Castle is in. I must say I am pretty surprised by his decision. Everything over the past year, from his anemic fundraising to his delays in announcing to his lukewarm uninterested comments on the race to his wife’s desire for a Florida retirement to his confrontations with the Crazy Eileens of downstate to his health and his age all led me to believe that Castle was calling it a day.
He is going to get serious competition for the race, whether that be in the form of Beau Biden, John Carney or Matt Denn. The Democrats are not going to just give away a Senate seat just because “The Delaware Way” demands it. Indeed, I still find it hard to believe that Castle is going to run a competitive campaign, but that is probably because I have never seen Castle run a competitive campaign. I was 16 in 1992, the last real competitive campaign he had. Will he raise enough money for the race? And if he doesn’t, does he have a committment from the NRSC or the RNC?
And what does his decision mean for the rest of state wide races. As we know, former Lt. Governor John Carney is running for Congress. Local right wing whackjob Christine O’Donnell is running for Senate, which means Castle will have a primary, but probably not a competitive one that he will have to worrry about.
So now all eyes turn to Attorney General Beau Biden. Will he or won’t he? The Delaware Way requires that Biden run for reelection as AG in 2010, and then he can run for Senate in 2014 when Castle really retires. But is that what he is going to do? It might be the smart thing for him to do, since he has been away from the state serving honorably in Iraq for a year. But will he face pressure from national Democrats, including his Vice Presidential father, to run now? And if he doesn’t run, will John Carney or Matt Denn run in his place? And if either one of them does run for Senate, does the other run for the House? And if not, who runs for the House? Beau? New Castle County Executive Chris Coons? State Senator Mike Katz?
Oh the fun is just beginning.