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Another Tea Party Upset in Delaware?

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It’s looks like the “lifestyle conservatives” might win yet again. According to Public Policy Polling, the Senate GOP Primary in Delaware is too close to call. The race pits moderate Republican Congressman Mike Castle again the Tea Party-backed Christine O’Donnell. It wasn’t that long ago that Castle was considered a lock for that Senate seat which is key to the GOP taking control of the Senate. Now, it’s not a given that Castle will win:

It looks like there’s a real possibility of a major upset in the Delaware Senate primary on Tuesday night, with insurgent conservative Christine O’Donnell leading longtime Congressman and Governor Mike Castle 47-44. That 3 point lead is well within the poll’s margin of error.

If Castle is indeed defeated Tuesday night it will be yet another sign that conservatives have a strangle hold on the Republican Party and moderates may or may not be welcome anymore. Castle has an overwhelming 69-21 lead with moderate voters but they only make up 33% of the likely primary electorate. O’Donnell has a 62-31 lead with conservatives that’s more than enough to propel her to the overall lead.

What’s shocking is that O’Donnell is a clunker of a candidate as Rick Moran and Doug Mataconis have shown. O’Donnell might be able to woo conservatives to vote for her, but if she wins, I doubt the larger populace in Delaware would vote for her. An O’Donnell win is basically a vote for a Democratic controlled Senate. Mataconis notes that Delaware Republicans better think about how bad they want to win:

With just a little more than 48 hours to go until the polls close, and hints from Public Policy Polling that the poll they will release later tonight will show the race between O’Donnell and Castle to be a close one, Delaware Republicans ought to think long and hard about Christine O’Donnell before they go vote. Otherwise, they could be throwing out an opportunity to win a Senate seat by backing a candidate who appears to be nothing more than a gadfly.

There has been a lot of talk about how the GOP is going to take over Congress this fall. But if they keep picking C-level candidates like O’Donnell, I have very little faith to believe this “Republican Tidal Wave” will happen. The general public is not crazy about Obama and the Democrats, but I don’t think they are suicidal.