If Castle was “more comfortable” with the Democrats rather than the party to which he had belonged for a half century, why didn’t he switch to the Democrats in 2007? It would have made his life easier, as well as facilitate his double-secret plan to deliver the Senate seat to Beau Biden. The GOP had no bench at all in Delaware, so Castle forgoing a Senate run as a Republican would have handed the seat to the RATs in a silver platter.
Sometimes thinks really are as simple as they look. Castle wanted to be a U.S. Senator since 1994 (back when he was finishing his first term in the House after two terms as Delaware’s governor), an election in which he would have been elected easily had GOP Senator William Roth retired, but Delaware Republicans never know when to step own and the aging Roth ran for reelection and won easily. Roth again ran for reelection in 2000, by which time he visibly had slowed down, and under a far worse electoral environment for a Republican in Delaware, and got blown out by RAT Gov. Carper; had it been Castle running for reelection, it’s quite possible that Carper wouldn’t even have run, and even if he had Castle would have been tough to beat (as he was in the House for over a decade). In any event, Castle being elected to the Senate would have allowed a younger, more conservative Republican to have been elected to the House in 1994 and thereafter; and maybe the GOP would have had a viable candidate apart from Castle in 2010.
But none of that happened, and other than a political comeback by the long retired former Gov. Pete DuPont (which I would have supported), Castle was pretty close to the GOP’s only chance of winning the 2910 Senate election; that the DE GOP had no bench was proven by the fact that no one with any chance of winning ran for the House in an open-seat scenario in a very good GOP year. It was clear that a deadbeat and gadfly like COD would have no chance in the general even against a second-tier Democrat like Coons, not because she was conservative, but because she was a terrible candidate with no record of achievement in any field or endeavor and who only had to offer an embarrassing past and an uncertain future. I have made some bonehead political decisions in my life, including supporting Todd Akin in the 2012 GOP Senate primary and Judge Moore in the 2017 AL Senate primary (both candidates went down due to things that came out after the primary, but, still, I should have been more careful when endorsing in the primary), but having held my nose and supporting Castle in the 2010 DE Senate primary over COD was not one of them.
Castle wouldn’t have resigned and given his seat to Beau Biden; he would have been a moderate Republican Senator, probably not as bad as Susan Collins but not any better than Lisa Murkowski. But do you know what? Castle would have been reelected in 2014, and if even Collins and Murkowski voted to implement the nuclear option to end the filibuster of Justice Gorsuch, so would have Castle. The Senate would have one more vote for President Trump’s judicial nominees, instead of having a reflexive “NAY” vote in Senator Coons. Coming from a state in which President Trump couldn’t get to 42%, I’d take that in a heartbeat.
Castle didn’t switch in 2007 because it wasn’t advantageous of him to do so. Had it benefitted the Democrats, perhaps, but joining a party already in the majority with comfortable numbers would not have gained him anything. They certainly wouldn’t have handed him a chairmanship. It’s also unlikely he could’ve won the primary for the Senate seat, since Democrats are often unforgiving of someone switching over from the GOP. As left-wing as he is, it wouldn’t be enough. Hell, to CT Democrats, the almost 100% perfect left-wing Joe Lieberman wasn’t pure enough.
I’m quite glad Conservative Bill Roth didn’t step down in 1994 in favor of left-leaning Castle. Assuming he’d have won that year, a Sen. Castle would not have won reelection in 2000 as a Republican against then-outgoing Gov. Tom Carper. Remember all the seats the GOP lost that year. Now, if he had won reelection, he might very well have pulled a Jeffords before Jeffords (or they might’ve jumped together). In any event, he’d still likely have been out by 2006 (again, losing the Dem primary, probably again to Carper).
Had the House seat come open in 1994, perhaps either Jane Brady (running for Attorney General) or Janet Rzewnicki, the State Treasurer, might’ve jumped in. But I believe both women would’ve had trouble in or after 2000. Rzewnicki actually ran against Castle in the 1992 primary for the open House seat, losing 56-30%. She scored a decisive 67% of the vote in 1994 for her 4th term as Treasurer. She was the logical choice to run for Governor in 1996, but only got a dreadful 31%. In 1998, it was a complete fiasco, as she lost her job as Treasurer to future Governor Jack Markell, getting just 42%. I expect had Rzewnicki won the House race in 1994, she would’ve lost reelection in 1996, and the Dems would’ve held it ever since. Jane Brady probably wouldn’t have fared much better. She managed to hold on to her job as late as the 2002 elections, but won with a bare plurality of just 48%, and she moved over to the Superior Court before her term expired in 2007, giving the Dems the office.
As for Pete duPont, he should’ve run against Plugs in 1984, in what would’ve been the marquee race of the year (or at least tying the Helms-Hunt race in NC). At least that cancer would’ve been excised long ago. duPont could’ve sat in the seat until at least 2003 without too much of a problem. I wouldn’t have suggested at 75 that he try to run in 2010 (then again, my almost 75-year old ex-Governor Bredesen is trying for a first term in the Senate).
That a “gadfly” like O’Donnell was able to beat Castle exposed just how out-of-touch and arrogant he was. I remember seeing part of a town hall meeting from around 2010. The sense of entitlement was off the charts. He was the epitome of the establishment politician and as grotesquely anti-Conservative as one could get. He got his just desserts for his actions in office, and the screwing he gave the DE GOP and the political base. That was entirely on him. It was the duty of Delaware Republicans to defeat him, and that was that. BTW, O’Donnell still got roughly the party base in the state, over 40% (almost what Trump got 6 years later). That was better than her 2008 performance against Plugs, which she improved upon from 35%. It even topped that of the aforementioned Jane Brady, when she ran against Plugs in 1990 and got just under 36%.
Again, performing at or above the average for a GOP Senate candidate didn’t make her a disaster. Add to that the RINO Establishment, Castle’s flunkies (who refused to endorse her after her victory), the national Dems and the media running a disgusting, sexist and slanderous campaign against her, she still did well.