CASTLE TO RUN
Breaking News Update:
From Politico
Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) will be running for Vice President Joe Biden’s old Senate seat in Delaware, according to a source connected to the congressman, instantly giving Republicans the opportunity to flip a traditionally-Democratic seat in their column.
WDEL is reporting that Michael Castle has scheduled a press conference for noon today. WDEL called it “ambiguous” in their tweet.
Last chance for predictions!
Update by Delaware Dem:
I removed the question mark from the title of this post due the News Journal article which states:
U.S. Rep. Mike Castle will announce today at a noon press conference whether he will seek public office again, his spokeswoman confirmed.
This is it. Our long local nightmare is over. Finally the tease ends.
Tags: Congress, DE-Sen, Mike Castle, U.S. Senate
Two bits of information I noted on-the-air at 7:25, and also in my blog:
The Castle “Media Advisory” had no subject, and came from a DIFFERENT email address:
And a Castle press secretary told me at 7:30 a.m. “You’ll definitely want to have someone there.”
So putting two and two together?
Allan Loudell
WDEL Radio & http://www.wdel.com
Oooh…I’m so excited. I’ll be checking my Twitter feed during lunch. I hope someone will be ready to post as soon as he announces something!
This is Allan’s blog post on the press conference.
It is in Wilmington at the Riverfront. Wonder if you need press credentials to go?
I bet he is not running. Kovach will be there and he will annoint Kovach as his successor for the house.
Cassandra,
Call Castle’s office to see if you need credentials.
According to Loudell, the press release came not from the Congressional office and not from any campaign organization for Castle. It came from “mikecastlenews@gmail.com.”
That tells me he is retiring.
Why DD? I’m just curious about your reasoning.
According to Loudell, the press release came not from the Congressional office and not from any campaign organization for Castle. It came from “mikecastlenews@gmail.com.”
I don’t get it.. does the origin of the email mean that he is concealing it from his own staff (to prevent leaks, perhaps)?
If he was running it is my opinion the email would have come from an email address from his campaign domain. The fact that it didn’t could mean there are no email addresses in his campaign, because there is no campaign domain.
Just a thought.
I don’t see why he wouldn’t run for Senate. The numbers are good and its only for four more years. He plugs Kovach as his successor to the House and he runs for Senate.
Actually, A4D, that polls showing the race against Biden show him barely beating Biden, and show him under 50%. Considering that Castle has been a state wide incumbent in various offices for 28 years, whose name recognition is at 100% and whose reputation was supposedly as a moderate, those numbers are HORRIBLE.
Any race against Biden will be a competitive race starting now, and I am not sure Castle has the motivation for it.
My guess is the retirement thing, too. As many have said here, I think he was waiting to get a feel for whether Little Beau (son of) Veep was going to run or not. I think he just doesn’t want the hassle of running against the name.
Well, his old campaign site is still up at castlecampaign.org… and there is a site at castleforsenate.com that is password protected. Let’s see if that password comes off today.
anon,
When did the castleforsenate.com site go up? Is it brand new?
It went up in 2007, but was updated yesterday… hmmm…
Domain Name: CASTLEFORSENATE.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS1.LNHI.NET
Name Server: NS2.LNHI.NET
Name Server: NS3.LNHI.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 05-oct-2009
Creation Date: 19-jan-2007
Expiration Date: 19-jan-2010
Just reading tea leaves. It is not even clear that Castle owns that site.
Hmmmm…anon. I think that points to a run.
You can read the email address several ways. If it WERE an announcement of a run for United States Senate, and the Congressman wanted to keep it completely kosher about NOT originating political events from his current office yet NOT spill the beans about his future intentions, he’d need that other email address. If he were announcing his retirement, he could just as easily do it from his office. So our first interpretation was that this is an indication of a future political bid.
Yet~ if, for the sake of argument, Castle was announcing his retirement, and wanted to maximize exposure for an ‘anointed’ successor, that would ALSO be a way to do it.
I note one of Castle’s press secretaries later told The NEWS-JOURNAL that, in fact, this WAS an announcement about Castle’s political future. One way to interpret that was the Philly TV stations – except for Action News 6, with its Wilmington bureau literally just down the street from Tubman-Garrett Park – likely wouldn’t bother to send crews all the way to Wilmington UNLESS guaranteed that this was THE announcement!
Allan Loudell
WDEL Radio & http://www.wdel.com
Good points Allan.
UI… a run with GoDaddy as your domain serve?
I don’t think castleforsenate is Mike Castle:
Registrant:
Night Owl Publishing, Inc.
PO Box 849
Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39566
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: CASTLEFORSENATE.COM
Created on: 19-Jan-07
Expires on: 19-Jan-10
Last Updated on: 04-Oct-09
Administrative Contact:
Garrett, Spencer militarytowns@aol.com
Night Owl Publishing, Inc.
PO Box 849
Ocean Springs, MS 39553
United States
2284973431
I saw that about the site ownership, but I didn’t find it conclusive about whether Castle controls the site or not. Like I said, it’s just tea leaves.
Yeah, I don’t know what the email thing says or what the domain name says. I would assume Castle would use his current websites but I don’t know. I am curious why he would use a different email address, but this may be a case of reading too much into something.
BREAKING: Castle to run for Senate per Politico
http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1009/Castle_running_for_the_Senate.html?showall
Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) will be running for Vice President Joe Biden’s old Senate seat in Delaware, according to a source connected to the congressman, instantly giving Republicans the opportunity to flip a traditionally-Democratic seat in their column.
We shall see how good Politico’s sources are soon enough.
Retirement with a Federal pension of about $100,000 gross per year.
I think if he was retiring he would do that from his Congressional email. The scrupulous non-use of his Congressional email would make me think he was running.
He is running. He will be on Rick Jensen’s show later today.
On the other hand, castleforsenate.org IS registered to “michael castle” and was created last month. Currently it is displaying a standard squatter page, but it is one more thing to watch today:
Domain Name: CASTLEFORSENATE.ORG
Created On: 29-Sep-2009 01: 29: 55 UTC
Last Updated On: 29-Sep-2009 01: 30: 02 UTC
Expiration Date: 29-Sep-2010 01: 29: 55 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar: Network Solutions LLC (R63-LROR)
Status: CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status: TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID: 43985251-NSIV
Registrant Name: michael castle
Registrant Street1: ATTN insert domain name here
Registrant Street2: care of Network Solutions
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City: Herndon
Registrant State/Province: VA
Registrant Postal Code: 20172
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.5707088780
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email: r93bf73w7b2@networksolutionsprivateregistration.com
Do you ever give up? Fine, you have pushed me over the edge. He’s stepping aside for the start of the awesome Smitty-era. There, you have it. Surprise ruined.
My platform? Bacon for everyone (turkey bacon for those who don’t eat pork – tofu bacon for those who don’t eat meat – a free link to Cass’ Friday Bacon Blogging for those I haven’t yet covered).
Maybe, just maybe, the old man has gotten word that the Beaudhisattva isn’t running until 2012. Otherwise, I doubt that Metamucil Mike would make the run.
I also would be surprised if Castle would agree to run unless he was certain that he wouldn’t be up against BBiden.
Well, he is going against either Carney or Biden. The DSCC is not going to allow the voluntary loss of a Senate seat.
What about O’Donnell? Has the Republican party cleared the race for him? I don’t think O’Donnell is a real threat but Castle will have to play to the base to win the primary, won’t he?
Agreed, AS. And DD, please stop pretending that Biden’s name recognition is not the equal of Castle’s. It’s too late in the game to run against Bush, so what’s Castle’s big negative? Add in that you won’t have the city voters turning out without Obama on the ticket, add in that Beau has no credentials (though I doubt the Delaware Republicans will utilize that properly), and I think Beau will sit this one out.
Huh? Where was I pretending that, or even mentioning Bush here? Geezer, are you confusing me with Jason330?
All I am saying is that there is no way we run a nobody for a Senate seat. It either be John Carney or Beau Biden. I am betting on it being Biden. And I will also bet that Biden wins. If Castle was so beloved and universally considered a lock to win, then why are his numbers below 50? Castle is basically the incumbent here. He has been our Congressman, Governor or Lt. Governor for 28 years and has never lost an election. He should be running away with the election and he is not.
From the Washington Post – http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/de-senate-castle-will-run.html?hpid=topnews.
I love it…we totally deserve him. He will be great for our state.
Corporations can breathe a sigh of relief all throughout the country
“He should be running away with the election and he is not.”
IN a state that went 62% for Obama? What are you smoking, and where can I get some?
I think Biden will NOT run, because if he loses here his career is over before it begins. The risk is too great. Whereas if he waits 4 years, he essentially runs unopposed. Remember, it now seems as if the GOP will pick up several Senate seats, so this isn’t a matter of preserving the supermajority. There’s little to gain and a lot to lose; only someone brimming with overconfidence would take that bet.
I just wonder how much of this decision was all his, and how much pressure he got from (what’s left of) the national GOP to step up and try to take the seat. I think he’ll get a lot of outside support, since taking Joe Biden’s seat would be a big symbolic victory for Republicans, much like they’re trying to unseat Harry Reid. The GOP desperately needs some sort of “win” to show they’re still alive, and this is one that’s definitely possible.
Geezer, what was Castle’s percentage for reelection last year?
61%
Why has he lost 15% of his support?
Now the question becomes: O’Donnell v. Castle. Does she step aside? Not bloody likely? Are there enough Crazy Eileens and David Andersons in this state to make the primary competitive.
Updated items:
“Castle-for-Senate” sign just went up along Wilmington Riverfront, as reported by WDEL’s Mellany Armstrong.
WASHINGTON POST’s “The Fix” has story up corroborating POLITICO.com.
The Rothenberg Political Report has moved Delaware’s Senate seat to leaning takeover (Republican), whether or not Beau Biden decides to run.
Allan Loudell
WDEL Radio & http://www.wdel.com
A couple of thoughts. There are NOT enough R whackos to derail or even dent Castle in a primary. In fact, he would welcome such a primary as it would enable the guy who voted to impeach Clinton and sat idly by while the Bushites shredded the Constitution to reposition himself as a ‘moderate’. Memo to Metamucil Mike: Having a moderate temperament does not make one moderate politically.
Second. If the R’s are hoping that the Beaudhisattva doesn’t run, they’d better be careful what they wish for. What if, for example, Matt Denn jumps in? He’d whip Castle’s bony butt, and Markell could give another up-and-coming D the rub by appointing him to fill the remainder of Denn’s term. THAT is my fantasy scenario.
And, almost inevitably, the subtext of a Castle run will be the ‘give me 4 years for my retirement tour’ meme. Somehow, I don’t think giving a career politico a figurative gold watch will resonate all that well with voters, considering current circumstances.
“Geezer, what was Castle’s percentage for reelection last year?
61%”
And his pre-election polling number was 49%. So I’d say he’s lost 2-3%, not 15 — and most of that, I’d wager, is in slack-jawed downstaters angry about his cap-and-trade vote.
The question is, does he throw conservative bones to the slack-jawed, not so much to win the primary, but to get them to the polls in November. If they stay home, Castle loses.
That would be my dream as well if Biden doesn’t run. Actually, that is the preferrable scenario.
Loudell just tweeted that the sign on the podium has the castleforsenate.com web address. I wonder who Night Owl publishing is, and why they are involved in the Castle campaign…
Popular Republican Mike Castle to Seek Biden Senate Seat
CBS News ^ | 10/6/09 | Steve Chaggaris
U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., will announce at noon that he’s running for former Vice President Joe Biden’s Senate seat, a Republican source tells CBS News, setting up what may be one of the Republicans’ best shots at taking a Democratic-held Senate seat in 2010. Castle’s announcement immediately puts Biden’s former seat – a seat he held from 1972 until January – in play for the Republicans, even as Biden’s son, state attorney general Beau Biden, readies for his own run. While Delaware is a reliably ‘blue’ state in presidential elections, the 70-year-old Castle, a moderate Republican, has held statewide…
http://tweetphoto.com/ejteagwx
think so geezer? Unless Obama himself comes to Delaware to stump for Castle’s opponent (and I doubt he will because of Biden and the “Delaware way”,) Castle is a lock.
Everyone knows who he is, people want to seem bipartisan, and i feel only political junkies really know how much of a chump he really is. I think Castle wins. People know his name, they know he’s won a lot therefor, in the minds of the ignorant masses, he is doing a good job and they will push the button.
Honestly, who is there? the average yag-off on the street doesn’t know who Carney is. Hell, i doubt a good chunk of the electorate knows who our CURRENT lt gov is. He gets 40% based on name recognition alone.
DD, you seem to be a big Beau supporter? I mean this sincerely — why? What’s he bring to the table that someone more experienced doesn’t?
The ability to beat castle. That’s pretty much it.
Castle is running. Castle will win.
DD, are you always this wrong on everything? Your prognostications are as off as your politics.
Actually Geezer, I don’t support Biden per se. If he were to get in the race I would support him against Castle’s right wing voting record, absolutely.
I actually would prefer that Matt Denn run for the Senate against Castle and have Carney run for Congress, as El Som just mentioned.
Tyler… sometimes my prognostications are just my wishes. I have the same prognosticating power as you do, as in none.
OH NO. Do you all realize what this means?
Middletown must be evacuated immediately. For if Castle ran for the Senate, our illustrious founder, Jason Scott, promised to streak down Main Street Middletown.
(Perhaps this is the real reason why Jason left DL!)
Night Owl seems to be just an entrepreneurial guy squatting on political domain names. Probably Castle has acquired the name and just hasn’t completed the transfer, maybe to conceal his intentions.
Password is off:
http://castleforsenate.com/
El Som, in your scenario of Denn running and winning the Senate seat you have Markell appointing the next LG. That cannot happen. The LG is the only statewide seat that if vacated for whatever reason goes up for a special election.
Beau will not run. There has already been a deal cut – he will run in 4 years for an open seat.
Delaware’s Glenn Beck wannabe TPN is supporting another republican Bush lackey. How utterly unsurprising.
Castle will beat Beau. He might not beat Denn or even Kaufman, if they ran. How about the DNC steps in and puts some heat into this race.
Your personal animus sure brings out utterly retarded statements from you, steaksauce. Please, take a deep breath and a moment off from the tiresome pot shots you insert after damn near every solitary comment I post anywhere.
Have a nice day, too, btw. I wish you the best.
Well now Tyler, in this case you are supporting Castle, a Bush lackey, and your turn filling for Jensen some weeks ago can best be described as a Beckian peformance, while Jason was doing his best Alan Colmes.
…while Jason was doing his best Alan Colmes.
Rolling over and playing dead? 😛
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
aykm wrote:
“El Som, in your scenario of Denn running and winning the Senate seat you have Markell appointing the next LG. That cannot happen. The LG is the only statewide seat that if vacated for whatever reason goes up for a special election.”
Really? Of all the meaningless positions, I’d have thought that would be the LEAST likely to require a special election. Thanks for the correction.
Still, in the cosmic shape of things, that should have little or no effect on Denn deciding to run. If he can feel satisfied about his family obligations (there’s no doubt that he REALLY likes being a dad), the ultimate disposition of the LG’s office should play no role in his decision.
Of all the meaningless positions, I’d have thought that would be the LEAST likely to require a special election.
Just a hunch, but could it be because of the possibility of casting a deciding Senate vote?
Maybe constitutionally you’re right, Smitty. But practically, the Senators always work it out so that the LG doesn’t have to cast the deciding vote unless they WANT to put him/her in a politically-embarassing position. They did it once with SB Woo b/c some of them had a bug up their butt about something, but that’s the only time I can recall it happening.
The national Vice President is also a tiebreaker in the Senate, but we have no special election for that position should it ever become vacant.
Okey-doke, DD. And you’re the Michael Moore of Delaware blogs, buddy…with a little Che thrown in (for murderous intent)…since we’re entertaining ridiculous uninstructive pseudo-comparisons.
Don’t you people ever evaluate someone without using cheap shorthand comparative references to your latest targets?
Sheezuz H already.
DD – again on a hunch, but that may have something to do with it not being a split ticket, but a joint ticket, unlike our Gov and LGov. Then again, every state has their own rules and some of those are different from federal, so apples and oranges?
Meh, I am not as fat or crazy as Michael Moore. Plus, I dress better than him. I am more like a crazier Howard Dean.
And Tyler, where is your sense of humor? Embrace the comparison.
My sense of humor ends where the taste of bitter steaksauce begins.
But seriously, you’re right, DD. I should be laughing rather than just devilishly grinning…
Mikey Moore is working on his wardrobe, the weight not so much…but the craziness is beyond hope. I don’t seriously think you’re that far gone.
Although I am sure you’d trade up for Moore’s bank acct as much as I’d take Beck’s.
(Smitty – thanks again and kudos for nicknaming our cowardly troll friend. I LOVE THAT.)
Micheal Moore is fat.
spot on usually, but he’s fat, so he shouldn’t be taken seriously.
castle will suffer the same fate as roth, and for the same reasons.
Number of times the word Republican appears on the landing page of castleforsenate.com: 0
Number of times the word Moderate appears on the landing page of castleforsenate.com: 2
And how about the word “independent?”
it appears once.
Yeah, but it is underlined feverishly, in what looks like blood.
Word cloud of his speech today:
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1199965/Castle-senate-speech
Where have we seen the Go Daddy domain secured? Why of course! DE GOP circa 2008
From Brian Shields’ blog ~
Monday, November 3, 2008
http://mourningconstitution.blogspot.com/2008/11/digging-deeper-karen-weldin-stewart-and.html
~~~~~~~~~~
“No where on your site is there a discussion of John Brady who has quite a few things to explain such as why he was fired from the Public Defender’s office (I mean what lawyer gets fired as a public defender), why he takes money from insurance industry lobbyists, why, unlike others on the Republican ticket, he is hiding behind a front web site called “Insuring a Better Future” to distance himself from a vicious and slanderous radio ad he and his associates produced and the front site paid for to produce and air.”
I have sent an email this morning to the Brady campaign for a comment. The website looks fishy to me. I couldn’t find anything with the P.O. Box, and there is no human contact there. A hint of typical GOP shadiness?
Here is the WhoIs information on that domain name. It was registered by a company who specializes in hiding domain registration in WhoIs databases, Domains By Proxy.For laughs I pulled up the WhoIs information on TheRealJackMarkell.com, a website that is known to be a Delaware GOP smear site, paid for by Bill Lee’s campaign. What is interesting is that they are also registered by Domains By Proxy… both sites were registered on the same date, both from GoDaddy, a company that specializes in cheap domain registrations.In my opinion, they both are connected.
It ain’t personal, TPN, its political. Why shouldn’t republican politicians like Mike Protack and you be subject to the ridicule you so richly deserve when you post on a Delaware Liberal website? You’re the definition of hypocrisy. You whined about Bush, but then you support every republican Bush lackey that you can – from Sarah Palin to Mike Castle.
Oh, and as for the Steak sauce reference? Thank you. Every time you mention it, I just think of the A1 slogan: “A1. Yeah, it’s that important.”
Well, none of this is funny, to me. I like Mike, and I’ve been pretty live and let live about his “moderate” voting record … mostly because political talent around here, on both sides of the aisle, has been pretty thin on the ground. But there’s no way in HELL I’m giving the R’s another Senate seat from MY state, even if Mike Castle is dumb enough to run as an R when they pay no attention to him at all.
I don’t know what it’ll take to derail him, but that’s what we have to be bringing.
But there’s no way in HELL I’m giving the R’s another Senate seat…
Another? When in the hell did that happen? Did I fall asleep for six years AGAIN? MOTHER F 😯
Carper is a defacto Republican.