What do Sestak and Castle have in common?
Aug 17th, 2010 by David Anderson
They are both running for U. S. Senate. They are both running against conservatives. They are both endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg of NYC. I do not know if he considered that Congressman Castle was in a primary. Endorsing him on the same day as he endorses two Democrats may not be the best move in politics if he really favors Mr. Castle. Talk about giving credibility to the wild party switcher allegation, with friends like Bloomberg….
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg will make an endorsement triple play Tuesday, backing both a Democrat and a Republican in competitive U.S. Senate contests, along with an urban Democratic mayor whose education reform pushes mirror his own.
The trip comes at a time when Bloomberg has become the national face of support for the ground zero-area mosque, a fact that will certainly play a role at each press conference he holds and could end up highlighting a difference between him and the person he’s backing.
Yet Bloomberg is also able to help attract some fundraisers and free media, and he’s become a brand that would-be hopefuls are using as partial models (like California gubernatorial Republican hopeful Meg Whitman) or as boosts to their own efforts.
In the morning he’ll endorse Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa) in Philadelphia in his Senate bid. From there he’ll head to Washington to back Mayor Adrian Fenty, who endorsed Bloomberg in his 2009 re-election bid and who has made education reform a major issue, as the Big Apple mayor has.
In the evening, he’ll headline an event for Rep. Mike Castle, the Delaware Republican pushing aggressively to capture the Senate seat formerly held by Vice President Joe Biden in Delaware. The fundraiser will be in New York City (a planned event in Delaware had scheduling issues).
Still, the candidates are from very different ends of the spectrum.
“Basically the mayor has two criteria he uses to determine endorsements,” said Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson. “The first is whether or not the candidate has been a leader on issues that New Yorkers care about, whether it’s guns or immigration, or recently FMAP (funding)…and the second is whether someone who has shown bipartisan leadership in working across party lines in Washington to get things done.”
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“Some people fit both categories or one of them, but everyone fits one or the other,” he addedRead more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41144.html#ixzz0ws5PrRNu
David, you may already have read the piece on Castle’s supporters from American Spectator:
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/08/17/banking-on-mike-castle
Both were in primaries with laughing-stock failed Republicans.
You ought to do a post on that Fay.
Hmmmm.
That Spectator article was quite enlightening. If nothing else, I understand why Castle wants Cap and Trade.
Turns out there is some benefit for Delaware with that legislation what with Delaware’s unique position as a sort of corporation free-for-all status.
Which does not translate into being good for Delawarians for our electric/energy bills will skyrocket but hey, BankofAmerica et al will be happy guys.
The article does offer that with Mike Castle in that lameduck senate he could very well be a deciding vote to pass that thing in the senate.
I caution, however, that Castle allegedly told folks at a recent Sussex County meeting that he would NOT vote for that thing in the senate and we all know how true Castle is to his word.
No wait…..
Sestak will lose- he’s already down 6 on Toomey.
Castle won’t.
(Anybody seen ‘Traitor Charlie’ Crist’s numbers lately?)
Well-known, well-respected and accurate pollster Charlie Cook (Cook Report) now predicts 35-45 Republican House pick-ups.
As we know, Republicans need 39 to re-gain control.