Xerxes Wilson

The News Journal

He fat-shames women. He lobs insults on social media. He thinks government is too quick to welcome outsiders as new residents. And he blasts negative press about him as "fake news."

This isn't President Donald Trump, but John Di Mondi, a New Castle tax accountant and sitting councilman, whose brand of New Castle-first populism and controversial social media posts have roiled voters heading into the Saturday ,April 8 election.

Di Mondi, 74, who was born less than a mile from his current home on the southern side of New Castle, is challenging incumbent City Council President Linda Ratchford in a campaign that has brought protesters to recent city meetings holding signs that call him a racist, a misogynist and a teacher hater.

Happy to toss political correctness into the Delaware River, Di Mondi calls the comparison to Trump "an honor" – but rejects the notion that he is following Trump.

"I haven't styled myself like him," Di Mondi said. "I've been this way all my life. I think he is styled after me."

Paul Brewer, research director at the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware, said Di Mondi’s controversial disposition and rhetoric is likely part of a larger wave of politicians who will seek to emulate Trump's unlikely rise.

“In races going forward, I'd expect to see some people try to reproduce that lightning in a bottle,” Brewer said. “Trump did have some extra things going on that not every candidate can produce."

Di Mondi's main campaign platforms are blocking new apartment complexes in the city of 5,400, stopping a discussed parking lot adjoining Battery Park that would afford more visitors an opportunity to stroll along the Delaware River, and upsetting what he sees as a group of public officials too cozy with each other for the public good. His combative demeanor stands in stark contrast to Ratchford, whose "professional" disposition is lauded even by her detractors.

Ratchford moved to New Castle 35 years ago and has retired from a career in customer service management and marketing for companies such as Delmarva Power and Corporation Services Co. Her campaign literature is a catalog of measured promises about making "the city more vibrant and appealing" and keeping "our streets safe and clean."

She says she will bring "better collaboration" than her opponent.

"I'm not going to comment on his temperament or comments," said Ratchford, who was first appointed as City Council president in 2013 before being elected in 2015. "But I will say the ability to work together is extremely important, and that is a skill I bring to the table."

Di Mondi and Ratchford have been at odds on a number of issues. The most personal conflict came when Ratchford put up successful legislation in July to publicly censure Di Mondi for "vulgar and racially charged language" after an argument he had with an African-American constituent.

Di Mondi said the reprimand was a disingenuous effort to hobble his power on the council.

"She is a nice lady on the surface, but she is not very nice underneath — like Hillary (Clinton)," Di Mondi said. "She represents the elitist Republicans. They are Trump's worst enemies."

The heated rhetoric from Delaware's Donald Trump has attracted interest from outside the city.

Rebecca Keen, who lives north of Wilmington, came to New Castle in late March to protest outside a City Council meeting. She held a sign that read, "A racist, misogynist, teacher-hater and homophobe walked into a bar. The bartender said, 'What'll it be, Johnny?'"

Keen said she discovered Di Mondi's online postings after he criticized a proposed tax increase for Colonial School District.

"He needs to be fired," Keen said.

Di Mondi sees protesters as "groupies" of Colonial School District and the current city government leadership, which he describes as a "swamp" too focused on catering to visitors and those who live along the cobblestone streets and fabled 200-year-old homes downtown.

"We are losing the feel of our neighborhoods," Di Mondi said. "We had an influx of transient people coming in here, especially downtown, with wealthier people that tried to change New Castle to fit what they thought it should be."

Ratchford had not held political office before her time on the council, though her husband, Mike, was Delaware's secretary of state and chief of staff to then-Republican Gov. Mike Castle. She believes city leadership can continue to strike a balance between its historic assets and less-wealthy outskirts.

"I am concerned about every neighborhood – and every neighborhood needs different things," Ratchford said.

As local elections go, this one is as important as it is strange for the city.

STORY: Suspect killed by NCCo police identified

STORY: Long-awaited New Castle dock to open soon

The City Council president, elected to a four-year term, literally controls what the council does and does not discuss and can block legislative efforts by others on the five-member panel. This election cycle is important because, in addition, to council president, three of the four other council seats are being contested by 11 different candidates.

New Castle is different from other small towns in Delaware. It's the state's first settlement, and its 200-year-old homes are nestled alongside a more vibrant, tourist-catering business base than other Delaware River towns. Recently, the city's historic courthouse, built in 1732, was named as one of several historic sights throughout Delaware as the First State National Park.

Surrounded by poorer and more crime-ridden neighborhoods, residents and government officials fiercely protect the historic vibe. Just changing shutters on one of the town's historic homes requires the blessing of a local board, and some residents decried the construction of a state-funded pier onto the Delaware River, fearing it would make the city a fun-and-sun destination for unruly boaters.

So in a city where Pokémon Go-hunting visitors are Public Enemy No. 1 to many residents, Di Mondi believes his message – less emphasis of coddling visitors and "transient" renters – is resonating.

"I think Linda tries to do a good job, but she is led by people in this town who have an opinion of what they want the town to be," said Bob Thomas, who lives in Dobbinsville, a relatively poor neighborhood on the city's southern edge. "They live in a golden, storybook downtown, but that is not where everybody lives."

‘Snowflakes’ and ‘cupcakes’

While Trump throws Twitter barbs, Di Mondi's bully pulpit is his public Facebook profile. His rhetoric has been fodder for letters to the editor in the city's local paper, The Weekly, which he derides as "fake news."

Some of his most controversial posts are riffs on politics elsewhere, like when he commented on the Wilmington City Council's approval in March of a new nondenominational prayer to be spoken before meetings.

"You have to love and laugh at Wilmington City Council, they are adopting a pagan prayer by a pagan priestess, to open their sessions led by Muslim Hanifa Shabazz," read a post from March 4. "Take a look at them, it seems rational. Who will they burn at the stake 1st?"

He regularly engages in comment wars, deriding opponents as "snowflakes." He attacked one commenter saying: "She seeks attention she probably cant get anywhere. Even at weight watchers."

The 200 residents entering a candidate forum held at New Castle Elementary School on Thursday were greeted by a dozen Di Mondi protesters wielding signs with enlarged copies of his most offensive online posts.

“He seems to single out those who are overweight, who are teachers, who are homosexual, who are pro-abortion, who are liberals," said Kylie Hall, a city resident and part of the group. "Someone that is running for president of a city should not be that way.”

Di Mondi argued that “political correctness is akin to mental cowardice.”

"I think my rhetoric goes too far, too, but it is used to shock," he said. "Donald Trump used it to shock, too. It is to take the complacency out."

Di Mondi also had a Trumpian response to Keen's sign labeling him a racist.

"I will sue her anyways. I don't care," he said. "I have a lawyer I have to spend so much a year on or else he will leave me."

Hall said her motivation is seeing the office respected.

“All politics aside, you should be able to respect your president, or at least like accept them as your president,” Hall said.

Branded a racist

Di Mondi’s controversial rhetoric became City Council business with the vote to censure him last year. He labeled the reprimand a "witch hunt" perpetuated by Ratchford to silence him acting as her only counterbalance on the council.

"It was not a witch hunt," Ratchford said. "We have said publicly that we don't condone those types of statements, and we don't support them."

The argument that resulted in the censure was the subject of a ‘he said, she said’ retelling to the council. Di Mondi was accused of telling the constituent something along the lines of: "You black people, you don't vote for me. You never have."

He doesn't deny this.

"In fact, they don't vote for anyone, and they are the ones that make all the demands," Di Mondi told The News Journal after being reprimanded.

“Every citizen deserves to be treated with fairness and respect,” Ratchford told the crowd at Thursday's forum. "If I am re-elected that will be one of my top priorities to institute a charter change that includes a code of conduct."

Di Mondi said he does not care about the censure but feels it has been unfairly used to brand him as a racist. He insists he is against the elevation of any race above another.

"I'm not white supremacist. I'm not Black Lives Matter,” Di Mondi said. “I'm neutral."

Di Mondi said he "probably" has more black clients than white clients at his tax service, and he proudly pointed to a Christmas card with a picture of his son and daughter-in-law, who is Korean.

"How racist is that?" Di Mondi asked.

Yet Di Mondi believes the disparities minorities face in areas like incarceration rates, educational achievement and employment boils down to a lack of willpower.

He described himself as "color blind" and said government and society should be as well — dismissing the need for things like affirmative action or minority hiring efforts in government as "reparation bull–."

It’s a “shortsighted” viewpoint that ignores the effects of historic discrimination and how "lethal and insidious" structural racism is today, said Yasser Payne, an associate professor of black American studies at the University of Delaware.

"It is statistically impossible for a people who have been locked historically and presently into economic poverty to break out of that poverty through sheer will," Payne said.

STORY: Accusations of racism infect New Castle city politics

STORY: Colonial School District referendum fails

And Leland Ware, a professor of law at the University of Delaware and one of the state's top civil rights experts, said Di Mondi’s viewpoint isn't supported by data. He said polling has shown such sentiments of "racial resentment" is common among those who voted Trump into office.

Ware said minorities are still hindered by discrimination that is less overt but nonetheless can be measured.

A recent example is a 2012 settlement agreement between the Christina School District and the U.S. Department of Education that resulted from an analysis of data that showed black students were subjected to more severe and higher rates of punishment than white students though their offenses were the same.

Payne said people's choices are often affected by circumstance they can't control.

“It is a shame that we can't understand how the choices that many people are making because of the access to quality opportunities is closed off,” Payne said. “Nobody wants to be a drug dealer, nobody wants to go to prison, and nobody wants to do poorly in school. It is basic human nature for people to want to do better.”

Roger Bungy, a black, lifelong New Castle resident running for one of the at-large City Council seats, has a Di Mondi sign on his house, and Di Mondi's views on city politics resonate with him — though his perspectives on race do not.

"It is an inappropriate view. The playing field isn't level. He's from the old school. I can't change that," Bungy said. "I do believe he wants what is best for everyone in town. He just has a strange way of doing it."

Make New Castle great again

Underlying the controversy is a real sentiment by some in the city that local government doesn't do much.

Some feel that when something is accomplished, it is usually for the betterment of downtown, not what Di Mondi describes as the "milltown ghettos" where the city's poor reside.

"There are a lot of people concerned that council just doesn't seem to get much done," said Dorsey Fiske, a regular commenter at the local City Council meetings.

She said she is completely at odds with Di Mondi's views on national politics, but agrees with him on local matters.

"He is gruff but he knows his stuff," Fiske said. "He does care about the entire town."

Ratchford denied the council has focused too heavily on downtown during her tenure. She said she has spent time working on issues throughout the city — from streamlining rules that formerly required a local board approve home modifications like roof replacements in the historic district to drainage and code enforcement issues outside of downtown.

"I get the same complaint everywhere I go," Ratchford said. "That is just a natural feeling that 'I want more attention,' but we try to give every neighborhood as much attention as we can."

If elected, Ratchford said she'd spend time in each neighborhood to better understand their problems and place a greater emphasis on community policing. She also wants to study the potential for resident parking permits.

"Linda is very big on the wellness of the city. She is intelligent and has dealt with the council very well," downtown resident Fred Tarburton said. "She listens to council but doesn't promise things she can't deliver."

Di Mondi also criticizes Ratchford for blocking a council conversation on a planned parking lot adjoining Battery Park. Because no application had been filed to build the lot, Ratchford said it was not the council's place to get involved and declined to comment on whether she supports it.

Di Mondi countered saying the city should be proactive in discussing the issue that could affect the quality of life of nearby residents.

Di Mondi rails against zoning changes that took place before either he or his opponent was on the council. He feels developers have "carte blanche" to build apartment high-rises in the gateways to the city.

His property was one that was rezoned by the change, and he feels a series of new apartment buildings, the first of which is going up on Del. 9 down the street from his office, will make New Castle into something more akin to Middletown.

Ratchford said the city will thrive with new residents, though she is eyeing changes to that gateway zoning regime.

"You want a vibrant city with diversity in your population," Ratchford said. "I welcome new people to our city, and I think it is a good thing."

Bob Short, a lifetime resident of downtown, said the city has become less neighborly in recent years. Di Mondi's comments about preserving the character of the city resonate, but he still plans to vote for Ratchford.

"Di Mondi has a lot of great ideas," Short said. "It is just how he goes about it."

Even if he loses the election, Di Mondi has two more years in his current, at-large council seat. It's a relief to some.

"He is sort of a contrarian, and I like that. He keeps the other people in line," said Bill Burton, a New Castle resident while out for his afternoon walk. "Donald Trump was the same way, and he became president."

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.