RSS Feed MenuWord is out that Michael Castle, after years in the House, is poised to run for Joe Biden’s former Senate seat. Mike Castle is the former governor of Delaware and has been a Republican fixture in the House for many years. The seat is now held by a Biden ally who is warming it for Beau Biden, Joe’s son. Full disclosure, Congressman Castle is far to the left of me on practically every issue you can name. However, he went to both Hamilton College and Georgetown Law School. I have therefore met him at both reunions and homecomings over the years. A finer citizen you will not meet.
He is a good government, big tent, Republican capable of running and wining in a Democratic leaning state. If he runs in 2010 he will have a decent shot at taking the seat. Delaware was represented for many years by Senator William Roth, he of Kemp-Roth and Roth IRA fame. While not a fire-breathing conservative (my preferred type) it can be argued that he was more responsible for lasting conservative and Republican legislative and cultural changes than any Republican not to have run for President or Vice-President (and not named Gingrich).
Like Roth, Mike Castle knows the intricacies of policy and can advance the legislative ball by working with both parties but in a conservative direction. He will also give the Democrats fits in a state and for a seat they believed theirs by right of primogeniture and entail. Mike Castle is a perfect fit for Delaware and a win by him would alter the leftist lock on the Senate mightily. He is a moderate even a conservative can love.
DFL // Oct 7, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Delaware might be on the verge of trending Republican due to 1) normal reaction against the party of the president and 2) the growing amount of more affluent and conservative retirees from Baltimore and Washington that have made southern Delaware home. As in other places throughout the USA, Republican decline in the state is concentrated in the Wilmington suburbs that Ronald Reagan and Bill Roth won easily over two decades ago.
A Mike Castle victory, even if he serves only one or two terms, would keep young Beau Biden out of a seat he might hold for forty years if Biden wins. That’s good enough for now.