Tag Archives: Mike Castle

New Rasmussen Poll – Little Change In Senate Race

Rasmussen released a new poll of the Delaware U.S. Senate race and it still shows Castle with a lead, but he’s still under 50%.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Castle earning 48% of the vote, while Coons gets 37% support. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and nine percent (9%) remain undecided.

The race is little changed from early last month, when Castle held a 49% to 37% edge over Coons, a country executive who has never sought statewide office. July was the first time in Rasmussen Reports surveying of the race this year that support for Castle dipped below the 50% mark.

…

Coons leads conservative activist Christine O’Donnell, who is challenging Castle for the GOP Senate nomination in a primary next Tuesday, by a 47% to 36% margin. Given that matchup, eight percent (8%) prefer another candidate, while nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Last month, Coons held a similar 46% to 36% lead over O’Donnell after the candidates were virtually tied in July.

Castle captures 71% of the GOP vote, while O’Donnell earns 63% support among voters in her own party. While Coons is backed by 70% of Democrats against O’Donnell, he earns the vote from just 55% of Democratic voters when matched against Castle. Voters not affiliated with either major party prefer Castle over Coons but favor the Democrat if O’Donnell is his opponent.

Rasmussen didn’t poll the Republican primary match-up. Also, Rasmussen has not polled the DE-AL race. I guess that goes against the Democratic doom story they want to sell.

Tea-mentum

The Tea Party Express has released a poll showing Christine O’Donnell within striking distance of Mike Castle in the U.S. Senate primary. From Talking Points Memo:

But according to the Tea Party Express, they’ve been made aware of “some shockingly good news” about the race. The group released yesterday a Tea Party Express commissioned a poll of GOP voters that shows 43.7% Castle-38% O’Donnell, suggesting the result means Castle “is on the verge of seeing his political career come to an end.”

I don’t see anything about the internals of the poll, so take it with a grain of salt. If this is accurate it could explain why Castle is reacting so vigorously – he’s under 50% and it shows a lot of undecideds.

How Low Can O’Donnell Go?

Pretty damn low. Politico reports:

The newscast-style video on Liberty.com features a woman seated before a backdrop of Liberty.com’s Las Vegas headquarters, criticizing Castle and praising O’Donnell.

“Isn’t Mike Castle cheating on his wife with a man?” asks a voice off-screen at the 1:55 mark.

“That’s the rumor,” answers the newscaster. (A short clip of the exchange is above.)

My colleague Dave Catanese reported earlier this month that O’Donnell’s spokesman, Yates Walker, works for Liberty.com, and the American Spectator described Eric Odom, the group’s founder, as having “joined Team O’Donnell” to organize online support.

Walker told me he and the firm left the campaign two weeks ago and produced the video on their own.

Here’s the part of the video in question (you can watch the whole video here):

Just in case you think that the O’Donnell campaign is trying to keep some plausible deniability, here’s the comment of Yates Walker, O’Donnell’s former spokesman:

Walker said he had no compunction about repeating the rumor about Castle because “he’s a threat to American sovereignty.”

All I have to add is boo hiss. There’s really no low they won’t sink to.

Is Mike Castle Feeling The Heat?

On Friday we wrote about a Chris Coons press release criticizing Castle for attending yet another stimulus event. Castle’s campaign had a rather bizarre response:

The fact is that the bike lane was funded by the Delaware Department of Transportation. It is true that Rep. Mike Castle is a strong supporter of recreation opportunities in this area, including the bike lane on the bridge, and has secured funding for the coordinated federal, state, and local effort to create the C&D Canal Recreation Trail.

“Congressman Castle has fought for and secured federal dollars for this area of Delaware over the years and continues to support the state’s needs for federal funds that have already been appropriated. Voters in Delaware know what the Coons campaign does not — The nation is in debt and the rate of spending that he supports has got to stop in order to get the economy back on track. Chris has spent $360,000 of New Castle County residents’ tax dollars in lobbying fees to his campaign donors and regularly raises our taxes, it is no wonder that he doesn’t realize that we are in a budget crisis.

I’m not even sure what he’s saying – is he blaming Chris Coons for the U.S. deficit? I guess Mike Castle wants you to ignore his 18 years in Washington.

I’m a bit surprised that Castle is feeling some heat from Christine O’Donnell’s campaign as well. This time, though, he relied on the Delaware GOP to have a response:

Back in Delaware, O’Donnell has been cited repeatedly lying to voters and manipulating her own political history. Recently, O’Donnell has claimed that she won two out of three counties in Delaware in her 2008 race against then-Senator Joe Biden. Election results show that Biden won overwhelmingly against O’Donnell and that she did not win any counties in the state of Delaware. In addition to this blatant spin on reality, O’Donnell yesterday told Politico that she had not sought the endorsement of the Constitution Party of Delaware. But last week, The News Journal reported that O’Donnell had pushed to be on the November ballot for the election, quoting Constitution Party Chairman Pell Sherman.

“O’Donnell is hoping that voters have a short-term memory and ignore her record in Delaware,” said Tom Ross, Delaware GOP Chairman. “Sadly, Christine continues to avoid the tough questions and will spin her own reality with the hope that the national press won’t catch on.” He went on to note how O’Donnell is seldom seen in Delaware and never misses an opportunity to seek endorsements and coverage outside the state.

Her campaign appears to be getting desperate as the Republican primary is only two weeks away. The most recent Rasmussen poll has shown her support drop by five points in only a month to 36 percent – robbing her of the talking point that she would beat Democrat Chris Coons in November.

O’Donnell’s campaign is no doubt desperate but why is Castle paying attention to her at all?

Stimulus Money: Mike Castle Can’t Quit You

Mike Castle loooooves that stimulus money. Too bad he didn’t vote for it. The NJ’sDialogue Delaware flags a statement by Chris Coons on Castle’s continuing stimulus hypocrisy:

Mike Castle attended another event in the state that was the product of federal funding he voted against, the Chris Coons campaign pointed out Friday.

Castle was at the ribbon cutting for a bike lane on the St. George’s Bridge on Friday, along with DelDOT representatives and Gov. Jack Markell.

…

It must be pointed out that Congressman Castle voted against needed infrastructure projects and it is wrong of the Congressman to promote projects at home that he voted against in Washington. Delaware voters expect more from their leaders,” said Daniel McElhatton, spokesperson for U.S. Senate candidate Chris Coons.

For 16 of his 18 years in Congress, Castle strongly supported funding for Delaware state and local governments, non-profits, schools and hospitals. Earlier this year – and at the political direction of his Republican Leader John Boehner – Congressman Castle ended his long standing support of Congressional appropriations, and dropped support for Delaware projects.

Coons’ campaign spokesperson Daniel McElhatton said, “In attending these events Congressman Castle clearly wants to create the impression that he supports these projects when in fact voted against them and the jobs they create.

Ahhhh, smell the hypocrisy!

Castle Hypocrisy Watch: Hit Him Where It Hurts

Chris Coons is really starting to ratchet up his campaign now. He’s starting to hit on the themes that he will use in November’s election. Coons has the opportunity to be forceful (and truthful) but not in a nasty way. He sent out the following in an email:

Just yesterday, Congressman Mike Castle sent his supporters an email that said this election was a choice between fiscal responsibility and “reckless disregard” for the nation’s debt.

He’s right.

Congressman Castle voted repeatedly to deregulate Wall Street, then to bail out Wall Street executives, to raise his own pay by $40,000 and to support Republican spending priorities that have exploded our nation’s deficit. He even voted against the responsible ‘pay-as-you-go’ budgeting practice to make sure Congress can continue ratcheting up the debt.

Talk about reckless.

Exactly! Mike Castle may be playing a born-again fiscal conservative but he was a key player in enacting the Republican policies that got us into this mess. Castle can’t pretend that he wasn’t part of Washington at the time.

Perhaps between O’Donnell pummeling Castle on the right and Coons pummeling Castle from the left.

O’Donnell Gets Another Endorsement

Talking Points Memo has the scoop on the latest group to endorse Christine O’Donnell. It’s another Tea Party group and they have dire warnings about Mike Castle.

To the Tea Party, a vote for Delaware Senate hopeful Mike Castle (R) is a vote for a Democrat. Literally. Conservatives there are warning fellow tea partiers that if Castle gets elected, he’ll pull an Arlen Specter and switch parties when the going gets tough. So they’re endorsing his primary rival, Christine O’Donnell, instead.

“We are confident Christine O’Donnell will beat Mike Castle in the upcoming primary,” , Delaware Vice President of the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC. “Christine is a strong grassroots favorite. While her opponent has the support of establishment types, Christine has the support of the people.”

The group’s president, Don Adams, took things even further, explicitly comparing Castle to Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-lame duck Arlen Specter.

“Our PAC Board endorses the most viable conservative candidates,” said Adams. “Unfortunately, Mike Castle is not a conservative–in fact, he’s a potential Arlen Specter.”

I feel like I’m watching “The Life of Brian” with the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea. Just how many of these Tea Party groups are there anyway? I’m sure O’Donnell is thrilled with the latest endorsement – so when’s the Mama Grizzly herself going to step in?

Chris Coons Hits Castle on Deficit Hypocrisy

Or maybe we could call this another float in the Mike Castle hypocrisy parade. From a recent Chris Coons press release:

Recently, 18-year Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware told a reporter from Al-Jazeera: “People are beginning to grasp that the fiscal mismanagement in Washington which has caused a lot of indebtedness, a lot of borrowing, ultimately interest rate increases, and some great problems in the future needs to be managed.”

“Congressman Castle has been in Congress for 18 years, and voting for indebtedness, borrowing, supporting the Bush tax breaks for the rich and bailing out Wall Street banks and now he tells a reporter that Washington should be managed better? He had the opportunity to reject the failed ideas of the past and he didn’t – it is time for a new approach,” said Chris Coons campaign spokesperson Daniel F. McElhatton.

McElhatton further stated, “The open U.S. Senate seat in Delaware is drawing national and international attention and for the first time Congressman Castle is going to have to account for saying one thing in Delaware and doing another in Washington.”

This is the blog post where Castle is quoted.

I hope that Chris and his campaign will point out over and over again that Castle has been voting — especially for the Bush term — specifically to increase deficits via tax cuts, via Medicare Part D, via wars not paid for among other things. At no time was he ever concerned about paying for any of those things and the lack of fiscal discipline is one reason why we are struggling to get out of the Bush Recession. This effort to pretend to some fiscal responsibility should always be accompanied with a reminder that Castle never cared about that when a Republican was President. And now look where we are.

Part of this year’s election rhetoric from repubs is an effort to rewrite history — to make pretend that the deficits faced by the country are new and created under President Obama’s administration. That is, of course, a lie. The vast majority of these deficits were racked up by George W. Bush and Mike Castle. It is time — really — for someone in the press to start asking Castle why he voted for all of the old deficit-creating stuff if he is (now) such a deficit hawk.

More like this, please, Coons Campaign!

Mike Castle Supports….Filibuster Reform?

Mike Castle is clearly not worried about Christine O’Donnell’s challenge. He’s been positioning himself to the left lately (perhaps worried about his numbers at <50%). Just this week he voted yes on the new $26B state aid bill which allowed teachers, firefighters, police and other state workers to keep their jobs. Bold guerilla blogger Mike Stark caught up with Mike Castle on Tuesday and asked Castle whether he would support filibuster reform.

Castle is the Republican Senate candidate from Delaware. I asked him if he’d consider joining with other Senators to change the Senate filibuster rules. He said, “I might,” and continued to say that this would be something he may speak about before the election.

I’m quite surprised by this. Filibuster reform is not on many people’s radar right now but clearly Castle is going to position himself as someone who will get things done and perhaps as a power broker (like Scott Brown or Olympia Snowe).

PPP Delaware Poll: Republicans

One of the disappointing things about the newly-released PPP Poll was that the Republican primaries were not polled. There’s plenty of raw numbers to look at though. Can we get any hints of how the primaries might go from the raw data? Let’s take a look.

PPP has broken down the approval numbers several ways. One way was by who the voter chose for president in the 2008 election. How do the Republican candidates stack up?

McCain voters Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable (Favorable-Unfavorable)
Mike Castle – 54/31/16/+12
Christine O’Donnell – 32/29/39/+3
Michele Rollins – 22/22/56/0
Glenn Urquhart – 23/18/59/+5

This crude analysis shows that Castle beats O’Donnell handily. O’Donnell’s name recognition is still low so she definitely has room to move up however her favorables are low. The Rollins/Urquhart is a toss-up with a slight lean towards Urquhart. Both Rollins and Urquhart are both largely unknown so this race is quite fluid.

PPP also broke down the numbers by self-reported ideology. Republicans in Delaware would probably label themselves as either “moderate” or “conservative” (I realize that there’s a lot of overlap of moderates with both Independents and Democrats).

Conservatives Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable
Mike Castle – 46/39/15/+7
Christine O’Donnell – 37/23/40/+14
Michele Rollins – 21/19/59/+2
Glenn Urquhart – 25/14/61/+9

O’Donnell has her best showing among conservatives but still trails Castle. Despite rumors to the contrary, Castle is popular among conservatives. Urquhart has a clear advantage with conservatives over Rollins.

What about moderates?
Moderates Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable
Mike Castle – 56/25/18/+31
Christine O’Donnell – 15/38/47/-23
Michele Rollins – 16/27/57/-9
Glenn Urquhart – 12/21/67/-9

Castle is beloved by self-reported moderates. All other Republican candidates are in negative territory, which shows why Republicans have trouble winning in Delaware. Despite having the News Journal declare her a moderate, Rollins is clearly not catching on. She has the same rating with mderates as Glenn Urquhart. I assume Urquhart’s negatives will go up with moderates once they watch Urquhart’s Nazi comments.

One last analysis – how do the Republican candidates rate among Republicans?

Republicans Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure/Net Favorable
Mike Castle – 60/25/16/+35
Christine O’Donnell – 34/29/37/+5
Michele Rollins – 27/17/57/+10
Glenn Urquhart – 23/17/59/+6

Castle is popular with Republicans no matter which way you look at the numbers. O’Donnell has an uphill climb. Rollins finally comes out ahead of Urquhart in this match-up so I call their race a toss-up as of now.

What advice do you give each of these candidates? My advice:
Castle – Ignore O’Donnell, keep doing what you’re doing
O’Donnell – Go relentlessly negative to drive down Castle’s numbers. Be sure to get your base support of conservatives out to vote. If you have money, now would be a good time to spend it.
Rollins – Quit sitting on your load of cash and start spending some, otherwise you could lose to Urquhart. Since Urquhart is probably the conservatives’ candidate you have nothing to lose by moving to the left and appealing to moderates. Try to link yourself to Castle more aggressively.
Urquhart – Spend money to raise your name recognition & profile & make sure conservatives come to vote in the primaries

Delaware PPP Poll Results

PPP has just released their poll results for Delaware. There are a lot of results, so I’m sure this will lead to a lot of blog posts. Here’s the headline numbers:

DE-Sen

Public Policy Polling (PDF) for Daily Kos. 8/7-8. Registered voters. MoE 4% (No trendlines)

If the candidates for US Senate this fall were Republican Mike Castle and Democrat Chris Coons, who would you vote for?

All Dem GOP Ind
Chris Coons (D) 35 55 12 23
Mike Castle (R) 48 30 75 50
Undecided 17 15 13 27

Chris Coons (D) 44 67 17 29
Christine O’Donnell (R) 37 16 67 40
Undecided 19 16 15 31

Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure

Coons 31/31/39
Dem 42/25
GOP 19/40
Ind 23/30

Castle 51/32/18
Dem 47/35
GOP 60/25
Ind 49/32

O’Donnell’s Favorable/Unfavorable/Not Sure %s: 23/34/44

The latest numbers are very similar to the Rasmussen numbers from the last two weeks. Castle has a solid lead, but remains under 50%. Coons is still largely unknown and has more room to grow.

DE-AL

Carney leads Rollins 48-31 and leads Urquhart 48-30. Carney leads either Rollins of Urquhart in every county.

Carney’s Favorable/unfavorable/Not Sure: 31/24/45
Rollins F/U/NS: 18/25/57
Urquhart F/U/NS: 15/20/65

None of the candidates have extremely high name recognition. Carney’s is the best, but it’s still below that of Chris Coons despite his stint as Lt. Governor.

Other favorable/unfavorable/not sure from the survey:
President Obama: 50/44/6
Senator Carper: 47/33/20
Senator Kaufman: 37/30/33
Governor Markell: 50/32/18

So the winner of the popularity contest is *drumroll* Mike Castle with +19% approval! Close behind is Governor Markell with +18, followed by Tom Carper with +14, Senator Kaufman with +7 and President Obama with +6.

Mike Castle In Trouble Is Going Mainstream

Could the fact that perhaps Mike Castle is not a shoo-in for election to the Senate be breaking through into the mainstream? Now it’s Fox News (which is highly influential for a propaganda outfit):

And he appears to be doing just that. His slow but steady rise in the polls, coupled with a first for Castle as he dipped below the 50 percent mark in a mid-July Rasmussen poll, has some Republicans scratching their heads in wonder. Could this be a sleeper race?

By all accounts, Castle is the odds-on favorite. Cook Political Report senior editor Jennifer Duffy says the Republican still has a comfortable lead with plenty of money in the bank, there has been no “forcing event” – that is, an unpredictable game-changer, so the respected publication sees no reason, as yet, to change its rating for the race from “Leans Republican.”

“Part of it is Castle. He was the candidate Republicans needed to run,” Duffy said, though noting, “No doubt, Castle does have a race.”

I totally agree with this so far. There hasn’t been an event to change the race much but Castle is moving back to under 50% to where he was polling going against Beau Biden. I like this next part, and this is exactly what Chris Coons wants to see.

Democrats then quickly embraced the young, energetic county executive, trying to hold onto the seat that would have comfortably stayed in Democratic hands under Sen. Biden, while Republicans relished a potentially embarrassing pick-up that could also include the Illinois seat Obama once held, as well.

Remember early on when Coons first jumped in, many thought the secret to success was for Coons to contrast “young, energetic, good campaigner” with Castle’s age. And Coons needed to do this without explicitly saying Castle is old. In this case, Fox is doing it for him.

The rest of the article lays out the challenges for Coons – the money disadvantage, name recognition and Castle’s popularity. It also briefly mention’s O’Donnell’s challenge to Castle before dismissing her.

I find it a bit ironic that Fox’s take on the race is much, much smarter than David Broder.

Memory Lane

It was a younger, more innocent time. Remember when Crazy Eileen was crazy instead of the base & energy of the Republican Party?

The first meeting where we really got to see the birthers and the teabaggers take over was June 30, 2009 (sorry, we missed the anniversary). Jason first posted the video on DL on July 18. A few days later, Crazy Eileen went viral.

It was interesting wading through the archives to find this post. There were quite a few posts by various authors about how Republicans were becoming the Crazy Eileen party and how this would hurt them in the long run. I’m not sure what the outcome of the midterms is going to be yet but the extremism of some of the Republican candidates means Republicans will lose some seats that they would have won (like Nevada). We also speculated whether Mike Castle would be the victim of a wingnut uprising. The O’Donnell fans are making a lot of noise right now but whether that’s more than noise is still an open question right now.