Tea Party favorite in Delaware Senate race gets Sarah Palin Endorsement

 Sarah Palin can't seem to stay out of the spotlight - or better still, she doesn't WANT to stay out of it. To be perfectly honest, the people she endorses do benefit from her ability to command attention. She draws large crowds and collects a lot of money for their campaigns. So why not?
    . . . June


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Sarah Palin endorsement: Palin endorses 'tea party' favorite in Delaware Senate race

by Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau   4:14 PM MDT, September 9, 2010

Christine O'Donnell's once-quixotic campaign against Rep. Michael N. Castle in Delaware's U.S. Senate race got another late boost with the endorsement Thursday of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Palin announced her support for O'Donnell during an appearance on Sean Hannity's syndicated radio program, five days before Delaware's Republican primary.

'She will support efforts for America's energy security, patient-centered healthcare reform, cutting government waste and letting the private sector thrive and prosper!' Palin later wrote on Facebook. 'We can't afford 'more of the same' in Washington.'

The endorsement by the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee comes weeks after the Tea Party Express organization committed to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of O'Donnell's low-budget effort to topple a Delaware political icon.

Through Aug. 25, Castle had more than $2.6 million on hand, compared with just $20,374 in O'Donnell's war chest, not including nearly $10,000 in debt.

There has not been reliable independent polling of the primary, though the Tea Party Express claimed its internal survey showed the race down to single digits.

That Castle, the state's lone congressman for 18 years and a former two-term governor, would struggle just to win his party's nomination was unthinkable even a month ago. The race was considered his to lose as soon as Beau Biden, the state attorney general, decided in January not to run for what was once his father's Senate seat.

But O'Donnell, the 2008 nominee against now-Vice President Biden, has emerged as a real threat by tapping in to conservative suspicion with the man she calls "King RINO" (Republican in Name Only).

"He's carrying the Obama-Reid-Pelosi water," she said in a recent interview, citing votes on issues such as a cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

She said her campaign drew inspiration from Joe Miller's surprise win over Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska last week, rallying supporters with the idea "that we are not in this race to come close. We are in this to win."

Read on . . .