Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, has announced that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat that his father held for 36 years, before he became vice president last year.
Ever since Ted Kaufman, who has close ties to the Biden family, was appointed as interim senator, observers have expected Beau to run in the special election that will be held in November. An impending departure to Iraq with his National Guard unit was apparently the only reason he didn't immediately succeed his father.
But as the special election got nearer, uneasy Democrats noted that the younger Biden was not making the necessary moves to launch a candidacy. Today, he confirmed their suspicions that he is backing off.
Republican Congressman Michael Castle now seems to be a shoo-in for the Senate seat.
Chris Cillizza, on The Fix blog on the website of The Washington Post, suggests that this might be just a case of Biden bidin' his time until the next regular election for a six-year term, which is scheduled for 2014. That is based on the notion that Castle, who will be 75 at the time of that election, will perhaps not seek a full term. But if Castle follows the lead of the late Strom Thurmond, he could serve at least four additional terms after that!
Cillizza quotes the vice president as discussing a back-up plan of convincing Kaufman to run. But the interim senator today confirmed his intention to stay out of the special election.
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