Castle to Go Negative

September 2nd, 2010 • Related • Filed Under
By Delaware Dem

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.

There Are 20 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by orestes on 2 September 2010 at 2:17 pm:

    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.

  2. Comment by Unstable Isotope on 2 September 2010 at 2:25 pm:

    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?

  3. Comment by Joe Cass on 2 September 2010 at 3:19 pm:

    I can hear an ad now-
    “Christine O’Donnell lives insin with no talent christian rocker Hust.
    She has an evil lust for Hust.”

  4. Comment by anon on 2 September 2010 at 3:32 pm:

    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.

  5. Comment by Unstable Isotope on 2 September 2010 at 4:13 pm:

    OMFG, Rob Tornoe just tweeted this link:

    CHRISTINE O’DONNELL, President, The S.A.L.T.: My name is Christine O’Donnell. I am the President and Founder of The S.A.L.T. The S.A.L.T. stands for “The Savior’s Alliance For Lifting The Truth.” We choose sexual purity in our lives. We have God-given sexual desires and we need to understand them and preserve them to be used in God’s appropriate context. Our members are committed to be role models, committed to be the salt of the earth. (At condo) Let’s figure out where everyone’s gonna go. We have a condo, a gorgeous condo that God graced us with at a very reasonable price. This one is all the girls. We got two condos, one for the guys and one for the girls, and the reason that we did that is if we intend to be role models, we have to avoid all appearance of any wrongdoing. Two teenagers and a priest are gonna go here. Gloria doesn’t think it’s a good idea but… We need to address sexuality with young people and masturbation is part of sexuality but it is important to discuss this from a moral point of view.

    …

    O’DONNELL: The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. So you can’t masturbate without lust.

  6. Comment by Joanne Christian on 2 September 2010 at 4:15 pm:

    And Jimmy Carter did that.

  7. Comment by Mike Matthews on 2 September 2010 at 4:15 pm:

    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!

  8. Comment by Dr. Crazy on 2 September 2010 at 4:16 pm:

    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.

  9. Comment by anon on 2 September 2010 at 4:20 pm:

    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.

  10. Comment by Unstable Isotope on 2 September 2010 at 4:23 pm:

    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.

  11. Comment by Nancy Willling on 2 September 2010 at 4:24 pm:

    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.

  12. Comment by Joe Cass on 2 September 2010 at 4:42 pm:

    Aren’t the ads on TPM negative?
    http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CL_ulse20NnQSxCsAhjvATIIQFgKWBAVsxg

  13. Comment by Unstable Isotope on 2 September 2010 at 4:50 pm:

    Joe, I’m seeing that ad popping up everywhere on the internet this week.

  14. Comment by superduper on 2 September 2010 at 5:15 pm:

    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.

  15. Comment by Joe Cass on 2 September 2010 at 8:04 pm:

    I stopped hiding in her bushes weeks ago

  16. Comment by jpconnorjr on 2 September 2010 at 8:12 pm:

    mmmmmm the things i could do with that comment:) imagination!

  17. Comment by Truth Teller on 2 September 2010 at 9:27 pm:

    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.

  18. Comment by Geezer on 3 September 2010 at 8:01 am:

    “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.

  19. Comment by Lee Ann on 3 September 2010 at 8:08 am:

    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.

  20. Comment by Unstable Isotope on 3 September 2010 at 8:59 am:

    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?

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