Outside the Beltway

Sarah Palin Sticks Her Thumb On The Scale In Delaware

Doug Mataconis · Thursday, September 9, 2010 · 3 comments

Perhaps not surprisingly, Sarah Palin has come forward with a last minute endorsement of controversial tea party candidate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware’s GOP Senate Primary:

If you’re not addicted to Twitter and don’t listen to talk radio, you may have missed it, but Sarah Palin endorsed Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell this afternoon. While on a short radio interview with Sean Hannity, Palin announced her endorsement, saying that she hadn’t even told O’Donnell yet. Shortly afterward, O’Donnell tweeted, “Just got Gov. Palin’s endorsement! Thank you for your prayers!”

(…)

Palin’s endorsement follows spending on the race by Tea Party Express, but it appears it may be less than the $250,000 originally promised. Palin and the group often support the same candidates, as in Alaska, where the two combined to help Tea Party insurgent Joe Miller topple incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

What impact this will have on the race is hard to say. Delaware is hardly a hot bed of conservative Republican political activism and there has not been any reliable polling of the primary race to date. However, to the extent that this turns out to be a question of who’s best able to get people to the polls in what is expected to be a low turnout election, Palin’s endorsement could help O’Donnell overcome Castle’s natural advantage at Get Out The Vote efforts in a state that’s elected him ten times since 1980.

One thing is for certain, Sarah Palin didn’t consult the General Election polls before making her endorsement. Either that, or she doesn’t care about losing a Senate seat in November.

Stay tuned.

Update: Palin makes it official on her Facebook page:

The wave of positive change can really sweep across our land with the election of Constitutional Conservatives who promise to use common sense and rein in the federal government spending! Please support Christine O’Donnell in Delaware. She will support efforts for America’s energy security, patient-centered health care reform, cutting government waste, and letting the private sector thrive and prosper! We can’t afford “more of the same” in Washington. Christine will help usher in the real change we need to get America on the right track.

Interestingly, not all of the comments are positive, with many of what are presumably her fans noting that an O’Donnell nomination is exactly what Delaware Democrats are hoping for.