by Jules Witcover

Of all the tea party upsets in this Senate primary-election season, none has been more shocking than the defeat of longtime Delaware Republican icon Mike Castle, a former governor and nine-term congressman, by frequent also-ran Christine O'Donnell.

Probably not since 1972, when a 29-year-old Democratic upstart named Joe Biden knocked off another GOP icon in the state, Sen. Caleb Boggs, has the First State felt such a political jolt. O'Donnell had previously lost two other bids for the U.S. Senate, the second in 2008 in a laughable effort to take Biden's seat even as he was also running for the vice presidency.

In 1972, Biden was a one-term New Castle County councilman about to be gerrymandered out of his seat when he astounded the tiny Delaware political world by even taking on Boggs, then the state's most revered political figure with nearly 30 years in public office. Biden deftly showed all respect to him while suggesting to voters the state might need newer blood in the Senate, and won.

On Tuesday, O'Donnell, a spritely schoolgirlish 41, may have benefited from the same phenomenon against the aging 71-year-old Castle. But likely a more significant factor was her strong backing from the tea party movement that saw Castle as one of the Senate's truly moderate Republicans, who often voted with the Democrats.

Her victory cheered her conservative supporters on election night, but Delaware Democrats openly viewed it as hopeful news in a race in which most had seen Castle unbeatable in the general election in November.

The seat is now held by former Biden chief of staff Ted Kaufman, appointed to fill the vacancy when Biden left the Senate for the vice presidency. Kaufman said at the outset he would not run in the November special election, a decision viewed as keeping the seat warm for the candidacy of Biden's elder son, Beau, now the state attorney general.

But the young Biden suddenly decided not to run, leaving the impression he didn't care to face Castle but saying he had to continue an important effort to convict an accused sexual predator against children. Now the favorite to win the seat will be Democratic two-term New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, who in the last pre-primary Rasmussen poll was losing to Castle but leading O'Donnell by 47 percent to 35.

In a state that has become more Democratic but is known for its relatively mild and polite competition, many establishment Republicans are expected now to flee the tea-party-endorsed O'Donnell and join independents behind Coons in the fall. The movement's star, former Alaska Sen. Sarah Palin, is likely to campaign for O'Donnell in the state, a development designed to rally the anti-establishment, anti-Washington and hence anti-Obama sentiment toward a possible Republican takeover of Congress on Election Day.

Delaware has a history of political independence and comity that has often blurred party lines and allegiance. In one sense, it offers a fair assessment of the real strength of tea party clout at a time polls have shown the Republicans generating more enthusiasm for the coming elections than the Democrats have.

But O'Donnell's inexperience, major personal financial troubles and often unorthodox views all have made her a vulnerable target over the next seven weeks of intensive campaigning and news media scrutiny. She has been a longtime advocate of fiscal and social conservatism, although she has been plagued by personal debt going back to unpaid school loans she eventually paid and income tax bills she has challenged.

According to an Internal Revenue Service filing in March, O'Donnell owed nearly $12,000 in federal taxes and penalties from the 2005 tax year, and was cited eight times by the Federal Elections Commission for failure to report past campaign contributions.

Earlier this year, the Wilmington News Journal quoted her as saying: "I think the fact that I have struggled financially is what makes me so sympathetic."

The morning after the primary, O'Donnell pushed back against the financial charges against her and warned Coons that "dirty politics will backfire in a state like Delaware" known for clean campaigning. But with the spotlight more intensely on her now, the questions aren't going to stop coming.

 

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Another Tea Party Shocker | Politics

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