Delaware Democratic gubernatorial candidates to square off in primary election

DOVER— This year’s Delaware Democratic primary election has waded into uncharted territory.

Especially considering recent statewide elections in the First State.

The race has become contentious – primarily between New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s respective campaigns, amid various controversies – but the two candidates will, nevertheless, be on the same ballot as former DNREC secretary and National Wildlife Federation president and CEO Collin O’Mara, who has avoided scrutiny that has faced the race.

The Daily State News spoke with each candidate about their respective priorities should they be chosen by the voters to succeed term-limited Gov. John Carney, as well as policy issues that Delawareans feel is most pertinent to their decisions at the ballot box.

Housing

All three candidates were stringent in that housing is a right for Delawareans.

For Lt. Gov. Hall-Long, housing investments will be a permanent budget item, she said, building off of historic investments made by the Carney administration in this area.

She hopes to prioritize Housing Alliance Delaware’s goal of producing at least 2,400 housing units a year in the state, but also noted that, there are existing barriers in the communication between the state, counties and municipalities that, if remedied, could spur affordable housing development in the state.

“The state may have to take a more active role in helping to incentivize and move projects forward,” Lt. Gov. Hall-Long told the Daily State News. “There are land use reforms, we need to incentivize zoning reform, where you’re providing different incentives with local governments to afford diverse housing; workforce housing, housing for aged persons, housing for persons with disabilities, (which is) called mixed use housing, and we have to really make sure that while we’re doing this, it’s (about reforming) the system.”

Mr. Meyer pointed to his efforts leading the largest county in the state; such as creating the Hope Center temporary emergency shelter along I-95, the county’s “Vacant Spaces to Livable Places” effort, and renovating and rehabbing over 1,000 affordable housing units.

The county executive pointed to his extensive housing plan that was developed in the midst of his campaign, but also offered suggestions on how the state can potentially remedy the ongoing crisis.

“Accessory dwelling units, where you can give additional latitude to homeowners to add a second unit — what they call the ‘in-law suite’ — so that seniors can age in place, or renters can be added … not only does it help address the housing crisis, but it potentially helps homeowners to get a second source of income,” Mr. Meyer said. “We also need to (prioritize) making the cost of building lower.”

Mr. O’Mara’s stance is that there are three pieces to the puzzle: making it easier to build affordable housing; having dedicated and predictable funding sources for housing; and curtailing the presence of investor owned properties in the state, since those are the units that are driving up renting and overall ownership prices throughout the state.

“A conversation around price stabilization is going to be really important … a dozen states have some form of it, but you can still have a healthy profit margin and not make the rent increases not affordable for folks that aren’t seeing massive pay increases at work,” Mr. O’Mara said.

Education

To eradicate some of the barriers facing Delaware’s education system, Lt. Gov. Hall-Long is advocating for universal pre-kindergarten education, enhanced wraparound services for students and increasing mental health services in schools.

She, along with Mr. Meyer and Mr. O’Mara, have pledged support for reforming the current education funding system — which hasn’t been updated since the 1940s — as well as ensuring Delaware students are fed before beginning their respective school days, given the widespread benefits that factor has on student performance.

“Universal child care touches our businesses and touches equity and touches justice, it will do so much for children and trauma,” she said.

“We’re going to continue (teacher) pay increases, and we’re going to … figure out with the districts how to incentivize the most experienced teachers in our most challenged schools, because that is part of the underperforming component with test scores. We have children coming to school hungry; we have children who are missing classes; we also have children who need additional resources and help.”

Mr. Meyer said his education plan focuses on two things: the quality of education children in the state are receiving and the quality of the education system.

One of his top priorities is ensuring that invested resources get into the classroom while making sure that students’ social determinants of health and success are being addressed at the same time those factors are not falling to the sole responsibility of the teacher.

“We need to look, first and foremost, who are the individuals who are not teachers, who are mission critical to our educational outcomes … teacher compensation is vitally important, but the compensation of others is vitally important as well,” he said in reference to ensuring staff can meet the needs of Delaware students.

“We can’t look our teachers in the eye and say ‘we care about you and you’re fundamental to our shared future,’ but (at the same time), you’ll be able to take care of your family much easier if you go to a school district in Maryland, Pennsylvania or New Jersey.”

Mr. O’Mara’s is also prioritizing wraparound services and ensuring competitive educator pay, and he says the inequities currently facing the state’s education system are grounded in the inequities in which the First State education system is funded.

He has been an outspoken advocate for universal free school breakfast and lunch to improve student performance, restoring teacher autonomy in the classroom, ensuring state monies are getting into the classroom and calibrating class size based on student needs to ensure that each student is being met where they are.

“The number one most important thing for the next governor is going to be increasing the amount of money that winds up in the classroom that will be equitably allocated, especially for students that are experiencing poverty, multilingual learners, or have other additional needs, and I fully support the (Public Education Compensation Committee’s) recommendations (to raise teacher pay,” Mr. O’Mara said.

“I think we should be making it easier for paraprofessionals and others to join the teaching ranks, and we should be doing more to support the programs at UD and DSU and other places (that) could create bigger pipelines into our public schools.”

Delaware’s primary election will be held on Sept. 10, when Democrats and Republicans will select their respective candidates for governor ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.