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A News Journal Editorial | USA TODAY Network Delaware Editorial Board
| Delaware News Journal
Matt Meyer talks about building consensus, passing legislation
Matt Meyer talks about how he build consensus with other politicians if he were to be elected as Delaware’s next governor. 10/23/24
Gov. Matt Meyer has always billed himself as an outsider — he ran and was elected as New Castle County Executive as such and did so again last year as he sought his party’s nomination for governor.
It’s a calling card for Meyer — and one we broadly admire. As Meyer raced toward the general election’s finish line last fall, we asked the consummate Dover outsider, who has never been elected to a seat in the General Assembly nor served in a gubernatorial administration, if he could win over his Democratic colleagues who control Delaware’s House and Senate.
Meyer was confident, pointing to the squabbles he overcame in his early days in the county executive’s office. He also acknowledged that forging relationships in the General Assembly would take both time and patience.
“We’ll have a legislative strategy,” Meyer told our DelawareOnline/News Journal Editorial Board in October. “Legislatures are complex. The House and the Senate are extremely complex now. I think the spectrum of political views, just among Democrats, is probably as wide as it’s ever been.”
As his administration begins, Meyer’s observation about the atmosphere in Dover has proved prescient.
Meyer and the General Assembly’s leadership are already dueling
As he took office on Jan. 21 at Delaware State University, Meyer took responsibility for a great many things in the First State, not the least of which is the complex administration of the Port of Wilmington. The Port has now become the Meyer administration’s first big challenge as Meyer battles with his fellow Democrats who control the General Assembly.
In the week before Meyer arrived in Dover, Democrats in the General Assembly appeared to take steps to limit his administration’s capacity to manage and influence the board of the Diamond State Port Corp., the public entity that oversees the privately run port:
- On Jan. 15, Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend introduced a bill that would, in part, strip Meyer of the ability to nominate a chairperson for the board. Townsend’s bill would give the board the power to select its own leadership.
- Then, a day before Meyer took office, former Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, in her capacity as acting governor, nominated a slate of new board members for the port — a move seen as a repudiation of Meyer, who defeated Hall-Long in the bruising gubernatorial primary.
- Days later, Meyer, now governor, withdrew Hall-Long’s nominees — former Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock, the long-time chair of the port board; Robert Medd, former chair of the Board of Pilot Commissioners; and three labor leaders, James Ascione, William Ashe and Curtis Linton.
- In turn, Meyer met resistance from leaders of the Senate. Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola, D-Newark, said he believed that Hall-Long’s candidates for the port corporation board were “viable nominees.” The Meyer administration pushed back, and, in turn, the Senate, through a concurrent resolution, asked the Delaware Supreme Court for “an advisory opinion … regarding whether a Delaware Governor can withdraw nominations submitted by the preceding Governor that otherwise are properly before the State Senate.”
In short, Meyer’s opening days in Dover have been filled with push-pull tumult with colleagues in his own party. It’s frustrating — surely for all those involved at Legislative Hall — but even more so from our vantage point, which sees a Delaware electorate exhausted by the contentious primary and ready for a new day.
Meyer has to break Dover Democrats’ instincts to retaliate
Meyer, now, must live up to his reputation as an outsider and break the political culture of a General Assembly that would re-litigate a primary on behalf of Hall-Long, a much-loved figure in Dover.
While the Supreme Court mulls its advisory opinion on how pending nominations are reviewed by the Senate, we advise Meyer to summon leaders of both houses to find ways to put this spat behind them and to find a compromise on who will be seated on the port’s board. And even if Meyer’s political calculus is such that he’d prefer to wait for an opinion, the reality is that his efforts to build relationships in the General Assembly must move into hyperdrive.
And, at the same time, Democrats in power in the House and Senate must acknowledge Meyer’s election as governor by a majority of voters who want to see Delaware move forward.
The nominations for the port board, of course, come at a moment of considerable uncertainty for the facility. In October, a federal judge vacated multiple federal permits that would allow for the construction of a $635 million terminal in Edgemoor, a development that would quadruple Wilmington’s capacity for container cargo and allow the port to welcome larger classes of container ships. Supporters of the terminal believe its construction is essential to the future of Delaware’s economy.
Delaware expects its governor and its legislature to work together to advance progress on all manner of public needs. That expectation is not met with ruling Democrats engaging in internal warfare like this flap.
“We can’t play politics with the port or people’s livelihoods,” Meyer said. “For too long, insiders have been cutting deals on the backs of Delawareans, and it’s time we put the best interests of the people of this state first. This is an unprecedented obstruction of the will of the voters, and the law is on our side.”
Governor and leaders of the General Assembly, we expect you to move past this disagreement with compromise — and speed. It’s no time to be distracted by internal squabbles.
