After this morning’s excitement of John Carney’s official press announcement of his campaign to unseat Mike Castle in Congress, I thought it might be interesting to see how the political media is reporting on this:
- CQ Politics Blog provides some good detail and background (along with a decent picture of Carney!):
Carney’s candidacy will be welcomed by House Democratic strategists, who have had great difficulty recruiting against Castle. They have effectively ceded most of the past nine elections to the incumbent even as Delaware, long a partisan swing state, has undergone a strong trend favoring the Democrats.
- The Hill.com pretty much repeats what we’ve seen already.
- The National Journal has a succinct look at the playing field:
Castle sits in a precarious seat; he’s one of just six GOPers who sit in CDs that went for John Kerry in ’04 and Obama in ’08. In fact, Obama won DE with 62% of the vote. But Castle’s strength as a moderate GOPer, along with the relative weakness of his Dem opponents, has led to his solid re-elections in the past.
Carney’s entry changes those dynamics. This race will likely be a competitive contest — that is, if Castle does indeed run for re-election. He’s reportedly considering a SEN bid, or he may choose to retire. In the 1stQ, he raised more than $74K, and while he has more than $800K CoH, that 1stQ number is still a relatively weak one for a candidate preparing for a tough re-election or a SEN battle.
If Castle does not run, Carney will be the favorite to capture the seat for Dems. GOPers have almost no bench in the state.
- WDEL provides its look plus some audio of interviews with Carney and his current primary opponent, Scott Spencer