What Can We Expect From The Democrat Likely To Take Mike Castle's Delaware House Seat?

The Republicans are looking to swap a House seat for a far more important Senate seat. And Delaware is one of the few states-- Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Vermont and Montana being the other six-- where the constituents of a sole House member are also the exact same constituents of each senator.

Delaware has been a reliably Democratic state, and Obama won it last year with 62%, up from Kerry's 53% in 2004 and Gore's 55% in 2000. Delaware's at-large congressman, ex-Governor Mike Castle, was first elected in 1992. He wins by a lot. While Obama was racking up a 62-37% landslide over McCain and Biden was sweeping as a senator everyone knew would never serve again (65%), Castle did nearly as well with 61% of the vote. He's one of the last mainstream conservatives in the Republican caucus-- and the teabaggers aren't too fond of him. We're going to save his primary race against Fox News propagandist and anti-choice fanatic Christine O'Donnell (the wing-nut Biden swamped last year) and the general election race that will pit him against Vice President Biden's son Beau for another time. Today we'll take a look at the House seat Castle is giving up.

The Democrats will likely nominate former Lieutenant Governor John Carney (who was earlier Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Tom Carper, currently one of the most conservative DLC Democrats in the Senate). Carney's Web site offers no policy positions, usually the mark of a corporate conservative trying to put one over on working families. Is that what we can expect from Carney?

Well, he has a reputation as a sincere and committed environmentalist, so that's good. But he's also known as a Chamber of Commerce Democrat and... well, that's bad. People in Delaware who know him, like our friend Nancy Willing, say he's open-minded, guileless and has a good heart. And that he isn't motivated by personal greed the way Carper is. I had some help from some of the folks at Progressive Democrats of Delaware and from the great Delaware bloggers at Delaware Liberal. Let me quote some of the trusted Delaware voices, starting with Rebecca Young of Progressive Democrats of Delaware:

John is a solid Democrat with solid Democratic values. Having said that, he's also a pragmatist. He won't let perfection get in the way of progress. He got pretty beaten up at the last Progressive Dems for Delaware meeting and he never did disavow the Blue Dogs-- at least that's what I heard. His reply was along the lines of what I said above. He's willing to take incremental steps forward if that's all he can realistically get. John will never be like Rep. Grayson from Florida, but he is solid on his progressive values, and he knows how to work legislation. On the other hand, his campaign style is very centrist. I guess he feels safe there.

I didn't find any opinions that diverged from Rebecca's.

The person who asked him if he was going to wind up as part of the Blue Dog Caucus at the PDD meeting was Delaware Liberal blogger Unstable Isotope, who thinks Carney was a little squirrely on that. "He said he liked to think of himself as a progressive but he came across as more of a pragmatist. I did ask him point blank if he would join the Blue Dog caucus and he avoided the question."

Fellow Delaware Liberal blogger Pandora says Carney lives two blocks from her, in a neighborhood of working families, and that on a personal level he "comes across as pretty progressive. He's walking the talk. Over the years I've had a handful of conversations with him, and we seem to line up politically. Maybe he's playing me, but I tend to think not... simply because he hasn't packed up and moved to Hockessin" (a relatively rich suburb northwest of Wilmington).

Nemski, also from Delaware Liberal, says Carney "is more pragmatic than progressive, but if you're looking for a strong liberal congressman, I don't think you could go wrong with supporting Carney."

Cassandra_M, also at Delaware Liberal, is asking the blog's readers today for input on Carney. She's cautiously hopeful that "his loss in the gubernatorial primary to Jack Markell in 2008 may have liberated him from the establishment and from his mentor" (the horrid Carper).

This video was from his gubernatorial campaign, but it will give you an idea about who Carney is and how he presents himself: