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Posted: Aug. 4, 2015
CASH AS CASH CAN
By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer
The Democrats have their donkey. The Republicans have
their elephant. Then there is the animal that all of
politics can relate to.
The cash cow.
Mike Barbieri is the latest here to milk it. As of
Friday, it was good-bye to a paycheck of $44,000 a year
as a Democratic state representative and hello to new
one at $144,000 a year as a division director with the
state Health & Social Services Department.
There will be a special election, still to be
scheduled for sometime next month, to replace him.
Not that Barbieri is alone in finding gold in that
thar Delaware General Assembly. It is part of life in a
legislature where the unofficial slogan is, where's
mine?
Some of them were even qualified for the jobs they
took. So! A Top Ten for cashing in.
|
Legislators |
Party |
What
They Were |
What
They Got |
What
Happened |
| Mike Barbieri |
D |
representative |
Health & Social Services Department division
director |
It was like Monopoly money. Barbieri passed
"Go" from the legislative to the executive
branch and collected $100K |
| Joe Booth |
R |
senator |
Sussex Tech staffer |
Booth waited until he was safely through a
primary to let on he would be double dipping. It
is not nice to fool the voters. In his next
primary, they made him an ex-legislator |
| Richard Cordrey & Tom Sharp |
D |
Ex-presidents pro tem |
Cabinet secretaries for Finance & Labor |
Cordrey & Sharp were out of office when
Governor Minner came calling. Nobody gets to be
pro tem without mastering the Senate, and never
mind the uproar, they got confirmed |
| Tony DeLuca |
D |
President pro tem |
Labor Department administrator |
What with the double dipping, the
retaliating against senators opposing him for
pro tem, and the office remodeling with a fancy
new door, the voters showed DeLuca the door |
| Lonnie George |
D |
House minority leader & ex-speaker |
Delaware Tech president |
As the governor cracked at the Gridiron
political roast, "None of us should be surprised
this is a tough budget year, after all, Lonnie
George just started collecting his pension."
|
| Nicole Poore |
D |
senator |
Jobs for Delaware Graduates president |
It is Dover's unholy trinity, coming
together again -- a legislator, a non-profit
agency and a big fat grant-in-aid |
| Wayne Smith |
R |
House majority leader |
Delaware Healthcare Association president |
The voters were not amused when Smith quit
mid-term to run a trade association and lobby,
even less so when his next-door neighbor was the
Republican candidate to replace him. They
elected the Democrat |
| John Viola & Helene Keeley |
D |
House majority whip & representative |
Labor Department staffers |
Talk about survivors. They get re-elected,
no matter the double dipping, not to mention
relatives with state paychecks -- Viola's
daughter Andria Bennett as a representative and
Keeley's husband Mike Green in the treasurer's
office |
| Nancy Wagner |
R |
representative |
Delaware State University staff |
A classic. Add a second public paycheck for
Wagner to still another for her husband Bud as a
state "video specialist" and watch the voters
subtract one legislator at the next election |
| Becky Walker |
D |
ex-representative |
Forensic Science deputy director |
The difference between Walker and Barbieri
is she waited until she had just left the
legislature to cash in |
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