Delaware Senate leaders and Gov. Matt Meyer face off over control of port

For Meyer and some of his supporters, allowing Hall-Long to make the recommendations would be a repudiation of the voters who chose Meyer over Hall-Long in last year’s Democratic primary by 10 percentage points. Meyer also beat former environmental protection chief Collin O’Mara in that primary, who garnered about 16% of the vote.

“Those who lose elections don’t get to make appointments,” said Nick Merlino, Meyer’s deputy chief of staff.

“I think that it’s unprecedented for someone who lost an election to be able to make nominations as a consolation prize on their way out,” he said. “It just seems wholly unfair, unfair to the voters of Delaware.”

However, in a letter to Meyer, Senate President Dave Sokola, D-Newark, told Meyer that based on legal research, the nominations are “viable.” But he also invited Meyer to submit his own nominees. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Merlino said the Senate leadership told them the chamber was relying on rulings from court cases in Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend said Hall-Long duly made the nominations during her time as governor and he doesn’t think which governor’s name is on the nominations has a direct connection to the voters.

Townsend did not clearly answer whose nominations the Senate would take up, but left the door open for the Senate to disregard Meyer’s picks in favor of Hall-Long’s.

“Right now we have Gov. Hall Long’s nominees that are submitted to the Senate. Gov. Meyer sent a letter that we believe presented an inaccurate, to put it mildly, framing of the Delaware Constitution and what its powers are,” he said. “Sen. Sokola responded and we’ll move through the process of considering nominees that are before us, whoever the nominees are and whichever governor submits them, we very much want to see people who are committed to what we believe the future of the port can be.”

Townsend also argued that even if Hall-Long was not elected governor last year, senators were. Sokola was not on the ballot last year, while Townsend and Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman ran unopposed.

Meyer will have four cabinet secretaries on the port board — pending expected confirmations by the Senate this month — who are legislatively appointed.

Those include his nominations for Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda, Transportation Secretary Shanté Hastings, Finance Secretary Michael Smith and Department of Safety and Homeland Security Secretary Joshua Bushweller.

In another potential blow to Meyer’s control over the direction of the port, Townsend is sponsoring legislation introduced days before Meyer was inaugurated that would allow the port’s board to elect its own chair without the consent of the Senate. That means the governor would no longer be able to pick the chair, possibly paving the way for former Secretary of State and longtime board chair Jeffrey Bullock to return to the position. He has served on the board since 2009 and has been chairman longer than anyone since the 18th century.