The Hill News

Outgoing Sen. Ted Kaufman (D) said Tuesday in an interview with The Hill that he feels "awful" for his congressional colleague, Rep. Mike Castle (R), who lost an upset GOP primary to Tea Party upstart Christine O'Donnell this month.

Kaufman, who has been in Delaware politics since joining then-Sen. Joe Biden's 1972 campaign as a volunteer, compared Castle’s loss to the fate of Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in Pennsylvania. So many voters ended their political registration in the Republican Party in Pennsylvania that the remaining die-hard pool of GOP voters was intensely conservative, Kaufman said. Also a moderate like Castle, Specter bolted the GOP for the Democratic Party in 2009, although the change came too late to prevent Specter’s primary loss to Rep. Joe Sestak (D) this summer.
 
“I feel awful for Castle,” Kaufman said. “There’s a lot of things I didn’t agree with him on, but he had such a great career and such integrity and he’s ! so smart. And to go out like this… I just think it’s a shame.“

Kaufman also said he agreed with the conventional observation that O'Donnell's politics are too extreme for mainstream Delaware voters. He predicted a November general election loss to Democratic candidate Chris Coons, the New Castle County executive.