Delaware candidate says elected official raised possibility of getting him a nonexistent government job if he didn’t run

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When Kyle Grantham, a first-time candidate for the New Castle County Council, read a WHYY News article last week about another county candidate being recorded as he offered a potential election foe a job, the encounter rang a bell with him.

Grantham, who is facing Kira Alejandro in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary for the vacant seat that includes the Pike Creek and Hockessin areas, said Councilwoman Dee Durham tried to dissuade him from running by saying he’d be perfect for a job with County Council that doesn’t even exist.

Durham countered that she was merely posing “a theoretical” for Grantham’s future should he lose, and wasn’t offering him anything.

The issue of job offers to stay out of political races during this year’s primary season first reverberated through Delaware political circles last week. That’s when WHYY News reported that in June, incumbent New Castle County Recorder of Deeds Mike Kozikowski offered County Councilman Dave Tackett a newly created job in his office for $76,295 a year, in an attempt to keep Tackett from running against him in Democratic primary.

Tackett, who recorded the conversation at a Newport-area diner, filed his candidacy that same day and has asked prosecutors to investigate what Kozikowski did.

Now, a second account about a potential job for a candidate if they didn’t run for office has surfaced. Grantham, a former county communications aide, said that while he views Kozikowski’s offer as a blatant attempt to avoid a primary, Durham had a subtler approach.

‘I just kind of tried to brush her off. But she kept kind of going back to it.’

Grantham said he met with Durham for about two hours at the Brew HaHa cafe in Greenville on Feb. 26 — the same day he issued a press release announcing his candidacy.

Grantham said he had been told by another council member that Durham supported Alejandro but still wanted to meet with her and as many council members as possible to discuss his platform as he campaigned for office. Unlike Tackett, Grantham did not record the conversation.

Grantham said Durham asked repeatedly why he was running for office and kept trying to gauge his interest in a nonexistent job as County Council’s communications specialist and said she hoped to create along with fellow council members.

Under state law, if such a media relations job was created and Grantham was hired, he could not also serve on County Council.

As Grantham recalls it, Durham told him, “We’ve never had a comms person. What would you think of, instead of running, maybe we created a job like that?”

Grantham said her remarks “felt odd” to him because that wasn’t why he sought a meeting with Durham and also because the county was in a budget crisis and new jobs would be hard to get approved, even if he was interested.

He said he told Durham that council members would also need to create a chief of staff position because the spokesperson would need someone to report to on the 13-member Council. Those two jobs alone could cost taxpayers some $250,000 a year, including benefits, Grantham told WHYY News.

“I just kind of tried to brush her off that way. But then she kept kind of going back to it,” Grantham said, alleging that she told him, “Is this something that you should consider? We’ve been talking about it for a long time and you know the budget work is happening right now. We could look at creating something like that.”

Grantham said he continued to push back, saying, “I don’t know how you’re going to get away with creating a new position out of thin air.”

As the meeting wrapped up, Grantham said Durham again suggested that he didn’t run and that Council “could look at this position.”

Afterward, Grantham texted his friend Jordyn Pusey, a Delaware political consultant.

“So I just sat down with Dee for two hours and by the end of it kinda felt like she was trying to bribe me with a job with Council to drop out,” Grantham wrote.

“Eww,’’ Pusey responded.

Alejandro did not return WHYY’s requests for comment.

The winner of the Grantham-Alejandro race faces Republican Melissa Brayman in the Nov. 3 general election. County Council members are paid $59,000 a year.

‘I certainly never offered him a job’ to stay out of the race

Durham acknowledged in an interview this week that she mentioned the possibility of such a post with Grantham, but insisted she didn’t try to get him to leave the race and that her comments weren’t anywhere close to a job offer.

Durham said she later decided to back Alejandro.

“I think Kyle’s twisting our conversation, to be honest with you,’’ Durham told WHYY News. “But whatever, it’s political season.”

Durham, who has represented the greater Brandywine Hundred area since 2018, doesn’t have a primary opponent in her bid for a third four-year term. She faces Republican Jamie Collins in the general election.

Durham said her remarks about the possibility of Grantham becoming the communications specialist “was only theoretical” and that the creation of any job takes seven votes of Council.

“It wasn’t an open position,” Durham said. “It’s just something we have talked about over the last three years, or even longer, about possibly hiring a communications person, and there hasn’t been agreement about it on Council.

“So nothing was imminent. I certainly never offered him a job or promised him a job or suggested that anything was imminent in exchange for him not running.”

When asked why she even mentioned a nonexistent job to Grantham when he only met to talk with her about his platform, Durham said she was thinking about his possible future if he ran and lost to Alejandro.

“Hopefully, at some point, if we ever get the position approved, we’ll be looking for someone,’’ Durham said. “So, just for him to keep in mind as a possibility for his future, that’s all. At that point, I wasn’t supporting Kira Alejandro. It was not like, ‘Hey, here’s a job to take instead of running.’ I did not offer him a job in lieu of running by any means.”

Durham acknowledged, however, that despite telling Grantham that she wanted Council to have a media specialist, she’s made no efforts since then to try to create such a position.

Durham said the revelation of Kozikowski’s job offer to Tackett was “kind of shocking,” but that her comments to Grantham were totally different in nature.

The winner of the Kozikowski-Tackett primary race will be the recorder of deeds because there is no general election opponent.

Tackett said he has not heard from anybody in Attorney General Kathy Jennings’s office to investigate what he told WHYY News “could be considered a bribe” to stay out of the race. Kozikowski offered the job to Tackett even though state law forbids a County Council member from simultaneously holding another county office.

Jennings’ office won’t say whether its Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust has launched a probe into Tackett’s complaint. Kozikowski said he engaged in no wrongdoing because Tackett was not a candidate when he made the job offer.

‘They treat voters as if they’re too stupid to make decisions’

Pusey, who heads the Elsmere-area Democratic committee and helps progressive candidates, said what Durham did illustrates the hubris of some members of Delaware’s ruling party.

Democrats hold all nine statewide elective officers and dominate the state House and Senate. All 13 members of County Council and Wilmington City Council are also Democrats.

Pusey, who is supporting Grantham, said that’s why she replied, “Eww’’ after he informed her about his conversation with Durham.

“It basically sums up like my feelings in general because it’s disgusting how these elected officials and people with political power feel entitled to determine who’s most deserving of an elected position and they treat voters as if they’re too stupid to make their own decisions,” Pusey said.

“There’s always been this like trying to clear the field and it doesn’t really show confidence in the preferred candidate. They act like it’s their seat to decide who gets to sit in it. But really it belongs to the people.”

Grantham said Kozikowski’s offer to Tackett raises a serious “red flag” because he actually has the authority to fill the job in his office.

He said the remarks by Durham don’t rise to that level because she “as one individual does not necessarily have the power to even grant this.”

But Grantham said he still wants the public to know about his situation.

“It was more of an ethically questionable thing to to bring up and bring up more than once in the conversation,’’ Grantham said. “To pose it as, ‘Well, what if you didn’t run and this was a thing?’ That to me felt kind of squeamish.”