The GOP’s Christine O’Donnell Problem

 

Pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the 2010 primary season, tea party insurgent Christine O’Donnell defeated Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware’s Republican Senate primary. O’Donnell won 53 to 47 percent with the final ballots still being counted Tuesday night, shocking observers across the political spectrum. Castle, a veritable political veteran, appeared to have a clear path to victory until a poll from Public Policy Polling came out last week showing O’Donnell ahead by three points, having received a last-minute boost from national tea party groups that poured money and grassroots support into the race.

The question now is what the national GOP will do with O’Donnell. Just how far to the right are their national leaders willing to go to play to the tea party base and do anything to oppose the Democratic agenda? The GOP establishment poured an unusual degree of invective into its crusade against O’Donnell, casting her as completely unelectable in a reliably blue state that went for Obama in 2008 by a 25 percent margin. Without the Delaware seat, the GOP’s chances of winning back the Senate majority have diminished significantly. Minutes after O’Donnell’s victory was called, Beltway GOP operatives were aghast. It’s the “worst night for GOP since passage of Obamacare,” tweeted Republican new media consultant Patrick Ruffini. “Congratulations Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE).”

Certainly, the GOP might finally be willing to distance itself from one of the tea party darlings. While there’s been considerable infighting in other Republican primary races, the GOP has never been bested by a tea party candidate with so little chance of winning a Senate seat. In addition to adopting all the usual hard-line views on the major issues, O’Donnell has equated masturbation with adultery—advocating self-abstinence, let’s say—and has lied repeatedly about her education and political accomplishments. Though other tea party candidates have voiced extreme positions, O’Donnell appears to have transgressed an outer limit that even Nevada Republican nominee Sharron Angle couldn’t reach.

It’s doubtful whether the national GOP will want to put any resources into her bid. “They’ll have to make that call,” says Tom Davis, a former House Rep. and chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. A long-time Castle supporter, Davis considers O’Donnell’s chances of winning the general election “miniscule.” On Tuesday night, the National Republican Senatorial Committee would only say that they were “watching” the race to decide what they would do, and there are already reports that Republican strategists have written off the state entirely*. While O’Donnell might continue to draw grassroots tea party support, the national movement may decide their money might be better spent backing Angle or another candidate with a feasible chance of winning. “The right wing world will move on…to the new new thing,” says Davis. “She’ll be their darling for a week or so, then she’ll have problems being competitive financially.” With only about $20,000 of campaign cash currently on hand—versus Coons’ $900,000—O’Donnell stands even less of a chance if she doesn’t get another avalanche of backing.

The right-wing crusade against Castle always seemed more like a symbolic than pragmatic assault, even before the race blew up in the national spotlight. There were few targets in the GOP who were more tempting: as one of the only remaining moderate Republicans in Congress, Castle continued to stay true to his bipartisan rep, even after almost every other member of his party had deserted the center. With Castle gone, the moderate GOP caucus in the Senate will be small indeed—regardless of whether Coons or O’Donnell ends up winning in November. If the ultimate goal of the tea partiers really is to push the party farther to the right—rather than win as many Republican seats as possible—then their work in Delaware really might be finished.

*Update: Conservative activists slammed the GOP leaders for not being willing to commit to O’Donnell, and NRSC has capitulated by donating the maximum amount possible to O’Donnell’s campaign. The GOP is now truly, utterly ruled by its base–whether it likes it or not.

 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate