Castle to Go Negative
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.
Castle has no need to go negative. All he needs to do is reprint the News Journal articles on Christine by Ginger Gibson and email to everyone today’s Gaffney interview.
Well, the race has certainly gotten nasty. I wonder what Urquhart and Rollins are thinking right now? Which side is going to be more depressed by the negativity – Castle or O’Donnell?
I can hear an ad now-
“Christine O’Donnell lives insin with no talent christian rocker Hust.
She has an evil lust for Hust.”
Teabagger Express is spending at least $250,000 on ads in Delaware
Coons’ strategy of keeping his powder dry is looking pretty good right now.
OMFG, Rob Tornoe just tweeted this link:
And Jimmy Carter did that.
Ha!! I love that SALT link. I republished it on my blog about four years ago (when she ran the FIRST time…haha) and it generated LOTS of debate. What a wacky bunch!
Castle doesn’t win anything by beating up Christine, however much she may deserve it. By running positive ads, he is going to gain more goodwill for the general than depressing a portion of the GOP vote in the general. IMHO, going negative on Christine would be a bad move, smelling of fear, and a bad overall strategy.
I wonder what Castle going negative looks like? Castle has never been in a real campaign.
The thing is, when you go negative you bring our own negatives up too, and you just hope the other guy’s go up more. Castle can’t afford to go negative, because his nice guy image is all he’s got.
I think the thing with Castle’s response is that he went full-out nuclear grade negative on her. He’s just unloading on her. Not that she doesn’t deserve it.
Anyway, more negative stuff about O’Donnell – the NJ flags this Weekly Standard interview where O’Donnell appears to admit she doesn’t live in Greenville. It also shows her crazy paranoia.
CHECK THIS
benpolitico O’Donnell tells @mccormackjohn: ‘They’re hiding in the bushes.’ This is why she won’t tell him where she lives. http://is.gd/eRVi7
HuffPo – Sam Stein has a post about SALT and her objections to masterbation on MTV. No one has to dig too deep to get to the crazy.
Aren’t the ads on TPM negative?
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CL_ulse20NnQSxCsAhjvATIIQFgKWBAVsxg
Joe, I’m seeing that ad popping up everywhere on the internet this week.
Its on! I just heard the first negative Castle ad on WGMD.
For any of you who cringe at listening to WGMD, the clip of Christine is worth the pain. It was pure entertainment and worth every minute.
I stopped hiding in her bushes weeks ago
mmmmmm the things i could do with that comment:) imagination!
One thing that these ads prove is that the Delaware GOP is running scared. So for what its worth Go Christine Go. Mike the RINO is in for the fight of his life and by the way whats with the gun. Someone should tell him to get his finger off the slide.
“All he needs to do is reprint the News Journal articles on Christine by Ginger Gibson”
Where do you think that information came from in the first place? Reporters don’t automatically think, “Hmm, I’m going to check out whether this person has ever had a mortgage lien against her” — especially when that person is a candidate with no chance of winning, as it seemed at the time. Somebody tipped her off it was out there. Now who do you suppose it was? It might have been a Democrat, but it’s far more likely it was someone in the GOP establishment. So let’s not pretend that the Delaware GOP is now “going negative” all of a sudden. The first blow was struck months ago.
I certainly hope he’s got something better than “balanced the budget eight years in a row” since he is required to do so by the Delaware Constitution. Also heard him claim credit for preserving thousands of acres from “sprawl and overdevelopment.” Where? And do you think those ads with the bored people listening to him in the noisy greasy spoon joint are working? (Camera pans to his wedding ring.) You’re right – he has never had to run anything but a caretaker campaign. The Campaign Gods Help Those Who Help Themselves.
Castle is basically running a frontrunner’s campaign. Stay above the fray, be safe & boring. That’s why I’m so surprised that he’s going full bore negative on O’Donnell. He’s definitely spooked. I don’t know if it was the momentum he saw building, or some bad poll numbers or just spooked from the Murkowski race.
The outcome of all of this is that Castle will win, no problem. I just wonder what he’ll do next. Will he sit back and play nice guy again or will he start dropping negative stories about Coons again?