Filings show Lt. Gov. Hall-Long improperly reported over $300K in campaign-related expenses

Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign quietly filed amended reports showing she loaned her campaign more than $300,000 over the course of six years, improperly reporting the charges as expenditures in earlier campaign filings.

The campaign said in a news release late Friday afternoon that amended reports were filed for 2016 through 2022 to correct “categorization errors” with campaign-related expenses due to Hall-Long failing to properly report expenses paid for with personal credit cards.

The errors revealed that Hall-Long loaned her campaign $308,134 over the course of six years. The campaign said these expenses – which included television advertising, yard signs, campaign literature and consulting – were recorded as expenditures in the reports rather than loans.

So far, $206,985 has been repaid to Hall-Long, according to the campaign.

“I regret the confusion and errors in these reports, though it was unintentional. As our campaign grew from the kitchen table around which I started my first legislative race to that of a statewide elected official, we should not have continued to take on the responsibility of managing the finance reporting,” Hall-Long said in the release. “I am grateful to the compliance experts and accountants who identified these reporting errors and worked diligently to correct them.”

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What prompted the audit?

Hall-Long’s campaign launched an internal audit of its finances shortly after the lieutenant governor announced her plans to run for Delaware governor.

Hall-Long requested a review of her campaign finances and “learned there may have been reporting issues” that required attention, prompting her to hire Dover-based Summit CPA to audit the reports.

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While the campaign has continuously declined to release the audit, it said in the news release Friday that the amended reports "fully convey" the results of the internal audit.

“Throughout this process, I have been committed to ensuring we get a full picture of any issues and make the changes needed, which has now been done,” Hall-Long said. “As a nurse, I deal in facts. When a patient presents with a problem, you assess and diagnose, and then you take action. We’ve diagnosed the problem and we have now acted to amend any issues with the reports.”

Of the 12 amended filings associated with the Committee to Elect Bethany Hall-Long, only 10 could be accessed through the Department of Elections campaign finance reporting system.

The individual loans reported in the accessible filings range from a $55.22 charge to $60,000. None of those reports indicate the loans have been paid, and some duplicate loans are reflected in other filings.

The amended reports do not make clear what the reported loans were used for.

Campaign finance experts will be used

Hall-Long said her campaign reporting will be handled by experts in the field going forward.

Hall-Long’s husband, Dana Long, previously served as the lieutenant governor’s campaign treasurer until May 2023, when Allison Murray, of Rhode Island, was brought on as treasurer. She is a partner of CFO Compliance, a firm that works with Democratic candidates and specializes in “state and local candidate compliance.”

Dana Long has in the past created major headaches for his wife's various campaigns. In 2014, when she was a state senator, Hall-Long admitted that her husband stole Republican political signs along a Middletown road. This came to light after a video showed him carrying signs to his car.

He was also accused of "abuse of power" when he served as a housing inspector for New Castle County. Hall-Long defended her husband against these claims.

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He no longer works on the campaign, and in October, Hall-Long’s campaign committee had updated its filings to show that Cheryl Webb, of Dover, as the campaign treasurer.

Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com. Follow her on X at @mandy_fries.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hall-Long improperly reported over $300K in campaign-related expenses