DE-Sen: Beau Says No; SSP Moves Race to Lean R

Tears for fears:

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D) will not run for Senate this year, a serious setback to Democratic hopes of retaining a seat that was long held by Biden’s father, Vice President Joseph Biden.

“I have a duty to fulfill as Attorney General – and the immediate need to focus on a case of great consequence. And that is what I must do. Therefore I cannot and will not run for the United States Senate in 2010. I will run for re-election as Attorney General,” Beau Biden said in a statement released Monday morning. […]

It’s not clear yet who would seek the Democratic nomination if party officials cannot convince Kaufman to do so. One possibility is Chris Coons, the elected executive of New Castle County, which includes Wilmington.

In the polling we’ve seen of this race so far, Beau Biden was the only Democrat who began the race in a clearly competitive position with Castle. For instance, an October poll by Research 2000 had Beau trailing Castle by a single point, whereas Castle led Coons by 12, ex-Lt. Gov. John Carney by 8, and incumbent Ted Kaufman by 14.

With Democrats now behind the 8-ball in this state, SSP is changing our rating of this race from Tossup to Lean Republican.

RaceTracker: DE-Sen

65 thoughts on “DE-Sen: Beau Says No; SSP Moves Race to Lean R”

  1. Nice job screwing things up for us.  Picked a caretaker instead of a strong candidate, like Carney, who could have scared Castle off.

  2. I will now be actively saying that I want Obama to replace Joe in 2012 and I will never support for Beau for a single office ever again.  Im not from DE so its not like I get much of a say, from my perch in MN, I hope he loses every race he ever attempts again in his life.

    This is just flat out bullshit!  We couldve installed Carney in the Senate from the get go and had a very solid incumbent who Castle wouldnt have bothered to run against.  But instead the Bidens decide to completely fuck us over.  Like I really have zero respect for the Biden anymore, they play politics the exact way that I hate; they are in this for the job security, the legacy, and the titles, not for any higher purpose of actually wanting to work towards policy goals.

    Hell, to me, they are a giant step below Coakley.  Coakley listened to the wrong advisers and just ran a crap race, the Bidens have purposefully and selfishly screwed over the entire country, so that Joe’s effing barely 30 year old son can be a Senator for life.

    Hey biiiiitch, why not just run in 2010 and if you lose, run in 2016 when Castle surely retires.  It’s not like we’ll forget your name.

    And sorry to tie Brunner into this but this is EXACTLY why I love her, she isnt backing down and isnt being calculating her politics, she wants to be US Senator and that is that.  We need a lot more people politicians who just go for it and stop being whimps.  Look around, you have Berry and Snyder bailing, the TN twins and now all sorts of GOPers are jumping out of the wood work to run for office.  UGH!  Run for office because you want to, not because you think you’ll win this time around.

    The Bidens are dead to me.  And what is most annoying, Beau will be Senator in 2016 and I’ll have to look to him for 40 effing years as a Senator, UGH!  BOOOO!!!!!

  3. Maybe Summer 2009 was the judgement and 2010 will be the apocalypse? (j/k)

    But our whole agenda is being brought down by piss poor leadership from the White House all thru Congress. So sad…

  4. Who supported the appointment because they didn’t want it just handing to Beau? He had to work for it! Sigh.

  5. will cost us Massachusetts and now Delaware.  If Massachusetts had left the law the way it was (or changed it so the appointed replacement simply had to be the same party) we wouldn’t have lost Mass.

    If Minner had appointed Carney in Delaware he would have had a much better shot against Castle.  

    Carney should stay in the house race.  He’ll win, and eventually make it to the Senate.  Both Castle and Carper are not “young”, with Castle likely being a one-termer.

  6. Is that he didn’t announce his decision until now.  Had he given his decision in September, I wouldn’t have been upset (I wouldn’t have liked it then, but we would be in better shape of determining our candidate).  Beau Biden is not an idiot, and he should have known that his decision to run was important to everyone and the Democrats in general.

    The only thing that could have been worse is if he announced his candidacy last Fall and then pulled a “I want to remain committed to my Attorney General’s office” number.

    I’ll get over it, eventually, but I’ll stay only lukewarm to any of Beau’s further attempts to obtain this seat.

  7. Every day, I log onto the internet and find a barrage of bad news for the Democrats. It feels good to be alive!

    Charlie Cook moved this to ‘Safe Republican’. That seems a little harsh to me, but none of the remaining Democrats look like they can compete with Mike Castle.

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