[Moseley]

Or at least Palin would have had some contacts to send O’Donnell a decent campaign staff

The problem there is that the primary election was on September 14, ahead of a November 2 general election. It is not possible to put together an effective general election campaign AND ALSO RUN that general election campaign in only 6 weeks.

The insiders have created a poison pill election calendar in which it is not possible for a challenger to the establishment to put together an effective campaign without the backing of the party insiders.

Think about it: 6 weeks is not enough time to RUN a general election campaign. Other Senate candidates had MONTHS, not just 6 weeks.

So where is the time to BUILD a general election team? O'Donnell did not have two nickels to rub together before September 30. (Credit card donations are not released instantly with a sudden surge of activity.) A general election campaign is very different from a primary election team.

Traditionally, the Party unites and campaign professionals from the entire Party get involved in creating a unified campaign team. Not only does the loser endorse the winner, but the campaign STAFF of the losing candidate comes on board with the unified general election campaign. That did not happen.

[CharlesWayneCT]

That I agree with. That’s way too late to end a primary. You would have to have confidence that you were going to win, and essentially build a good campaign staff FOR the primary that could follow you into the general election.

On the other hand, if they had their primary back in the spring, Castle would have won easily, as we were still in the “we need to win elections” (see Scott Brown), and not into the “we are going to win big, so we should try to get real conservatives” mode.

A September primary also doesn’t give the candidates enough time to heal the wounds of the primary campaign, or for the losers to get over it and back the winners.