Delaware politicians tend to pride themselves on the civility of First State campaigns. It’s part of the “Delaware Way.” But in the last week, the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate between Congressman Mike Castle and candidate Christine O’Donnell has veered off the high road. With the September 14 primary day approaching, that race has gotten unusually loud and testy.
"It has gotten pretty negative,” said Delaware State University political science professor Sam Hoff.
The race took a major turn when the national Tea Party Express pledged to spend $250,000 on ads for O’Donnell. The Tea Party Express spent $600,000 on ads that helped Joe Miller unseat incumbent U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski in Alaska's Republican primary.
Since the Tea Party Express announcement, the O’Donnell campaign has exchanged verbal volleys with Castle’s campaign and Delaware's Republican Party. O’Donnell says the Republicans have tried to sabotage her in past campaigns. Now she says she's being followed, and that she fears for her safety. On the other side of the primary ballot, Delaware Republican officials have challenged O’Donnell’s statements about her personal finances and her 2008 campaign debt. The Castle campaign has launched a website chronicling media coverage of these issues.
Delaware Republican Party Chairman Tom Ross says the injection of outside influences forced the party to stand up for Castle, the party's endorsed candidate. "[O'Donnell] really doesn’t have any local network or support. Therefore, for the year and a half she was running, we really didn’t need to point out the obvious with some of her misstatements,” Ross said. "Unfortunately, an outside group came in and wants to spend a lot of money muddying the waters, and at that point you are left with no choice but to tell the truth.”
Jason McGuire, a senior consultant for O’Donnell’s campaign, defends its use of out-of-state funds. "When you’re facing an incumbent congressman that has multiple millions of dollars already in his war chest and his personal checking account, yes, it’s important that nationally people are seeing that this is a race that is winnable,” said McGuire.
Hoff points out that Castle’s campaign also takes out-of-state money from political action committees. Hoff adds that the presence of outside money doesn’t necessarily lead to a less civil campaign, but it can change the tone of a race.
"[The National Tea Party] can bring in some campaign tactics that may be foreign or just not used by folks in the state and shake things up a bit," says Hoff. "They certainly appear to have done that, at least in trying to keep the momentum from the victory in Alaska."
John Taylor, executive director of the Delaware Public Policy Institute, also sees the Tea Party influence contributing to the shift in the primary election’s tone. "That's the attitude the Tea Party people have taken all along. Raise hell. Say whatever is necessary to get attention. It's outlandish. And they shout down people that don't agree with them,” said Taylor. "We've been witnessing it all over the country; the surprise is that it didn't happen here sooner."
Will all the attention give O’Donnell an edge in the primary? McGuire says the O’Donnell campaign is “right where we want to be at the right time.”
Taylor says the influence of groups like the Tea Party can tip a race. "The people that subscribe to that kind of campaigning, and that approach—they are likely voters on September 14? So who knows?”
Taylor notes that if Castle survives the primary, he likely would not face a similarly testy general election duel with the Democrat opponent, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons. "It could happen, but I don't see it happening,” said Taylor. "Chris Coons won't behave that way, and Congressman Castle has already demonstrated that he won't behave that way. He's been more or less dismissive of the half-truths and innuendos that have emanated from the Tea Party-O'Donnell camp."
But Hoff says the Coons campaign should to pay attention to this primary battle. "Mr. Coons might be wise to observe what's going on with some of the issues Ms. O'Donnell is broaching in the campaign, checking the ones that might have a carryover influence.”
If Coons’ staff is taking notes, they aren’t letting on. Coons’ campaign manager, Christy Gleason, says they have no interest in deviating from the “Delaware Way.”
"[Despite] outside pressures, whether they come to a campaign directly or whatever crazy bevy of campaign ads we’ll see from outside independent expenditures or not, if you stay grounded in the roots of our candidates and Delaware voters, I think that’s the best you can do. I think that’s what you ought to do,” said Gleason.