Gov. John Carney is poised to remove McGuiness from office in the coming weeks, once she’s sentenced at a date that has not yet been set. But her ultimate political future is in the hands of voters — not the governor. It’s conceivable that she gets banished but wins the primary and general election and retakes office in January.
But the first step is the primary, where McGuiness is facing Lydia York, a lawyer and certified public accountant from Pike Creek who has played a behind-the-scenes role in Delaware Democratic politics in recent years.
If elected, York would become the first Black person to hold the office and only the third Black person to hold a statewide elective post. The others: Lisa Blunt Rochester, the incumbent member of the U.S. House, and Chip Flowers, state treasurer from 2011 to 2015.
Party leaders persuaded York to take on McGuiness earlier this year, while her trial was pending.
York says voters deserve an auditor with unquestioned integrity and reflected on July 1, when a Kent County jury convicted McGuiness.
“My honest-to-goodness initial reaction when the verdict came down was that this is a sad day, in Delaware politics as well as Delaware state government,’’ York told WHYY News. “That we’ve got a sitting statewide elected official that’s been convicted of misconduct in their office. It’s just a bad thing.”
York says her four-plus decades in the financial and legal arenas — she specializes in wills and trusts — qualifies her to lead the office that oversees spending by state agencies and school districts.
“I have an opportunity to bring both my training and experience, plus a desire to just see things done correctly,’’ she said.
She realizes she is hardly a household name in Delaware, but says she’s been meeting with groups of citizens up and down the state for the last few months and thinks Democrats will vote for change in Tuesday’s primary. York said she expected a good turnout, especially with voting by mail.
York said that if elected, she would prioritize annual reviews of school spending. Delaware has 19 separate districts, each operating independently, as well as more than two dozen charter schools.
“I think a lot of taxpayers would find those results interesting, to say the least,’’ she said. “But I think that it would also eventually serve to improve and enhance the trust that people have in their school districts.”
York also wants an office that operates out of the spotlight, and lets audits speak for themselves.
“Good government is boring,’’ she said. “It does it efficiently and effectively and very much like your light switch.”
‘Fighting for myself and my name and for the truth’
During the first two years and 10 months of her four-year term, that’s what McGuiness did, churning out report after report from audits and largely avoiding the spotlight except for promoting her work on social media.
McGuiness, a pharmacist, business owner, and former Rehoboth Beach commissioner, swept into office in 2018. McGuiness succeeded longtime Republican auditor Tom Wagner, who had stepped down because of health issues and appointed an aide to serve the final months of his tenure.
McGuiness was embraced by Carney and other Democratic leaders as the party cemented its dominance in Delaware, holding all nine statewide elective posts. Democrats hold a nearly two to one margin over Republicans in registration.
Everything changed in October 2021.
That’s when prosecutors charged her with abusing her office, with Attorney General Kathy Jennings holding a news conference outside the Wilmington courthouse to announce that McGuiness had been charged with felony theft and other offenses.
The grand jury indictment led to a continuing cascade of calls from fellow Democrats who control both chambers of the General Assembly to take a leave of absence or resign.
That chorus only grew once she was found guilty of three misdemeanors. Last month Superior Court Judge William C. Carpenter, Jr. acquitted her of the charge of structuring a contract for a campaign aide in violation of state procurement rules but upheld the conflict of interest and official misconduct verdicts.
Carney has said he will follow his constitutional duty and remove her from office after Carpenter sentences her. The Delaware Constitution stipulates that “the governor shall remove from office any public officer convicted of misbehavior in office.”
But with the party now excoriating her and essentially labeling her an outcast while lining up behind York, McGuiness says she isn’t deterred one iota.