O’Donnell’s Delaware Stunner Drives Election Coverage

The surprise victory of a tea party-backed candidate in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary fueled the biggest week yet for coverage of the 2010 midterm elections.

Christine O’Donnell’s September 14 upset over nine-term Congressman Mike Castle pushed the midterm elections to the top of the news agenda, where it filled 30% of the newshole during the week of September 13-19, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The previous high water mark for midterm elections was 18% the week of May 17-23, when incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter was defeated in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary.

Last week, the midterms were the top story in all five of the media sectors studied by PEJ and completely dominated the ideological radio and cable talk shows, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the airtime examined. O’Donnell herself generated so much attention that she proved to be the week’s leading newsmaker, figuring prominently in almost twice as many stories as President Obama.

In the wake of O’Donnell’s victory, the media narrative last week focused on several themes—the strength of the tea party movement, the possibility that Democrats might now hold an endangered Delaware Senate seat and growing fault lines between the GOP establishment and tea party insurgents.

Midterm Elections Grab the Spotlight

Not since the summer, when the media were fixated on the Gulf oil disaster, has a story generated as much attention as the elections did last week. Indeed, the last time any story achieved more coverage was the week of June 14-20, when the oil spill filled 44% of the newshole. (That was the week when oil industry executives testified before Congress and President Obama addressed the nation).

One race in particular drove last week’s midterms coverage—the Delaware Republican primary on September 14. Interest in the race made the midterms the No. 1 story in all sectors of the media.

Two sectors, cable TV (42%) and radio (42%) devoted nearly half their airtime last week to the mid-terms. And the ideological talkers on cable and radio—who tend to focus on big political stories—devoted even more, 72%, to the subject.  Three others sectors, newspapers (29%), network TV (20%) and online news (20%), devoted somewhat less space to the story.

Overall, about half of the midterm election coverage focused on the role of the tea party movement in the events of last week. That discussion was sparked by Christine O’Donnell’s emergence onto the national stage after she upset Delaware Rep. Mike Castle in the Republican primary race.

O’Donnell’s victory was newsworthy for several reasons. Her controversial positions on a number of social and policy issues made her a darling of the tea party voters, but turned her into a lightening rod in the media. And her defeat of the more experienced and mainstream candidate  was viewed as changing the odds in the November general election, a contest now seen as favoring  Democrat Chris Coons—who had been trailing Castle in the polls.

Other tea party-backed candidates have won high profile primaries in contests in Alaska, Kentucky and Nevada, but none of those wins seemed to create quite as much media buzz as O’Donnell’s.

On September 14, as votes were being tallied, MSNBC’s liberal host Rachel Maddow anchored a panel consisting of the channel’s other prime-time hosts.

One of them, Chris Matthews, made a prediction about the GOP reaction: “They’re initially going to embrace her because she’s their candidate, and they’re going to have to win with her. She’s part of their victory strategy right now. Delaware has to hold as a Republican state if they’re to pick up a net 10 seats. So they’re going to need her to win. So whatever they’re going to think, they’re going to say positive things.”

Matthews, however, may have overestimated the unity of the Republican Party at that moment.

On the same evening, conservative Fox News talk host Sean Hannity interviewed Fox contributor and former Bush aide Karl Rove. Rove delivered a negative assessment of O’Donnell, saying, “I’ve met her. I’ve gotta tell you, I wasn’t, frankly, impressed [by] her abilities as a candidate.”

Hannity responded by saying, “This is probably one of the few times we’re going to disagree here, because I’ve met her, I’ve interviewed here a lot over the years, I’ve found her quite impressive, and more importantly, she is a solid conservative.”  A few days later, Rove changed his tack and evinced support for O’Donnell after being criticized by some prominent conservatives, including Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin.

An article in USA Today on September 16 summarized the opportunities, but also the perils for the GOP posed by the tea party’s influence in the midterms.

“For the tea party, upstart Christine O’Donnell’s decisive victory over veteran Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware’s GOP Senate primary was a crowning triumph, a symbol of the voter dissatisfaction that shrouds the crucial midterm elections in November.

But for the Republican Party—whose leaders had cast O’Donnell as unelectable and unstable—the vote in Delaware symbolized an identity crisis within the GOP that could complicate its push for big gains in the fall elections that will decide control of Congress.”

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