Outgoing Delaware Lt. Gov. John Carney says in a podcast (go to about 19:45):
It’s been difficult to get people to step up to the plate and run against Congressman Castle. I gotta tell you, that’s something I’m looking at right now.
This is pretty big news – Carney would probably be our best bet to take on Castle in 2010. (DE, regularly blue for several cycles, went for the Obama-Biden ticket by a 62-37 margin.) Carney also mentions that he might be interested in a Senate run. However, in this interview, he suggests that he’s not interested in repeat his bruising 2008 gubernatorial primary experience in a Senate face-off with, say, Beau Biden. So if Beau runs for his dad’s old seat, Carney could well take on Old Man Mike.
(Thanks to Jeremiah for spotting SG’s catch of this Delaware Liberal post.)
No way he could beat Beau Biden for that Delaware Senate special election primary, so might as well try for that At Large House Seat, and then after a few terms run for Governor again. I don’t think Carper or whoever replaces Kaufman would be thinking of retiring in either 2012 or 2014.
Personally, “Looking at” to me means squat. Hey, I’m “looking at” the Delaware At Large district too, but you don’t hear me saying I’m running. If he started an exploratory committee, then I’d take his statements at face value.
the open Senate seat is the easier but he got screwed with nepotism. If Castle runs for re-election, bad health notwithstanding, Carney will lose. Whereas, if he runs against Beau, he at least has a chance that Beau trips up and he wins. Even after a bruising Dem primary, the GOP bench is so thin if the person is not named Castle.
for letting Castle retire with dignity.
Good news. Too bad about the Senate seat, but we need candidates with some freaking backbone to take on guys like castle instead of giving them a pass year after year.
Even if Castle wins in 2010 he might think such a hard battle wasn’t worth it every two years and hang it up in 2012.
Carney is my new favorite poltician I know nothing about….
He’d give us a very good shot, send the Biden family back to Delaware for a few days and he’d have a real shot. It’s one of the bluest districts held by a Republican.
Delaware and make Sussex County part of Maryland 🙂
I get the feeling that if he announces early it could push Castle to retire.
roth, too was an institution who was definitely a little frail to run in a full-on election against a strong candidate. roth was probably the favorite at the beginning of that election, but carper outworked him and roth literally fell down on the trail once – perhaps at that moment losing the election.
go carney!
I thought he was on deployment to Iraq. But that looked like him walking with his dad in the parade today.