Attorney General of Delaware

Attorney General of Delaware
Attorney General of Delaware
	Incumbent; Kathy Jennings; since January 1, 2019
Residence	Wilmington, Delaware
Term length	Four years, no term limits
Inaugural holder	Gunning Bedford Jr.; February 1, 1783
Website	Delaware Department of Justice - Attorney General Office

The attorney general of Delaware is a constitutional officer of the U.S. state of Delaware, and is the chief law officer and the head of the State Department of Justice. On January 1, 2019, Kathy Jennings was sworn in as the 46th attorney general of Delaware.^[1]

Description of the office

The attorney general is elected to a four-year term in the "off-year" state election along with the state treasurer and state auditor, two years before/after the election of the governor. The attorney general, the state treasurer, state auditor, and state insurance commissioner offices are intended to serve as restraints to the governor's exclusive executive authority. The attorney general office existed in various forms prior to the ratification of the Delaware Constitution of 1776, which continued the existing colonial tradition of granting the governor the power to appoint the attorney general for a five-year tenure. With the ratification of the Delaware Constitution of 1897, the post was converted to its present four-year elected form, also establishing the attorney general as third in line of succession to the office of governor, after the lieutenant governor and secretary of state.

Officeholders

Gunning Bedford Jr. was the first holder of the office after American independence. The office was held from 2007 to 2015 by Beau Biden, who was elected in 2006 and took office on January 2, 2007. He was a Democrat and the eldest son of the current U.S. President and the longest-serving U.S. Senator from Delaware Joe Biden.

#	Name	Term of office	Political party
1	Gunning Bedford Jr.	1778–1790
2	Nicholas Ridgely	1790–1801
3	Nicholas Van Dyke	1801–1806	Federalist
4	Outerbridge Horsey	1806–1810	Federalist
5	Thomas Clayton	1810–1815	Federalist
6	James Rogers	1815–1830
7	Robert Frame	1830–1835
8	James Rogers	1835–1840
9	Edward W. Gilpin	1840–1850
10	Willard Saulsbury Sr.	1850–1855	Democratic
11	George P. Fisher	1855–1860	Unionist
12	Alfred Wooten	1860–1864
13	Jacob Moore	1864–1869	Republican
14	Charles B. Lore	1869–1874	Democratic
15	John B. Penington	1874–1879	Democratic
16	George Gray	1879–1885	Democratic
17	John Henry Paynter^[2]	1885–1887
18	John Biggs	1887–1892
19	John R. Nicholson	1892–1895
20	Robert C. White	1895–1901
21	Herbert H. Ward	1901–1905
22	Robert H. Richards	1905–1909
23	Andrew C. Gray	1909–1913
24	Josiah O. Wolcott	1913–1917	Democratic
25	David J. Reinhardt	1917–1921
26	Sylvester D. Townsend Jr.	1921–1925
27	Clarence A. Southerland	1925–1929	Republican^{[citation needed]}
28	Reuben Satterthwaite Jr.	1929–1933
29	Daniel J. Layton	1933	Republican
30	P. Warren Green	1933–1939
31	James R. Morford	1939–1943
32	Clair J. Killoran	1943–1947
33	Albert W. James	1947–1951
34	H. Albert Young	1951–1955
35	Joseph D. Craven	1955–1959	Democratic
36	Januar D. Bove Jr.	1959–1963	Republican
37	David P. Buckson	1963–1971	Republican
38	W. Laird Stabler Jr.	1971–1975	Republican
39	Richard R. Wier Jr.	1975–1979	Democratic
40	Richard S. Gebelein	1979–1983	Republican
41	Charles Oberly	1983–1995	Democratic
42	M. Jane Brady	1995–2005	Republican
43	Carl C. Danberg	2005–2007	Democratic
44	Beau Biden	2007–2015	Democratic
45	Matthew Denn	2015–2019	Democratic
46	Kathy Jennings	2019–present	Democratic

Sources

^ "Jennings, McGuiness, Davis sworn in to new elected positions". WDEL 101.7 FM. January 1, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
^ "DelMar History: JUDGE JOHN HENRY PAYNTER OF SUSSEX DELAWARE". April 15, 2017.

References

Scharf, John Thomas (1888). History of Delaware 1609-1888. 2 vols. Philadelphia: L. J. Richards & Co.
Conrad, Henry C. (1908). History of the State of Delaware. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Wickersham Company.

External links

Delaware Attorney General official website
Delaware Attorney General articles at ABA Journal
News and Commentary at FindLaw
Delaware Code at Law.Justia.com
U.S. Supreme Court Opinions - "Cases with title containing: State of Delaware" at FindLaw
Delaware State Bar Association
Delaware Attorney General Matthew Denn profile at National Association of Attorneys General
Press releases at State of Delaware news (news.delaware.gov)

[1] "Jennings, McGuiness, Davis sworn in to new elected positions". WDEL 101.7 FM. January 1, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.

[2] "DelMar History: JUDGE JOHN HENRY PAYNTER OF SUSSEX DELAWARE". April 15, 2017.

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