As much as possible we are holding the debates virtually. Candidates are online from their own locations and we in studio have been following all precautions prescribed by Public Health officials and the university. Because of the pandemic there is no Live Audience in the studio. As we have all learned during the Pandemic Technology can be challenging so i ask for your patience if we experience some glitches. This debate features candidate in the race for delawares governor. Joining me to question them is journalist Sophia Schmidt who covers the states most popular county, newcastle, for the lower public media. We will include questions recorded by students and delaware citizens. The Democratic Party nominee for governor is john carney, the incumbent. The republican candidate is julianne murray. Welcome to both of you. Both candidates have agreed in advance to rules for this debate. I will begin with a question for each of them and they have agreed to hold themselves to time limits. Although there will be no opening statements, you will have a chance to hear closing statements from both candidates later on. We will try to keep our questions short and i will ask the candidates to be concise as well so we can cover more ground tonight. The candidates will answer in the order they selected with a predebate coin toss. First on coronavirus pandemic related questions my first question goes to Governor Carney who will have a minute and 30 seconds to answer. If there is a fresh wave of covid19 cases in the coming weeks what we learned from the past year about when to shutdown businesses and schools and so on and when to reopen . Carney let me thank you and the university of delaware, delaware public media, for the forum tonight. We appreciate the opportunity to exchange views. Covid19, the onset of the pandemic twee 7 months ago in march had a serious impact on communities across the state. Most of the decisions early on were based on Public Health guidance and fear. We didnt know what to do as we shutdown businesses and stayathome orders for individuals, required people to wear a mask, uncertainty around the mask wearing guidance. We did what the cdc and the White House Task force recommended in terms of reopening businesses. As we got through the outbreak, very serious situation in march and april, move towards reopening after memorial day, in a limited basis for bars and restaurants and other retail establishments. Following the guidance of the cdc, we are not completely open but open to a significant extent, the tools that we have are limited with respect to shutting things down once again. We really have to adopt to a new normal which includes social distancing, mask wearing and avoiding large gatherings. Moderator you were not in Public Office but what have you learned in the last year about the timing of shutdowns for businesses and schools and so on . Murray thank you for the question. One of the things, i did write a note, this started with fear and what i have learned is fear is powerful and we need to step back from that fear. For 99. 94 of the delaware population this is not fatal land decisions were made to close our businesses, to ratchet back and be locked down for in my opinion way too long. We need to be focused, if this happens again or what have i learned, we need to absolutely find out what the fatality rate is at be prepared from a hospital standpoint but we have to go on with our lives. In this particular circumstance, i know Governor Carney said we are mostly back to normal but we really arent. Our Small Businesses were shutdown for months and are operating at 60 . Origins are operating at 30 . Our restaurants are struggling. For something that has 99. 94 of the population survived. We need to stop the hysteria and live our lives. Moderator let me follow up with a question based on a Public Opinion survey in the state of delaware that hasnt been publicly released and is being released, we asked people in delaware how often they wear a mask outside their home. 70 of delaware ians who answered the poll said they wear a mask always or very often in the poll also showed 78 of delawareands favor, support the use of a mandatory mask wearing requirement, 78 . I will ask both of you what you make of that kind of data about delawareandss tolerance for what they have endured over the past year. Carney it is consistent with what we have learned over the last 7 months and what the guidance has been with cdc that mask wearing is accepted as the most important thing people can do to prevent the spread of the virus. A lot of people are asymptomatic and shedding the virus and dont know about it. It is important wear a mask not so much to protect yourself but to protect people around you. If you look at the states that were very badly hit, florida, texas, arizona, they took the laissezfaire attitude with respect to reopening and in terms of following guidance around 6 feet social distancing and mask wearing. Moderator the switch to julianne murray, what do you make of this data about delawareands reaction . Murray they are worn down. Mask wearing, things have been mischaracterized. I do not favor mandatory mask wearing. I think voluntary, i understand the civic duty we have, who we need to be concerned about, our vulnerable population is people with preexisting conditions and the elderly. So i frankly shocked the number of 78 , i can tell you on the campaign trail that is not at all what i am being told. Voluntary and many of the people ive come across do not actually believe, or do not favor the mandatory mask weari wearing. For our next question, im going to ask my colleague, sylvia. Delawares black and latino populations have suffered significantly higher rates of infection during the pandemic. Especially Sussex County in the Food Processing industry. Should the state have foresee and especially in Food Processing industry. Should the state have foreseen this and what would you do to protect this population . Start with julianne murray. Murray i thought were always going to go with the order that Governor Carney would go first. I think the testing and the Latino Community was delayed and it should not shouldve been foreseeable. Very close conditions. We had several or many poultry Processing Plants here in Sussex County. Give me the other half of the question. Ii understood we have foreseen what was the otherst part of the question . What would you do to protect this population . Murray educate them. We need to be d talking about, weve been talked by the social distancing. Weve been talking about the mask wearing. Weve been talking about all of these things but i think we also need to be talking about that it is not sustainable fatal. Again, i cant liken it to the chickenpox but its less deadly than the flu in many circumstances. I think that we have to get people to understand that they dont want to get it, but if they do get it, it is not going to be fatal. Its an education. I think were a lot smarter now than we were back in march when this shutdown started. There was a tremendous amount of fear and to think when too much fear at this point but i think that webu can get people to understand and be proactive about keeping everybody informed so that they can kind of go on. Same question to your. We did anticipate the problem and when i first saw the first positive case in milford, i knew we had a challenge because ive seen how the workers Work Together so i contacted the processing folks getting together on the conference will. They bought in the white house and they came out with a proclamation that said no governor could close a meatpacking plant across the country so it set us back at least a week, week and a half in respect to testing but we tested thousands of the Processing Plant workers, thousands of their families and neighbors in georgetown, hillsborough and as we look back on our response to covid19, i believe our response to the outbreak the Processing Plants will be one of the high points. We were engaged with local community organizations, hospitals came up big and the companies themselves ultimately came around and realized testing employees and protecting them was better for them because more people would come to work so that will be the hi part of that is my prediction. Followup, is there nothing he would have done differently about adjusting these impacts . If we have the opportunity, i would have tested, we did ultimately in the first week instead of being sent back by the white house as we worked on the president did his Emergency Declaration that nobody could shutdown the plants but i think we would have had an organization, we shifted a group of Community Organizers and advocates working on the homeless problem in the three counties and removed them to work on the poultry Processing Plant workers and their families in the small towns. Thank you. I remember because i am situated in Sussex County and i remember is a significant delay and the Sussex County perspective, this started in march and we were well into the beginning of may, is my recollection. Im sure the governor will tell me if i am wrong but the issue here is that with the poultry plants, lots of testing, positive test results again, no fatalities. This was what needed to happen but from the Sussex County perspective, people were looking and thinking the testing was being done to inflate and across his. Thank you. Next question from ralph. Good ask you to respond to the no fatalities, she made. Its not true. One of the things that really concerned me with the first weekend we had the outbreak, i called the police chief in georgetown and he informed me of a young 44yearold had died in georgetown and it was frightening and it did get us organized quickly. We heard the same thing from other hospitals, i was hoping the people came and that we can, it turns out thank god, we didnt have a great number of fatalities among the hispanic communities and others who worked in those plants that first weekend. We had a fatality in georgetown, it also got us energized to respond to what we were seeing on the ground. Going to move on, delaware like a lot of other states around the country has lost millions of dollars in tax revenue when the economy crashed during the coronavirus pandemic. Im going to ask each of you with about one minute to respo respond, what is your plan to replace the lost state revenue . Government go first on this one. Fortunately, the former state treasurer, with members of the economic and final Advisory Committee came up with an approach to put money away instead of appropriating in the operating budget into a reserve so we started this pandemic in the fiscal year with an additional 125 million reserve which was very important with the challenges he had in this budget. As we move forward, its a lot of uncertainty about the revenues will see. The committee that estimates the revenue is looking at the economy, the rebound will affect, its going to be tough but having a 125 million in additional reserves will help us. One minute to respond. Ive heard him speak about the 125 million several times but here is the issue, and he alluded to it when he said theres uncertainty. We cant even quantify what our revenue is because we were shutdown for an entire quarter and for another quarter, weve been operating at reduced capacity so our revenue is going to be down tremendously. We have this 125 million out here but the reality is what governor is, the General Assembly, our taxes have gone up. We have the highest transfer tax in the country so i am incredibly concerned, if he is governor, what the response will be because i have every reason to believe taxes will go up when we have the deficit that we know is coming. We have an economic related question, delaware citizen from sue harris in dover. Listen carefully. Delaware is experiencing an increasing population of homeless as is the entire country. What are your plans for increasing Affordable Housing, not just shelter but the whats needed to provided opportunity for everyone to have a safe place to live. Your response. I think the homeless is an issue, i wrote down here we have to increase Affordable Housing and one of the things for me that i think is going to be will as we face the budget, we are going to have to look at where the money is being obligated and we will have to shift. I have proposed we have a commission that will look at the viability of spending so i think we are going to have to increase spending or the allegation housing because because. We have to make it affordable. Going to wrap you up and asked governor to respond. First of all, one of the responses to covid19 was the Homeless Outreach done by our Lieutenant GovernorCommunity Organizers with state agencies as we put out in the community and through the homeless and directed them into hotels so they could be there. The most important thing we have to do prevent other people from losing apartments, rental apartments and their homes by mortgage and rental systems so we have set aside 50 million of cares act funding to do that. We got to support the homeless on our streets and weve done that to covid19 we have to provide resources to prevent more people from coming homeless as a result of the pandemic so we have programs, particularly Strong Neighborhoods Program is leveraged millions of dollars across our state for Affordable Housing in every community. Let me stop you there and in the next segment, going to turn to education related questions. Public School Achievement here in delaware remains a challenge for many delaware students despite more than a decade of discussion and commissions and other study groups. We are going to talk in a moment about this quick settlement but first, i want to ask you, is it time to do something for the children the silly city of wilmington have its own School District . How should this take place . I am delighted you are asking about wilmington because i think wilmington is weve not had a new school in wilmington in figures. Whether they should have their own School District, we have entirely too many School Districts as it is so if we redistricting i would seek to reduce School District because id be trying to bring administrative costs down, 350 and we need to push into the classroom so i think wilmington has to be a priority and they have been failed are looking at a catastrophe when two thirds of eighthgraders are not proficient in reading and math and that number is even worse in wilmington so we need Vocational Training and infuse money into wilmington. Should they have their own School District . How would you set it up . First of all, education and improving schools is a number one priority our goals are to make sure every child in the state has the opportunity to be successful to read proficiently so they can go on to high school and graduate ready to go into the workforce and onto higher education. That is not happening in our state, particularly those with disadvantaged backgrounds and social learning english. Thats why we create Opportunity Funding in my budget three years ago to target additional revenue just for those children and get the children where they need to be so they can be successful in life. Right now, it is set up by senator called the ready commission looking at the question of the districts that serve the city of wilmington and for the work to be done the Opportunity Funding and improving education for these children. Continuing with the education thing, sophia. Yesterday the state reached a Court Settlement was civil Rights Groups trying to force delawares Education Funding system to better serve disadvantaged goodness. Governor, you promised to push funding to the state legislature including permanent funding for english language learners and low income students. Do you think lawmakers particularly hogans will go along with this . I do republicans and democrats across the spectrum in the house and senate have supported opportunity to stop every School District in the state from the south to the north. The districts where most of the republican legislatures are have probably more English Learners in every distance so these Additional Resources will enable us to make sure those children have every opportunity in life that they can read at grade level, at grade three to move on to high school and graduate ready to go so if we are going to be competitive as a state, we are going to be successful in our children to be successful, we need to make sure these children are getting the education they deserve and thats why we decided to make our commitment to these programs to help the children as opposed to having a judge decide spending money on lawyers and court. Would you have signed on on this settlement . Will you abide by it . If elected . Its unfortunate it took a lawsuit for this to happen. I understand governor said education is priority in 2016 when he was running for office but the reality is, it took a lawsuit to get the results we need. The Opportunity Funding is fantastic and i also think there will be bipartisan support for it. By and large, universally in this state i will say the majority of legislatures would agree is not enough being done with education, we are spending money and putting in the wrong buckets and getting to the classrooms where it needs to be so yes, i would abide by it for sure and i think it will get support. Thank you. A quick followup, you admit there is a tough road ahead when it comes to balancing the budg budget, does the pandemic recession hurt your ability to pay for this . First of all, the programs weve committed to in the settlement were programs we started when i was first elected governor in 2016. That first year, even with the 400 million deficit, we started an Opportunity Funding program. We put additional dollars into early education, preschool education and the next year, attracting teachers to schools in these difficult areas. All these programs settlement were programs we were pursuing and funding prior to the lawsuit being filed so contrary to what was just being said by my opponent. That we finally get the funding that needed to happen. That would be my response. Thank you. Next question will come from ralph. Related to the same court case, Delawares Chancery Court this year old the state property tax assessment system unconstitutional. Because of how it affects Public School funding. Commercial Residential Properties here in delaware have not been reassessed since the 1970s or 1980s. The question for both of you with about a minute and have to respond is, should delaware require regular taxar reassessments so that at least some properties are reassessed every year . Julianne murray, you get the first crack at this question. Mq. Anna actually im familiar with ther chancery case and we do not yet know how its going to play out here in delaware because they kindly send it back to say configure at how this is going to happen. But i do think that were going to have to take a measured approach to this. Are definitely should have been more frequently than they are. We are using numbers from the 1970s, so that is definitely an issue. Whether or not we would move to doing it annually is probably unmanageable, and part of what we are going to have to balance here is this is going to impact homeowners depending on when this rolls out this is going to have an effect thats going to hit their pockets no matter what the resolution is we have to take an approach to it because thats going to impact people that are already financially struggling. What about you what is the response to the Needs Assessment . The simple answer is yes. It would never survive in my view. We did have a plan to go to a statewide reassessment as you would have to do. Missus murray is right it did date back to 1975 and 1983. We had a plan to bring all those assessments current and reassess a portion of the properties 25 on an annual basis but what people need to understand is you dont automatically get more revenue. The law says when you do a reassessment, the counties are only able to take a certain percentage more in the revenue so you have to rollback if the value goes up and the rates go down so you could set that to be budget neutral and that isnt what the counties or the School Districts want to but in any case we should do a reassessment. I want to follow up with a short question. Would reassessing property taxes more frequently affect delaware as a low tax haven . Absolutely. One of the things we dealt with is the Percentage Points two years ago when it went up by a full percentage point that was a hit. The Real Estate Industry and the people moving here. They were unhappy about that. Now its a one time shot when they buy it. Its absolutely going to affect the attractiveness. The law said that when you reassessed the Property Value and it goes up, the tax rate has to go down by the statute. Right now it allows 15 for the counties and additional revenue, 5 for the School District, or mamaybe the other way around. You could make it tax neutral but whether it affects the attractiveness to the state its booming right now and we have low Interest Rates and property taxes that are a fraction of what people pay moving from the metro. We have about a third of the budget that comes from corporate franchise taxes and resources that are not primarily paid by those located all over the world. We are going to shift to issues related to Racial Justice and policing and i think both of you know dover and wilmington have seen increases in violence in just the past couple of years. Im going to ask what strategies you would implement but not limiting yourself to issues of guns and policing but other kinds of government interventi intervention. One of the things people talk about is they cant operate in the same field. One of the things that would help is a partnership between Law Enforcement and the community. In order to operate, theres two things that have to happen. One is zerotolerance they destroyed the public space so they have to go and the public has to see that happen. If the communities see that and that will actually help with the trust going into the community. Reducing city violence, go ahead. Ive lived in the city of wilmington for 30 years now and we raised our two sons there. Its a wonderful place to live. The fact of the matter is as terrible as it is it comes from a small number of group or gang affiliated poor neighborhoods in the city. The fact of the matter is that wilmington the commercial and Cultural Center of the city so we have the successful city and we need to get our arms around plaguing the streets of wilmington. Thats why we formed this partnership with state social Service Agencies and probation and parole and we identify these members and we give them the choice either take the choice and assistance with us or bring it down and send you to prison for a long time for perpetrating violence on the streets. We have a followup question on the subject from the university of delaware please listen carefully. My question is for the sale of automatic weapons in the state. Both of you 30 seconds for your responses on whether congress should ban automatic weapons in the United States and i will give the governor the chance to answer that first. There is an assault weapon ban like we had in the 90s and the best place for it to happen is in the congress. I served six years on behalf of the people. There just arent the votes to get it done so statebystate they looked at the problem and god forbid we ever have a mass shooting in the state so we ought to take these military style weapons off the streets. Your response please, about 30 seconds. I need to circle back because your question was about violence but i will answer. Theres no such thing as assault weapons. That is a word that gets used. Im a supporter of the second amendment. I think that people, the whole conversation about assault weapons absolutely. We have a question from the university of delaware senior has a question related to Racial Justice. What should congress do. Its been that each of you gets a minute and a half to respond. Governor, please take it first. My own opinion about that is the symbols are an issue for the local authorities. With respect to symbols like that that are extremely offensive for large portions of the population i think its incumbent on all of us to listen to the communities and understand the feelings that they have and the history that is behind it and take action whether its the Confederate Flag that flies in georgetown or whether it involves a discussion around the square and the city. I think we ought to have that conversation and listen to one another. We need to understand where we are coming from and develop symbols we can all embrace and come together as one community and reconcile our terrible history of racism in the country and the state as a border state that has a difficult history and its one most people dont understand and i think as we know one another better we will be able to get through some of the challenges and move on to a brighter future. You have a minute and a half to respond. I know the question was actually should congress, so i know this was a federal issue. I wanted to focus on delaware. This is about the delaware race. I will answer though because it has hit delaware. It was a movement that wasnt discussed and i think that is the problem. It isnt a measured approach. If the electorate and the voters want to talk about that, its fine, the but the problem is we have moved away from that and there is a conversation about erasing history, and i think that it is doomed to repeat it itself. We need to have the conversation, but this is not the real issues in delaware. But what i do want to talk about, and its related to this, is wilmington because this happened in wilmington. And the governor said wilmington was going to be the highest priority. And he has failed wilmington. Its out of control and we absolutely have to do something about it. In my view that is more what we should be talking about instead of symbols and trying to erase history. I want to move onto another topion to anothertopic related d votings and i will turn to my colleague. The center for the poll shows that two thirds of delaware are concerned that this could be rigged subject to fraud or voter suppression. Thats a lot of people worried about the integrity of the elections. How do you feel about this. You have one minute to respond and we will start with ms. Murray. I feel like we keep starting with me but thats okay. Im very worried and in touch with the voters about this. We want to believe that we have fair elections. If people can go to walmart and in this state the mail and voting was passed and wasnt open to Public Comment and it was basewasbased on the auspiceo that fear and frankly the mail and voting and what people have been talking about is we have the shortest window between the primary and the general election and that makes it difficult for her challenger. What is the good news, ive been able to penetrate anyway and im happy that there are people voting that are also voting for Julian Murray but we have to have faith in the election. The questions of the system almost every day so hes undermining from our own president is undermining his party. Hes undermining the confidence in our system here in delaware. We have spent billions of dollars on new machines and they have a paper ballot and protection on the perimeter to protect from the russians as they try to enter the system back in 2016. We instituted during this difficult time the pandemic when so many of the Senior Citizens are at risk. We have created a vote by mail system. Thousands took advantage of it in the primaries. Thousands are going to take advantage of it in our elections coming up november 3rd, and thats a good thing. A quick question for both of you and i will start with ms. Murray again. You said you were unhappy with the way that it was passed this year. He would use up the option for the vote by mail system . Will. I dont know and i dont mean that as a political answer. We have a very, very robust absentee Ballot System in the state that is provided for by the constitution and its an exhaustive list of why you need absentee ballots. So, if we were talking about mailin ballots in my view it wouldnt be by statute in which case it will take two sessions. Whats beautiful about that i would like to give the governor a chance to respond as well. Should they have a permanent vote by mail option blacks. The answer is yes im proud to be a member of the party who wants to see as many people vote as possible. We have others unaffiliated who fought and died to protect and expand the right to vote in the country. We celebrated the centennial and we ought to make it possible for every man and woman in the country to vote and to make it safe and as easy as possible and thats what the vote by mail does. The next question will come from ralph. We have a question from a citizen its short so please listen carefully. Do you support abolishing the Electoral College . Abolishing the Electoral College you have a minute to respond. Take this one first, please. The short answer is yes. The person who gets the most votes ought to win and ought to be the president. I think that is a Pretty Simple proposition. I understand one of the arguments on the other side, particularly as the former congressman and now governor, but i happen to believe that the one that gets the most votes ought to win. Absolutely not. The Founding Fathers were afraid of the popular vote overtaking as they designed this beautiful system of the electoral system that was designed to give states equal weight. I think what people dont realize about this is if we went with just the popular vote and the republican president ial candidates, then its under the National Popular voting act the Supreme Court said no, then delaware has spoken. We have an Electoral College and im not in favor of abolishing why they created that. We could have an hour long discussion on any of the questions but im going to move on to some questions on environmental issues. Should the state of delaware take steps to limit or even ban Home Building and rebuilding areas threatened by rising sea levels or climate induced storms if so what kind of steps would you advocate and should the banks and Insurance Companies continue to underwrite such building in those areas, both of you have one minute to respond. That is going to pass on to the consumer and they are either going to be able to pay the premiums or not. The problem is thats been done for everybody so i think that the homeowners that want to build are making that choice and the rising sea levels. I dont think we need additional regulations. We already have so much and so many regulations in trying to protect the environment support for building and rebuilding and climate threatened areas. It certainly doesnt make sense and when you consider the fact that taxpayers subsidize for those properties, i would think most of my friends on the other side of the aisle would think that shouldnt be the case. So if i am assuming some of the risk for somebody thats building in an area threatened by Climate Change, which certainly shouldnt subsidize for that and i dont think that we should allow drugs to take that on if they want to take it on themselves, we have the flood restrictions and if we dont already, we consider those kind of restrictions on the cruise lines. Delaware is one of the lowest in the country and we need to recognize that Climate Change and rising sea levels is a threat to the state. Quick followup for both of you. Extremely vulnerable to the Sea Level Rise and home to some of the poorest residents. What will you do to help those with few options adopt to Climate Change. If we are dealing with the potential flood and depending on where they are living and we have to work towards Affordable Housing for them, i dont think we want to overreact, but if we are dealing with the flooding and we dont want those homeowners to have an uneven chance weve just contemplated one of the projects thats part of the development that impacts positively the southbridge neighborhood and its an area that collects the floodwaters into a large natural basin and drains some of that that would otherwise go into this publicly financed pond if you will. What are the projects that affected a neighborhood like that as a part of the Riverfront Development initiative . Delaware appears to be missing the target to that the governor sent for 2025. Pennsylvania and new jersey said even more further out than 2050. What should delaware do to not only said tha the climate goalst actually achieve them . We did join the Climate Alliance with other states when they took the country out of the paris accord and we committed to those goals 26 to 28 and we are on pace to actually meet those. We had the portfolio standard as well, most of it with respect to the climate are a function of the fact that we shifted from coalfired Electricity Generation to a lot of natural gas. Thats not an alternative, but we are still making progress. There was a bill in the legislature to remove the goalpost 40 by 2035 and we ought to do Something Like that. Thank you. Your response. My concern, im going to take the renewable portfolio standard first. When it was created, there was a cap that was supposed to operate as a Circuit Breaker th and the reality is that its 19 and the taxpayers are having to pay for that. So this kind of circles back around. It took six years to get it to the Public Service in order to deal with that. Here we have electric customers dealing with high energy costs and now the carbon tax is also adding to that. The preventive measures are not working so we have to deal with that. I know its hard to believe, but we are coming to the end of our times are in the final moments we have a question from a student about one of the possible outcomes of the national census. Im a senior Public Policy major and my question is hypothetical if delaware were to earn an additional seat how should the state to be divided in the Congressional Districts and what would your process be for that decision . Im going to ask you to answer in 30 seconds so we can get another question in. Really interesting question. And i think one of the things that ive learned in my time in delaware is that its like three different states. If we were going to have to do some kind of districting for the purpose of representation, my Immediate Response is that it would be a separate piece. I dont think the numbers are there for us, but if i understand the way that its been now, the legislatures and individual states we have one Congressional District that served for three terms to do that redistricting if we added another congressional seat. I have a final short question for you and im going to ask for a yes or no answer to this one. Lets listen. Should Recreational Marijuana be fully recognized during the next legislative session . Governor carney first, please. Ive spent eight years trying to get people healthy and i dont think this is a move in that direction. Your response. I, a little more moderated than that, i understand how it can be a revenue boost but i would have serious concerns about it. If the General Assembly were to bring it. A. Im afraid weve exhausted our time for q and a so i will offer you the opportunity to give some concluding thoughts. Please limit them to two minutes each and we will start with Governor Carney for his statement in accordance with the claim tossed at the beginning of the debate. Thank you to the moderators for the discussion tonight. We talked about important issues, but there is no issue more pressing. That means getting the community healthy, supporting Small Businesses. Making sure no one loses their home or apartment and continuing to protect or most vulnerable neighbors and friends. Many continue to follow the science and wear a mask. Its a small sacrifice to protect our neighbors. This isnt a partisan political issue, it is a Public Health crisis. We are already seeing it more than 200,000 dead including 654 delaware an outbreak in the west wing the president himself hospitalized. We need leaders who take response ability and lead and we need to recognize here in delaware the Lieutenant Governor and i will stay focused on a Healthy Community and you cannot be either or. Most of us want the same thing. I will continue to work on these priorities, bringing people together i know that if we Work Together, we can come out of this stronger than ever. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Please limit to two minutes. It is obvious that there are differences between the Governors Party and me. I know we can do better. Ask yourself if you are better now than you were four years ago. What about 27 years ago. The reality is one party has called the small wonder and we are out of balance because career politicians like john carney are out of touch. Im in the race because i want them to have a choice for a fresh start and review balance to the state. It is we the people versus career politicians. Career politicians who look out for their friends and special interests who contribute even if it isnt in the best interest. Politicians who make all sorts of promises when they go to get elected instead of going over the things they didnt do and how the education for the disadvantaged were going to be top priority. And the governor had to be sued over educational funding for the disadvantaged. Just yesterday, things like the Small Businesses and entrepreneurship would be a top priority but theyve been shut down with no recourse. Look at these actions. I am the voice for we the people, who are we, Small Businesses, big businesses, parents, teachers, students, healthcare workers, Law Enforcement, regular citizens we are at a tipping point. Its time for a fresh start and a leader that takes part and represents all the people. I think you for your time and attention and ask you for your vote for governor of delaware. Governor, thank you very much for joining us and participating in the debates. On behalf on behalf of delaware public media, the university of Delaware Center for political communication, thank you all for watching delaware debates. Our appreciation also to the American Cancer Society cancer action network. I am Ralph Begleiter encourage you all to vote on or before tuesday november 3. Today President Trump holds a Campaign Rally in greenville north carolina. Live coverage begins at 1 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Democratic Vice President ial nominee senator harris has canceled her campaign trips to key battleground states through sunday after to make people associate with the campaign tested positive for covid19. The flight crew member and the Senators Communications director tested positive for the coronavirus according to joe biden scampi manager. Host we are joined by the former chair, former Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee senator Patrick Leahy of vermont. Good morning, senator. Guest good morning. Its good to be with you. Host what asked specifically to gauge been brought up so many times this week on the Affordable Care act. You question her, the judge, on wednesday and pointed out she had been critical of the chief justices rolling in the case. What else did you learn from the response from judge barrett . It was an interesting thing anyway. As you know i was chairman of that committee for a number of years and ranking for a few others, and an awful lot of in