Can ex-immigration official Tin topple Carper?
Posted 10/27/2006 3:30 PM ET
The Associated Press
Here are key races facing Delaware voters:
U.S. Senate

A former immigration official who wants to build a 2,000-mile fence along the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal aliens is hoping to breach the formidable political rampart erected by Delaware's junior senator, Democrat Thomas Carper.

Jan Ting, a Temple University law professor and political newcomer, barely won the September GOP primary for the right to face Carper in November. A post-primary poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University showed Carper leading Ting 63% to 23%, with 12% undecided.

Ting, who served in the Immigration and Naturalization Service after being appointed by the first President Bush, was the GOP's second choice to be Carper's challenger. Party officials were unable to persuade wealthy businesswoman Michelle Rollins to enter the race.

Ting, 57, has made illegal immigration his central campaign theme, saying it poses a threat to national security and puts enormous demands on schools, law enforcement, health care and social services.

Despite winning the overwhelming endorsement of state GOP convention delegates, Ting barely edged airline pilot Michael Protack in the primary. Protack, a political maverick making this third bid for statewide office, openly criticized party leaders for their inability to field winning candidates for statewide office. Republican primary voters also rebuffed party leaders, rejecting three of the GOP's six endorsed candidates and barely giving their nod to Ting.

While criticizing the Bush administration for wasteful spending and failures in Iraq and on illegal immigration, Ting believes the solution to problems in Washington is to elect more Republicans to Congress, because only they will have leverage with the White House.

Carper, vice chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, is running on his record as a moderate willing to take on the Bush administration when necessary.

In 2005, Carper temporarily blocked a confirmation vote for President Bush's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency because the EPA and the White House repeatedly refused to provide data for an analysis of Carper's alternative to Bush's clean-air plan.

Carper also has opposed Bush's tax cuts, the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito, oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, and a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag-burning.

Carper, 59, served five terms in Congress and two terms as governor before soundly defeating incumbent Republican Bill Roth in the 2000 Senate race. Carper is one of the most successful politicians in Delaware history, having never lost a campaign since being elected state treasurer in 1976.

U.S. House

U.S. Rep. Michael Castle, the longest-serving congressman in Delaware history, may find himself under closer scrutiny than usual this year as voters decide whether to reward him with an eighth term.

Castle, a former two-term governor and leading GOP moderate, has easily won re-election since first winning a House seat in 1992. In September, however, Castle suffered a small stroke and was hospitalized for several days. Doctors said the 67-year-old lawmaker should fully recover with no lasting impairment, but he was sidelined from the campaign almost before it got off the ground.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have put up one of their most credible opponents against Castle in recent years, Wilmington attorney Dennis Spivack.

Spivack, a passionate speaker, is running a populist campaign centered on his belief that feckless Republicans who control Washington have ignored the middle-class, turning America into a country of haves, have-nots and "invisibles." He rejects Castle's reputation as a centrist, accusing him of being complicit in record budget deficits, a failed strategy in Iraq, and tax breaks for oil companies and wealthy individuals.

Also challenging Castle are Independent Karen Hartley-Nagle, who lost to Spivack in the Democratic primary, and Green Party candidate Michael Berg. Berg, a pacifist and anti-war activist, is the father of Nicholas Berg, a 26-year-old contractor who was taken hostage and beheaded by Islamic insurgents in Iraq in 2004.

Other State Races

While Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden is not up for re-election this year, his name remains in the forefront of Delaware politics. Not only is Biden seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but his son Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III is the Democratic candidate for attorney general.

The race for attorney general was thrown wide open last year when Republican M. Jane Brady resigned to accept a Superior Court judgeship.

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, a Democrat, appointed Brady's chief deputy to serve the remainder of her term after Biden, 37, reportedly told the governor he was not interested in taking the interim job. Such a move would have given Biden some experience and the advantage of incumbency, but it would have smacked of Democratic insider politics.

Biden, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, faces Republican Ferris Wharton, 53, in November. Wharton, a career prosecutor, has tried to portray Biden as too young and inexperienced to be attorney general and hinted that Biden sees the office as a political stepping stone.

In other statewide races in Delaware, Democratic treasurer Jack Markell and Republican auditor Thomas Wagner Jr. are favored to win re-election, although Markell, with more than $1 million in his campaign coffers, may be looking ahead to the 2008 gubernatorial race.

Legislature

All 41 state House seats were up for grabs this year, including six left open by retirements, along with 11 of the 21 state Senate seats. None of the incumbents who faced primary challengers in September lost, although Republicans rejected the hand-picked successor to the House seat being vacated by the powerful co-chairman of the capital budget committee.

Among those vying for a House seat is Republican John Jaremchuk, a councilman and former mayor of Elsmere. Jaremchuk gained notoriety last year after proposing an ordinance allowing authorities in the small, northern Delaware town to fine people who can't provide proof of citizenship. He said his state House campaign would focus on "quality of life" issues, including illegal immigration.

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