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Here is my edited draft. Alex has agreed to take improvements on it tonight. we need a better close.


DRAFT – Dec. 22, 2014

Serving as Delaware’s Attorney General for the last 8 years has been the greatest honor of my life. I will never be able to thank the people of Delaware enough for this opportunity.

They have allowed me to work with the talented men and women in the Delaware Department of Justice who I will stack up against any DOJ in the United States. Working with them has been a genuine pleasure and allowed us to accomplish a great deal.

My focus from the beginning, has been to protect the most vulnerable among us.

No one is more vulnerable than our children. That’s why one of the very first things I did was to create the Child Predator Task Force; the first unit of its kind in Delaware It put dedicated police and prosecutors side by side focusing on nothing but tracking down predators that are seeking to harm children. The Task Force’s work has led to the convictions of more than 210 predators and the rescue of more than 120 children from abusive situations. The Task Force was also instrumental in the conviction of one of the worst pedophiles in Delaware history, Earl Bradley. He is now behind bars serving 14 life sentences plus 164 years. He will never hurt another child again.

In most cases, children cannot speak for themselves. Only 1 in 10 children who are being victimized will report the abuse, even though 90 percent are being hurt by someone who claims to care for them. To shine a bright light on child abuse – and to make sure Delaware adults understand their legal and moral responsibility to speak up for children – we partnered with the Delaware YMCA and Prevent Child Abuse Delaware. Together we embarked on an endeavor that has trained thousands to spot the signs a child is being abused. Those efforts are paying off – calls to the state’s Child Abuse Hotline have more than doubled in the past eight years.

Protecting the most vulnerable among us also means giving survivors of domestic violence the strong legal protections they need to help them rebuild their lives. It means speaking up for elderly Delawareans suffering from abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation. It is a source of pride that over the past eight years, Delaware has made significant strides in the protecting survivors of domestic violence and their families. We have strengthened Delaware’s laws to punish those who abuse senior citizens. In addition, we have given law enforcement important new tools to identify and rescue at-risk seniors.

In 2006, the economic crisis caused by the collapse of the housing market had not happened. As the crisis exploded and the effects hit Delaware hard, Delaware homeowners and communities were vulnerable, the public deserved accountability.

All over the state, I heard from struggling homeowners who could keep their homes only if the bank agreed to a reasonable mortgage modification. When those homeowners tried to call their banks, however, they either couldn’t figure out which institution owned their mortgage, or were stuck in 1-800-HELL and couldn’t get anyone to talk to them. We worked with the General Assembly to create the Delaware Mortgage Mediation Program to guarantee homeowners a chance to sit down, face-to-face, with their banker and have a meaningful conversation about alternatives to foreclosure.

The housing crisis impacted every part of Delaware, and many of our families and communities are still struggling to recover. To help them, my office has secured more than $185 million in fines from financial institutions responsible for the crisis. More than $100 million of that has been used to provide financial benefits for Delawareans, in mortgage modifications, in refinancing for underwater homeowners, and in payments to those who lost homes to foreclosure.

It has been incredibly rewarding to help protect so many who could not protect themselves. During that time, Delaware has become recognized as a national leader in the fight to protect our kids, our senior citizens, those caught in the housing crisis.

As my time as Delaware Attorney General comes to an end, I feel good about what we have accomplished. In addition, I know that the important work of the DOJ is being passed to an excellent leader, Matt Denn. Matt is uniquely qualified to build on the DOJ’s past successes and launch new endeavors of his own.

Thank you, it has been a great experience.


----- Original Message -----

From: "Joshua Alcorn" <josh@beaubiden.com>
To: "Beau Biden" <261penn@gmail.com>, "Hunter Biden" <hbiden@rosemontseneca.com>, "Ted Kaufman" <tedkaufman@comcast.net>, "Alex Snyder-Mackler" <smacklera@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2014 8:44:51 AM
Subject: draft op-ed

Here’s Joe’s first draft, with my initial edits. I like the structure and the key points. There is nothing in here about violent crime.
Thoughts?
/ja

Joshua Alcorn
302/295.8340 (office)
302/598.1885 (cell)
josh@beaubiden.com