Welcome to the Squishy Battleground State of Delaware
Dec 24th, 2009 by Timothy Pancoast
In 2010 Delaware is going to be getting a lot of attention for its Senatorial Race. In fact it already is. We haven’t even had a primary yet and the NRSC is trying to tell Delaware how to vote. Sen. Cornyn, Chairman of the NRSC has made Rep. Castle his poster boy for championing moderates in the GOP. According to Michael O’Brien of The Hill, Sen. Cornyn said,
“The world as it is in Delaware is that if Mike Castle didn’t run, Beau Biden would be the next senator from Delaware.”
I know that the party has its own strategies in order to accomplish its goals but in order to give Delaware true representation the citizens of the state need to make the choice of who their Senator’s and Representatives will be, not the national parties. Perhaps Delaware will choose Mike Castle to be our next Senator, but that choice needs to be ours and no one else’s. If outside sources are choosing our Senators than is that Senator really ours?
One unfortunate thing for Rep. Castle is that this is only going to make it harder for him to make his case with the Conservative Republicans in the Delaware. Conservatives want to see a candidate that is more Conservative. Not one that is being touted nationally for being moderate.
Cornyn is talking about who can win, it has nothing to do with moderate, conservative or otherwise. If we were in Oklahoma his advice would be different.
Cornyn’s comments will have zero effect on what conservatives think or how they vote. Mr. Castle’s voting record will.
Mike Protack
Sen. Cornyn can keep his strategies out of my state. I’d rather have Delaware’s Senate elections in isolation and anonymity than have it on a national stage where outside players have written the script.
Sen. Cornyn is trying to defend a national strategy of the party supporting moderates in several states, not just Delaware. Delaware may be a blue state, but not all of them are. I don’t buy into his strategy.
A conservative can’t win a statewide election in a liberal-leaning state like Delaware; that is a reality. Castle’s record is really fairly solid and he can get votes in New Castle that a candidate like O’Donnell couldn’t. And I still doubt that Biden has the guts to run against Castle, and face an ignominious loss.
I strongly disagree that conservatives cannot win in Delaware. The voters needs a contrast to the liberals, not Democrat Lite.
I’m not John Cornyn, and I’m right here inside Delaware, and I hate to blow it for you, but Cornyn is absolutely right. Only one person can win the Senate race for the GOP, and that’s Mike Castle. That is the reality.
In Florida, it’s a wholly different story. Rubio is the real deal, has raised money and was Speaker of the Florida House with a solid record and literally a book of ideas. I’d vote for him in a heartbeat if I lived in Florida.
Cornyn is wrong to intervene in Florida but 100% correct about the reality in Delaware.
So everybody can encourage a primary and support Castle’s opponent if they want to register their dismay. That is your constitutionally derived right. And you can shout from the mountaintops about Castle not being conservative enough for your tastes, if you don’t care who gets to make our laws. (Although after what passed last night, I can’t imagine anyone feeling that way.)
But if you want a Republican in that seat, and a chance to regain the Senate and have a conservative Majority Leader instead of Harry Reid, then you must vote for Castle and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Look when it comes to a Delaware election, I’ll accept the advice of Delawareans. However, I we we agree that out of staters should not be manipulating this election.
Also, when it is this far out from even the primaries I won’t buy into this ultimatum of either Castle or Biden being the next Senator. There is a lot to be done between now and then. Whether people will play their cards right in order to produce a third outcome is still very questionable, but for a political novice like myself I am not yet ready to close off that option.
I strongly disagree that conservatives cannot win in Delaware…
Hope doesn’t win elections.
Yea, but change did. And Mike Castle can have the job for the GOP out of Delaware if he wants it. The narrow GOP may work elsewhere, but Mike Castle has done a heckuva lot of constituency service well noted here at home–for both sides. That’s playing fair–not partisan–to align with what he perceives as best; perhaps at cost; to have kept most Delawareans satisfied for a long time. I’m sticking with him.
People are welcome to go all in for Rep. Castle if they have found sufficient reason to support him. I for one am no longer at the point where I can just get on board with a candidate this far out, especially when there is plenty of time for candidates to enter or withdrawl from the race. I am not willing to accept the idea of an either Castle or Biden lock for the Senate Seat this far out from the election. I am also no longer willing to merely vote against a candidate. I need a candidate I can vote for. Maybe that is poor political strategy but I am a political novice.
Rep. Castle has done some good things for the state, but he has also done some things I strongly dissagree with. That means he is going to need to use his campaign to explain to people like me why we should vote for him. Playing the same type of radio advertisements that he ran in the 08 election isn’t going to cut it. My support is not to be taken for granted, or expected simply because the other party might run the scion of an emerging political dynasty.