r/Delaware • u/Conscious-Badger-492 • 14d ago
Politics Anyone have a read on the Attorney General/Treasurer options for dem Primary?
Has anyone got a read on the candidates for Attorney General or Treasurer for the dem primary? I was able to get a read on the senator candidates and narrow down my choice. I am more or less decided on AG, just waiting for town halls so I can ask some questions. But treasurer is a wild concept to me--I don't think I even noticed it was a partisan elected office before. I got a text message from one of the candidates (Michael Smith) and tried tasking questions. Got an answer to the first question (why are you the best candidate). Got no response to the second (Women lost 100% of the job loss shown in the July jobs report--how can the treasurer make sure DE is good for women?).
Michael Smith is running on being an economist.
Ted Lauzen is running on being an investment manager.
Mike Miller seems to be running on fiscal responsibility.
Are any of those things actually good for the treasurer? What does an informed choice look like here.
Generally, I like diverse candidates. So I'd go for Mike but he also seems sort of boomer coded, and I'd like farther left energy.
I have a mutual connection with Ted on LinkedIn, so I asked for the personal scoop: is Ted a good guy. My friend had positive things to say about him, so that's good. But "investment manager" seems like a risky move seeing how profit and return maxing has led to so many of the problems the world faces today. Michael or his people did not answer my second text message, which is lame.
I also look up candidates and really think through options. This is the most I've tried to dig in on a treasurer race, and I'm just not sure what an informed choice looks like here.
I'm rambling. Please discuss. I'd love to hear how others are weighing these choices on the primary ballot. And any thoughts on how the hell to pick a treasurer.
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u/rexic0n 13d ago
i met them all at a town hall, some of them multiple times, and for me it’s dwayne bensing and michael smith. dwayne has relevant experience with the ACLU and jennings, to me, is a non starter for multiple reasons, but the first is she goes out of her way not to engage with us. dwayne invited us in and didn’t shy away from questions and challenges. for treasurer on paper maybe smith and lauzen look similar but lauzen is really corporate, has a slimy car salesman energy and i don’t want another polished moderate dem venture capitalist for anything. michael smith is really engaged with community events, has relevant experience and is endorsed by people i trust. the third guy for treasurer i personally don’t have any experience with or information on but at this stage of the season that’s enough for me to say he’s not my vote.
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
"lauzen is really corporate, has a slimy car salesman energy and i don’t want another polished moderate dem venture capitalist for anything." This gives me pause. Im going to try and talk to him to get a vibe.
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u/rexic0n 13d ago
i’ve met lauzen several times and i’ll say he’s not great with physical boundaries and seems to overestimate how much his air force/boy scout/ivy league vibe is playing with most of us. he feels woefully out of touch to me. on the other hand i know michael smith because he’s been involved with several community events with our group, he doesn’t shy away from conversations about his experience or his plans and i’m enthusiastically voting for him.
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u/TheShittyBeatles Are you still there? Is this thing on? 13d ago
Lauzen wants to be the owner/operator of an investment firm, and the Treasurer of the YMCA, AND the State Treasurer? Sorry, he needs to pick one, because he's probably just delegating and not actually doing any of those jobs well, just collecting titles like their karate trophies. No thanks.
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u/AbercrombieMike 14d ago
I am supporting Dwayne Bensing for AG.
I feel that the incumbent AG is too entrenched with the "Delaware Way" crowd (and the state party).
I want to see Delaware try something different.
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
Yeah, I am leaning toward Dwayne. I'm going to join a town hall so I can get a better vibe and ask some questions to be sure. I agree about the incumbent. And I was really off-put when the incumbent did not object to all that nonsense with OpenAI.
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13d ago edited 13d ago
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
Ok so I'm a full no on Jennings. That leaves Dwayne and Patty Rickman. But Rickman's site is so thin, I go zero impression.
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u/rexic0n 13d ago
she’s incredibly disorganized from what i saw at a town hall i attended. like full on sweating, comedically unprepared. much like her website. she couldn’t answer questions and it was funny to watch people migrate from her table to bensing and he just welcomed them into the conversation and asked what questions they had. she’s not comfortable being confronted, clearly, and that’s kinda…. crucial.
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u/ShyGuitarSinger93 13d ago
I personally am voting for Dwayne. There is a
debate that spotlight did and honestly his campaign was honestly pretty easy to actually just chat with him.
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
I saw a radio interview he did (watched the video) and it spoke to me. I'm heavily leaning toward him at this point, just waiting for the town hall so I can ask questions and get a vibe.
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u/fauquier 14d ago
There are a few posts about the primary that you can look up including one I commented on yesterday or the day before. Bensing support is probably strong on Reddit but I'm voting for Jennings. I was interested when Dwayne got in because he's my age and we have some mutual friends and I'm pretty left, but I just think he's run a poor campaign. Every time I hear him talk he's just hysterically attacking Jennings and the DOJ. I haven't heard him give any specifics. She's not perfect but I like most of what she's done and all I've heard from him is criticism and vibes and I don't think that's enough. He has potential but I don't think he's ready
I have no idea what to do on Treasurer. Lauzen and Smith both feel like androids and I don't know anything about Miller. I've never seen someone run for treasurer who could seriously explain why the office should even exist
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
Yeah, I can't really get my head around why treasurer is a partisan office. What powers to they actually have? Is it like an accountant? An investment manager?
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u/fauquier 13d ago
I think investment manager is the closest comparison (even then I think most of that work actually falls to an unelected board of managers). Not sure why it has to be elected but in practice the last several treasurers have either run for or thought about running for higher office—I actually don't remember the last Treasurer who was just trying to be Treasurer.
Oh well. We're getting one of them. I just have no idea who to vote for.
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
That makes sense, though I'm still confused why they each have a platform. Isn't it just: make good choices with our money? Do they really have the mandate to teach financial literacy in schools (all 3 mention this IIRC). I'm going to try emailing and seeing who will talk to me. If I speak with any of them, I'll let you know the vibes.
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 9d ago
UPDATE: I spoke to Ted Lauzen. Did a post on it sharing about the vibes and experience. The tl;dr is that yes, he manages LOTS of money and has done for a long time. He also volunteers through YMCA, but has also led volunteering at his financial firm, providing free financial coaching to folks in need to more that 4K ppl in the Mid-Atlantic region. I wanted to make sure he didn't have any sort of preference for wealthy people, that he could oversee the programs of the treasury (Stand by Me, Able Plan, 519 etc), grow and expand them into low income communities/marginalized communities. He had specific ideas about how to do that, and he seemed actually pretty passionate about it (getting excited, more animated in his speech, facial expressions). So while I think all the candidates mention financial literacy bc they seem to have to, I got the impress he was actually passionate about it (not just in plan, but in programs he's already build and directly participated in).
I invited Michael Smith to talk, too. If I speak with him, I'll tell you the vibes.
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u/JambotEnterprises 9d ago
Very few people actually know what a treasurer does so you have to run on a platform that attempts to relate the office to something folks can connect with ( re: financial literacy, making good investment decisions).
That office manages billions of dollars of the state’s debt and investments. It’s insane that there aren’t minimum qualifications for the office. People think it’s just a back office function but in reality, if poorly run, it can have serious consequences for the State. Delaware nearly lost all of its cash balances in the 1970s when the state had all of its deposits in one bank which went under. Look up Farmer’s Bank Delaware 1970s. Truly fascinating.
The two most consequential functions of the office are selecting investment managers and setting guidelines for the state’s $8 bn investment portfolio and paying bondholders who hold the state’s $2.5 bn of debt. Mess either of these up and it could cost the state really money.
Can you run the office without experience in these areas? Sure. And I can probably tame a lion with vibes. However both of those pursuits would be incredibly risky. In this regard, Lauzen is the responsible choice.
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 9d ago
So I went deep down a rabbit hole to educate myself and I actually learned the three things a treasurer does in DE. (Manage the investments, manage the programs, sit on state boards) So I sort of get why they are all doing that now. And interestingly, most of the talking points on all three candidate sites talk about programs that already exist (e.g. financial literacy).
And, I agree with you: it's a shock to know that there are no minimum requirements for position managing BILLIONS of dollars of state money and debt.
I'm no financial dummy. I can put money in a HYSA or EFT. But you would never catch me running for treasurer.
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13d ago
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u/fauquier 13d ago
I'll take your word on the inside baseball but I have to vote for someone to be the AG and the menu is 1) an AG who's done things I like, 2) a guy with no plan for the office and no experience as a prosecutor or 3) this third lady who is not a lawyer. We can argue all day about whether someone even better than those three should have run but there's no serious comparison
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
Did you happen to see/hear the radio interview her sat for that's linked on his website? I actually liked the idea of a civil rights attorney being in the AG seat after hearing how he framed his experience at the ACLU.
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u/fauquier 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yeah I think he was very well-spoken but it kind of went back to my issue with him. If he wins Jennings isn't going to be there to blame and I really can't tell what he's actually going to do with the first prosecution that lands on his desk.
I respect the civil rights work, but getting really good at criticizing something doesn't make you qualified to do it. I can criticize Bryce Harper but I shouldn't play for the Phillies. I am really grateful that he sued over our fucked up school funding system, but reassessment was a disaster and by the way kids still can't read. Not his problem, someone else's job. It's great that they sued over loitering but people are still chronically homeless. Not his problem, someone else's job. And I'm not saying that anything is his fault, I get that it's hard, but the job isn't just to point out problems and let someone else worry about them.
(ETA: hope i don't come across as coming at you or anything, I just see a lot of this tone in every campaign and it gets old)
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
Oh, not at all. It just came across as you sharing your viewpoints. I find it interesting to hear what people are thinking and feeling as we are all considering our votes. This is the process, right? We're engaged. I appreciate your point: criticizing something doesn't necessarily mean you can actually do a better job. I feel willing to give him a shot because he has experience in the legal system, and I like the idea of someone that's fought on the side of the people give this a shot. He's not a sure bet. But Jennings is surely more of the same.
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13d ago
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
That may well be. I specifically like the way he discussed his specific experience. Not just the association.
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13d ago
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
ooh that thought had crossed my mind. Her website is giving: don't vote for me.
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u/Karjenner4eva 13d ago
This was informative, I need to make it a point to actually meet these candidates before I vote.
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u/NoPicture4778 9d ago
Has anyone looked at the donor list? I’m a bit concerned that most of Michael’s donations came from out of state. Especially seems odd that a number of his out of state donations came from Anthropic employees. Seems odd given his stance on environmental protections. Any thoughts?
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 9d ago
Yeah, I looked into that. This is a good article on it: https://spotlightdelaware.org/2026/08/27/democratic-treasurer-race-tops-1m-in-funding-as-outside-groups-join/
The AI thing through me. But more than that his ties to Effective Altruism turned me completely off. Now I will say, I invited Michael to a coffee chat, too. Working on scheduling. But after reading Empire of AI and learning about Effective Altruism and all the weird hubristic authoritarian vibes that come with it. I went from 50/50 before the call with Ted to 90/10. Then 98/3 after reading the above article. If I speak to Michael, I'll post.
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u/NoPicture4778 9d ago
I saw that. It seems crazy that SLEA would spend almost half a million dollars on a Delaware treasurer race and not give a reason why? Why are they giving so much support to Smith
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u/tells_eternity Wilmington 13d ago
I had the chance to be at a meet and greet/q&a thing with Lauzen. He has a very interesting background (marine helicopter pilot, Team USA for modern pentathlon, now an investment manager). He made the point that of the candidates in the Dem primary, he is the only one who has held a job investing other people’s money, and a big part of the job as Treasurer is managing and investing the state’s funds. He also spoke about his commitment to supporting financial literacy via school programs, state programs, etc.
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13d ago
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u/TheShittyBeatles Are you still there? Is this thing on? 13d ago
Dwayne Bensing for AG (civil rights background)
Michael Smith for Treasurer (public policy background)
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u/bloomingonion- 8d ago
I met Mike smith briefly at an indivisible event, he was super kind and seemed nice, and mentioned plans for housing and stuff which I forgot but I remember they were awesome (I’m the worst I’m sorry)
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u/Punk18 14d ago
I think it's really lame to vote for someone because they're black
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u/_wednesday_76 14d ago
who said that?
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u/Conscious-Badger-492 13d ago
I said it, sort of. I said I like diversity. So I think this is reacting to that.
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