Some Friendly, Unsolicited Advice for the Delaware GOP
The Delaware Republican Party gambled big in Tuesday’s primary. To borrow a poker analogy, the DE GOP went “all in” on Mike Castle, and lost. But unlike poker, losing doesn’t end the game. The DE GOP still exists, with the same chairman and the same staff that it had before Christine O’Donnell defeated Castle to capture the party’s Senate nomination. Castle’s defeat puts the party in a terrible position (largely but not totally of its own making), and the evidence so far is that the party doesn’t see just how bad that position is. It’s continuing to sound off against O’Donnell, refusing to endorse her or even help her during the seven weeks that stand between the primary and the general election.
The timeline of Delaware’s convention and primary to some extent dictated that this would turn out bloody. At the party’s state convention in May, Castle won the Senate nomination handily with over 70% of the vote. Winning at the state convention, with the primary six four months away, usually means winning the primary. From the looks of things 1,500 miles away in Austin, the DE GOP convention looks like it’s timed to be a coronation that clears the primary field, more or less, for the party’s chosen candidate. That probably works in most years, but 2010 isn’t most years.
After defeat at the convention, O’Donnell didn’t take the vote of the party’s hardcore faithful as the last word, and resumed her campaign. It’s not too hard to see why: Delaware’s GOP convention was probably attended by a few hundred people at the most, while the state’s Republican primary voting body numbers in the tens of thousands. Many Tea Party gatherings probably outnumber the state party’s own convention. The conventioneers are the party’s delegates chosen by other party folks at the local level, but given Delaware’s tiny size and its moderate leanings, those conventioneers aren’t necessarily very conservative or very representative of this year’s angry and motivated electorate.
This year is the Tea Party year, and O’Donnell had the Tea Party in her corner. Castle was popular statewide but vulnerable on the right because of his voting record, and he wasn’t popular at all among the Tea Party activists. With six four months between the convention and the primary, it obviously wasn’t impossible for O’Donnell to turn things around in time to win where it counted with state election law, and that’s the September primary, not the May convention. The state party was left in a bind, caught between the candidate who looked the most viable and had actually won the nomination at the convention, and the upstart who for whatever reasons had obviously made enemies among the party’s establishment and was continuing her campaign against the presumed nominee. As a former state party hack, I don’t envy them a bit.
O’Donnell’s win leaves the Delaware GOP as a rump party. It has one elected official statewide now, and its Senate nominee is to a great extent an enemy. O’Donnell may be more of an enemy even than the Democratic nominee, Chris Coons, because of the party’s aggressive campaign against her. There have already been calls for the state chairman, Tom Ross, to resign over the party’s actions.
O’ Donnell’s best bet is to paint her Democratic opponent as the hard leftist he seems to be, and then ask in her ads “Who is the real extremist?”.
This tactic has actually worked reasonably well for Sharron Angle, who is facing a far more formidable opponent, although admittedly she has the advantage (for her) of running in a state that unlike Delaware, is an economic basket case.
I was totally blown away with the republican party reaction to this win.
There is no reason she could not win if the republican social club would back her.
It was totally disgusting and down right disheartening to see this reaction .
Carl Rove might be right,but he should have kept his mouth shut and realized the public spoke and got behind her. Now there will be bad blood and the left will use this.
Just more infighting creating losers, again.
What’s done is done. I don’t see why Tom Ross would want to keep his job at this point — pushing a candidate he doesn’t believe in. There’s a place for him in conservative/libertarian/whatever politics for him somewhere. Let him and that place find each other.
Well said. But, you know, let the establishment fight against us. It only reinforces to the independents that we know the party is crap too, and are trying to fix it. Maybe some will join us in the battle. We have an unconstituional establishment of a two party system, so we have take at least one back before we can get on to dismantling Leviathan.
We the People of the Tea Party have not become activated only to become pawns of the GOP. Yes, we strongly oppose the policies and agenda of the “progressives” (socialists), but we will no longer tolerate condescension from either party. We will no longer accept the “shut up, we know better than you” attitude from either party. We will no longer tolerate being ignored, or treated like unruly children. We will not sit down and shut up, and we’re not going to go away.
Message to the GOP: No more business as usual. We will no longer be content to accept whatever you offer us. We will choose our own representatives, those who will truly represent OUR interests, rather than those of the party bosses. That is how our representatives were intended to be elected. You can either accept and embrace us, or try to make due without us.
The tea parties are not a GOP wing. They are a revolt against the “governing party” some of which is the GOP establishment. The DE GOP does not have much of a track record; after all the election is to fill the seat of a clown named Biden.
Exactly! Castle voted w/statists much of the time, so at least now there’s a chance of a conservative voice. The dems must be loving this infighting going on right now – it takes the attention away from their divided party. The GOP insiders have let us down repeatedly – RINOs have gone along to get along and look where it’s got us. This throwing in the towel before the game begins is good for one party only: the Democrat party.
The news reported that Castle was contacted by Obama and BiteMe today..I ask why? Was he on the dole for the liberals… Is this the main reason everyone is so upset?
Mike Castle’s best bet would be to throw his support to O’Donnell. Not because O’Donnell is a better candidate. She isn’t. But because his party, the GOP, needs that seat if they are going to take the Senate majority. By doing that he would demonstrate that he’s a real leader in his state, and more than a competent time server. Let the local and national party hierarchy have their hissy fit. If his support for his opponent can make the difference between minority and majority status he’ll be golden. And if O’Donnell implodes in office then he’ll be perfectly placed to replace her.
This is a great point.
But as with Crist and Murkowski and Specter and so many others, the self-interest (and in some cases spite) won’t allow them to work toward their medium-to-long term interest. They want revenge.
Hopefully, Castle takes the excellent kind of advice you highlight here.
hey yinz….GO STEELERS….(a former Aliquippa guy in Chicago)
so far he has not and it all looks petty. he’s making a fool of himself. He lost, period. The people rejected him. He needs to start dancing the party line. Such a little minded man.
No, nor are they supposed to be machines for enriching and aggrandizing their operators. But that’s what both our major parties have become. Protestations of party principles and oaths of ideological fidelity have become mere lures for the valuta of the unwary.
I was once importuned to take a role in the county GOP. It didn’t take long for me to learn that that would involve agreeing to sacrifice my own principles and march in lockstep with the local power brokers. That’s no way to pursue a dream of freedom.
Unfortunately, it seems that the interests of those running the DE GOP may be aligned better with an O’Donnell loss than with a win. That’s because a Senator O’Donnell would have the capacity to clean house among the DE GOP party that a non-Senator citizen O’Donnell would not. Would the DE GOP party operatives favor their own short-term interests which would surely alienate the majority of DE GOP voters? I’ve no idea, but the next card must be played by Ross & the other party leaders, and doing nothing to help O’Donnell is a tell in itself.
The DE tea party needs to get its hands on the party rules and fill every open precinct leadership spot available with a local candidate at the next party election. I would not be shocked if a large number of these precinct leaders are appointed, not elected right now and coming in from outside their district, perhaps even a majority. The GOP establishment has built their power on sand and the foundation is appointed committemen who vote in the town chairmen and county chairmen who make up the state committee.
Pitard…Hoisted…all of you..RESIGN NOW….message sent….leave…go away gracefully or we will march on the castle…(lol..we already did that didn’t we)……
This is what the GOP deserves for abdicating thier “message” to Palin and the various talk show hosts. The GOP good-ol-boy establishment network has presented no new ideas and no coherent direction. Why to they keep backing the usual suspect political operatives. Maybe that don;t really care about the little people (middle class); maybe they’re just all about the power game.
The Delaware voters’ message is clear (and the GOP establishment elites should see it): No more Dems’ lite activity on the part of Pub congresscritters; if we want a Democrat, we’ll vote for one.
Any organization tends to bend liberal after a while. I think I read that somewhere. The GOP is no different even here in Texas, as you well know Bryan as former RPT Comm director. If it were really true that the GOP wanted to support THE PEOPLE in their desire for a conservative, small, and transparent government then NO SPOKESPERSON for the NRSC would have felt confident in saying that they were not going to support O’Donnell if she won. Cornyn (R-tx) didn’t fire anybody over that and moved to show they could offer support but only after a Twitter storm. The next two years will show a wholesale washing of the state executive committees and county/precinct chairs…especially if they think they can follow their last time at bat with an encore presentation of the same.
O’Donnell is a liar who hasn’t held a real job in decades. She lied about her education, she defaulted on her student loans and her mortgage. Her only visible means of support seems to be continuously running for Senate. For someone who made honesty one of the cornerstones of her campaign, she’s got a very casual relationship with the truth. She sued her former employer for mental anguish and sex discrimination although she was eventually forced to drop the suit. Her message may be conservative but her record is anything but.
it’s hard to imagine any issue she’d like to talk about during the general election will get much attention when these questions are still dogging her. I know it’s not polite to say these things, best to bury our heads in the sand and pretend they don’t exist, but they’re not going away.
So you’re saying she’s more like a democrat than republican? Hmmmmm.
Sounds like a far left Democrat to me.
C’mon Nick you can do better than that. Isn’t it time for you to do the “Full Sarah”. Typical Democrat, when you can not run on the issues it’s time to attack attack attack.
MY NICK MY NICK…ALL THESE THINGS HAVE BEEN EXPLORED, EXPLAINED, AND SHE STILL GOT MORE VOTES.
Are you talking about Barack Obama?
Troll, troll, silly troll -
Get a better hymn page -
The problem I see with O’Donnell is that from a social perspective, she is not a true conservative. She is a radical anti-abortion and anti-birth control jihadist. Many persons who oppose elective abortion will still reluctantly support it in cases of rape or incest. Not O’Donnell.
She also supports abstinence-only sex education, which means no birth control, even condoms. Individual families should have the right to control their reproduction. O’Donnell would take away those rights and substitute state-driven religious dogma as a means of controlling elements of citizens’ personal and private lives. This is not conservative and definitely not libertarian. So much for limited government.
Unpack that statement. Are you saying that Mrs. O’Donnell is against the use of birth control by everyone, or that she merely advocates not pressing it on minors through the “public” schools? If the latter, I’m with her. If the former…well, you’d better be able to prove such an allegation.
Ms. O’Donnell does not confine her anti-abstinence campaign to public schools or even to youth. Do some research, especially into her Saviour group. I consider her a CINO (conservative in name only).
I have done some research, and here’s what I’ve found:
1. Mrs. O’Donnell is an orthodox, practicing Roman Catholic. She subscribes to the Church’s teachings about masturbation and birth control.
2. Mrs. O’Donnell has not, as far as I’m aware, argued that birth control (or masturbation) should be made illegal.
3. Several media commentators, and opponents of Mrs. O’Donnell, have attempted to imply that because she holds orthodox Catholic beliefs about birth control, masturbation, premarital sex, etc., she will attempt to push them into the law. This is commonplace when a devout Catholic runs for office. Indeed, it’s one of the reasons devout Catholics tend not to run for office.
Do you know different? Do you have citations of Mrs. O’Donnell’s actual public statements that I can verify? Or are you merely unhappy that someone who holds views about sexual conduct that differ from yours has put herself forward for a high office?
hmmmm…masturbation. now if she tries to make that illegal, we won’t vote for her. =];)
“YOU voted for her, WE won’t back her.”
Now, just exactly whose face is being slapped here?
The DE GOP is throwing a hissy fit because the people who cast votes didn’t act like good little lapdogs, sit, roll over, fetch and speak on command.
When you operate in a fiefdom, you expect the serfs, minions and lackeys to know their place. One arrogant prig said that O’Donnell couldn’t be elected dog catcher…and the mass media propagandists and journalista crowd are sure to replay that over and over and over again.
Maybe she can’t. But she sure beat a bunch of arrogant, snarling curs in the primary.
Look, she stormed the Castle. They are still looking for some boiling pitch to throw on her after the fact. Insane. Who does that help? It can’t possibly help Castle now.
It most certainly doesn’t help the constituency. They are more interested in themselves than they are in the people they are mandated to represent. THAT was the problem before the vote, that is still the problem today after the vote…and if it continues to be the problem tomorrow, then these are fools who are so self-absorbed they can’t be trusted with positions of leadership and authority.
Like most political creatures, they are born with four mouths and no ears. They. Need. To. Listen.
There isn’t a single “I” in We, the People.
Until these professional “me firsts” learn that, they are useless.
Absolutely spot on. YOU must learn to adapt. WE don’t have to. YOU must accept our “compromises”. WE will not accept yours.
Sounds like the DRP needs a wholesale purging. Send them off to the gulag in Louisianna [no offense intended].
“Like most political creatures, they are born with four mouths and no ears. They. Need. To. Listen.”
Agreed, and strongly so. But they wont listen, never will, no matter WHO gets elected.
Politicians are for the most part, ego driven power hungry and just plain evil. They dont listen to anyone because sound of their own voice is the most important thing to them. Goes for Both sides. Party machinery is set up to support the Machine, not anything WE want or need.
In the Northeast, RINOS abound because the mental outlook of most politicians is typical of what the Big D’s think the world should look like: Elitists with absolute power over the little people, and zero accountability on their part (financial or otherwise).
But for the occasional insencere posturing on whatever hot button issue (islam, race, guns, abortion) they think will differentiate them from “the other guy”, they are always the same liers and thieves no matter what stripe they claim to be.
Opportunistic “me too” wannabe Casers will sometimes join the “opposition” party, but are really no different. Its just their schtick to get into the Palace. Subtle shades of gray to pretend they offer a choice. If the other party had the room on a ticket, and the inclination to offer support to their campaign, they would be there in a heartbeat.
Thats why you have RINOS in the Notheast, and “conservative” Democrats in the south and west. They’ll say anything to get into the palace. Its all about THEM, never about US.
The Tea Party will eventually go the same way….as soon as the thrill is gone and they get in an office with tax-funded expense accounts and staffers. Human nature doesnt change. Politicians are politicians. Liares and theives are liers and thieves
Ignore them all, hide your money as best you can, and keep your guns close by.
That noble experiment died a long LONG time ago.
Its all hell in a handbasket now, no matter who wins an election.
I have the perfect solution as to how O’Donnel can beat Coons, the bearded marxist. She needs to ask him three questions while stumping over and over again. One, Will you support the REPEAL of Obamacare if elected? Two, Will you vote against cap and trade? Three, Will you support cutting programs throughout the entire gov. and honor a simple 51 vote majority to approve the cutting and vow to not raise income tax on anyone? If he has to equivicate on anyone of these issues then she has him boxed in. Just asking the questions puts her in the driver’s seat and him in the hot seat.
Seems simple enough. If she can hammer home the idea that a vote for Coons specifically, and Democrats or RINO’s in general, is another vote for Obamacare. A vote for Coons is a vote for your electric bill to go up, your grocery bill to go up, a vote for your price at the pump to go up. But a vote for O’Donnel is a vote against all of these, and a vote for a decrease of federal taxes of all kinds.
I think that journalists and political party hacks are more concerned about this than most folks. I’ve been around for a lot of years and there have been many, many elections where I held my nose and voted for a candidate that I determined was less of a threat than the other guy or gal. I suspect Delaware voters will do the same come November.
Sounds like the DE Republican establishment like their “perks and power” just the way it is. Don’t rock the boat, baby!!!!!!!!!
Well. If you ever wondered how the Whigs got tossed into the old dust bin. These “internal” fights are exactly what preceded the Whig march into the history books that not even our school children read.
The Tea Party and those that support and sympathize with them, have no need to live within the auspices of the GOP. If you remove the truly Red States of MA, MD, CA, etc., then you’ll find the Tea Partiers Plus are the majority. So, it’s either we’re watching a take over of the GOP or the birth pains of the replacement to the GOP. It’s that simple.
Christine vs the Bearded Marxist.
The people don’t need the GOP. If they don’t get their act together, I will abandoned them just like I did when I voted for Ross Perot over the original RINO George Bush Sr. If we have to lose more elections in the process that is a bitter pill we will have to swallow to get rid of the disease and bring this country back.
I think this could be the beginning of the end for the Tea Party.
O’Donnell is a flake. Besides her extreme views on sex and contraception, she’s a young-earth creationist. Really. Back in the 1990s, she was a public advocate for teaching creationism in the schools. This is all in addition to her inabiity to hold down a day job, her paranoid ravings about stalkers hiding in her bushes, and her outright lies about Mike Castle (which were unnecessary – there was plenty to attack him on already).
She’s a gift to the Left – they will use her to discredit the Tea Party, Republicans, Sarah Palin, and conservatives. The (hostile) national press will be focused on her like a laser.
Look at the other “Tea Party” Senate candidates: Miller, Brown, Angle, Buck, Lee, and Paul all have serious life stories. Practicing physician, decorated combat soldier, county prosecutor, school teacher and mother of two, National Guard officer, Supreme Court clerk; stuff like that. O’Donnell’s got nothing.
The sex and contraception stuff will hurt the Tea Party. Most Tea Partiers are not raging social conservatives, much less absolutists. If they think they are being herded into support of positions they don’t hold, they’ll drop out – and the MSM will beat that drum 24/7.
The only good thing that could come out of this is if conservative leaders (not Republican leaders) recognize her for the whack-job hustler that she is, and do a Sister Souljah. If Palin was to say “Oops. I didn’t know about the creationism – she’s off my list” it would help her massively with the people who have bought into the ignorant/fanatic version of Palin.
Or if O’Donnell said (and could show) that she learned better and repudiated creationism – that might save her ass. But it would have to be for real, and date back at least a few years ago.
The party should say “She won the primary” and give her the basic support – enough to refute any charges of backstabbing – but make it clear that it’s only because she won the primary.
The race is lost, the only question now is minimizing the damage.
You are wrong. Simply, wrong. Republicans are making a fool of themselves at this point and the voters are noticing. She will do just fine.
Yeah Rich, if only we could get rid of that pesky line in the Declaration about “a Creator!”
I smell a troll.
amazing that you are obviously staisfied with the “same ole same ole” crap going to Washington. Change has to start somewhere and this is as good a place as any.
To the contrary – I think that without immediate radical change at every level, we’re doomed. But that change will not be accomplished with whackjob candidates. The likes of O’Donnell will make it much harder to accomplish, because she’ll be used to discredit the real leaders of the movement for change, like Sarah Palin.
Did I like Castle? No. If a Joe Miller, or a Pat Toomey, or an Allen West had run against him, I’d be on that like white on rice, and celebrating now.
But O’Donnell isn’t close to any of them in personal substance.
Castle was a lock to win the seat. He carried Delaware by 80,000 votes in 2008, while McCain and O’Donnell were losing by 100,000. He voted our way half the time; he’d be a vote for GOP control of the Senate (which means committee majorities). Coons will vote the other way 100% of the time, and will keep Reid (or Durbin or Schumer) in charge.
Incidentally, O’Donnell won the primary with 31,000 votes. In a typical off-year election, there are 250,000 votes in the Delaware general. O’Donnell has to sell her shuck to lot more people to win in November.
I disagree with the young-Earthers. However, I just do not see what it has to do with anything at all. She is running for National Office, not local school superintendent. The Federal Government has zero Constitutional authority when it comes to education. None.
You may think this viewpoint makes her a whack-job, but I assure you, it does not. This is a very widespread belief. It is one belief amongst many beliefs, which are ALL just so much THEORY, anyway.
Is she dishonest about herself? Seems so. Is she tremendously flawed? Yep. does it matter? Nope. Castle is o-u-t! Another institutional politco whose head has rolled. The next guy’s head will roll, too. It’s about firing a few people.
Leave it to the GOP establishment to do everything in their power to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I got some advice for FOX news. Dump Rove.
I promise you FOX … if I see his puss … I switch channels. THE sob is the shadow prez along with Bush who handed us the Kenyan on a rusted tin plate. The pubbie establishment stinks to high heaven. Promoting Castle before the primary was bad enough given his obvious rino habits. Attacking Odonnell after she won is absolutely unforgivable. Eat dirt and die Carl.