Yesterday, we learned that Mike Castle had purchased airtime in Sussex County, a hint that he is certainly worried about Christine O’Donnell. His rapid and direct response to the “gay affair” rumormongering by a former O’Donnell staffer also indicates he is concerned. If Castle was not worried, he would conserve his funds for the general election, and he would let others defend him. Further, the rather biting statements from Tom Ross and other state party officials are out of the norm, as Republicans tend to follow Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment in never attacking a fellow Republican.
So the Establishment is scared.
And now it looks like Mike Castle will go negative against Christine in those ad buys.
“We’re not just going to sit by and let her destroy Mike Castle,” a Castle campaign source told Hotline On Call. […] The campaign says that, at this point, it is not planning to air the negative ads during that time span, but it could change its mind. The campaign is currently making the ads. Castle is planning on staying on air through the primary. So, it sounds like he’ll go negative the week before the primary — Sept. 7 through primary day on Sept. 14.
This race has already gone negative pretty quickly last night, with the airing of the gay affair rumor. We can be certain that O’Donnell’s ads will be absurdly negative, to the point of comical, for the Teabagger Express is spending at least $250,000 on ads in Delaware, although the details of their ad buys and in what markets (NCCo v. Salisbury) are not known yet.