Where Did Castle Go Wrong?
Even if Castle manages to squeak by in tomorrow’s primary, this primary election has to be seen as a huge loss for Mike Castle. Castle is a 30-year officeholder in Delaware with a clean record. How did he get brought so low by a marginal candidate like Christine O’Donnell? Mike Castle talked to The Hill about how Lisa Murkowski warned him:
Castle said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) phoned him after her stunning primary loss at the hands of Tea Party-backed Joe Miller with a warning.
“She told me to be careful, because [The Tea Party Express] will come at me with everything they’ve got,” Castle recounted. “They’re certainly not above misrepresentation.”
Castle said while he took Murkowski’s warning to heart, he was already taking the primary challenge from O’Donnell seriously.
“We understand what we’re up against and we’re not taking this lightly,” Castle said, bemoaning the involvement of the Tea Party Express. “This is the first election I can remember in Delaware where a campaign is being funded almost entirely by out of state interests.”
Mike Castle did respond to O’Donnell’s threat. In the last few weeks, the Delaware GOP has aggressively attacked O’Donnell, but this doesn’t seem to be working. Castle’s unfavorables have gone down more than O’Donnell’s.
It’s a mystery to me why Mike Castle didn’t recognize the Tea Party threat. He’s one of the first people to have had a confrontation with them (the famous “Crazy Eileen” episode). I wonder why Mike Castle hasn’t emphasized his rightwing record in the current Congress, to fight allegations that he’s liberal. Castle basically ignored O’Donnell until it was too late.
Is there anything Castle could have done to change things or is this just a really weird year and Castle’s facing forces beyond his control?
Tags: DE-Sen, Mike Castle
It’s a really weird year. That said, I don’t know if Castle could change anything since he’s never really had to campaign.
A lot of this Tea Party stuff has been encouraged and allowed to grow due to the “mainstream” GOP needing their votes in the past. For decades the GOP has gotten away with lip service to this group. Now the time has come to pay the piper. It was always going to end this way.
To the GOP: So, Dr. Frankenstein, how do you like your monster?
He should have debated her. He thought that was beneath him and that she wasn’t a serious candidate. That was a huge mistake on his part.
He’s gotten used to flicking off challengers. It may have caught up with him this year.
This is a really great question, UI. Mainly because I wonder if there maybe something here to learn in thinking about how to replace Carper in a few years.
But debates would not have mattered. That remarkable collapse of his favorability I’d bet has everything to do with the complete wingnut press being pointed at Castle. As we already know, Republicans aren’t much of an independent thinking bunch and their coalition is remarkably homogeneous. If their press starts cranking up the BS, the hive mind that is repubs of a certain type start repeating it as gospel. it doesn’t matter that they may be taking up hypocritical positions or ones that don’t sync up with other positions — they are ready to repeat and defend ad nauseum that Obama is pulling the plug on Grandma or whatever the bullshit of the day is.
Castle is a victim of the right-wing noise machine. And the right-wing noise machine is all about ginning up their ratings, they do not give a damn about governing.
There is some schadenfruede in these so-called moderates being taken out by the extremists in their own party. Real moderates would not have been silent enablers of this kind of bullshit. But going along trying to make nice with these fools and their handlers is coming back to haunt them.
Where did Castle go wrong?? Where did he ever go right?
so the question now becomes, Does castle have the honor and integrity to take out this harpy? or will he pull a John McCain and go crawling under the wing of the monster that brought him down?
I dont think your average Raygunite republican has the stones to stand up to any conservative. No matter how vile they are.
and cassandra… there is more than a little shadenfruede.. there is downright happieness in seeing these teabag loving corporate whores get eaten by their own monster.
He got lazy, simply enough. Everyone was focused on Beau, and ignored Christine.
I’m with you Cassandra, I’m not sure there’s more that could have been done except bribe O’Donnell with a job or something to get her to drop out. I’m not sure a debate would have helped him – perhaps it let her define him (with the help of the conservative media), which seems weird for a 30-yr officeholder.
If Castle hadn’t have been lazy (I believe he has been) what could he have done to neutralize the O’Donnell threat?
Anecdote from a co-worker:
He was at a party this weekend in the north Wilmington area. The Republicans were talking about O’Donnell and were considering voting for her. The Palin endorsement seems to have pushed them over. They were concerned about O’Donnell’s lack of job history but the Palin endorsement reassured them. They also mentioned nothing about electability in the general election. They truly believe there is no difference between Coons and Castle.
“They were concerned about O’Donnell’s lack of job history but the Palin endorsement reassured them.”
I don’t doubt that, but it is quite remarkable. The endorsement of someone who never held a steady job by someone else who quit their job is “reassuring”.
Just… wow.
I haven’t caught up with the scenario of a Castle win. Can Christine still run on the Constitution party ticket and siphon away the R’s that have now been irreversibly turned off to Castle?
Good Question…
Depends on the timing of when Castle realized O’Donnell posed a threat.
Had Castle came to this realization early, then he maybe could’ve convinced the state party to hold an open primary (or at least a primary open to Independents).
But, Castle’s main problem is the drop in registered republicans in New Castle County. Without those republicans, who left in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, the primary electorate diverged from the center and became increasingly willing to have a Demint-like conservative champion. In essence, Castle lost his primary base, which changed from the “moderate Republican” label to Independents.
In order to prevent something like this, Castle’s campaign had to go door to door and bring back independents and unaffiliated voters(which I am, actually -the republican party today does not fit my definition of a conservative) into the Republican party, so they could actually vote for him in the primary. This would have been difficult, but it was the only sure way of being beholden to the Crazy Eileen crowd.
It’s not that Castle lost popularity with the general electorate per se, but that his support among Sussex and Kent conservatives was too soft and he had no base he could count on.
the Palin endorsement reassured them
Bingo. Remember when these guys all thought that Barack Obama’s lack of job history was a worry? And this chick doesn’t even have the extremely thin work history of the Quitta from Wasilla. But all it took was for the Quitta to reassure them. Hive mind indeed.
A month ago there wasn’t a threat to neutralize. And here we are today with Castle’s people providing an especially brain dead critique of the PPP poll. He probably had a “it couldn’t happen here” attitude (I thought that too) because paying attention to her just validates her. It seemed to me that basically from the Summer of Spittle on that Castle was trying to have it both ways — moderate and conservative. I wonder what would have happened if he was calling out the batshit crazy — gone all Bob Inglis on everyone. Would that have energized the real moderates and those Dems inclined to vote for him?
Would that have energized the real moderates and those Dems inclined to vote for him?
That still wouldn’t help him with a closed primary unless he really inspired them to register Republican to vote for him.
I agree with previous posters that a lot of this is deserved by Castle. What was he doing to build the party and train new generations of Mike Castle Republicans?
Win or lose, I think the Republican party has a serious issue on its hands. Neither candidate will be able to unite these two factions.
Yes, Cassandra, I agree that Castle’s response is lame. He’s basically saying the people responding to the survey are too stupid to know if they’re eligible to vote.
Cheer Up! O’Donnell is unelectable in this state and most people with a full set of teeth know it. Unlike the pathetic John McCain Castle can’t tack to the right, Delaware won’t buy it so O’Donnells got a lock on the far right. It Does Not Matter: There aren’t enough ‘Baggers to make a difference in the general election. Check This:Went to Dover yesterday and saw Tea Baggers out in force north of town. Gathered at a corner by the Scarborough rd. light thier signs read “Honk if you support Christine!!!”. All they got was The Finger!!! Chris Coons: Christmas comes early!
i think that the issue of the moderates switching parties to D to vote for Markell was significant in the current castle/OD mess.
castle should have recognized this early and worked hard on voter registration, bringing moderates back to DE’s R rolls. So should have the R party.
what they (Castle & the DE GOP) missed is that tbaggerz have passion, and passion overcomes a lot
this is much less of a factor for Coons, as his ground-game is WAY ahead of Castle’s (I hear that it is ahead of Markell’s 2008 ground game).
I agree that Castle’s heart wasn’t in it, and at a minimum the candidate needs passion to overcome a passionate fringe such as DE’s tbaggerz
let’s not start the party yet. he may still win this thing. I just worry what the extremists will do WHEN their Teabag Princess of the East ultimately looses. Im not at all convinced they WONT use violence.
Most of the people in the prediction thread are still picking Castle.
It’s not just the tea party. The entire republican party has written off Mike Castle, from the top of national leadership, down. It’s gotten to the point, if you are a Republican, you can’t call yourself one and vote for Mike Castle.
I feel sorry for Mike Castle but wonder if it is better for Delawareans to be given a clear choice of direction which we want to take this country.
Face, it: how effective has Mike Castle been over the entire time of the Bush Administration, when he was fundamentally different from the Republican plurality?
What did we get for sending a great guy, one we all know and love, to Congress?
We got quarters.
Ok, let’s move on and by setting up a contest where the ideas of Democrats battle the ideas of Republicans, is the best way to first figure out where we want to go, and second get us started in that direction.
a.pryce, I hope they do. I’ve got an answer to them. We’ve got an organized response for them. Democrats support the NRA, and I’m glad to have ’em. I’ve been shot ergo I support firearm regulation. Thing is, I don’t need a gun, I only need an excuse. As much as I wish America would go the way of MLK and peace and non-violent advancement, it ain’t gonna happen. Those Dbags want to incite war, they want the end of times, some black cow in Palestine. I want to beat my swords into ploughshares,and the fields I work will be fertilized with the blood of religious ideologues. Christian or Islam, same threat to me.
Where did he go wrong?
He’s an incumbent that’s been around for 3 or 4 decades. That’s what he’s done wrong
A lot of people think it’ll be great for the wing nuts to win tomorrow on the republican side. It could be a disaster for the Republicans and the Democrats though. These people play very dirty and are to be considered dangerous just for breathing the same air as the rest of us. What they’re slinging at Castle will be flung far and wide at Democrats up and down the state. It could be the ugliest general election in Delaware history where civility and issues have generally reined. A lot of good people will fall victim to Christine O’Donnell politics. Be careful what you wish for.
This whole Tea Party situation scares the — out of me and should scare him too!
Like MJ said, he should have debated her. She attacked his record and stuck to the issues. He ignored the issues, and attacked her personally. For what it’s worth, that doesn’t fly down here amongst the great unwashed and the culturally deprived.
That, and that gooey, effeminate, RINO handshake of his.
In the general if the Dems vote for Castle (as they have in the past…..helping him to overstay his office) he’ll win.
His biggest mistake was agreeing to run when his heart clearly wasn’t in it. How many deadlines did he set and then push back?
He was wined and dined by the NRSC and ultimately couldn’t say no. He ran a campaign that practically shouted, “My heart’s not in this.”
All true. I think it was the NRSC and the thought that O’Whackjob could be the Republican nominee. Oh the irony!! It burns.
Looks like we’re going to have another Democrat in Washington!
Mike couldn’t have done anything against a PAC Lieing Machine, except what he did which was to dispute the lies with the truth.
The Tea Party Express works like this:
If you tell a lie often enough people tend to believe it as the truth just like Joseph Goebbels the Nazi Propagandist did.
I just thought the people of Delaware were smarted than to go and believe her lies, but I guess they like drinking that Kool Aid:)
“She attacked his record and stuck to the issues.”
If you’ve heard the ads, you know what a stretch that is. I really don’t remember either his vote against “God” in the pledge of allegiance, or that being an important issue. But I guess you shot your gun today, so you’ve got a stiffy to deal with here.