Questions about O’Donnell remain after Del. win

September 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

DOVER, Del.

She has used campaign contributions to help pay the rent, taken more than 20 years to get her bachelor’s degree and equated masturbation with adultery. And she just stunned the GOP establishment by beating a nine-term congressman and two-term governor in Delaware’s U.S. Senate primary election.

Now Republicans across the country and even many Delaware residents want to know: Who is Christine O’Donnell?

“I’m an average, hardworking citizen,” the 41-year-old said Wednesday.

The conservative activist’s win Tuesday highlights the power of the tea-party movement that championed her, the vulnerability of longtime officeholders and a tricky calculus for Republicans hoping to gain congressional majorities in November. Much of the cheering after her victory over Rep. Mike Castle came from Democrats who consider O’Donnell a weaker opponent who will alienate moderate Republicans.

“That creates opportunities for us,” Democratic National Committee chief Tim Kaine told NBC’s “Today” on Wednesday.

Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove said much the same thing on Fox News: “This is not a race we’re going to be able to win.”

Castle said through a spokeswoman he does not intend to support O’Donnell. But other Republicans including Sarah Palin and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, rushed to O’Donnell’s defense. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney sent $5,000 from his political- action committee for her campaign.

For many Delaware residents, O’Donnell remains a mystery, even though more than 30,000 of them voted for her Tuesday.

O’Donnell first stepped into the political spotlight in the mid-1990s as a conservative activist and cable-TV commentator, focusing on issues such as abortion, homosexuality and premarital sex.

This is O’Donnell’s third Senate campaign in four years. She finished third in a three-way primary race in 2006 and got 35 percent of the vote against then-Sen. Joe Biden in 2008 after winning the GOP nomination at the state party convention.

She has not had a steady job in years, and former campaign staffers have suggested she has lived off campaign contributions.

Castle and the state GOP accused O’Donnell of lying about her education and leaving a trail of unpaid bills that included unsettled campaign debts, tax liens and a default on her mortgage.