Exit Polls: Castle would have probably lost to Coons

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Rebecca Sinderbrand, via CNN's Political Ticker, serves up a morsel of food for thought that Tokyo Rove and other Conservative Lite^® loudmouths who have been slamming Gov. Palin for her endorsement of Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware race for the U.S. Senate should chew on:

"If GOP voters are feeling any buyer's remorse, they may take some solace in one surprising stat: despite pre-election polls that showed longtime Republican Rep. Mike Castle handily beating Coons in a hypothetical matchup, the voters who turned out today said they would still probably have sent Coons to Washington over Castle, backing him 44-43 percent."

- JP

Monmouth U. Poll: O'Donnell cuts Coons lead nearly in half

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From the Monmouth University Polling Institute's news release (PDF) issued Friday morning:

In the past two weeks, Republican Christine O’Donnell has narrowed Democrat Chris Coons’lead in Delaware’s U.S. Senate race from 19 points to 10 points. The latest Monmouth University Poll finds Coons has the support of 51% of likely voters to 41% for O’Donnell. Two weeks ago, this race stood at 57% to 38%.

O’Donnell has actually pulled into a 49% to 43% lead in the southern part of the state (i.e. Kent and Sussex counties). Two weeks ago, this region of the state was divided at 47% for O’Donnell and 46% for Coons. The Democrat continues to hold a sizable advantage in New Castle County, but the current 56% to 36% margin is down from the 63% to 33% edge he held earlier this month.

O’Donnell has also made gains among independent voters, now leading Coons 47% to 42% among this voting bloc. Two weeks ago, she trailed in the independent vote by 51% to 41%.

“While Coons still has the advantage, it has to be uncomfortable knowing that O’Donnell was able to shave 9 points off his lead in just two weeks.

[More]

- JP

Delaware Way: Rock star Sarah Palin in Wilmington this weekend

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Blogger Nancy Willing at Delaware Way says Gov. Palin will "definitely" be in Wilmington, Delaware when the Tea Party Express bus tour rolls in to Dravo Plaza on South Madison Street for a 3 PM (local time) rally:

"The chatter has died down since Sarah Palin tweeted that she would come and campaign in Delaware for her Tea Party endorsee, Christine O'Donnell, well, until today anyway.

I was watching C-SPAN this morning when Tea Party Express founder, Sal Russo, said he is heading to Delaware this weekend to rally for O'Donnell. I made a few calls and discovered that area businesses have been contacted by Palin's 'people' and yes, she is [definitely] going to be traveling here with the Tea Party Express."

No confirmation yet from the "Palin people."

- JP

New poll suggests a Castle write-in effort would hurt Coons more than O'Donnell

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It is quite possible that a write-in campaign, such as Congressman Mike Castle is currently considering, could hurt Democrat Chris Coons more than Republican Christine O’Donnell in the Delaware campaign for U.S. Senate, according to new polling results published today:

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Delaware voters finds Coons with 49% support, while O’Donnell earns 40% of the vote. Castle, a longtime congressman who lost to O’Donnell in the state’s GOP Primary, picks up five percent (5%). Another five percent (5%) remain undecided. To see survey questions, click here.

Polling for write-in campaigns is always challenging, so results should be interpreted with caution. For this survey, Rasmussen Reports asked respondents about a choice between Coons and O’Donnell without mentioning Castle. That is the choice voters will see when they enter the voting booth. However, when response options were offered to survey respondents, Castle’s name was mentioned.

Oh, yes, a Murkowski-style write in campaign by Castle cuts the far left liberal Democrat's lead over O'Donnell down to single digits. Run, Mike, run!

Related: A Jeffrey Lord must-read at The American Spectator.

- JP

Castle campaign disses Delaware voters for not electing their guy

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From the stuck on stupid campaign of failed candidate Mike Castle comes an e-mail which basically chastises the state's voters for electing Christine O'Donnell instead of Castle:

Some 30,500 Republicans have embarrassed the dickens out of the state of Delaware by voting for a candidate who has no chance of winning the general election, is a verifiable liar and cheater with no known means of employment other than her campaign money and has nothing to claim as a campaign platform other than whatever the tea party stands for.

[...]

This is a woman who will stoop as low and often as necessary to fool voters who, for the most part, know nothing about her or her so-called policies or positions.

Excuse us, but attacking the voters for not annointing your candidate the day after the election, besides being petty and vindictive, doesn't seem like the smartest move. It's more than just sour grapes; it reeks of waspish whine.

Guess that endorsement is out of the question, then...

- JP

O'Donnell Money Bomb Raises a Million Dollars in a Day

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Wow. The Christine O'Donnell money bomb that we reported Wednesday morning has generated over a million dollars in donations in just a little over 24 hours. Impressive.

Take that, GOP establishment. Oh, wait. You can't take it. It was given to her campaign.

- JP

Christine O'Donnell Money Bomb (Updated)

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Money Bomb Goal: $200,000

Raised Tues Night: $100,000+

Your Contribution: Needed

GOP Establishment Hubris: Priceless!

Please Donate here

First Update: The $200,000 goal has already been met and ramped up to $350K. People have been so eager to donate to the O'Donnell campaign that Drudge had this headline up:

CASH POURS IN FOR O'DONNELL; CAMPAIGN WEBSITE CRASHES...

It's back up and running now. Keep the contributions coming!

Second Update: $350K met and exceeded. New goal - A cool half a million bucks.

Third Update: Half a mil? Done. Now going for $750K.

Fourth Update: Got $750K, so let's go for an even Million dollars.

- JP

Quote of the Day (September 14, 2010)

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Paul Mirengoff at Power Line:

"... the nomination is Sarah Palin's to lose... if Sarah Palin seeks the presidential nomination, it will be quite plausible to view her not as one of many or even 'first among equals,' but as the clear front-runner."

- JP

Patten: Christine O’Donnell Credits Gov. Palin in Victory Speech

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Christine O’Donnell gave special credit to Gov. Sarah Palin in her victory speech Tuesday night:

“You betcha!” an ebullient O’Donnell told cheering supporters, using a Palin catch phrase. “There’s another woman I’ve gotta thank, you betcha!

When the cheering crowd subsided, O’Donnell continued: “Thank you governor Palin for your endorsement. Because she got behind us war-weary folks, and gave us a boost of encouragement when we needed it.

“And she was a vote against the politics of personal destruction,” O’Donnell told the enthusiastic throng.

On Sept. 9 a Palin post on her Facebook page drew national attention to O'Donnell's campaign, stating: "A wave of positive change can really sweep across our land with the election of constitutional conservatives who promise to use common sense, and rein in the federal government spending. Please support Christine O'Donnell of Delaware."

- JP

Palin-Backed O'Donnell Wins Upset in Delaware

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From the Associated Press:

Conservative activist Christine O'Donnell earned a stunning victory in Delaware's Republican Senate primary Tuesday, riding a wave of tea party anger and advertising dollars to oust U.S. Rep. Michael Castle.

O'Donnell's shocking win gave new energy to the tea party movement, which targeted Castle after victories by Republican tea party candidates in the Alaska and Nevada Senate primaries.

With all precincts reporting, O'Donnell won 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Castle, who was rejected by Delaware Republicans as being too liberal, just like the crowd in Washington DC who are running the country into the ground.

The AP piece goes on with the oft-repeated government-controlled liberal media meme about what a hard time O'Donnell will have defeating Democrat Chris Coons in November and how this result means that the Republicans won't be able to take back the Senate in 2010, yada, yada, yada. We'll just have to see about that.

Meanwhile, it's a great victory for the O'Donnell campaign, Gov. Palin and the Tea Party movement.

- JP

Anna Belle Pfau: Christine O’Donnell & Today’s Delaware Primary

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What members of Christine O'Donnell's own political party have been doing to smear her in the Delaware GOP primary for the U.S. Senate is nothing new. It's the same old sexism that we've seen in attacks on Sarah Palin, argues Anna Belle Pfau at The New Agenda:

Delaware has never elected a female senator. The state is among seven of the original thirteen states that have never been represented in the Senate by a woman. Delaware may get its first real shot at correcting this oversight should polls bear out in the primary between Christine O’Donnell and Mike Castle today. O’Donnell, the Tea Party favorite, is slated to beat Republican party favorite and 30-year office-holder, Mike Castle. O’Donnell is among a slew of Republican candidates endorsed by Sarah Palin this election season, and Palin’s recent endorsement has breathed life into what was once thought to be a predictable race among Republicans in a traditionally blue state. The seat was once was held by Vice President Joe Biden.

O’Donnell and Castle have been at the center of a nasty campaign that has grown increasingly sexist in recent weeks. I started paying attention to this race a couple of weeks ago after I saw some fishy rhetoric being thrown around in an online spat between Mark Levin and Jim Geraghty...

[...]

Right after that Sarah Palin endorsed O’Donnell, and I knew the sexist rhetoric would ratchet up. It was only a matter of time...

[...]

O’Donnell is portrayed as crazy, greedy, and disloyal. These act as dog whistles to the profoundly, if latently, sexist culture so common in the mid-Atlantic and New England. It’s a slightly different kind of sexism than exists in the South, Midwest and Western states (in case anyone thought I was picking on the East Coast).

O’Donnell has also been excoriated for being unemployed and poor, and for losing her house. And yet, given the economy and the demographics of her time and place, these are unsurprising facts. Many people have lost homes; many people, especially women, are poor or have trouble climbing the ladder of success with so many barriers in their paths. She has occasionally misspoken on the campaign trail, which has been used to paint her as a liar and thus unreliable. Many of us remember some of these same tactics being used against Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in 2008.

[...]

I’m not a Delaware voter, and I don’t agree with some of O’Donnell’s politics, but I do defend her right to take a chance getting elected without being targeted because of her gender.

O’Donnell’s candidacy has seen a 17 point surge in support over the last month, with over 60% of Delaware’s registered Republicans supporting her. She may very well win today, and that may carry with it an important lesson in and of itself. Perhaps we can’t eradicate sexism right now, today, but we may be able to find strategies to win in spite of the presence of sexism in the media and on the campaign trail. As Sarah Palin has demonstrated so well this election season, working together and supporting women is one way to do that.

Read this opinion piece in its entirety here.

- JP

Jacobson: Nuts and Sluts In Delaware

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Law Professor William Jacobson weighs in on the dirty nukes the GOP establishment has launched, with the grassroots candidate in Delaware as its target:

The "nuts and sluts" defense is a common employment law tactic whenever a female employee brings a claim. It doesn't matter what the claim is, the defense -- after the usual legal mumbo jumbo -- will be something like this:

"She's nuts. And by the way, pssst, she may be a slut."

That is the mode of attack Democrats use against conservative women. Sarah Palin is the prime example, as she routinely is called crazy and is sexualized by the left (to the silence of liberal feminist groups).

The nuts part of the attack is being used against Christine O'Donnell in Delaware by the local Republican establishment, and also by two leading conservative magazines, The Weekly Standard and National Review. If O'Donnell is so nuts, why did the Delaware Republican Party nominate her to run against Joe Biden just two years ago?

[...]

I am not "anti-Mike Castle," but I do have a problem with someone who was willing to destroy the economy by signing on to Nancy Pelosi's cap-and-trade plan. The vigorous attacks on Castle have been focused almost exclusively on his record and policy prescriptions. Almost none of the attacks on O'Donnell focus on her policies or political agenda.

Professor Jacobson adds:

Update: See what I mean:

"Our problem: Mike Castle makes John McCain look like Jim DeMint; Christine O'Donnell makes Sharron Angle look like Margaret Thatcher."

Read William Jacobson's full post at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion.

- JP

DeMint wades into the political waters of Delaware and New Hampshire

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At The Fix, Chris Cillizza notes that, even more so than Sarah Palin, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) continues to thumb his nose at the GOP establishment. DeMint has echoed Gov. Palin's endorsement of an outsider candidate in Delaware, but in New Hampshire, where Alaska's first woman governor is backing the more mainstream candidate, DeMint is supporting her opponent:

On Friday night, DeMint tweeted his endorsement of Ovide Lamontagne in New Hampshire and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware; the party apparatus prefers former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte in the Granite State and Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware.

"He knows they're underdogs but they've surged in the past week and are now within striking distance," said Matt Hoskins, a spokesman for DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund. "He wants to make sure voters know they have a conservative choice if they're unhappy with the establishment candidate."

DeMint met both O'Donnell and Lamontagne roughly a year ago, said Hoskins. The South Carolina Senator told both candidates that they needed to show more viability before he endorsed.

Obviously, Gov. Palin's endorsement of O'Donnell gave that candidate the visibility DeMint considered necessary to warrant his own stamp of approval. But the Senator and the former vice presidential candidate -- two of the unofficial leaders of the tea party movement -- are on opposite sides in New Hampshire, where Gov. Palin has not only endorsed but also recorded a robo-call in support of Ayotte.

The New Hampshire and Delaware Senate primaries are tomorrow. PPP polls show Ayotte holding on in New Hampshire with a 37 to 30 lead over Lamontagne, while in Delaware, O’Donnell has surged to a 3-point advantage over "progressive" Republican Mike Castle, 47-44.

Related: Jim Geraghty has been one of the good guys, which is why we're at a loss to explain why he has been acting like such a shill for Mike Castle. At Red Meat Conservative, Daniel makes the case why Jim is just wrong on this race. There is a litmus test: any candidate who gets an "F" from the NRA either does not know the Constitution or doesn't acknowledge its supremacy for governing this republic.

- JP

'Hi, this is Governor Sarah Palin...'

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Courtesy of Palin TV, here's Sarah Palin’s Robocall for Christine O’Donnell in Delaware:



Support Palin TV

- JP

Quote of the Day (September 10, 2010)

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Dan Riehl at Riehl World View:

"Christine O'Donnell deserves to have the voters decide her fate, not a bunch of calculating Republican hacks who think they own a Senate seat, or state. I think Sarah Palin decided to do what's right, to do the principled thing, even if it potentially comes with a cost to her. That's called integrity... Sarah Palin did the right thing, not the easy thing. How long have people talked about wanting to see more people in politics who do just that?"

- JP

NRA joins Gov. Palin and TPX; endorses Christine O'Donnell (Updated)

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The National Rifle Association joined Sarah Palin and Tea Party Express and endorsed Christine O'Donnell Friday in Delaware's Republican Senate primary. O'Donnell is hoping to upset Rep. Mike Castle on Tuesday:

The NRA's Political Victory Fund cited O'Donnell's "commitment to preserving the Second Amendment" in its endorsement of her Friday.

“Christine O’Donnell will be a strong voice in fighting ongoing efforts by anti-gun politicians to dismantle the Second Amendment,” chairman of the NRA's Political Victory Fund Chris Cox said in a statement. “We ask all Delaware gun-owners and hunters to vote for Christine O’Donnell in the U.S. Senate Republican primary on September 14th.”

The NRA's endorsement made no mention of Castle, but the longtime congressman earns an "F" from the gun lobby for his voting record.

Gov. Palin just retweeted Mark Levin's link to this article:

This says a lot. RT. "@marklevinshow: NRA endorses O'Donnell today. http://bit.ly/bxhD5Y http://fb.me/D77ibv6L"

Meanwhile, Tea Party Express announced Friday that it has raised over $200,000 in support of O'Donnell's campaign:

"We're raising money from grassroots conservatives $25, $50 and $100 at a time to support Christine O'Donnell as we fight back against the millions of dollars Mike Castle has collected from the corrupted special interests in Washington, D.C. to wage his smear campaign against the tea party movement as a whole and conservative Republican Christine O'Donnell," said Joe Wierzbicki, Coordinator for the Tea Party Express.

Update: Sen. Jim DeMint Endorses O'Donnell

- JP

Jeffrey Lord: Ruling Class vs. Country Class battle picks up speed with Palin endorsement

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At TAS' AmSpec Blog, Jeffrey Lord comments on how Gov. Palin's endorsement of Christine O'Donnell in Delaware has accelerated a classic battle between the Ruling Class and the Country Class:

Yesterday, the Country Class Sarah Palin went on the Country Class Sean Hannity Show to endorse the Country Class Christine O' Donnell over the Ruling Class Mike Castle in the Delaware U.S. Senate primary.

And thus far, the Ruling Class Castle has refused to accept an invitation from the Country Class Mark Levin Show to discuss his Senate race.

Both moments are clues to the status of different players in the increasingly vehement rebellion that every poll in America is picking up.

Lord also traces the genesis of the warfare between these two classes in his TAS essay "The Ruling Class Hits Christine O'Donnell" here.

Listen to Levin's take on these developments at Mark Levin Fan.

- JP

Quote of the Day (September 9, 2010)

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W. James Antle, III at the American Spectator's blog:

"Now that Sarah Palin has endorsed Christine O'Donnell for Senate in Delaware, the O'Donnell campaign is starting to look like a typical Tea Party success story along the lines of Rand Paul in Kentucky, Ken Buck in Colorado, Sharron Angle in Nevada or Joe Miller in Alaska... No Republican to the left of Castle is likely to be found, not even in Delaware... Basically, Castle's strongest argument is that he can win in November... But the trouble is, as far as I can see this argument hasn't worked so well for establishment candidates going as far back as the NY-23 special congressional election in 2009 -- and Castle shares more than a few ideological traits with Dede Scozzafava."

- JP

Sarah Palin on the Sean Hannity radio show

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Courtesy of Palin TV, here's Gov. Palin's unscheduled call to Sean Hannity on his radio show today;



Support Palin TV

- JP

Meet Christine O'Donnell

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Here's video of a short interview of Christine O'Donnell by Jim Hoft recorded prior to Gov. Palin's endorsement:



h/t: Bluegrass Pundit

- JP