Coons Previews His Strategy

Earlier this week, Hotline On Call published an article about the Senate race and the underdog Chris Coons: “Why Delaware Isn’t A GOP Gimme.”

Most surveys have shown Castle leading by a wide margin. But in a small state with a history of electing thoughtful candidates to office — like Castle himself — the race won’t be the guarantee GOPers hoped for. In an interview with Hotline OnCall on Friday, Coons made the case that his experience, and his electoral position, make him the right candidate to beat Castle, a GOPer who has held statewide office for 3 decades.

“I’m comfortably confident because I’ve got polls that show I can win,” Coons said. His challenge: “I have to remind people that Congressman Mike Castle is a Republican Congressman.”

“I have a communications challenge,” he added, pointing to polls that show Castle is much better-known throughout the state. Still, with the $4M Coons estimates he must raise to persuade enough voters, early polling shows Castle’s lead evaporates because voters cannot point to any signature achievements.

I would really like to see those polls that say Coons can win. I do believe Coons can win and Castle shouldn’t consider the race won already.

To do so, Coons says he will remind voters that Castle is not the centrist he claims to be. Castle voted against the stimulus bill; health care reform legislation; jobs bills; a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; financial regulatory reform; and a pay equity act Congress passed last year.

“Mike Castle is not secretly some fire-breathing, NRA, Bible-thumping right-to-lifer. He isn’t. But he’s made a few choices recently that are out of keeping with who he’s been,” Coons said of his rival. “He is not used to voting with party and not with state.”

This is consistent with the strategy that Chris has outlined before. My question is how is he going to do this? The race is still a sleeper right now. Is Coons going to run a Sestak-type strategy and hold his fire until near the end? That worked for Sestak but Sestak had that devastating ad.

So what do you think? How can Coons communicate the “real Mike Castle” to the voters? Could his campaign produce a Sestak-type devastating ad about Castle?