So in my last post, on January 3, 2016, I wrote about the Sussex County Democratic Committee donating money raised from their prayer breakfast, to the Food Bank of Delaware. Donation In this post I commended the Democrats for reaching out to the community in this way. I also pointed out the fact that the Sussex Republican Committee is unable to raise enough money to pay their bills, let alone giving money to charity.
And then, the lightbulb came on. I remembered, I had also written a post back on August 13, 2014 titled Who’s Guarding the Bank . In this post, I highlighted the fact, that the Food Bank of Delaware had put on the equivalent of a campaign rally, for then, Democrat candidate Jonathan Gallo.
I pointed out my concern about a non-profit organization, which receives both state and federal funding, hosting political events. The event was organized by the Director of the Milford branch of the Food Bank of Delaware, Chad Robinson, who was also listed on the statement of organization for “Friends To Elect Jonathan Gallo”.
So you see, the Food Bank, and the Democrats have quite the relationship, one might call it incestuous.
So, let’s put these two exchanges of money together. First, we have a non-profit organization, which receives money from the state, putting on an event to help elect someone who would be in a position to vote on said funding.
And then, we have the same party that the event was intended to help, giving money back to the non-profit organization.
So, is all of this just harmless give and take? Or is it some backdoor, work-around of campaign finance laws? A state Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, gives funding to the Food Bank, Directed by a Democrat. The Director of the Food Bank, then puts on a political event for a Democrat candidate, who by the way, said director is working on the campaign of. Then the Democrat party raises money, to give back to the Food Bank.
Now, all of this may be completely legal, but once again, we are left asking the question of perception. What is the perception of these actions on the part of the Democrats involved? I’ll leave that to my readers to answer.
I very much doubt that the members of the Prayer Breakfast Committee of the Sussex County Democratic Executive Committee knew Jonathan Gallo’s name or the name Chad Robinson. I know both but a political angle to this contribution never entered my mind.
Gallo ran in Kent County. The Susex Dems had no involvement in his race.
Your conspiracy theory is a good one in this world of conspiracies real and imagined, but I tell you that there was never a quid pro quo involved in this matter.
Nice response Mitch, but politics is all about appearances. This has the appearance of impropriety. I don’t doubt your sincerity, but it looks improper and too cozy. Maybe no quid pro quo, but this is still poorly thought out. Shame on you.
It’s a sleazy conspiracy to feed people, so they will vote for Democrata!
Mitch is right–no one on the committee thought anything about any “political connection” to the Delaware Food Bank. That we thought of was an organization that distributes food. Oh yea, and “appearances”–it appears to me that no good deed goes unpunished. No bother–we’ll continue to do good anyway. You guys can spin it any way you want. That is politics.
I’m sure there is some kind of law that deals with state funded entities and campaign finance, but legality is just a relative term these days anyway, isn’t it?
What is the perception of these actions on the part of the Democrats involved?
The perception is that the Democrats are charitable. The reality is that they are corrupt.
And that differs from republicans how?