News Journal, August 13, 2008

Lieutenant governor candidate Matt Denn wants to help faith-based programs get more federal and private funding, he said in a campaign announcement Tuesday.

Denn, a Democrat, said if elected he would call upon the governor to designate one member of his staff to work exclusively with churches and community organizations to apply for federal assistance. He said if the new governor would not assign someone to aid churches, he would place a member of his own staff in the position.

His opponent, Republican Sen. Charlie Copeland, said reaching residents through church- and community-based groups is an effort he has supported for years. He sees Denn’s announcement as “political pandering” to try to attract traditionally conservative voters.

Copeland said he has a long history of working with community and religious leaders to develop and fund programs that assist those in need. He described using faith-based programs as a traditionally Republican approach and said it was a long stretch from Denn’s usual “big government solves all” stances.

Denn announced this portion of his campaign platform in a teleconference that also included Wilmington religious leaders Rev. Christopher Bullock of Canaan Baptist Church and Bishop Thomas W. Weeks of New Destiny Fellowship.

Funding church programs is important, Denn said, because in many neighborhoods churches are the organizations that people reach out to in time of need.

Denn said Delaware should be prepared to work more closely with the federal government after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said recently he would renew efforts to fund faith-based programs if elected president.

He pointed to previous efforts by the federal government to fund faith-based programs that allocated $289 million for state-level grants, only $100,000 which ended up in Delaware programs.

“We in Delaware need to be positioned to take advantage of a renewed federal focus on faith-based initiatives,” Denn said.

Delaware is one of 15 states that don’t have a state worker dedicated to helping churches seek federal and private funding.

Denn said he, like Obama, is familiar with constitutional law and would not support any efforts that would violate the separation of church and state.

Bullock said churches like his chose to build congregations and invest money in neighborhoods that are lower in economic condition.

“We help folks all the time,” Bullock said. “The bottom line is we need help so we can help folks that are less fortunate or stuck in situations that are oppressive.”

Delaware State News, August 13, 2008

DOVER — Delaware has been on the short end of the stick when it comes to faith-based organiza­tions receiving federal and private funds, prompting state Insurance Commissioner Matthew P. Denn Tuesday to call for the state to dedicate staff to assist the groups.

Mr. Denn, the Democratic can­didate for lieutenant governor, said faith-based groups are vital centers of communities, having seen first­hand while serving a fellowship with Delaware Volunteer Legal Services and working in churches and community centers.

“Few organizations are closer to the community and able to draw people in and touch them than our churches and faith-based groups,” Mr. Denn said.

“From 2002 through 2007, the federal government oper­ated what it called a Compassion Capital Fund, that was designed to help faith-based and community organizations expand their capac­ity. During the life of the program, Congress funded it to the tune of $289 million. “Of that amount, Delaware programs received just $100,000, two $50,000 grants.”

Mr. Denn said the staff would assist or­ganizations find­ing and getting funds already available, but of which Dela­ware may not be receiving a fair share. Around the country, 35 states have offices to help faith-based organizations providing social services in a con­stitutionally appropriate way, but Delaware is not one of them.

Mr. Denn said he would ask the next governor to dedicate staff in the executive branch to helping faith-based organizations and, barring that, would do it himself as lieutenant governor.

The insurance commissioner will face Senate Minority Leader Sen. Charles L. Copeland, R­Wilmington, in the general elec­tion Nov. 4.

The News Journal, August 9, 2008

Searching online for the candidates for lieutenant governor got a little trickier Friday.

Matt Denn and Charlie Copeland both maintain a Web site about their campaign and the addresses are their names — mattdenn.com and charliecopeland.com.

But Friday afternoon, an unknowing online surfer seeking Denn’s page could have landed them on Copeland’s. Or an unknowing Web searcher looking for a Copeland fan page might have seen a funny picture.

The sites for mattdenn.org and mattdenn.net are routing Internet users to charliecopeland.com.

A search for the owners of the two misleading Web pages are listed as Domains by Proxy, a company that allows people to remain anonymous when creating sites.

When asked Friday afternoon, Copeland laughed and said he had not heard the sites were redirecting. Copeland, who in addition to being a state senator was recently lauded for his printing company’s development of a Web program that cuts administrative costs by streamlining the process online, said he did not personally participate in the rerouting process and didn’t know who did.

“Whether someone on my campaign did or not, I don’t know the answer to that question, but it is rather humorous,” Copeland said, laughing.

Denn decided to act.

After being asked about the Web site switcheroo, Denn sent Copeland an e-mail revealing his own exploration into buying domain names.

Denn purchased charleslammotcopeland.com, charliecopelandisaswellguy.org and iheartcharliecopeland.net, and adorned each with a different photo of Copeland. One features Copeland riding a mechanical bull, another shows him sitting at a desk and a third with the letter “I” and then a red heart and a cutout of Copeland’s face.

In an e-mail from Denn to Copeland and forwarded to The News Journal, Denn thanked Copeland for registering the sites, “to prevent someone else from grabbing them and making any mischief with them.”

“Good thinking,” the e-mail said. “Second, in appreciation, we have taken the liberty of registering a few domains related to your name. I propose we trade them, so that everyone owns their own names and there’s no confusion.”

Copeland laughed when he heard about the e-mail.

“It’s a nice try at a comeback, it really is,” Copeland said.

Denn said the e-mail and new Web sites were all in good humor.

“We thought it was kind of funny and that we ought to treat it accordingly,” Denn said.

Copeland said he was content with his supporters holding onto the Denn domains, but would take the proposed swap under advisement. He agreed with Denn that the whole affair was simply a laughing matter.

“It’s important to make sure that you keep a sense of scale about the political process,” Copeland said.

E-mail from Matt Denn to Charlie Copeland

Charlie –

Matt

Being out on the campaign trail is never easy, but it is even harder when Mrs. Denn is out of town for the day.

Saturday morning the boys and I started out at the annual Peach Festival parade in Middletown.  Between getting everyone dressed and dealing with some last-minute potty issues, we rolled in just ten minutes before the parade started (our campaign director Alyssa thinks I do this just to spike her blood pressure, but we really try our hardest).  We and our great volunteers then marched through the parade, with the boys waving and shouting “hi” from their wagon, until we were almost at the reviewing stand.  One of the boys (I will not say which in case they are reading these entries when I am old and I need them to care for me) announced that he needed to use the potty.  I told him we were almost done, and to just try to hold it in for a few minutes.  He took my suggestion literally, and by the time we made it by the reviewing stand, no one could doubt what the problem in the wagon was.  Fortunately, this was my fourth or fifth year in the parade, and we saw lots and lots of old friends and had a lot of people yell encouragement from the sidewalk.

After the parade, and a celebratory trip to Dunkin Donuts, we had to run home to let Lenny out, then we headed up to East Wilmington for Bishop Weeks’ annual community fair.  We were about to head south again to Middletown when I said to myself “did I let Lenny back in?  I think I did, but can I swear that I did?”  Images of Lenny taken hostage flooding through my head, I turned around and headed back to Newark.  Lenny, of course, was inside snoozing on the sofa—and in the meantime, both boys had also fallen asleep in the car.  So we headed back to Middletown, I rousted them from their slumbers, and an unhappy Zach responded by throwing one of his shoes out of the wagon while my back was turned.  We spent half an hour trying to find it (a special shout-out to friend Tara Quinn who saw me searching and spotted the shoe sitting on a card table).

Mrs. Denn, welcome home.

Check out this replay of the USA men swim team’s amazing come-from-behind victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay — shot entirely from underwater.

It reads like a bad reality tv show premise.  Wife of Lieutenant Governor candidate realizes that she is far behind in continuing education hours for her physical therapy license, with deadline impending.  Wife reminds candidate that she needs her license to work part-time, and that if she does not work, candidate will be foraging for nuts and berries to feed their children.  Wife finds two-day continuing education marathon at remote location in middle of Pennsylvania.  Wife leaves candidate to care for three-year-old twins for 36 hours, with several pages of written instructions and a short whispered prayer.

If you see us out on the campaign trail this weekend and the boys’ clothes don’t match, please understand and please don’t tell Mrs. Denn.

Yesterday felt in some ways like my career had come full circle.  Back in the summer of 1989, when I was working in Delaware between my first and second years of law school, I decided that I wanted to do something to provide legal help to the economically disadvantaged communities in our state.  I asked the late Christine McDermott of Delaware Volunteer Legal Services if she would supervise me, and I decided that the best place to locate my efforts was through one of the churches that already ministered to that community.  A mutual friend led me to Bishop Thomas W. Weeks of what was then known as Greater Bethel Apostolic Temple, and I spent part of the summer volunteering out of an office in the basement of the church.

Almost twenty years later, I found myself on the phone yesterday with Bishop Weeks and another friend in the clergy, Reverend Christopher Bullock,  talking to the press about my plan to have state government in Delaware assist faith-based organizations compete with their counterparts in the other 49 states for federal and private funds that are available to them.  Delaware has not received its fair share in this area—of over $289 million allocated from one of the largest federal programs targeted at faith-based groups, Delaware received only $100,000.  We need to help our faith-based organizations do better, so they in turn can help Delawareans in need.

My work in the summer of 1989 resulted in my working full-time out of churches and other community centers for my first two years out of law school, and a relationship with many of our state’s religious leaders that has endured to this day.  It is a relationship that I value immensely—we must be mindful of the line between church and state, but many of these religious leaders are working to help the same people that I am, and can be good partners in our effort to make this state a better place for kids. 

My opponent’s reaction to my plan in today’s newspaper was to complain that I was just playing politics to try to lure his own party’s voters away from him.   Well, I certainly do intend to win a majority of his party’s voters as well as mine.  But I think the religious leaders who have worked with me for over a decade probably had a good chuckle when they read his outburst.  Those leaders and I were working together on faith-based initiatives before the politicians gave them a fancy name.  Partnerships with the religious community don’t belong to a single political party, and people who claim that they do unwittingly reveal how they themselves view them.

Lieutenant Governor Candidate Wants Social Agencies To Get Assistance With Grants And Available Federal Money

Wilmington – Matt Denn, the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, on Tuesday proposed dedicating state government staff to help faith-based organizations obtain grants and federal funds to deliver services to Delaware’s citizens.

The staff would assist organizations finding and getting funds already available, but of which Delaware may not be receiving a fair share, said Denn, who began his career as an attorney providing free legal aid out of church basements and community centers. Around the country, 35 states have offices to help faith-based organizations providing social services in a constitutionally appropriate way, but Delaware is not one of them.

“From 2002 through 2007, the federal government operated what it called a Compassion Capital Fund, that was designed to help faith-based and community organizations expand their capacity. During the life of the program, Congress funded it to the tune of $289 million,” Denn said. “Of that amount, Delaware programs received just $100,000.”

Denn said he would ask the next Governor to dedicate staff in the executive branch to helping faith-based organizations and, barring that, would do it himself as Lieutenant Governor.

“I will ask our new Governor to follow the lead of a number of other Governors and designate a person in his office to provide this assistance to faith-based and community organizations. If the Governor doesn’t think it is appropriate, I will assign one of the few staff people dedicated to the Lieutenant Governor to fill this role,” Denn said. “One way or another, we will make sure that faith-based organizations have the help they need.”

Denn was joined in his announcement Tuesday by Rev. Christopher Bullock of Canaan Baptist Church and Bishop Thomas W. Weeks of New Destiny Fellowship, two Wilmington churches that provide a number of services to residents.

Denn noted that while Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama recently pledged to support faith-based organizations around the country in a way that President Bush promised but never fulfilled.

“We in Delaware need to be positioned to take advantage of a renewed federal focus on faith-based initiatives,” Denn said. “And those organizations, in turn, will work with us to help us with the whole range of issues facing kids in Delaware: safe, educational after-school activities and mentoring, counseling and assistance to families in distress, the whole range of issues that are so critical to the welfare of kids in our state. Together, we will make this state one where every child can go as far as his talent and determination will take him.”

Denn has centered his campaign – and will focus in his term as Lieutenant Governor – on issues affecting children, including education, health care, environmental issues and improving services to children who are abused, neglected, living in foster care, or fighting to overcome disabilities.

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

I haven’t seen a lot of the Olympics this time or last time—they always fall right in the middle of a busy campaign season.  But after reading the French swim team’s trash talking about the U.S. swim team in yesterday’s paper, I decided to stay up late and watch the 400 meter IM relay race.   I don’t know much about competitive swimming, but I have to believe what the broadcast team was screaming at the time—that it was one of the most amazing comeback victories in Olympic swimming history.   Today’s Washington Post said the nearly impossible comeback, and the U.S. team’s ecstatic celebration afterward, was “as exhilarating a moment as there is likely to be at these Olympics.”  All I can add is: U.S.A.!

Good Friday morning everyone.  Not a lot of time this morning, but I encourage you to read today’s News Journal article that focuses on my differences with my opponent on the subjects of oil drilling off the coast of Delaware (he thinks we should consider it, I don’t), and the Blue Water wind power project (I say he was wrong to oppose it, he says it was all a big misunderstanding and he should be absolved because he finally voted for it when it was a foregone conclusion).  You can read the News Journal article here.