There has been a lot going on at the State Fair since I first went down on Friday—much of it has involved my sweating all over myself as the temperatures hover in the ‘90s.  The News Journal says that many people are coming at night this year in order to avoid the heat.  That may be true, but I have always thought there is something a little creepy about having a politician come up on you in the dark, so I have confined most of my politicking to daylight hours.

One major discovery that I wanted to bring to your attention.  Yesterday, Chad Robinson, a friend who I have dubbed the Prince of the Fair, and Donna Johnson, who knows so many people there I may have to give her a title as well, were taking me around to meet some of the many Delawareans who were showing animals and working at booths.  I said to Chad “what are we doing after this?”  He said “We are going over to a picnic that Abby Betts and her parents are throwing for a bunch of people in the grove.”  “Awesome,” I said, “what’s for dinner?”  “Boiled cabbage and ham,” the Prince of the Fair replied.

From the moment we had this conversation until the moment I sat down next to Senator Nancy Cook with my plate, I had a deep sense of foreboding.  Because when someone says to me “Matt, it’s over 90 degrees, what would you like to eat for your outdoor picnic tonight?” the response “boiled cabbage” would not have been in my top 1000.  But ladies and gentlemen, I am here to tell you this morning that boiled cabbage (topped, as I was instructed, with vinegar) is outstanding.  I ate every last bite, and might have had seconds if the Betts clan hadn’t decided to make my corner of the picnic table the resting spot for all of their homemade desserts.  If we could just figure out how to deep-fry the boiled cabbage, it might challenge corn dogs as my favorite State Fair food.

I talked all about the State Fair in this blog a year ago, so I won’t repeat my ode to corn dogs, but I encourage you to visit at least once.  I think the boys and Mrs. Denn are coming during the weekend, so the keepers of the baby chickens and the Whac-A-Mole vendors should be on yellow alert.

One tradition of booths at the State Fair is to have a guessing contest.  This year, I want to join the tradition.  I noticed that my opponent’s family just held a high-priced fundraiser for Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee at one of their estates, which is named “Granogue.”  I thought to myself, “why doesn’t my house have a name?”  So this year at the State Fair, I am challenging people to come up with a name for my house in Newark.  A few rules:
1. Proper names, such as Fred, are not permitted.
2. If you are going to give it a fancy French name, please provide me with a translation.
3. Taunting names such as “Money Pit” and “Time to Mulch” are not appreciated.
4. You cannot actually come to my house to be inspired to come up with the name.

On Monday, I received the endorsement of the Delaware State Education Association, which represents most of Delaware’s teaching and other instructional personnel in the public schools.  Fortunately, none of my former teachers were on the interview committee.  I was not an easy child.  My mother still remembers the comment from one of my elementary school report cards: “Matt seems to enjoy his own company on the playground.”

I care about every endorsement, and have pounded my chest about others on this blog, but the DSEA endorsement is an especially important one for my campaign.  There are three reasons for that.

First, my campaign is different from others in that it is focused on children’s issues.  So endorsements from groups like DSEA that are also focused on kids have special meaning.  (Yes, I read the quotes in the paper from the candidates who didn’t get endorsed saying that DSEA is secretly against kids, but those candidates didn’t seem to have that opinion when they were eagerly seeking its endorsement just days prior.)  DSEA endorses both Republicans and Democrats—when I ran for Insurance Commissioner in 2004, it endorsed both me and my Republican opponent.  So having the endorsement outright this time sends a strong message about my commitment to kids.

Second, when I do get elected and start trying to improve our public schools, teachers will be an important part of that effort.  No one knows more than teachers what is going on in our schools—unlike some of the self-appointed experts in Dover, the teachers are actually there, on the ground, every day.  And the reality is that real, sustainable changes in our public education system don’t happen if teachers aren’t involved in the process.  That doesn’t mean we will agree all the time, but it does mean that their opinions should be respected and they should be included in the process of reform from the beginning.

Finally, teachers are great allies on the campaign trail.  Their opinions are respected, and they work hard for the candidates that they think will help them do their jobs.  Teachers don’t go into teaching to get rich, they do it because they love kids and they get satisfaction from seeing their kids do well.  So when they find a candidate that thinks the same way, they go all-out.  I am counting on them, and I am proud to have their support.

I had what I refer to as a “podcast weekend” this weekend—so much time driving myself up and down the state (the Denn campaign doesn’t do drivers) that I ran out of people to call and had to resort to listening to a bunch of podcasts that I burned onto CDs during the course of the week.  I think I have heard approximately 27 ESPN analysts give their opinions on the Elton Brand deal.  But the campaign stops were worthwhile, including…

1. A visit to the American Legion’s annual conference at the Dover Sheraton on Friday night.  The actual conference didn’t start until Saturday, but several of the chapters hosted hospitality suites on Friday night.  Let me tell you something: the American Legion wrote the book on hospitality.  They not only support our troops and veterans, they know how to throw a party!   
2. A trip to Seaford’s Riverfest on Saturday.  Thanks to the expert advice of Volunteer Firefighter state chief Ron Marvel (a Seaford local) and Sussex County Democratic Party Chairman Tom Chapman (ditto), I was the only one who knew the deep, dark political secret of the Riverfest: don’t come during the formal events, come earlier in the day when there are no official events but the streets are packed.  So I had a chance to meet hundreds of Seafordians absent the usual gauntlet of politicians.
3. A visit to Rev. Christopher Bullock’s Canaan Baptist Church on Sunday morning.  Reverend Bullock had a great service, as always.  This was probably the last service I will attend in Reverend Bullock’s temporary sanctuary in Wilmington.  He and his congregation are building a new church on Route 9 in New Castle.  And that is the great thing about Reverend Bullock and other established Delaware clergy like Bishop Thomas W. Weeks of New Destiny Fellowship.  These are ministers who needed new buildings for their fast-growing congregations, and they could have gone anywhere.  They had loyal congregations that would travel long distances to attend services.  And yet they chose to build their new churches in parts of the state that needed help—Bishop Weeks on the east side of Wilmington, and Reverend Bullock in the area of Route 9 that has had serious crime problems in the last several years.   Kudos to Reverend Bullock and Bishop Weeks for the leadership they are demonstrating by helping these communities.

A quick quiz: what do Jack Markell and Tom Carper have in common?  OK, other than an unhealthy obsession with riding in every single July 4^th parade in the state, no matter what the cost in human suffering among their volunteers, what do they have in common?  Answer: they both lost the town of Seaford in the process of winning their current offices for the first time, and then came roaring back to win Seaford overwhelmingly the next time.  (For those who monitor my blog to assure even-handedness, let me add that I could not include John Carney because he won Seaford in 2000 and messed up my analogy.)

I didn’t exactly rock the house in Seaford when I ran for Insurance Commissioner in 2004.  Hey, I’m not complaining—I won the election.  But my vote totals in Seaford were worse than they were anywhere else in the state.  A couple of weeks after the election, I said to myself “I am going win Seaford in 2008.”  Then my wife said “honey, you’re talking gibberish in your sleep again, maybe you should lay off the spicy salsa when we go to Jose’s.”

This weekend is Riverfest in Seaford.  I will be there—just as I have been in Seaford over the last three and a half years to help flood victims, to meet with their local businesspeople, to help try to recruit new medical specialists, and to ride along with the local ambulance company.  This November, I want to win the election.  Man, do I ever.  But I also want to win Seaford, and I think I will.  See you at Riverfest!

Yesterday, I attended a small but enthusiastic rally of labor, religious, and civic leaders who want to make affordable health care a central issue in our state.  You can read the News Journal’s article by clicking http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/HEALTH/807090358/1006/NEWS.

I am glad that this issue is front and center, because there may be no issue where the difference between candidates is more clear than on affordable health care.  Don’t take my word for it—read what the candidates say.  Here is the Lee/Copeland ticket on health care in Delaware, in their own words: “Delawareans do not want the state government making their healthcare decisions. They want to make those decisions themselves with the counsel of their doctor. A move to greater state control of health care is a disaster in waiting. The principles that should drive our effort to improve healthcare in Delaware are personal ownership, choice and competition. Combining those principles will drive costs down, options up and more people onto the rolls of the insured.”

Well first of all, let’s deal with the straw man.  Neither Barack Obama, nor John Carney, nor Jack Markell, nor I have ever advocated having state government make people’s health care decisions for them.  Period.  Jack and John have put forward very different proposals for obtaining affordable health care in Delaware, but they are both serious, thoughtful proposals, and neither of them involve government making people’s health care decisions.

What about the other side’s proposal?  “Personal ownership, choice, and competition.”  Great, all for it.  One problem: that’s what we have now, and standing alone, it ain’t working.  Delawareans have every right to personally own their own health insurance, as long as they are willing to pay a small fortune for it.  People have lots of choices for health insurance—most of them absurdly expensive.  And we have open competition here in Delaware, the result being (all together now) several companies offering ridiculously expensive health insurance.

We can talk about the national debate another time, but at the state level, the choice on health care is pretty clear: do you want the status quo, or do you want a change?  If you think the current system is working well—and it probably is for the Lee and Copeland families—then you should vote for them.  If you think it is time for a change, try my team.

I have never figured out the politician-marching-in-parade thing.  Don’t get me wrong, I do it.  My great volunteers and I marched in four parades over the weekend and would have marched in more if we could have gotten to them.  But my gut sense is that parents are not nudging their kids awake in the pre-dawn July 4^th hours saying “Jake, Bessie, wake up—we have to get curbside seats so we can see Matt Denn up close in the July 4^th parade.”

All that said, a few highlights from the weekend’s parades:

1. First and foremost, we had a ton of people who turned out to help with various parades—some with more than one.  July 4^th is a big family holiday, and I really appreciate everyone taking the time to march with us. 
2. One major highlight is that I managed to not crush my own foot under the wheel of the Smyrna Dennmobile when I tried to simultaneously yell “stop the car” and hand a physically spent Lenny to a volunteer sitting in the back seat.  The right thing for me to do in that situation is to wait until the car is actually stopped before stepping in front of the rear wheel.  Fortunately, the wheel got all shoe, no toe.
3. This year, we once again give thanks that the Laurel parade—over a mile of pavement with no trees or other shade and a march up a hill at the end—is now on the evening of July 3^rd rather than in the blazing heat of July 4^th.  My volunteers still compare the 2004 Laurel parade, when the heat was close to 100 degrees, to some of the basic training scenes in various Clint Eastwood army movies.
4. Mike Taylor’s little girls, who are the most versatile campaign volunteers I know.  In the Smyrna parade, they sat in the back of the car and performed beauty queen waves to the crowd.  In the Dover parade, they hit the streets with a vengeance.  My wife was driving the Dennmobile in the Dover parade, and said to me afterwards “those little girls can cover some ground!”.
5. The Job-like patience of my volunteers in Hockessin who endured the consequences of the Hockessin parade’s new “first-come, first-serve” policy when it comes to the parade line-up.  I got to Hockessin as close to parade time as possible in order to minimize the time that the Denn boys would have to be cooped up in a car or sitting out in the heat; my reward—and by proxy, that for my volunteers—was the back of the line, and an almost hour-long wait in the heat to start the parade. 
6. And finally, indirectly, to the good people at Starbucks.  The Denn Family bailed out of Dover before the fireworks, because we heard thunderstorms were coming and I didn’t feel like trying to run four blocks to the car with two crying boys in a thunderstorm.  To make it up to the boys, who would have seen fireworks for the first time, we stopped at the Dover McDonalds (mini-review: Just Say No to the new Spicy Chicken sandwich), and then headed north.  Around Middletown I said “honey, I need to get some coffee, I am falling asleep.”  So we pulled off the highway, drove to the Middletown drive-through Starbucks, and purely by accident, right into the City of Middletown’s July 4^th fireworks display.  Zach had already fallen asleep by that time, but Adam got to see his first fireworks display ever, and he was so excited he couldn’t speak. 

Lt. gov. candidate wants more spent in classroom

The News Journal, July 3, 2008

Lieutenant governor candidate Matt Denn discussed his plans Wednesday to overhaul education spending policies as a plank of his platform on children’s issues.

Denn, a Democrat, wants the state to create a funding floor for education spending as an element of a four-part reform in public education spending. Policies also would be created to increase audits of district contracts, create financial oversight committees made up of citizens, and work to implement recommendations from the LEAD Committee, including implementing interim steps toward school consolidation.

“Experience has shown us that the people running our schools do not always make wise decisions about spending for our kids,” Denn said.

Under his proposal, school districts would be required to spend a certain percentage of appropriated state money on “people who provide direct services to kids and the materials those people need to do their job.”

Denn said the exact percentages and what expenses fall into that category would be the result of about three months of discussions with teachers, administrators and community members.

After creating the floor, Denn said he would like the state to remove some of the requirements currently attached to education funds given to districts.

In doing so, schools would have to spend a larger percentage of money on the expenses that meet his definition, but they would deal with fewer ties to specific projects.

Republican candidate Sen. Charles Copeland, West Farms, said he supports increasing the percentage of funds used for classroom expenses, but doesn’t think creating a mandate is the way to reduce overhead spending.

“For the last six years I’ve been fighting to get more of the percent of the dollars into the classroom,” Copeland said. “The private schools, the charter schools and the parochial schools get more of their dollar to the classroom.”

Copeland said the state needs to increase public disclosure of school spending, so residents can hold districts accountable or send their children to other schools if they’re dissatisfied with the way money is spent.

Copeland pointed to legislation he wrote, which died, that would have required districts to publish their spending records online.

“The citizens will make the districts lower their costs,” he said.

Lake Forest School District Superintendent Dan Curry said because much of the state’s education funds are tied to specific programs — like summer school or tutoring — they already function like a spending floor.

But Curry cautioned that implementing a percentage minimum could omit costs that are important to students but not classroom related, such as social workers, curriculum planning, teacher training and transportation.

“We can’t teach them unless we get them to school,” Curry said. “You risk painting with too broad a brush.”

Denn said 58 percent of state funds are spent on instructional costs, compared with the national average of 61 percent.

Additionally, he said, Delaware has the fourth highest per student transportation costs.

But he acknowledged that similar plans have not worked in other states because of partisan politics, attempts to create the policy through a referendum and the use of federal definitions for describing classroom-related expenses.

Brandywine School District Superintendent Jim Scanlan said he could not determine if such a policy would work without knowing the exact percentages and what would fit into the definition of classroom-related.

“Just about every dime you’re spending should go to instruction,” Scanlan said.

The problem isn’t that districts don’t want to spend funds on students, Scanlan said, it’s that the strings tied to some funds make it difficult to address specific needs.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to get funds to the proper place,” Scanlan said.

Denn also said recommendations made by the LEAD Committee suggesting steps toward school district consolidation should be given serious consideration. He said the possibility of implementing consolidation is several years down the road and deserves more discussion, but the interim steps could save money quickly.

The Brandywine School District has already created a financial oversight committee like the one Denn wants to implement in every district.

Scanlan said the committee has been beneficial in looking at budgets, expenses and other fiscal issues. Curry said his district would be open to looking at the benefits other districts, including Brandywine, have reaped from creating an oversight committee.

WDEL 1150 AM, July 2, 2008

One of the men who wants to be Delaware’s next lieutenant governor says too much money is going to the bureaucrats in public schools, and not the students.

Democrat Matt Denn is proposing a funding floor — a mandate that local school district spend a given percentage of their public education money on people who provide direct services to kids.Audio Here

Denn is calling for consideration of the Leadership for Education Achievement in Delaware committee, or LEAD, recommendations on how the state can spend its money more wisely. He also wants to create financial oversight committees to oversee school board spending.

Delaware State News, July 3, 2008

DOVER — Delaware’s public schools need to spend funding wisely to ensure that it reaches students in classrooms, Insurance Commissioner and lieutenant governor can­didate Matthew P. Denn said Wednesday.

Mr. Denn, a Democrat, un­veiled a four­point plan to help schools allocate their limited resources in the most benefi cial manner, calling for an educational funding floor.

Administrators left to their own devices, he said, do not funnel money where it is needed most — in the classrooms.

“Delaware puts 58 percent of its operating money into instruc­tional expenditures, while the na­tional average is 61 percent,” Mr. Denn said. “Meanwhile, we spend 25 percent more than the national average on administration.

“Spending wisely is the right thing to do today for our kids, and it is the right thing to do for the future in laying the groundwork to expand public support for our schools,” said Mr. Denn, adding that the misspending of funds leads to public distrust.

“If Delawareans believe that our schools are using their mon­ey wisely, they will be much more likely to support those schools in the future.”

The centerpiece of Mr. Denn’s plan is a state educational fund­ing floor — a mandate that local school districts spend a given per­centage of their total educational funds on people who provide di­rect services to kids and the mate­rials those people need to do their jobs.

Mr. Denn said the exact per­centage should only be set after serious consideration as to what should count as contributing to learning and what should not, and teachers need to be part of that discussion.

Other components of Mr. Denn’s plan are:

- Routinely auditing the terms of and performance upon con­tracts that local school districts enter into with private parties;

- Creating a financial oversight committee of parents, teachers, and financial professionals from each local school district to moni­tor the spending decisions made by local district school boards;

- Considering LEAD Commit­tee recommendations to the state that could save tens of millions of dollars.

Asked about the high admini­strative costs, Mr. Denn said the state needs to have serious dis­cussions about possibly consolidating the 19 school districts to save money, although any actual implementation would take years to accomplish.

“That is a conversation we need to have beginning in Janu­ary 2009,” Mr. Denn said. “I think everything has to be on the table. We owe it to our students to have those serious discussions.”