Tuesday, Nov. 02, 2010
A Spell Over Delaware
On Sept. 14, Christine O'Donnell stunned the political world by upsetting Mike Castle to win Delaware's Republican Senate primary. The Tea Party uprising in a traditionally moderate state upended the political order, casting aside the widely popular Castle for a candidate of more ideological purity, and launched one of the strangest general-election campaigns of the year. O'Donnell, a quirky candidate with a well-documented past as a conservative commentator and frequent guest on Bill Maher's show Politically Correct, found herself on the defensive over everything from her position on the teaching of evolution to her brief youthful experimentation with Wicca. And yes, her very first ad began with the line, "I'm not a witch."