O’Donnell was an anti-establishment candidate who ran to show that “career politicians and the establishment don’t own our country.” Thanks to the media coverage of her bizarre statements, O’Donnell’s name was much more recognizable in Delaware than her opponent. And as far as I can tell, Donald Trump isn’t a witch, either.
After the mandatory layoff, a year, Mike Castle has filed to become a lobbyist So he moves from being Boehner’s bitch to being someone else’s bitch. Continue reading
The standalone DADT repeal bill passed a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives today 250-175. Mike Castle was one of 15 Republicans to vote yes. I plan on calling Mike Castle’s office to thank him for voting yes on DADT repeal and also for voting yes on the DREAM Act.
Wilmington Office
201 N. Walnut Street, Suite 107
Wilmington, DE 19801-3970
p: 302.428.1902
f: 302.428.1950
Dover Office
300 South New Street
Dover, DE 19904
p: 302.736.1666
f: 302.736.6580
Georgetown Office
p: 302.856.3334
Washington Office
1233 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
p: 202.225.4165
f: 202.225.2291
Mike Castle is almost a free man. He’ll be leaving public service when the Congressional session ends in December. He won’t run for office again, so he really is free to vote his conscience. Apparently his conscience is telling him that if the upper 2% don’t get a tax cut, then nobody should. Mike Castle was one of the 168 Republicans who voted against the middle class tax cuts.
So thanks Mike Castle, for reminding everyone why we’re glad you’re leaving.
Did you know that today is Delaware Liberal‘s 5th anniversary. The first post was written on November 8, 2005. Unsurprisingly, it was about a wishy-washy statement put out by Mike Castle.
With the news that we have used chemical weapons in Iraq, curiosity got the better of me and I went to Michael Castle’s site to see what he was saying about President Bush and the Iraq debacle he engineered. Imagine my surprise to find this wishy washy, word parsing from our faux moderate member of congress:
“Congressman Castle supported the Congressional Resolution to disarm Saddam Hussein and recently visited Iraq to get a first hand account on how reconstruction efforts are moving forward and to assess troop morale. Castle participated in a bipartisan delegation visit to Iraq and Kuwait and met with military officials, civilian administrators, and troops (including units from Delaware) to discuss the ongoing efforts in Iraq and determine how to proceed with the reconstruction and integration of a free a democratic Iraq.”
Who could have guessed that DL wouldn’t have Mike Castle to kick around anymore. It feels like we’re all grown up (though some people still think DL’s in the Terrible Twos).
Personally I’d like to thank Jason330 for starting this site and making it such a fun place to hang out – and for giving me a chance to write. Thank you to all our readers and commenters for making this site for the premier site for Delaware politics.
NPR was in Wilmington to cover the Delaware Senate race and did an interview with soon-to-be former Congressman Mike Castle. In the interview Castle talked about his loss and the reasons behind it.
Later, Castle said something likely to only solidify the view of those conservatives that he’s a RINO — he should’ve directly asked Democrats and independents to vote in the GOP primary.
Obviously we should’ve focused on it and spent more time educating people. We have a closed primary here. I have a lot of support from Democrats and independents. We probably should’ve encouraged people to switch their political registrations as well.
Exactly. This has been our biggest criticism of Mike Castle. He did nothing while the Republican Party turned into the Tea Party. Not only did he fail to attract moderates to the Republican party, he failed to persuade and educate the voters left in his party. Obviously, Castle should have been reading Delaware Liberal.
Castle does come across as a party man but he also comes close to “I did not leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me.”
Castle also said he saw no place for fiscally conservative but generally moderate politicians like himself in the present-day Republican Party.
My belief is that you’re either a red-hot conservative, go by the Constitution, don’t spend anything, Republican which is, again, embodied in the Tea Party group if you will or you are a Democrat who’s generally portrayed as a big spender
I don’t know what’s going to happen in the upcoming GOP civil war (it’s coming) but I see the seeds of a 3rd party forming. What do you think? Will the moderates be welcomed back into the GOP pup tent or will they find themselves alone?
…he’s not running as a write-in candidate.
Congressman Mike Castle announced tonight — with a written statement — that he will not run as a write-in candidate on the Nov. 2 ballot for U.S. Senate.
…
“While I would have been honored to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate, I do not believe that seeking office in this manner is in the best interest of all Delawareans,” he said in the release. “Therefore, it’s time for Jane and me to begin thinking about the next chapter of our lives.”
Chris Coons sighs in relief.
Mike Castle has 3 more days to decide if he’s going to run for U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate. What are the tea leafs saying?
– Pete DuPont endorsed Christine O’Donnell this weekend and called for party unity. I think this is a sign that Castle won’t run.
– Ron Williams wrote an editorial urging Castle not to run. Another sign of no.
– I’m watching for the release of a poll. I assume Castle was polling a 3-way race this weekend. If there’s no poll release that is another sign of no.
Anyone else have some signals to share?
Like most everyone in Delaware, I’ve always thought Mike Castle was a nice guy. He certainly exhibits a lot of patience in listening to voters, especially ones with a differing point of view. His toying with a write-in campaign is rather annoying. Get a load of this:
Rep. Mike Castle suggested a Washington watchdog group may have intentionally waited until he lost the GOP Senate primary before filing a campaign finance fraud complaint against his opponent, Christine O’Donnell.
Castle — who said Wednesday he has not ruled out a write-in campaign — called the timing of the complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington “suspect” and possibly designed to help the Democratic candidate, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons. Castle was seen as the probable winner in a general-election matchup against Coons, but O’Donnell had been considered a long shot.
Castle noted that CREW filed its complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware and the Federal Election Commission days after the Senate primary and months after The News Journal reported in March that O’Donnell was using campaign funds for personal living expenses. Castle recalled that his campaign had often made the same allegations.
Castle notes that Melanie Sloan is originally from Delaware, so she could have known about O’Donnell earlier. CREW responded:
Sloan called the suggestion “ridiculous” and said CREW didn’t pay attention to O’Donnell until Castle lost because she wasn’t considered a serious candidate.
She said the group became aware of allegations regarding O’Donnell’s campaign spending when news outlets reported that voters had received Election Day robocalls supporting Castle that said O’Donnell had used campaign donations to pay for rent and personal expenses.
So Castle’s allegation is that CREW should have been reading the News Journal and have done something before? Why didn’t Mike Castle take this to CREW himself or actually talked to the U.S. Attorney? He’s mad that CREW didn’t do his work for him. That’s too damn bad, buddy.
Also, this story (look at picture on left side as well) does not give me warm feelings about him.
Genius statistics guru Nate Silver analyzes the numbers for a possible Castle write-in bid.
I tried to model the three-way race and came up with the following: Mr. Coons with 37 percent of the vote, Mr. Castle with 34 percent, and Ms. O’Donnell with 29 percent.
That, obviously, would imply a winnable race for Mr. Castle — although it assumes that he is fairly serious about his write-in bid. Mr. Castle is 71 years old and has not faced too many competitive elections in recent years, and he took his time to enter the Senate race last year after considering retiring from politics entirely, so this is far from a sure thing.
One dynamic that may be more favorable to Mr. Castle is that it seems conceivable he could win with as little as 35 percent of the vote. It seems probable to me that Ms. O’Donnell’s support is going to hover in the area of 30 percent — not a lot higher, not a lot lower — which was about the percentage of voters who had a favorable impression of her in the Public Policy Polling survey. That would leave Mr. Castle and Mr. Coons to fight over the remaining 70 percent of the electorate, making half that total — 35 percent — the magic number.
Yes, I’m patting myself on the back for getting a similar number for Coons but I think Castle’s number is still overestimated. Plus there’s still 1-2% for 3rd party candidates. Based on this analysis, I think Castle doesn’t take the plunge. He’d have to fight HARD and he’d have to walk a pretty fine line to keep his R-I-D coalition together. It’s certainly a much different race than the one he was planning to run. It’s definitely no coronation. One thing it does do, however, is change the race from Lean D to Toss Up.
What do you think? Does Castle take the plunge?
Mike Castle told Politico that they will poll for a 3-way race.
The GOP source did not have specifics on when Castle’s team would conduct the poll, but viewed it as a practical step even if the nine-term congressman was unlikely to re-enter the race.
A spokeswoman for Castle, who put the chances of him running as a write-in “under 5 percent,” said her boss likely wouldn’t settle on a final decision before next week. According to the state Elections Commission, Castle would have to complete a form by next Thursday to officially qualify as a write-in candidate.
Apparently it’s a tidal wave!
Dickens, who would not confirm a plan to poll, said Castle has mostly been focused on House business, but has taken calls from those urging him to pursue a bid without a party banner.
Delaware GOP National Committeewoman Priscilla Rakestraw said she has fielded dozens of calls over the last 48 hours, mostly from Democrats, about a potential Castle write-in campaign.
Oooh, dozens! I’m sure all 20 people will reliably vote for Castle.
I’m sure Mike Castle would like redemption. He lost in the worst way possible (to a lying, unqualified candidate). I’m pretty sure getting that lying, unqualified person to the Senate is not the way to redemption.
The Republican party might secretly want this. A Castle entry actually increases their odds of winning the seat, rather than decreasing it.
Ugh. Don’t do it Mike!
Describing himself as “hurt and stunned” by his Senate primary defeat to Christine O’Donnell more than a week ago, Rep. Mike Castle said Wednesday he isn’t ruling out the possibility of a write-in campaign
The Delaware Republican said he “probably” would not run, but has not ruled it out “simply because it’s there, simply because I’ve had a number of people who’ve asked that I do that,” he told reporters outside the House floor following votes.
…
Castle would have to declare his candidacy by Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m. in writing at the state Election Office for his votes to be counted.
“I will consider it right up until the final moment but I’m not headed in that direction right now,” he said.
Apparently he’s still struggling with his loss, but is still playing the good Republican soldier.
Though he’s “very unhappy” with things that happened during the campaign, he said he doesn’t want to necessarily interfere with Republicans chance in it.
Castle reiterated that he would not endorse either of the candidates and said he isn’t interested in “damaging her [O’Donnell] at this point” or going out of his way to be negative.
Asked whether a write-in campaign could be perceived as vindictive, he responded, “Sure. It could be.”
I’m sure there’s been an outpouring of love for Mike Castle. He was defeated in the most underhanded and slimy way. He can’t win as a write-in, though. He’ll get back those 15% of Republicans supporting Coons and perhaps some Democrats but Republicans will fall mostly in line and vote for O’Donnell. Especially if Rush, Hannity and the rest of the gang go in for O’Donnell. All a likely write-in could do is possibly throw the race to O’Donnell. In the two races this year where the Republican is running as an independent, Florida and Alaska, so far all their candidacy has done is thrown the race probably to the Republican.
Quick history question: who is the only person ever to win a U.S. Senate seat as a write-in candidate?
P.S. Be sure to click on the NJ link and vote in their poll about whether Castle should run as a write-in. The answer is “no.”
Cross-posted at Punchline
When Barack Obama campaigned for Jon Corzine, New Jerseyans laughed at the president’s relative “star power” when upstart Republican Chris Christie won the election.
Those same folks have been silent about Christie’s endorsement for fellow moderate Republican Mike Castle, and his subsequent loss to Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell.
With Christie embarking on a month-long endorsement tour for the GOP heading into the mid-term election, it’ll be interesting to see how bright his GOP star shines after November.
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Follow Rob on Twitter @robtornoe.
