Why Should Delaware Care?
Wilmington’s city charter requires that no more than three candidates from the same party be nominated for the city’s four at-large seats. In the liberal city, the rule ensures that one person on the elected body will not be a Democrat. But after the council’s lone Republican switched his party registration to Democrat, questions emerged over whether that requirement had been undermined.
The legal battle over the Wilmington City Council’s ability to remove Councilman James Spadola from office inched closer to a resolution Tuesday following arguments before a Delaware Chancery Court judge.
Filed in May, the lawsuit marks the latest in a political feud between Spadola and his colleagues — specifically Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo — that stemmed from his decision last fall to change from being a Republican to a Democrat.
The legal dispute specifically centers on whether the council has the authority to enforce a Congo-sponsored resolution declaring Spadola’s seat vacant now that he is a Democrat serving in a seat designated for a member of a minority party.
The Wilmington City Charter prohibits a majority party – currently Democrats – from nominating more than three candidates for the city’s four at-large seats on the City Council.
The rule effectively guarantees the election of at least one minority party candidate.
While the arguments Tuesday featured competing interpretations of the Wilmington City Charter, the ultimate ruling from the judge, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, will determine whether Spadola can remain in office.
Spadola’s attorney, William Larson argued the charter does not list political party affiliation as a qualification for holding office, nor does it state that changing parties during a term creates a vacancy.
Instead, Larson said the charter’s language applies only to a political party’s nomination process in advance of an election. The provision within the charter governs who may run for office, not whether an elected council member may later change political parties, he said.
In his arguments, Larson offered hypothetical scenarios that he said exposed inconsistencies in the council’s reading of the charter. He argued that if two Republican at-large members were elected, the council’s stance would allow one member to switch parties while prohibiting the other — depending solely on the partisan makeup of the council at the time.
“It really becomes unworkable under different scenarios if you follow the defendants’ view here,” Larson said.
Spadola’s attorney also asserted that the council’s attempt to remove his client from office violates his Constitutional rights.
“We are here today because the Congo resolution seeks to remove a duly elected member of City Council for exercising his First Amendment rights, so that council can handpick his successor,” Larson said.
In response, Congo’s attorney Jane Brady said the intent of the city charter is clearly to ensure a minority party member stays on the council during their term.
“It makes no sense to establish laws that assure the public is able to vote for a member of a minority party, only to have those same rules say we were just kidding about that minority party stuff,” Brady said.
Brady has served in a variety of public capacities in past decades, including chair for the Delaware Republican Party, a Superior Court judge, and Delaware attorney general.
She pointed to another section of the charter requiring all vacancies to be filled by someone from the same political party, arguing it shows the city’s intent was for party balance to continue throughout a council member’s term.
Brady also rejected Larson’s First Amendment argument, saying Spadola’s rights as an elected official are not unlimited and that the city can impose qualifications on those who hold public office.
She warned that ruling in Spadola’s favor could undermine the City Council’s authority to determine whether its members meet the qualifications to serve – a power the charter explicitly grants the legislative body, she said.
“I think it’s not unimportant to remember that by virtue of this provision, people were excluded from participating in the general election in order to reserve the privilege for Mr. Spadola to have a chance to win a seat on council,” she said.
She emphasized that the council is not asking Spadola to switch back to the Republican Party. Instead, she said he forfeited his seat when he no longer met the city charter’s requirements.
McCormick did not ask any questions of or interject either side during the hearing.
How did we get here?
Spadola was re-elected in November 2024 as Wilmington’s lone Republican at-large council member, and changed his party less than a year later, announcing it publicly to Facebook in October 2025.
Last fall, Spadola told Spotlight Delaware that he had considered making the move for the previous five years and finally did so because of his disagreement with several policies associated with President Donald Trump, including tariffs, immigration enforcement, and federal troop deployments into U.S. cities.
His decision sparked months of controversy inside the City Council.
In February, Congo sent Spadola a letter urging him to switch back to the Republican Party, warning that he could lose his seat if he did not. Spadola responded publicly on his Facebook, accusing council members of trying to replace him with an “unelected, handpicked successor.”
Many community members attended past council meetings both in favor and against removing Spadola from his seat, including members of the Delaware Republican Party and Wilmington Democratic Committee.
While some residents said they felt disenfranchised by Spadola’s decision, others argued he should have the right to change his party affiliation and that voters supported him for his leadership, not his political party.
The dispute then escalated in April when Councilman Alexander Hackett introduced the resolution seeking intervention by state lawmakers.
Then, in May, the council voted 8-1 on the resolution to declare Spadola’s seat vacant, arguing Spadola “made the choice to disenfranchise the approximately 15% of non-majority voters” in the city.
Spadola cast the lone vote against the resolution, which prompted him to file the lawsuit now before the Court of Chancery.
“I think our counsel made it pretty clear, it’s a fairly cut-and-dry case,” Spadola told the media after the hearing.
If Spadola’s seat is vacated, a new at-large council member would be elected through a process that would allow individuals to send in applications and be interviewed by council who would choose Spadola’s successor. Congo said that the council takes public feedback into account when choosing.
