The Dems’ Pacific firewall seems to be holding: http://bit.ly/adMYgp. The GOP’s epic #FAIL in giving away DE-SEN continues to haunt them.
The Dems’ Pacific firewall seems to be holding: http://bit.ly/adMYgp. The GOP’s epic #FAIL in giving away DE-SEN continues to haunt them.
The epic fail was being unable to produce a quality candidate, making the options as follows:
a) A rank amateur who’s shot herself in the foot with so many silly statements before this election season, it’s incredible anyone ever backed her for a repeat effort.
b) A Republican who supports / supported the Obama agenda in a year where Republicans are surging due to their opposition of the Obama agenda.
Perhaps, but Castle is also overwhelmingly popular among the broader electorate in deep-blue Delaware, despite — or because of — the fact that he “supports / supported the Obama agenda.”
Is there a “quality candidate” in Delaware — someone to the right of Scott Brown, say — who could actually win such a liberal state while advancing a conservative agenda? Or would you simply have ended up with nominee who, because this is such a strong Republican year, would have lost to Coons by “only” 10%, instead of 20+% (as O’Donnell will) or 30+% (as a typical GOP nominee in Delaware in a typical year would)?
Seems to me, Castle was uniquely positioned to win Delaware as a Republican. He was their only shot.
As for the concern that he wouldn’t be act as much of a Republican beyond the organizing votes, I have two words for you: Joe Manchin. 🙂 Would’ve been a fair trade, I think…
Minor quibble, but the GOP didn’t give away Delaware. You could argue that the Republican primary voters took away Delaware from the GOP, but the GOP leadership did everything they could to defeat O’Donnell.
I know Delaware. I’ve been to Delaware. Let me tell you: Delaware is not “deep blue”. Any state with a NASCAR population that large is not “deep blue”. They are not Alabama, but neither are they Vermont.
I am not convinced, were Castle to be elected and continue his voting patterns at the Senate level, that he’d be re-elected. He would probably pull a Specter or a Chafee and change parties first, then lose in the next Democratic primary.
There is room for more Patakis / Giulianis / Scott Browns in the GOP and in the Northeast corridor / West Coast, the trouble is burnishing the local and national resources to invest in developing those kinds of candidates, and getting them through the primaries. Once upon a time, Mike Castle might have been in that group, but his voting record on fiscal issues shows he turncoated a long time ago.