been appointed by the Democrat
who was then governor. On 14 October the court ruled unanimously
against the Constitution Party and never addressed the fact that the
bill under which the clerks rejected the Party's petitions hadn't ever
become law because the governor waited too long to sign it.
2: Paragraph 9 It was too late by then to appeal that decision to
the U. S. Supreme Court before the 8 November election. The polls
showed the Republicans' incumbent candidates for Senator and AG leading,
and the Democrats' incumbent candidate for Representative was ahead of
the Republican. On 28 October the Constitution Party publicly asked its
supporters to vote for the Republican candidates. The Republicans won
all six statewide offices by the largest margins in Delaware's history,
ten times what the Democrats' majorities had been in 1960. Ironically
enough, in sending that message to the supposedly warmongering
Democrats, Delawareans elected to Congress a Republican who campaigned
on a platform that LBJ had not been warlike enough in Vietnam:
now-Senator Roth.
2: Paragraph 10 In October 1968 the U. S. Supreme Court invalidated
as unconstitutional an Ohio statute that prevented write-in votes and
required all parties except the two major ones to submit petitions to
get a candidate on the ballot. In 1974 the U. S. Supreme Court
invalidated as unconstitutional a California statute that kept an
independent candidate from being on a ballot without a political party's
endorsement. Those rulings ['Williams v. Rhodes', 393 U.S. 23 (1968);
'Storer v. Brown', 415 U.S. 724 (1974)] meant Delaware's whole election
law, in effect since 1955, was unconstitutional.
2: Paragraph 11 Sordid as it is -- and that was just the, you should
pardon the expression, high points of what happened -- that story by
itself might not prove how the Establishment pulls together to
disenfranchise Delawareans, but then it happened again:
2: Paragraph 12 In the spring of 1976 Joseph F. McInerney was
unsuccessful in getting the Democrats' nomination for the U. S. Senate,
so he started the Delaware Party, and in May it nominated him and other
candidates for that November's election. In June the General Assembly
passed, and the Democratic governor signed, a bill changing the law so
as to make it harder for the Delaware Party to get its candidates on the
ballot. The Party then asked Democratic AG Richard R. Wier Jr. for a
ruling on the constitutionality of that law, and on August 30 he issued
a written opinion to the state election commissioner citing 'Williams'
and 'Storer' and ruling the new law valid; remember that in Delaware the
AG's opinions have the force of law.
2: Paragraph 13 On 31 August McInerney sued the election
commissioner and other officials, in federal court in Wilmington, to put
him on the ballot as the nominee of the Delaware Party. AG Wier,
representing the defendants, conceded without argument that the new
Delaware statute was unconstitutional. On September 14 the federal
court invalidated the statute and ordered the elections officials to put
McInerney on the ballot. Two years later AG Wier ran for re-election,
and that's where Craven's book ended.
2: Paragraph 14 In the 1982 election, two Democrats were elected who
figure prominently in this book: Oberly became AG by a margin of 1177
votes over the Republican, with the American Party candidate and the
Libertarian Party candidate totaling 1565 votes, and Thomas R. Carper
became the Congressman, with Roth elected to the Senate.
2: Paragraph 15 That was around the time Carper divorced his first
wife. I haven't heard any rumor that he beats his current wife, but
several people who were their neighbors have told me he used to beat his
first wife, and in their written settlement agreement he paid extra for
her promise not to mention it anymore, and they said they knew that from
their own observations and from what she told them. During the 1990
campaign, Carper's opponents' campaign managers told me that was true
and that they had documentation that as early as his college days he
beat up on the women he dated before he was married.
2: Paragraph 16 When I was checking dates for this section, I
couldn't find the date of that divorce, so I called the public library
in Wilmington and asked. That library's research desk is superlative --
they take inquiries over the phone, and they've often answered such
obscure trivia questions for me that I was almost embarrassed to ask
them. After researching the question for most of a day, they called
back to say Carper's divorce was between 1982 and 1984, but they
couldn't find any reference to it anywhere, and they'd even called the
local newspaper.
2: Paragraph 17 I hadn't really cared at first, but that made me
start wondering: 'Who's Who' includes divorce dates in its listings
(mine's in there), everybody knows Carper's been divorced, he's held
high federal office since 1982, and he's already announced he's the
Democratic candidate for governor this year, so he's a public figure
whose biographical statistics are in the public domain -- why the
mystery? So I called his office here and asked what year he divorced
his first wife, and his staff got all bent out of shape. They asked for
my name, and I wouldn't give it, but I told them I was a registered
voter who wanted to know. That drove them crazier. When one of them
asked why I wanted to know, I said it was biographical info for an
article I'm writing about the candidates in this year's election. Not
only wouldn't they tell me when the divorce was, but then they wouldn't
even talk to me anymore and said I couldn't talk to anyone but Carper's
press secretary in Washington! Now I'm very curious about what Carper
is trying to hide.
2: Paragraph 18 Anyhow, in 1986 Oberly was re-elected AG with 915
votes more than the Republican, and American Party candidate David S.
DeRiemer got 1133 votes. DeRiemer is a colorful character, a
businessman from the southern part of the state who feels so strongly
about his rights that in 1988 he went to jail rather than agree the
state could require him to have its permission, in the form of a
driver's license, to drive a car. He's not a lawyer, and he doesn't
drive anymore. His platform was to do away with the Federal Reserve
Bank, but he never explained how Delaware's AG could affect the Federal
Reserve; he has himself told me all the federal courts in the country
are illegal because they're supposed to be the judicial branch, but
they've gone over to the executive branch, as evidenced by the fact that
they all have U. S. flags with gold fringes around them, and only the
executive branch is allowed to have gold fringes on its flags.
2: Paragraph 19 After the 1986 election, DeRiemer joined the
Libertarian Party, and he wanted to be its AG candidate in 1990. I
didn't know about that in late 1989 when the Delaware Libertarian Party
asked me to be its AG candidate, and I'd already agreed before I found
out. Meanwhile, Oberly had decided to run for a third term: No
Delaware AG had ever run for a third term, although nothing in the state
constitution or laws forbids it; before Oberly, the only three who had
run for a second term were: Buckson, who cashed in on the 1966
Republican landslide; Wier, who lost to Richard S. Gebelein in 1978; and
Gebelein, who lost to Oberly in 1982 and is now a Superior Court judge.
2: Paragraph 20 In the grand tradition of Delaware politics, where
the Establishment closes ranks against outsiders of any political
persuasion, Oberly played both ends against the middle by cutting deals
with both the Democrats and the Republicans to get re-elected. I heard
each of the following stories from more than one member of the old guard
of the respective party, who resented the way Oberly used the power of
his office to preempt their parties out from under them, as well as from
various lawyers and reporters who were outside observers.
2: Paragraph 21 Delaware law limits a governor to two four-year
terms. In 1988 Republican Michael Castle was re-elected, and Republican
Dale E. Wolf was elected lieutenant governor. The lt. governor had been
Democrat S. B. "Landslide" Woo, so called because he won by a handful of
votes on the recount of the 1984 election, but in 1988 he ran against
Roth for the Senate.
2: Paragraph 22 Delaware has some fairly specific campaign-financing
laws on its books, but like many sections of the Delaware Code, those
statutes are considered unconstitutional, and therefore unenforceable,
except when Oberly wants to convict a potential political rival. He is
on record calling those statutes invalid insofar as they limit the
amount he, as a candidate, can spend on his campaign. One provision
prohibits campaign contributions of more than $1000 to statewide
candidates.
2: Paragraph 23 In 1988 Castle's campaign committee had more than
enough money for his re-election, but Wolf's didn't have enough for his
harder-fought campaign, so Castle's committee covered some of Wolf's
campaign expenditures, and the Democrat Wolf beat filed a complaint for
violation of that provision. You know who enforces those laws: AG
Oberly. He had spent the past couple of years convicting the Democrats
who had controlled the state party of picayune violations of the
contribution laws, so they were forced out of politics and, in one or
two cases, went to jail. Now the Democrats wanted him to turn that same
law against Wolf, who was being groomed to be the Republicans' candidate
for governor in 1992.
2: Paragraph 24 The deal Oberly made with the Republicans was that
he would clear Wolf of those charges, and the Republicans would run a
nonviable candidate for AG in 1990, and if Wolf became governor in 1992
he would appoint Oberly a judge. After the Republicans did indeed
nominate a stalking horse, Wilmington lawyer F. L. Peter Stone, on 1 May
1990 Oberly issued an opinion clearing Wolf. How the Democrats did
howl! But the funniest part is that Wolf's other political problems
caught up with him, and the Republicans dumped him and nominated Realtor
B. Gary Scott. And Buckson got thrown off the bench of the Family Court
for running for it without first resigning.
2: Paragraph 25 One of the reasons I believe that story is it fits
all the circumstantial evidence. There's no question Oberly has
admitted publicly he wants to be a judge when he leaves the AG's office.
Had the Republicans wanted their AG candidate elected in 1990, Gov.
Castle could have appointed Oberly a judge in 1989 and then appointed a
Republican to fill out the term, and that Republican would have come
into the 1990 campaign as an incumbent and surely have won re-election.
But the charges against Wolf were still pending, and more Delaware
voters are registered as Democrats than as Republicans: They would have
resented Oberly's selling them out, if he dismissed those charges on his
way out or the new AG dismissed them on the way in, and so voted against
Wolf as a backlash. Nor is there any other reasonable explanation for
nominating Stone, who is a nice guy but doesn't know which end is up;
there were Republicans who had not only sufficient legal experience but
also the required public relations skills: They should have nominated
DAG M. Jane Brady to run against Oberly instead of against Senator
Joseph R. Biden.
2: Paragraph 26 The deal Oberly made with the Democrats was he would
help Carper oust the existing state party leaders, and if Carper was
elected governor in 1992 he would appoint Oberly a judge. The Democrats
were mad at Oberly for prosecuting party leaders, some for petty
campaign financing violations and others for drunk driving. When Oberly
was himself arrested for drunk driving, however, he had the charges
dropped, and when his chief deputy Silverman was charged with
hit-and-run, they'd had those charges dropped, too. Carper couldn't
have taken over the party if Oberly hadn't cleared the way for him: The
criminal prosecutions not only removed some major players but also
intimidated everyone who was left. You could have made a fortune
selling Maalox to Delaware Democrats between 1988 and 1990. Wilmington
plumber Daniel D. Rappa made a valiant, but doomed, last-ditch effort by
running against Carper in the 1990 primary.
2: Paragraph 27 No sketch of Delaware's political scene would be
complete without some mention of the media situation: There is no
television station in Delaware, and there are no competing newspapers.
Most people have cable tv, and there's only one carrier serving each
area; downstate gets broadcast channels from Salisbury MD, and
Wilmington gets the Philadelphia PA channels and the NJ PBS channel.
The ABC and PBS stations in Philly have studios in Wilmington, but
Delaware and southern New Jersey get short shrift in the coverage on all
Philly stations. (Northern Jersey gets just as little coverage from the
New York City stations that supposedly serve it.) With an antenna in
Wilmington you can pick up the Baltimore channels.
2: Paragraph 28 The cable carrier in Wilmington is Heritage, and
downstate it's mostly Storer. The utilities commission that set the
terms with the carriers sold out the citizenry by not providing for free
public access. There's only leased access, and Heritage keeps raising
its rates and downgrading its production services, thus decreasing
access.
2: Paragraph 29 There's only one daily newspaper left in Wilmington,
the 'News Journal' owned by Gannett, and the 'Delaware State News' is
published in Dover. There are several radio stations around the state,
and they're the best source of local Delaware news.
2: Paragraph 30 The 'News Journal' is the handmaiden of the
Establishment and generally manipulates its coverage to present the
party line. During the 1990 campaign it endorsed Oberly and mostly
ignored my candidacy except for an occasional deliberate distortion of
the facts. The PBS station reneged on its promise to include me in its
candidates' debate, apparently on Oberly's instructions, and the ABC
station refused to let me debate Oberly and Stone, but after I
complained to the FCC, the station put me on for an equal amount of time
weeks later. Storer refused to accept my commercials until the FCC told
them the law required them to, but they still refused to sell me the
time slots I wanted. The radio stations were unfailingly cooperative,
and WILM was unexpectedly supportive. At a candidates' debate sponsored
by a radio station in Dover I met the president of Delaware's chapter of
NOW, and he endorsed me on the air after the debate. In May 1991 I ran
into him, and he said afterward Oberly called him and said as AG he
could make things bad for NOW for endorsing me. I was flattered.
---