Carney got as far as “game planning” a run against Castle
In late April and early May of this year, while Senator Tom Carper unsuccessfully tried to get Jack Markell to drop out of the Governors race, he successfully stopped John Carney from taking on Mike Castle.
A source has disclosed that Carney got as far as “game planning” a run against Castle with a small group of his closest advisors who agreed that Carney could beat Castle. However, one of Carney’s primary advisors, Tom Carper, scuttled the plan. While not privy to what type of pressure Carper used to disabuse Carney of the idea of taking out Castle, my source relates that Carney clearly saw that office within his grasp as polling showed that it was increasingly obvious that Markell was mounting a serious campaign at the same time John McCain campaign lurched to the right damaging the Republican brand in Delaware.
Having made his decision in the spring to acquiesce to Carper’s wishes, Carney ramped up his campaign against Markell during the summer thanks to a cash infusion from the Delaware Democratic Party, but went on to lose a close primary race against Markell. Had Carney made the other choice, given Castle’s many weaknesses, there is little doubt that this would be a “top tier” race and a likely Democratic pick-up.