Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign amends finance reports following audit

DOVER, Del. – Bethany Hall-Long’s campaign for Governor shared today that they’re amending their campaign finance reports after they announced last month that they initiated an internal audit.

Following a compliance review of Hall-Long’s lieutenant governor campaign finance reports, the campaign self-initiated an audit by an independent accountant.

Delaware-based Summit CPA fully accounted for all personal loans, receipts, expenses, and reimbursements, enabling the campaign to accurately review and amend campaign finance reports. The review identified that personal loans the Hall-Long family made for campaign-related expenses were recorded on the reports as expenditures but not labeled as loans.

Hall-Long’s campaign announced Friday that they’re currently in the process of amending reports from 2016 to 2022 to correct categorization errors regarding the personal loans she made to the campaign and loan payments.

Bethany Hall-Long placed several campaign-related expenses, such as television advertising, yard signs, campaign literature and consulting, on personal credit cards as a loan, according to a press release issued by the campaign.

While these expenses were recorded as expenditures on the reports, the campaign says they were not properly labeled as loans. These personal expenditures totaled to a loan from Hall-Long to the campaign of $308,134.35. This has been corrected in the amended reports, the campaign emphasized. Reports have also been amended to reflect that these loans were partially repaid in the amount of $206,985. Hall-Long has personally loaned the campaign $101,149.35 more than she has been repaid.

The Hall-Long campaign worked with the Department of Elections to amend reports in the campaign finance reporting system.

Hall-Long issued a statement in the press release announcing they were amending the reports, stressing how she’s committed to transparency.

“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 stated. “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.”

Hall-Long went on to state that the errors were “unintentional” and that she’s “grateful” to those who identified the issues and worked to correct them.

“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. “I am grateful to the compliance experts and accountants who identified these reporting errors and worked diligently to correct them. Going forward, our campaign reporting will be handled by experts in this field.”

Hall-Long announced her bid for Governor in September. She is set to face New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer in the Delaware primary election set for September 10, 2024.