CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Oct. 6, 2009 – 1:22 p.m.
Race Rating Change: Castle’s Senate Bid Sets Up Key Race
By Greg Giroux, CQ-Roll Call
Delaware Rep. Michael N. Castle , a prominent Republican centrist, announced Tuesday that he is running for the Senate seat formerly held by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The decision by Castle, a longtime fixture in Delaware politics, was a victory for Republican strategists in a Democratic-leaning state.
Castle’s 2010 candidacy, widely seen as crucial to Republicans’ hopes of competing for the seat, has prompted CQPolitics to change its rating on the race to Leans Republican.
The top potential Democratic candidate is state Attorney General Beau Biden, the vice president’s eldest son, who just returned from a military obligation in Iraq as a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard. Beau Biden was elected in 2006 to his office, which also is up for election next year.
Castle’s decision to leave open Delaware’s at-large House seat, which he has held since 1993, provides the Democrats with one of their better takeover opportunities in next year’s elections. With the likely Democratic nominee, former Lt. Gov. John Carney, off to a strong early start in his campaign organizing, CQPolitics has changed its rating on the House race to Leans Democratic.
Castle announced his plans at a press conference in Wilmington, his hometown and the state’s largest city. He said, “We need the strongest and the most experienced leadership we can find in this country today.”
“I hope to be able to bring that to the United States Senate,” Castle said.
Castle, who previously served as Delaware governor from 1985 to 1993, appears the early front-runner to succeed interim Sen. Ted Kaufman , a Democrat and Biden associate who was appointed earlier this year to fill Biden’s vacated seat. Kaufman is not running in next year’s special election.
Republican strategists expressed confidence that Castle can help the GOP expand its 40-seat Senate minority and also end its five-election losing streak in Delaware Senate races.
A Republican last won a Senate race in the state in 1994, when Sen. William V. Roth Jr. was elected to his fifth term. Roth was defeated for re-election by Democrat Thomas R. Carper in 2000 and died in 2003.
Among those bullish about Castle’s chances in the Senate race is former Virginia Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, once the GOP’s top House campaign strategist as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “If he does [run for Senate], it’s game, set and match,” Davis said of Castle early Tuesday.
“On the national scale, clearly the Republicans need to add to their Senate numbers, and I think he’s the guy to get it done here in Delaware,” said Greg Lavelle, a Republican state representative in Delaware. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell and others would feel the same way, that the congressman would run a great race in Delaware.”
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas said in a statement that his organization “will ensure that Mike Castle has all the necessary resources to win this seat next November.”
But Democratic officials signaled that they would tie Castle to the positions of former President George W. Bush and the national Republican Party, which still has a poor image nationwide.
“He built-up a record of supporting ... George Bush’s economic policies, including tax cuts for the super-wealthy, that drove Delaware’s economy into a ditch — and now won’t support any of the Obama-Biden plans to fix it,” Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “This will be a race about who is positioned to lead Delaware into the future, and Democrats fully intend to hold onto the Vice-President’s seat.”
John D. Daniello, chairman of the Delaware Democratic Party, said he has “a lot of respect for Mike Castle,” but he “has been growing increasingly out of touch with Delaware voters.”
A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Sept. 30 suggests that a Castle-Biden race would be competitive. Castle had 47 percent and Biden had 42 percent.
“I don’t have any illusions that this will be easy street. I realize this will be a very difficult election, and I’m sure the other side will be thinking the same thing,” Castle said.
Castle had $861,000 in his House campaign account at the end of June, all of which can be transferred for use in a Senate race.
Castle never faced threatening Democratic opposition in his House re-election campaigns. He topped 65 percent of the vote in each of his first six re-election campaigns, and even his more modest showings in the past two election cycles — 57 percent in 2006 and 61 percent in 2008 — were impressive, given the strong Democratic trend nationwide and in Delaware those years.
The 70-year-old Castle already had all but officially ruled out seeking re-election to the House in 2010, and Democrats have a good chance at winning his seat now that the congressman has eschewed a re-election bid. Carney, the early front-runner, began campaigning for Castle’s seat in April and raised $262,000 through the end of June.
Potential Republican candidates for Castle’s seat include state Rep. Tom Kovach, who is a self-described “Mike Castle Republican”; Anthony Wedo, an investment and restaurant executive; former state Sen. Charlie Copeland, who was the party’s 2008 nominee for lieutenant governor; and Lavelle.
Comments
This was the only outcome that made sense, given the timeframe. If he were going to retire, he would have announced it 2 months ago.
If Castle were to live 'til, say, 101 or 103, then he may well serve FIVE full terms, I suppose. More likely, methinks the Republicans in the First State need a (far) deeper bench than they seem to have now.
The only reason Castle has a shot at winning in Delaware is because he's a RINO (Republican In Name Only). Lets see how long before the Club For Growth or any other out of touch right wing fringe group comes out against him.
The Castle-as-Bush stuff just won't stick here. Castle went 6-for-6 with the D's when they took over the House, was the lead sponsor on the first bill Bush vetoed (stem cell) and has cemented himself as a moderate. Also, the state would be lucky to have Lavelle or Kovach as their Congressman.
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: