The latest Hill article on the machinations of our summer drama “As the Castle Turns” has a few little tidbits that are worth sharing. For example:
Castle’s 2010 decision on whether to run for Senate, campaign for reelection or retire is the $64,000 question in Washington, and sources suggest it could be answered as soon as this week. He is not expected to seek his House seat again and has openly talked about recruiting a successor.
And sources suggested that a decision would be reached in June, and again at the end of August. Castle’s latest deadline for himself, as stated on an interview with Allan Loudell on WDEL, was at the end of September. So if that is the case, then it makes sense that he would decide this week on his future, if you really believe the decision has not been made yet. Does anyone anywhere really believe the decision has not been made yet? Whether his decision is to retire (and I think it is clear he will retire) or to run for the Senate, the decision has been made long ago.
The next tidbit in the article is who follows Castle. Even if Castle runs for the Senate, the GOP needs a successor to Castle in the Congressional race. If he doesn’t run for the Senate, then the GOP is faced with a wonderful opportunity, both nationally and locally, to look for new leadership. And lets be clear, for a Republican to have any chance in the Diamond State, he or she will have to be in the mold of Castle. Someone who projects a moderate persona and pragmatism. It will not be a conservative firebrand. It will not be a christianist whackjob.
[S]tate Rep. Tom Kovach, heads the list of potential candidates. He and businessman Anthony Wedo are considered the most likely prospects. Also on the GOP’s radar are a pair of reputable prosecutors in former U.S. Attorney Colm Connolly and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Ferris Wharton.
Having met Tom Kovach at Delaware Liberal’s Miles for Melanoma event this summer, I can say he will be a strong candidate and precisely the “Mike Castle Republican” the GOP needs (and those are Kovach’s words describing himself, not mine). Anthony Wedo? He is an unknown. An investment and resturant executive who could self finance a race. I suppose if the GOP is desparate for a sacrificial lamb against Carney in the House race should Castle retire, someone who can self fund his campaign, then Wedo is the perfect candidate, all the while Kovach can run for Senate and give Beau Biden a run for his money.
The Hill article mentions Ferris Wharton and Colm Connolly as the GOP’s ideal candidates. But Wharton is pretty focused on running for the Attorney General job again should Beau Biden run for Senate. And Colm Connolly seems to have no interest since joining the law firm of Morgan Lewis. He said it’s “not something I’m focused on.” Not a Shermanesque statement, but you sense less enthusiam from Connolly than you see from Castle, and I didn’t think that was possible.
If I were a Republican, I would actually want Castle to retire from politics now. For if Castle does run for the Senate, he will only stay until 2014, when he most assuredly will retire to the Florida beaches his wife longs for. That is just delaying the inevitable. If he retires now, you get to bring new leadership and new faces into the party when it desparately needs it. Kovach and Wedo are new faces. Protack, Copeland, O’Whackjob, and even Wharton and Connolly are old faces.