Castle is in, but his fundraising still laggs.
From Steve Singiser:
In the Delaware Senate race, it is good news/bad news for the GOP. The good news: newly minted Senate candidate Mike Castle is sitting on over three-quarters of a million cash-on-hand. The bad news: he raised just eighty-seven grand for the quarter, which makes it evident that he was hardly “ramping up” for his Senate bid.
$87,000 is lower than thee two previous quarters this year. This could mean two things: 1) Mike Castle thinks he is going to walk into the Senate without a competitive challenge from either O’Donnell or the Democrats, so there is no need to raise money like he would have to in a competitive race; or 2) Mike Castle was not planning on running at all, and instead was pressured into it by national Republicans who promised him funding later in the campaign.
I am not ruling out the possibility that it could both. Maybe he did not want to run, but the field was cleared for him anyway, so he said what the hell?
But now that he is a Senate candidate, he has to raise tons of money in this final quarter of 2009. If only to scare off Biden. Because, right now, if I am Biden, I am laughing at these fundraising figures.
Tags: DE-Sen
I doubt Biden is scared of Castle’s bank. I don’t think Biden will have any trouble raising money.
Could we get Carney to upgrade to Senate? He’s already raised money.
I saw Carney speak this week and he definitively ruled out running for Senate. He also sounded kind of bitter about the Senate appointment thing.
If Beau runs, the national GOP smear machine will mutilate him.
He barely squeaked by Ferris Wharton.
He would be wise and patient to avoid the behemoth, CASTLE
I have choice No. 3: He’s counting on national wingnut money instead of mostly local funding. If Joe Wilson could raise nearly $2 million in a week just for being a dickhead, I imagine someone running against Joe Biden’s dauphin son could rake in quite a bit of cash without much in the way of the usual efforts.
If “smear machine” tries Atwater-style tricks, they will backfire in Delaware, rousing the Democratic base, opening Democratic wallets nationwide and tainting Castle.
One problem Geezer, wingnuts hate Castle.
They hate him until their hive queen definitively bites the dust. Then Castle becomes the, um, hive queen.
The problem there Cass is that the primary is in September.
This is a problem for what?
The wingnuts will hate him until there is a primary and Castle emerges as the winner of that primary. Then they’ll be all about supporting the guy. It isn’t as though O’Donnell is a credible threat for a primary.
I don’t think money was an issue. It will come from all over soon enough. The Congressman thinks that he is ahead so he won’t sweat it. There was no point to dialing for dollars then. I also think that a lot of national Republicans outside of D. C. are skeptical of him. O’Donnell will have her window to prove something. The question is will she be able to move before it closes.
Both men will raise money, lots of money. The wingnut factor you speak of is very minimal and usually they will not support Castle no matter what.
Others may gripe but will do what is best for the state and nation and support Castle.
Castle’s experience and record will trump Biden’s lack of both.
Mike Protack
“O’Donnell will have her window to prove something. The question is will she be able to move before it closes.”
Not with $2,000 as her campaign war chest, she won’t.
Think for a minute, David (I know that’s a long time for you, but give it a try). Beau is inexperienced; Christine is even less so. Beau’s resume makes him look like a renaissance man compared with O’Donnell; hell, has she ever even held a real job? As far as I can tell, she has no visible means of support. She even makes Karen Weldin Stewart look qualified for office.
She owns her own business what about you. That is more qualified than our President and Vice President and it shows the way they are misrunning this country.
She owns her own business…
This is what KWS said too.
I, for one, think that Delaware Liberal should endorse Christine O’Donnell in the Republican primary. If O’Donnell won the primary, the DE GOP would be broken asunder.
Plenty of stimulus money for Biden even without ACORN…and Castle can pull it in too from all of the wishy washy contributors.