GOP "Purity" Test Would Help Dems in Key Race [View All]

[babylonsister]

G.O.P. ‘Purity’ Test Could Trip Up Castle
By ADAM NAGOURNEY


One of the bright lights on the political horizons for Republicans in 2010 is the United States Senate seat that opened up in Delaware when Joseph R. Biden Jr. became vice president.

Party leaders recruited Representative Mike Castle, a former governor and a member of Congress since 1993, a candidate that Democrats and Republicans believe would have a strong chance to regain the seat from Democrats. Democrats are looking to Mr. Biden’s son, Beau Biden, the attorney general, as their candidate.

But Republican hopes could get tripped up, party officials said on Tuesday, if the Republican National Committee approves a proposed resolution at its meeting in Honolulu in January that would bar the committee from backing candidates who failed to support eight of 10 positions that the resolution describes as essential to being a Republican in this environment.

The resolution was unveiled by conservative committee members on Monday, underlining the divisions between different wings of the party about how to go forward.

Mr. Castle in many ways is a textbook example of why some Republicans think the party should avoid such purity tests. He appears to be, without dispute, the strongest candidate that the party could choose to take back the seat.

But in the course of his career, he has taken positions on abortion, energy and gun control that could, at least in theory, lead Republicans to argue that he has failed the test laid out in the resolution. If that were the case, the Republican National Committee might have to sit out a Castle-Biden race.

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/gop-purity-test-could-trip-up-castle/