WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, the Delaware-based Political Action Committee Citizens for Transparency and Inclusion (CTI) announced that it will be airing a new 30-second ad exposing Governor Carney and his all-white Board of Pardons, which includes Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard and Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long, for pardoning Barry Gordon Croft Jr., the 44-year-old man with white supremacist ties charged in the recent plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Croft received a pardon from Governor Carney in April 2019, following the Delaware Board of Pardon’s recommendation, for charges including possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, assault and burglary. The ad will run on NBC10 and 6ABC in the Delaware County market area, which includes Wilmington and Dover, Delaware’s two most populous cities, along with MSNBC and BET in northern Delaware.
The TV ad is part of a new advertising blitz by CTI, which also announced that it has delivered its first piece of direct mail, which exposes Governor Carney’s failures on racial justice and diversity issues, including widening income inequality for Delaware’s communities of color, the mass incarceration of Black and Brown Delawareans in the state’s prisons, and the fact that people of color in Delaware have contracted COVID-19 seven times more often per capita than their white neighbors. The mail piece has been delivered to 67,730 Delaware Democratic voters, predominately Black voters.
The ad and mailer are the latest in CTI’s ongoing commitment to spend $1 Million ahead of the November 3 General Election exposing Governor Carney’s failures. CTI has already spent $500,000 on TV advertising – and plans to spend at least another $200,000 prior to the General election, in addition to spending on direct-mail pieces and radio, print, digital, and social advertisements.
Said Citizens for Transparency and Inclusion spokesman Chris Coffey, “It’s difficult to describe the extent to which Governor Carney has failed everyday Delawareans, especially communities of color, but our most recent TV advertisement and direct mail piece are a good place to start. We were appalled but not shocked to hear that Governor Carney personally pardoned one of the violent criminals being charged with conspiring to kidnap Governor Whitmer, which serves as yet another harsh reminder of how the ‘Delaware Way’ fails not just Delawareans, but all Americans. The fact that Mr. Croft was freed is just the latest evidence of the issues inherent in a state where despite the fact that people of color make up over 60% of Delaware's prison population, they make up just 15% of the judiciary and ZERO percent of the Board of Pardons.”
“While key states such as New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia have all appointed persons of color as Chair to the departments of parole in recent years, Delaware as always, is lagging behind under Governor Carney’s leadership.”
“The predictable result? A violent white supremacist goes free while thousands of Black Delawareans are forced to sit in jail.”
“This pardon is just another in a long line of injustices Governor Carney has inflicted on Delaware’s communities of color. From COVID-19 response to income inequality to criminal justice, Governor Carney has failed Black and Brown Delawareans at every turn.”
“Ahead of November 3rd, Delaware voters deserve to know that the same man who pardoned a violent, white supremacist is the same man being sued by 67 inmates for $400 million in relief for the cruel and unusual punishment they endured due to him failing to put safeguards in place to protect the prison population which ultimately led to the deaths of 12 inmates and one third of the Sussex Correctional institution testing positive for COVID-19.”
The 30-second ad reads:
“In 2019, Governor Carney and the all-white Board of Pardons let violent white supremacist Barry Croft go free. A year later, Croft has now been charged with plotting to kidnap the Governor of Michigan. Meanwhile, thousands of Black Delawareans were left sitting in prison without supplies to protect them from COVID-19. Something’s rotten in Delaware’s Criminal Injustice System. Letting violent white supremacists go free while keeping Black Delawareans locked up and helpless? That’s just John Carney’s Delaware Way…”
Citizens for Transparency and Inclusion is a Political Action Committee that promotes transparency, accountability, diversity, and inclusion in Delaware's state government and court system. Learn more at CitizensPac.DE.