Campaign To Focus On Children’s Issues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, June 7, 2008

Millsboro/Dover/New Castle – Declaring that he will “stand up for Delaware’s children,” Matt Denn on Saturday formally kicked off his campaign to be Delaware’s next Lieutenant Governor.

Denn, a Democrat and the state’s current insurance commissioner, said he would continue to take on the powerful interests on behalf of the state’s children, just as he has taken on big insurance companies on behalf of consumers since 2005. Speaking in Millsboro, Dover and New Castle, he was introduced at each stop by a Delawareans who he had personally helped with a health insurance problem.

“My goal as Lieutenant Governor will be to ensure that each child in our state goes as far in life as his talent and determination will take him,” Denn said. “Every morning when I get up, the first thought on my mind will be ‘what can I do to help this state’s children succeed?’ ”

Denn said he would work for health care coverage for every child, to improve schools, to reduce pollution and toxins that affect children and to improve services to children who face special challenges—children who are abused, neglected, living in foster care, or fighting to overcome disabilities.

“We need to provide health insurance for each child in this state, as a benchmark on the way to universal coverage,” said Denn, who has spent much of this time as insurance commissioner fighting to expand health coverage for Delaware children and families. “Coverage for every child is not a bumper sticker slogan, it is something we can do by the year 2010, and for less money than you would think.”

In schools, Denn said, the state needs results, not in 15 years, but right now.

“We need to bring the best new teachers into Delaware’s public schools, keep them here, and create an environment where they can excel and want to excel,” he said. “Part of that involves restoring faith in the financing of our public schools, by setting strict state controls on the percentage of funds that must go into the classroom and on the ways in which districts manage their money.”

In Millsboro, Denn was introduced by Loriann White of Millsboro, who received cancer treatment at Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York after she was initially denied by her insurance company and Denn intervened. In Dover, Julie Harris of Milton told how he helped get her two children health coverage through the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). And in New Castle, Mike Logue thanked Denn for helping his daughter get 24-hour nursing coverage she needed to deal with a number of medical conditions. White and Harris are registered Republicans and Logue is an independent.

Denn concluded his announcement relating the thoughts he sometimes has about his own children and those of our state as he rocks one of his 3-year-old twin boys to sleep.

“In the quiet darkness of their bedroom, I think to myself about what will become of them. Will they be ok? Will they be happy? Will they have the chances I have had?” Denn said. “I know that across our state, in thousands of homes, rich and poor, other parents are hoping and worrying, too, whether their kids are toddlers or teenagers. And not just worrying about some distant future, but about tomorrow, about next week. The challenges to this generation of children are too great, the cost of failure too high, for us to wait.”

To learn more about Matt Denn and his campaign, go to www.MattDenn.com.