Meet Our Candidates Dave Graham for Governor

Hi, Jane Brady here, chair of the Delaware Republican Party, and today we have with us Dave Graham, candidate for governor. Hello there, Dave. Hi, Jane, nice to see you today. Good to see you too. Why don't you tell everyone a little bit about yourself? Well, Jane, I've been involved in Republican politics since the age of 21, the year I got out of the Army. In 1976, I went to my first representative district meeting, chaired by my former middle school history teacher, Barbara Brown, and I've been active in Republican politics for 44 years, helping other candidates get elected, and I have participated in the governor's race since 2004. I was in the primary for governor. In 2008, I was the filed candidate for governor before I was knocked out the week before the convention. In 2014, I ran as a statewide candidate for attorney general as an independent party of Delaware, and this is the year I believe that the Republicans can win these statewide races. So I joined and filed the day after the weekend of the July 4th and entered the race. Great. Why this office? Why do you want to run for governor? Well, Delaware needs a housecleaning, starting with the governor's office. We have had a Democrat in that office since 1992, when Mike Hassell left for Congress and Tom Carver succeeded him. And after 28 years, we have a lot of appointed officials that are less qualified to run those offices than some of the merit employees that report for them. And frankly, a lot of my observation is there needs to be a housecleaning on November 3rd, and then starting on January 20th, we need to remodel Delaware government based on the 21st century, not the 20th century model of appointing your buddies or whoever helped get you elected to the office. So apart from reorganizing the government and relying on the expertise of the people who know what they're doing and have been doing it, what other issues do you hope to address if you are elected governor? Well, Delaware has a reputation as being among the most corrupt states in the United States of America. And a great deal of that is because unlike 45 other states, we don't have an inspector general. I know from my experience as an army sergeant 45 years ago, we had the dreaded inspector general reports where they came in and they turned the unit upside down from top to bottom to make sure they were complying with that. And until we have an independent inspector general with the power and the authority to go in to these agencies and take a look at what's going on, not just the numbers, but the policies and procedures, that's one of the hallmark issues I would want to address as governor. A second thing that motivated me to start running for governor way back in the year 2000 was the family court of Delaware. It's the worst domestic relation court in the United States of America. And I personally experienced what happened in the Connecticut court. Connecticut has the most, the best domestic relation court in the United States. It's open, it's fast, it's efficient. In fact, in December, 2018, I rented a van and took state Senator Bruce Sanders, a Democrat, and House Representative Mike Ramone, a Republican, and we spent the day up in the Connecticut court. That court gets more done in one morning than a family court here in Delaware gets done all week. And it doesn't exist for the financial benefit of the lawyers. It's there to serve the children and the parents and the families. And if I'm elected governor, the priority will be to reform the family court of Delaware based on the Connecticut model. Okay. Now, this is going to be placed up on our YouTube channel. It's going to be viewed by members of the public, as well as the delegates and alternates to our state convention, where the Democrat, I mean, the governor gubernatorial candidates will be seeking the endorsement. I'm sorry, tongue tied there, where you'll be seeking the endorsement of the delegates and alternates. Can you tell us if there's any special appeal you'd like to make to the delegates at this point? Well, number one, I received that invite from you by email to participate in the support our police event down in the Georgetown circle on Monday. And I arrived with my hat on with my big red button with my campaign cards. And to the best of my knowledge, I was the only of the seven filed candidates for governor. I was the only one there. And in addition to that, I I'm in the Cape Gazette paper tomorrow morning is campaigning for governor. And for the delegates, I have a mailing that will go out today to all, I believe 386 delegates with information about my campaign and what the issues are. And they'll get a good idea before they arrive at the convention, what I'm all about. And in addition to that, I although I will be sending out my business cards, and I believe I am the only candidate for governor that has business cards, because I know how to run a campaign for governor. And I'm the only one of two that even has campaign signs that popped up at all the election polling places in Kent County, and in southern New Castle County. And finally, for for the delegates, this is the year for the Republicans to run a qualified candidate for governor to relieve John Carney of man. And based on my experience, my education, my executive ability, on my I've been the governor of the party, the governor of Delaware is the party leader. And I have worked behind the scenes to support the other candidates. I've supported Warren Whiskey, I've supported Lee Murphy, I've supported Danielle Hall, because I was concerned I wasn't going to run for governor unless I had the best candidates possible on the ticket with me. So I've been the party, I'm not governor yet. But I've been a party leader for 44 years. I've been a party leader to put together the best ticket possible. So I asked the delegates when they vote, don't just vote for me as a candidate for governor, Danielle Hall has no no opponent. But look at the other ones, we need to come out of that convention with a picture of the five of us that the Delaware voters can look at and say, I trust you to run the governor, the government of Delaware. And we have not had that in a long time. And this is the year to do it. Well, thank you, Dave Graham, Delaware candidate for governor. Good luck, sir. Thank you.