Next meeting:
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Location:
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| CIVIC LEAGUE FOR NEW CASTLE COUNTY Chuck Mulholland, President
AGENDA
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Come out and you'll get the chance to ask the Treasurer more about the controversy stirring with the Governor and his staff:
(News Journal) Jonanthan Starkey reports ~ Outcast of Markell's inner circle -
Treasurer Chip Flowers cites 'smear tactics'; official [OMB Director Visalli] says he's 'holding a gun'
Flowers, Delaware’s bombastic first-term treasurer, has accomplished a number of campaign goals since taking office in January 2011, launching online financial literacy tools and an economic warning system that earned praise from the White House. He’s also taken steps to improve performance in Delaware’s $2 billion investment portfolio.
But Flowers’ most surprising attribute as a public official may be his propensity to spar publicly with Delaware’s political establishment – a rarity here. In an election year that should feature sniping between Democrats and Republicans, Flowers’ intraparty clashes with Gov. Jack Markell’s administration have become the state’s most popular political sideshow.
Recently, the discontent has reached a boiling point.
Administration officials are now publicly questioning Flowers’ choices as the state’s top cash manager. Markell’s office cautioned Flowers against chasing “big returns” on taxpayer investments after hiring a financial consultant to monitor the portfolio. And one Markell insider recently accused Flowers of “holding a gun to the head” of state officials after he threatened to hold up a bond sale to fund a controversial Newark Charter School expansion plan. Flowers hasn’t backed down, accusing Markell’s team of “Nixon-style smear tactics” and lobbing criticisms of his own, including questioning Markell’s shaky $20 million investment in electric carmaker Fisker Automotive.
“We have sat here for 15 months and never questioned the administration. I want the governor to succeed,” Flowers said in an interview inside his office here last week. “But what we need to understand is if you’re going to be getting in the business of issuing statements talking about other elected officials, I think that’s a very dicey business to get into.”
