Tipsheet

Delaware Senate Follow-up: O'Donnell Imploding?

We covered this race on Monday.  Now it's Thursday, and it's safe to say Christine O'Donnell's conservative campaign in Delaware is having a pretty rough weekRep. Mike Castle, who--as Ace points out--leads in general election polls, will likely benefit from the slow motion meltdown.

A source with connections to Delaware politics sends along a March 2010 article from the Wilmington News-Journal detailing O'Donnell's campaign and personal financial troubles.  The link I've included leads to an anti-O'Donnell attack site, so I contacted the reporter of the original story, Ginger Gibson, who confirms that her piece appears unedited and in its entirety.  Gibson says she stands by her reporting:
...But while she was courting voters, she amassed thousands of dollars in campaign debt, was confronted by the IRS about unpaid income taxes and sold her Wilmington home to a campaign staffer to avoid a sheriff's sale ordered to settle mortgage claims, a News Journal investigation shows.

O'Donnell, who entered national politics as an anti-pornography crusader, attributed her financial predicament to misunderstandings and errors.

"I think the fact that I have struggled financially is what makes me so sympathetic," O'Donnell said.
Some conservatives are calling this week's string of controversies (which came to a head in a disastrous radio interview) the demise of O'Donnell's Senate bid.  Others, like Mark Levin, continue to argue she deserves conservatives' support:
Now more than ever, she deserves our support.  Our families and our country are at a perilous point.  Castle has voted to bankrupt this nation and our children.  And he will undermine a conservative majority.  He needs to be defeated.  These tactics, where Castle uses his favorite blogs and a new website he has created, to smear O'Donnell should motivate you even more.
The primary/special election in Delaware takes place on September 14th.