Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) Elected 2000, 1st term up Jan. 2005
Born:	Jan. 17, 1935, Milford
Home:	Dover
Education:	G.E.D. 1968
Religion:	Methodist
Marital Status:	widowed
Elected  Office:	DE House of Reps., 1974-82; DE Senate, 1982-92; DE Lt. Gov. 1992-00.
Professional Career:	Owner, Roger Minner Towing, 1969-present; Receptionist, Gov. Sherman Tribbitt, 1973.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Office Election Results
More On Delaware
At A Glance · State Profile Almanac Home

Ruth Ann Minner, a Democrat, was elected governor in 2000. She grew up in southern Delaware, the daughter of a sharecropper; she dropped out of high school to work on the farm, and got married at 17. In 1967, her husband died; at 32, she was left with three sons and no high school diploma. She worked as an agricultural worker and a librarian, got her GED, and in 1972 landed a job as a receptionist in the office of Governor Sherman Tribbitt. "I never had any intention of getting deeply involved in politics," she says, but she had done political volunteer work as a teen and she obviously found politics congenial. In 1974 she ran for the state House and, in one of Delaware's small districts (they average 19,000 residents today), won. In 1982 she was elected to the state Senate. In the legislature, she helped build the state's open space protection program, worked on education and public safety and chaired a commission that reorganized state agencies. She also married again, and she and her husband started a car-towing business; he died in 1991, but her sons still run the business. In 1992 she ran for lieutenant governor as Democratic Congressman-at-Large Tom Carper's running mate, but the offices are elected separately. So when Minner ran for governor in 2000, she had already won two statewide elections.

Minner, the favorite in the election, was unopposed in the Democratic primary. The Republicans had a close primary between former state Senate Majority Leader John Burris and former Judge Bill Lee. Burris was backed by MBNA Chairman Charles Cawley, and company executives contributed $147,000 to his campaign. Lee attacked Burris for being too close to MBNA, and that apparently had some resonance. Some 27,000 voters voted in the Republican primary; Burris won by exactly 46 votes.

Both nominees were from southern Delaware, and both were generally counted as moderates. Minner ran as a successor to Carper, who had continued former Governor Pete du Pont's policy of cutting income taxes even as, helped by the state's surging economy, he increased state spending by 40%. Burris called for addressing the state's high rates of cancer and drug abuse, and for addressing environmental problems by smart planning. Burris attacked the state's education testing program, which produced high fail rates among students; Minner said it was an improvement over the past, but called for extra classes for failing students on afternoons and Saturdays, rather than summer school.

Minner was ahead in polls all along; she won 59%-40%. At first the state's fiscal situation looked good enough that she backed a 2% pay increase in May 2001. But by December she was cutting back. She imposed a hiring freeze in March 2002, lifted it in June, and then reimposed it in November. In fall 2002 she started making $35 million in cuts and asked school districts to give back $10 million; in January 2003 that turned out to be unnecessary when windfall revenue--a $47 million abandoned property settlement, a $4 million fee from Goldman Sachs--came in. When Delaware's big employers laid off 4,000 workers, she worked to attract 2,000 new jobs. She failed to get the legislature to increase the cigarette tax, but did get it to pass a law banning smoking in public buildings, including restaurants and bars. It took effect in November 2002, and Minner was picketed by bar owners with signs saying, "Ban Ruth Ann." She faced controversies about the state police--a demand in 2001 from the state NAACP for the firing of the agency's superintendent, a lawsuit in 2002 brought by white troopers who claimed there were racial quotas.

Minner comes up for reelection in 2004. On Return Day (that's the day after the election, when all candidates meet in Georgetown) 2002, "Ruth Ann '04" bumper stickers were being handed out, as well as others for Republicans--2000 candidate Lee, state House Speaker Terry Spence and Attorney General Jane Brady. The next day Lee announced he was running. In December 2002, at a fundraising dinner with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, Minner announced she would seek reelection.

Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form below:

Office
Legislative Hall, Dover 19901, 302-744-4101; Fax: 302-739-2775; Web: www.state.de.us/governor.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2000 general	Ruth Ann Minner (D)	191,484	59%
	John M. Burris (R)	128,436	40%
	Other	3,263	1%
2000 primary	Ruth Ann Minner (D)	unopposed
1996 general	Thomas Carper (D)	188,300	70%
	Janet C. Rzewnicki (R)	82,654	30%