Delaware Liberal

Is Christine O’Donnell Actually Running For Senate?

Or is she running for new conservative pundit darling? I’m glad I’m not crazy. I kept asking – what is O’Donnell doing with her $2M? Why am I not seeing commercials? I see Chris Coons commercials. The New York Times did a profile of the race and noticed that O’Donnell hasn’t actually been doing many public appearances.

Just take the example of Christine O’Donnell, the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware. Ms. O’Donnell is ubiquitous on conservative cable shows and talk radio, with her candidacy hyped by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party Express, based in California. But you can barely find a trace of Ms. O’Donnell or her campaign in Delaware itself, a state that is smaller than some national parks.

If Ms. O’Donnell is actually running anything like a traditional campaign for the Senate, there isn’t much evidence of it right now. The campaign’s Web site lists no public events at which voters or reporters can meet her or hear her speak. (And in any event, Ms. O’Donnell has declared herself off limits for interviews with national reporters.) Last week, a spokeswoman for Shirley & Bannister, a Virginia-based consulting firm that the O’Donnell campaign recently hired, said she would find out about any scheduled appearances by the candidate, but then she stopped returning e-mails.

Meanwhile, Ms. O’Donnell’s Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, the New Castle County executive, was happy to tick off the major events he attended last weekend — the annual N.A.A.C.P. dinner, an AIDS Walk, a “mud run” (don’t ask) that attracted thousands of Delawareans. He said he hadn’t crossed paths with Ms. O’Donnell at any of them, and in fact, as he thought it over, Mr. Coons said he hadn’t seen his opponent since they debated on Sept. 16.

I can’t decide whether this is an indication of her ego – thinking that she can win based on her popularity with the Rush Limbaugh crowd – or whether she doesn’t really want to win. Does she want to be a U.S. Senator? She’ll probably make more money as Tea Party darling than as a U.S. Senator. Of course, a Senator will be a much bigger prize on the pay circuit than an almost-Senator. What do you think?

h/t Mike Mahaffie

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