Official Statement Concerning Inaccurate Direct Mail and Radio Advertising by Colin Bonini
Statement by Dustin Parker, campaign manager:
“Even in the final days of the campaign for state treasurer, Colin Bonini and his team remain incapable of maintaining a serious discussion of how best to manage this important office. Rather, the Bonini team persists in distributing inaccurate direct mail and radio advertising concerning Chip Flowers.
Mr. Bonini’s latest direct mail piece repeats the already refuted claim that Chip Flowers would somehow be “double-dipping” as state treasurer.
We repeat: Chip Flowers will have no management responsibility at his law firm, the Flowers Counsel Group, LLC, while serving as state treasurer. Another lawyer in the firm will serve as its managing director. The banks that are now clients of his law firm do not have any relationships with the treasurer’s office. If they were to become financial partners with the state, they would have to sever any relationship with the Flowers Counsel Group. All arrangements made will comply with the Rules of the Supreme Court of Delaware and the state’s Public Integrity Commission.
Mr. Bonini’s stream of misstatements falls short of the standards Delaware expects of its elected officials. By continuing to spend his campaign resources persistently distributing inaccurate and misleading information, he is demonstrating the very carelessness and wastefulness that he claims he wants to root out of state government. In addition, he has engaged out-of-state businesses to produce his direct mail and radio advertising — spending his money out of state when he could be supporting Delaware’s small businesses in this time of severe economic need.
During this campaign, Mr. Bonini has trivialized his absences from and weak performances on the General Assembly’s Joint Sunset and Joint Finance committees, misrepresented his educational record by falsely claiming a master’s degree from the University of Delaware, and has asked voters to overlook the lien the Internal Revenue Service placed on his home when he failed to pay more than $20,000 in taxes.
By his own conduct and statements, Mr. Bonini has shown that he lacks the diligence and integrity required to hold the office of state treasurer.”
