Delaware State Treasurer: Chip Flowers for State Treasurer (D)

By Angel Clark

A comprehensive voter’s guide to Chip Flowers! In an effort to remain objective to all candidates, most of this information will be posted directly off of Chip Flowers for State Treasurer. Each candidate will be given the same luxury. Chip Flowers is a registered Democrat.

According to his website, “Chipman “Chip” Flowers Jr., a resident of Delaware since completing his college education, brings to the campaign for state treasurer a fresh perspective on the financial challenges facing Delaware, along with the necessary experience, education and values to restore prosperity to the First State.”

“After majoring in economics with dual minors in international relations and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Chip headed to Georgetown University, where he earned both a law degree and a Master’s in Business Administration, focusing on corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions. While Chip attended Georgetown, he worked at the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the White House Office of Political Affairs under President Bill Clinton.After completing his work at the White House, Chip worked as a mergers and acquisitions attorney at the Wilmington office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, and served as chairman of the Multicultural Judges & Lawyers Section of the Delaware State Bar Association. In 2004, Chip was chosen as a Delaware delegate to the Democratic National Convention. During this time, Chip was selected to serve as Chief Democratic Analyst for Delaware nightly news, Delaware Tonight – a position he held until WHYY-TV recently eliminated the program.Chip then studied at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, earning a Master’s in Public Administration. While at Harvard, Chip earned the prestigious Don K. Price Award – the highest award given in the program.In 2006, he founded the Flowers Counsel Group, LLC, which specializes in mergers and acquisitions and procurement law, advising businesses on contractual agreements for major purchases. Under his leadership, the firm has grown steadily, becoming one of the state’s leading corporate law firms in providing corporate purchasing services for global and Fortune 500 clients, including Harvard University and Delaware corporate leaders such as DuPont, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Bank of America, Barclay’s Bank Delaware, ING Bank, FSB and the Buccini/Pollin Group.”

Chip’s affiliation’s are also listed on his website:

Delaware
Chair, Alexis de Tocqueville Society, United Way of Delaware
Board of Trustees and Board of Directors,Delaware Symphony Orchestra
Secretary, Board of Directors,OperaDelaware
Board of Directors, Nehemiah Gateway Community Development Corporation
Board of Directors, American Red Cross of Delmarva
Chair, Multicultural Judges & Lawyers Section,Delaware State Bar Association
Member, Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League
Board of Advisors, Trustees of Color
Board of Directors, Kuumba Academy Charter School
Board of Directors, Kalmar Nyckel Foundation
Delegate, Democratic National Convention 2004
Member-At-Large (Appointed), Executive Committee,Delaware State Bar Association
Director’s Circle (John Sloan Society), Delaware Art Museum
Democratic Analyst, WHYY Delaware Tonight
Columnist, Delaware Today
Columnist, In Re, Official Magazine of the Delaware State Bar Association
Other
Don K. Price Award, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government
Member, Warren Bennis Leadership Circle, Harvard University Center for Public Leadership
Member, Union League
Belknap Society Member, Massachusetts Historical Society
Fellow, Museum Council, Museum of Fine Arts
Inductee, Cambridge Who’s Who
Member, Harvard Club of Boston
Member, Harvard Club of New York
Member, NAACP

You can follow Chip on Twitter, “like” him on Facebook, or even watch his videos on Youtube!

You may contact Chip through his campaign at:

Flowers for Treasurer
1105 N. Market St., Suite 800
Wilmington, DE 19801
Phone: (302) 656-7360
Email: info@chipflowers.com

For a complete copy of the article, please visit http://www.examiner.com/x-54868-Delaware-Elections-2010-Examiner~y2010m6d26-Delaware-State-Treasurer-Chis-Flowers-for-State-Treasurer.

Primary fight for state treasurer heating up
June 18th, 2010,
Author: Ginger Gibson

[Article reproduced in pertinent part. For complete copy of article, visit http://tinyurl.com/29qwz9k]

There are two candidates vying for the Democratic nominee for state treasurer and the fighting is starting to heat up.

The two candidates are Velda Jones Potter, who currently holds the office after being appointed by Gov. Markell, and Wilmington attorney Chip Flowers.

Both candidates have been courting endorsements from local political districts, divided by representative districts. Those endorsements lead county endorsements, and ideally (but maybe not this year) to endorsements by the state party. If the candidate who doesn’t pick up the official party endorsement stays in the race, that leaves a primary to be decided by the voters.

It seems the treasurer’s race will go to the voters. The primary is on September 14.

The Jones Potter campaign recently started touting the endorsements she’s picked up, including the recent endorsement of the New Castle County Democratic Executive Committee saying it gave them a “virtual stranglehold” on the nomination.

“Our campaign for Delaware’s future got another huge boost tonight and we are poised to take our message to all Delawareans,” said Jones-Potter in a news release. ”For as hard as we’ve been working in Wilmington and New Castle County throughout this endorsement process, we’re working equally as hard in Kent and Sussex County in an effort to show strength and party unification behind my campaign to remain Delaware’s Treasurer. I look forward to the days when this unnecessary primary is behind us, when we can focus our energy on candidates outside of our own party.”

The Flowers campaign responded today in a statement, saying Jones Potter is “overlooking Democratic voters.”

From the Flowers campaign:

“Ms. Jones-Potter’s comments are insulting to Democratic voters throughout the state. Party leaders may make endorsements to incumbents, but in an election, the voters make the decisions that count,” said Dustin Parker, campaign manager for candidate Chip Flowers.

“As a candidate who has never received a single vote in an election for public office, Ms. Jones-Potter is showing uncharacteristic arrogance with her suggestion that it is unnecessary for members of our party to exercise their constitutional rights to cast a ballot,” Parker said.

“Ms. Jones-Potter also appears to have forgotten that she was the second Democrat to enter the race, and that was after she said she did not intend to seek election, so the only reason there is a primary is because Ms. Jones-Potter herself forced it,” Parker added.

“To suggest that a political endorsement by party leaders from New Castle County provides her with “a virtual stranglehold” on the nomination ignores recent party history,” Parker said. In the 2008 gubernatorial race, the party leadership backed Lt. Gov. John Carney for the nomination, but it was Markell, running without the support of party leaders, who won the primary and then the general election.

“The race for the Democratic nomination for State Treasurer is a battle of ideas, not of political endorsements. The votes that count are the ones Democrats will cast in the primary on Sept. 14, when they determine which candidate has the better ideas,” candidate Flowers said. “Democrats believe in the power of the ballot box. Elections are not meant to be unnecessary inconveniences for those who would rather receive an appointment than to engage in a rigorous debate and discussion of ideas.”