Kenneth Simpler ’89, a Republican who made headlines during his time as an eating club president for being convicted on alcohol charges, won the Delaware State Treasurer position in the midterm elections, defeating his opponent Democratic Sean Barney by 10 percentage points, or more than 22,000 votes.
Simpler is the first non-incumbent Republican to win an election to a statewide office in Delaware since 1994.
The New York Times reported in May 1988 that undergraduate initiations into the University’s eating clubs had resulted in the treatment of 39 students at the University infirmary. Six students were taken to the local hospital and one of those six remained in a coma for 24 hours.
Twenty-year-old Simpler, then-president of Charter Club, was brought before a judge for sentencing alongside then-Charter social chair, Lisa Napolitano ’89. Students testified that initiates of Charter that night were encouraged to drink large quantities of alcohol. Simpler and Napolitano were fined $500 each and sentenced to 30 days in jail.
The sentences did not stand. A Mercer County judge placed the students on probation and ordered them to perform community service. Simpler and Napolitano completed their hours while working alongside the University’s alcohol and drug abuse counselor and the Office of the Dean of Students to ensure that the clubs behaved responsibly.
Then-University president Harold Shapiro GS ’64 expressed disapproval of the court’s rulings.
“While the incidents in question are certainly serious in nature, the penalty seems to me disproportionate and excessive,” he said.
Noting that the incident did come up during his campaign, Simpler said that it was an event he would have done differently in hindsight, but he was grateful that no one suffered any lasting harm. He added that the experience taught him incredibly important life lessons.
“When you are at the top of an organization, you own all the issues, all the problems and all the consequences, whether you are directly involved in them or not,” Simpler said.
He said he realized that it is a leader’s responsibility to set ground rules and to influence the culture of an organization.
“You have to question the common practice. I never once questioned our practices, even though I knew they were not consistent with the law,” Simpler added. He noted that, before the incident, undergraduate students were regularly served alcohol without qualm.
Simpler graduated summa cum laude from the University as a politics major. He completed his graduate work at the University of Chicago, where he received an M.B.A. with honors and a J.D. with honors before entering into a 20-year-long career in finance.
The specific job of state treasurer called out to him, he said, because it was related to the work he had done in the private sector.
Simpler explained that many politicians, including his political opponent Sean Barney, think of government as an institution that should constantly come up with new policy initiatives. He, however, said he decided to focus on improving the current system rather than coming up with new ideas that might not work.
He said that he has no current plans for a future in politics after he finishes serving his 4-year term.
Simpler’s opponent Sean Barney was contacted for comment but was unavailable. His campaign manager, Andrew Wilson, said in an email that the conviction was not a topic of the campaign.
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