Christine O’Donnell. Nor will he endorse Chris Coons. He tells WaPo’s Paul Kane:
“There are a lot of personal feelings in all this,” Castle said in an interview off the House floor, citing “some of the personal smears” in the bitterly fought campaign. “At this point I have no intention of endorsing.”
He ruled out supporting the Democratic nominee, New Castle County Executive Christopher Coons, suggesting that he will remain neutral in the run for Senate.
Castle also said he has yet to speak with O’Donnell, since the numbers he has for her campaign are “out of service.”
She has since indicated she would take Castle’s endorsement, but Castle and O’Donnell have not yet spoken. Castle said that his campaign had two phone numbers for her – one a mobile phone, the other a home phone – and that both were out of service Tuesday and Wednesday. He said that on Thursday morning he called the general campaign phone number and left a message saying he was trying to call.
He said he would have lost even if Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) and Sarah Palin had not endorsed O’Donnell:
“My fate was sealed without either one of them, in retrospect,” Castle said of Palin and DeMint’s endorsements, suggesting the voters were too angry for his moderate views. “They were very energetic, they were very committed, and they didn’t want to hear any other point of view.”
UPDATE: Mike Castle should endorse Christine O’Donnell, by the way. Even if all he does is release a formulaic statement and then is never heard from again on the subject, it’s the right thing to do. Primaries get personal, that’s the nature of the beast. He shouldn’t let O’Donnell calling him “unmanly” stop him from backing the fairly-chosen winner of his party’s nomination.