Yes, THAT Carl Lewis. Google him! The same Carl Lewis that won four Olympic gold medals in Los Angeles in 1984, two Olympic gold medals in Seoul in 1988, two Olympic gold medals in Barcelona in 1992, and one more Olympic gold medal in Atlanta in 1996. Yeah, THAT guy!
Forget about the eight World Championship gold medals and the two gold medals from the Pan American Games.
No, no, no! According to the wife of GOP ex-Assemblyman Patrick Delany, Jennifer, Mr. Olympian, er, Mr. Lewis is a free-loader who also happens to be black, as she so aptly noticed. See, she’s upset that Democrat Lewis wants to run in the election for State Senate because she feels he hasn’t lived in New Jersey long enough. In order to run in the election, there is a residency requirement of four years which is typical of any state. However, Mr. Lewis has been living on the Left Coast in California for a while, where, by the way, he likely paid more in income taxes than in New Jersey.
So what is he doing in New Jersey? Well, Mr. Lewis grew up in New Jersey and attended Willingboro High School, in Burlington County, New Jersey, where he emerged one of the top long jumpers in New Jersey, and by his senior year, as one of the top long jumpers in the world (thank you Wikipedia!).
Nevertheless, in an email sent to Carl Lewis’ campaign for State Senate, Jennifer, whose husband was running against Lewis, had this to say:
Imagine, not having to pay NJ state income taxes…It must be nice. Imagine getting a court ruling overturned so your name could get put on the ballot. Imagine having dark skin and name recognition and the nerve to think that equalled (sic) knowing something about politics. Sure, knowing someone with fat purse strings is nice, but you have no knowledge.
Remove my email. To think you STOLE my email and name from a complaint letter. I’m reporting you as SPAM.
It is unclear how many glasses of Boones Farm Mrs. Delany consumed before clacking away on her keyboard and firing off the blatantly racist email. But it is good to see that judging by her criteria we can now officially throw Reaganomics out the window.
Patrick Delany denounced his wife’s comments saying:
I am deeply disappointed in my wife’s decision to send that email to Mr. Lewis’ campaign; it does not reflect my personal beliefs whatsoever. In an attempt to repair the serious damage this has caused to our marriage, and to protect our kids from public humiliation, I decided to leave public life. On behalf of my family, we sincerely apologize to Mr. Lewis for any pain this caused him.
The state GOP also chimed in admitting that the email was racist, claiming that Patrick Delany did nothing wrong, maintaining that they are not throwing him under the bus, but making it clear that they’re not supporting his campaign ever again.
In a statement issued Monday, GOP Chairman Bill Layton said:
Former Assemblyman Pat Delany’s wife inexplicably sent an offensive and racist email in response to a routine email from Carl Lewis’ campaign; her actions were inexcusable.
To his credit, Pat voluntarily disclosed the email to me after he found out about it… After much deliberation, I agreed to let Pat leave public life without disclosing the reasons for his sudden departure to the press beyond the fact that he was dealing with a serious family issue… While it may have been politically expedient to publicly throw Pat under the bus, I believe letting him walk away quietly was the honorable, compassionate thing to do for someone who personally had done nothing wrong.
At the same time, I was very clear with Pat from the beginning that if he chose to stay on the ballot, the Burlington County Republican Party would have withdrawn our support.
Politicians eating their own. Oh well, when you marry a racist you kind of deserve it.
Related articles
- Pat Delany Resigns Over Wife Jennifer Delany’s Carl Lewis Email (huffingtonpost.com)
- NJ GOP lawmaker quit over wife’s Carl Lewis email (sfgate.com)
