WILMINGTON, Del. - Delaware gubernatorial candidate and New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer has called fellow candidate and current Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long a liar after her campaign was reported to have accepted donations that exceed the amount allowed by Delaware campaign law.
"These numerous and repeated illegal excess contributions make clear that when Bethany Hall-Long assured Delawareans that she had taken a good hard look at her campaign accounting, she was lying. At best, this is repeated negligent bookkeeping and, at worst, a cover-up of criminal activity," Meyer said in a statement Monday. "If Bethany Hall-Long cannot manage a few hundred thousand dollars, how can she manage $6 billion of our tax money?"
Meyer went on to call for Hall-Long to release the results of an audit completed in the fall. In October, Hall-Long's campaign said that Christiana-based accounting firm Summit CPA reviewed her campaign finances and reporting issues and found no wrongdoing or violations. The audit, itself, has yet to be released.
In a statement shared Tuesday, Hall-Long said donations over the limit happen in many major federal and statewide campaigns across the country and donors are refunded. She continued to emphasize that her campaign has procedures in place to address overages.
"We've taken those same steps to ensure refunds are issued accordingly, which will be reflected in our upcoming campaign finance report," she said. She went on to address Meyer. "My opponents are playing politics because they are desperate. Unlike others in the race, my campaign will continue to focus on what is best for Delaware."
HALL-LONG CAMPAIGN FINANCE HISTORY
Hall-Long announced she was requesting a review of her past campaign finance reports while preparing to launch her gubernatorial campaign in September 2023. She has previously said it was through this voluntary review that she learned there may have been reporting issues in past campaigns, though which campaigns were under review was not initially clear.
In November, Hall-Long shared that an audit by Summit CPA identified mislabeling as part of the issue. In a statement at that time, her campaign specified that personal loans were made by her family through personal credit cards for campaign-related expenses, like television advertising and yard signs. These were improperly recorded as expenditures instead of loans.
"When over $200,000 went missing from her campaign last year, Bethany said she had loaned herself the money without realizing it," Meyer continued Monday. "She promised she would let the experts take over, that she'd hired a compliance firm, an audit firm, and would be releasing the results. Now it's clear none of that ever happened."
The loan was partially repaid to Hall-Long in the amount of $206,985 by November, according to her campaign.
Following the audit, her campaign said amendments were made to finance reports from 2016 through 2022.
In January, Hall-Long's campaign announced new staff members. These included Donnie Johnson, who has previously worked on the Obama and Biden presidential campaigns, as campaign manager and Sydney Diewald, who was the finance director for Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee's campaign, as finance director.
DELAWARE PRIMARIES
Hall-Long, Meyer and fellow Democratic candidate Collin O'Mara will face off in the Sept. 10 primaries. More information on Delaware, Maryland and Virginia elections can be found at wboc.com/elections.
