short answer, Yes - Castle would have beat Coons.
semi long version...
When Junior Joe Biden finally announced he was not running for the Senate seat, the Dems scrambled to find a candidate. Chris Coons agreed to be the sacrificial lamb to loose against Castle in ‘10 and then run for Carper’s senate seat in ‘12 or Castle’s seat in ‘14 when he would probably retire.
After O’Donnell beat Castle in the primary, the DNC poured money and volunteers into the state to drive turnout. They would have ignored DE if Castle was on the ticket polling ten points ahead.
This turnout effort not only crushed O’Donnell but swept away Republicans down-ticket.
as foor Republican party support, The Party sent out 6 statewide mailers for O’Donnell. What did the rest of the ticket get?
Urqhart for congres - zero
Boninni for state treasurer - zero
Wagner for Auditor (the last state wide R inucumbant) zero
O’Donnell sucked up all the state party money and still claimed they weren’t supporting her. Why? because it fit with her “outsider” image and because everytime she complained the party was against her, freepers sent her more money.
Tom Ross should resign for wasting money on the weakest candidate (with the most money) and ignoring the rest of the ticket.
Thanks for the explanation! I had heard differently but I trustvyour version.