O'Donnell

          O donnell witchcraft,

Christine O'Donnell
O'Donnell in 2006
Republican candidate for United States Senator from Delaware
Election date November 2, 2010
Opponent(s)	Chris Coons (D)
Incumbent	Ted Kaufman (D)
Born	August 27, 1969 (age 41) Moorestown, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Residence	Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Alma mater	Fairleigh Dickinson University, B.A., (2010)
Occupation	Political commentator,marketing consultant
Religion	Christian
Website	Christine O'Donnell campaign site

Christine O'Donnell (born August 27, 1969) is an American politician who is the Republican Party nominee in Delaware's 2010 U.S. Senate special election, which will be held on November 2, 2010. Previously, O'Donnell has worked in marketing, as public relations consultant, and as a political commentator.

In 2006, she ran in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Delaware, finishing third. In 2008, she was the Party's nominee for the U.S. Senate general election, losing by a wide margin to the incumbent, Joe Biden.

In the 2010 Republican primary, after garnering endorsements and support from the Tea Party movement, O'Donnell defeated the establishment candidate, nine-term U.S. Representative and former Delaware governor, Mike Castle, by more than 3,500 votes. Her victory was a surprising upset and was seen as a sign of Tea Party strength. Attention focused on dissension within the Republican Party and allegations of improper use of campaign funds by O'Donnell. O'Donnell denied the charges, urged voters to keep an open mind and suggested that media reports are not always accurate.

Early life and education

O'Donnell, who is of Irish-Italian descent, grew up in Moorestown, New Jersey as the second youngest of six children.After graduating in 1987 from Moorestown High School, O'Donnell attended Fairleigh Dickinson University where she initially aspired to a career in the theater and did course work toward a B.A.. She did not grow up as a strict Catholic, and came to a turning point during college when she found herself drinking excessively and having sexual relationships with men with whom she lacked a strong emotional connection. She would later say of this period, "I know what it's like to live a life without principle." She became increasingly interested in both politics and religion. She became an Evangelical Christian, began preaching sexual abstinence and joined the College Republicans.

She attended her university's commencement ceremony in 1993 but did not receive a degree. O'Donnell later said the degree was withheld due to unpaid tuition. In 1994, Fairleigh Dickinson University sued her for $4,823, winning a judgment for the entire amount according to court documents. The debt was paid in 2003.After O'Donnell completed a required course in the summer of 2010,Fairleigh Dickinson awarded her a bachelor's degree in English literature, with a concentration in communication.

Career and personal life

Following college, O'Donnell went to work for Enough is Enough, a Washington, D.C.-based anti-pornography group. She then spent two years working in conservative issue advocacy and for the Republican National Committee (RNC). She served as a spokesperson for Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian political action group that opposes abortion and seeks to apply biblical principles to other issues of public policy.

O'Donnell attended the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, California. She founded The Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth (The SALT) in 1996 and served as its president. The organization lobbied the U.S. Congress on moral issues and promoted Christian values including sexual abstinence before marriage to the college-age generation. O'Donnell made a number of high profile television appearances as a representative of SALT. In 1996 she appeared on MTV's Sex In The 90's, and advocated for sexual "purity" and against masturbation. She was a regular guest panelist on Bill Maher's show Politically Incorrect, appearing in a total of 22 episodes.

She was awarded a Lincoln Fellowship by the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, in 2002.

In 2003, O'Donnell moved to Delaware to work for the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) in Hockessin, and bought a house in Wilmington. She registered a gender discrimination complaint against ISI with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), after which she was fired .She then sued ISI in federal court for $6.9 million for wrongful termination claiming gender discrimination and that she had been fired in retaliation for filing the EEOC discrimination complaint. She said ISI's actions caused her mental anguish, and that she had lost future financial earning power because ISI's actions delayed her education. ISI defended its action by alleging that she had conducted a for-profit public-relations business while on their time.O'Donnell dropped the suit in 2008, stating she could no longer afford an attorney.

In 2008 O'Donnell defaulted on the mortgage for her Wilmington house and the mortgage company obtained a judgment against her for $90,000. The house was due to be sold at a sheriff's auction in August 2008 when she sold it the month prior to her campaign's lawyer.

The IRS filed a lien in 2010 that said that O'Donnell owed $11,000 in back taxes and penalties from 2005, according to public records. O’Donnell said that it was a mistake and a computer error, and noted that the IRS agent handling the matter claimed he was perplexed by the agency's actions. In campaign finance reports, she listed herself as self-employed and said she was doing odd jobs to make ends meet.

O'Donnell has worked as a marketing consultant She has provided political commentary on numerous Fox News television programs, such as The O'Reilly Factor, The Live Desk, and Glenn Beck. She has supported the Right to Life movement and has criticized pornography, masturbation and premarital sex.

Political campaigns

O'Donnell (far left) taking part in the 2006 Return Day parade in Georgetown, Delaware

2006

O'Donnell ran in the Republican primary for the 2006 U.S. Senate election in Delaware, finishing in third place, with 17 percent of the vote, behind winner Jan C. Ting and second-place finisher Michael D. Protack. She then ran as a write-in candidate in the general election against Ting and incumbent Democrat Thomas R. Carper, finishing with 4 percent of the vote as Carper won re-election.

2008

She was uncontested in the Republican primary for the 2008 Senate race after beating businessman Tim Smith at the state party convention with more than 60 percent of the GOP delegate vote. Her general election opponent was Senator Joe Biden, who was also running for vice president on the Obama-Biden ticket. O'Donnell questioned Biden's dual campaigns, claiming that serving his constituents was not important to him and criticizing his unwillingness to participate in debates and candidate forums. She spent only $116,050 to her opponent's $7,582,189. Opinion polling during the race showed that O'Donnell was behind by a two-to-one margin. In the general election on November 4, 2008, Biden defeated O'Donnell by 65 percent to 35 percent.

Her 2008 campaign ended with $23,000 in debt. As of March 2010, O'Donnell owed payments to staffers, consultants, and volunteers from the 2008 campaign, according to a former employee.Because of financial difficulties, she moved to a Delaware townhouse, where she paid half the rent with campaign funds because she also used separate quarters in the residence as her campaign headquarters for her 2010 Senate run. Between 2007 and 2009 the Federal Election Commission cited her eight times for failing to supply contributions reports on time.

2010

Primary election

Following the 2008 election, Biden resigned his Senate seat to become Vice President, and the Governor of Delaware appointed Biden's chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, to serve out the first two years of Biden's six year Senate term. A special election would be held co-incident with the 2010 general elections to choose who would fill the Senate seat for the remaining four years. O'Donnell quickly announced that she would be running in that election,and began fund-raising appeals in February 2009. She said that her biggest mistake in her earlier campaigns was not having enough funds.In October 2009, she reiterated that she was running despite the entrance into the race of Republican Congressman and former Governor Mike Castle. In January 2010, Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, indicated he would not run, and Castle became the favorite to take the seat.

On March 10, 2010, O'Donnell officially announced her candidacy before a small group of supporters at University of Delaware – Wilmington. In her remarks, O'Donnell criticized "reckless" government spending, said that Castle was the most liberal Republican in the House, and that the Tea Party movement and grassroots anti-incumbent trends would be in her favor.

When a report from The News Journal in March 2010 detailed her personal fiscal difficulties, O'Donnell attributed the problems to misunderstandings and errors. She later admitted that she had "fallen on hard times", and also said, "I think the fact that I have struggled financially is what makes me so sympathetic." Nevertheless, her financial problems became a focal point of establishment Republican attacks against her.with some commentators saying the attacks showed elements of sexism. As of early July 2010, she had raised more than $55,000 for her Senate bid. In the final weeks prior to the primary, O'Donnell became firmly allied with the Tea Party movement which provided last minute funding to her campaign amounting to more than $150,000, according to CNN, and more than $250,000 according to Fox News.

By July 2010, she had received endorsements from the Tea Party Express, which called her a “strong voice for conservative constitutionalist principles,” the Susan B. Anthony List, the National Rifle Association, and the Family Research Council. With days to go before the primary, O'Donnell was further bolstered by an endorsement from Sarah Palin. She was then endorsed by Senator Jim DeMint, while establishment Republicans continued to worry that she would be less electable than Castle.

A July 2010 Rasmussen Reports poll showed O'Donnell running ahead of Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons by a margin of 41 to 39 percent in a hypothetical matchup, while a similar poll in August had her trailing Coons by ten points (46 to 36 percent).

O'Donnell supporters were heartened by the late August primary victory in Alaska of little-known, Tea Party-backed candidate Joe Miller over incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. The Tea Party Express then said it might spend as much as $600,000 backing O'Donnell.

The O'Donnell campaign generated some controversy in early September when a political consulting firm hired by O'Donnell released a Web video insinuating that her opponent, Mike Castle, was having a gay affair. O'Donnell quickly distanced herself from the claims, pointing out that the firm in question was no longer working for her campaign, though the manner in which she denied involvement in the rumor led some to suspect that she was engaging in a whisper campaign by deliberately repeating the rumor while denying it. O'Donnell later appeared on Mark Levin's radio show, and blasted Castle's "unmanly tactics" during the campaign, saying, "this is not a bake-off, put your man-pants on."

She won the September 14, 2010, primary election by six percentage points over Castle, garnering more than 30,000 votes altogether, and becoming the eighth Tea Party-backed candidate to oust a GOP establishment candidate in a 2010 primary contest. According to the New York Times, her support largely came from the southern part of the state where Republican voters are socially conservative and against all gun control.

The added "buzz" about O'Donnell's campaign brought national attention but also additional scrutiny of her record, including a contentious interview on WGMD radio. O'Donnell faced repeated questions about her statements from political leaders and news media including Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff to President George W Bush, the Delaware GOP and the state’s largest newspaper, The News Journal O'Donnell's responses consisted of correcting the information, brushing it aside, or downplaying the discrepancies. Her financial practices were criticized by former campaign staffers Kristin Murray and David Keegan, with Murray charging that during her 2008 campaign, O'Donnell used campaign funds "for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt." CNN reported that O'Donnell's 2010 campaign paid $3500 to the candidate's mother for bookkeeping and financial consulting, though it noted that it is not illegal for a candidate to employ a family member to work on their campaign.

General election

Following her primary victory, a Washington D.C. watchdog group alleged that O'Donnell made false statements on Federal Elections Commission filings and illegally used more than $20,000 of her campaign funds as "her very own personal piggy bank" by claiming expenses during a time when she had no official campaign. A spokesperson for the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said they will be filing a complaint on September 20, 2010 with the Federal Elections Commission and requesting that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware investigate.

On September 16, 2010, O'Donnell said she does not believe in regulating private sexual behavior, and if elected "it'll be the Constitution on which I base all of my decisions, not my personal beliefs."O'Donnell gave a speech to the Values Voters Summit on September 16 saying that anti-American elites were trying to marginalize mainstream, core conservatives: "'The small elite don't get us. They call us wacky. They call us wingnuts. We call us, 'We the people.'"

Political positions

Abortion and stem cell research

O'Donnell is pro-life. She opposes abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. She would allow abortion with the family's consent, if the woman would otherwise die. O'Donnell opposes human embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and research into cloning monkey embryos.

Economic policy

O'Donnell has said that she will never vote to increase taxes. Since the summer of 2010, O'Donnell has contended that "America is now a socialist economy", defining a "socialist economy" as one in which "50% or more your economy is dependent on the federal government." O'Donnell emphasized fiscal integrity, saying, "Voting to spend money we don't have has become the appealing option for too many politicians. The men and women of America know this is not sustainable." O'Donnell opposes Congressional earmarks. She supports a simplification of the tax code.

Environment

Blocking cap and trade legislation will be one of her first priorities.

Gun rights

The National Rifle Association endorsed O'Donnell,saying she "will be a strong voice in fighting ongoing efforts by anti-gun politicians to dismantle the Second Amendment"

Health care

O'Donnell has said the first thing she wants to do when elected is to vote to repeal the health care legislation enacted by Congress in 2010.

Social Security

O'Donnell would raise the age for receiving Social Security benefits.

Religious views

O'Donnell has been described as a former Catholic turned Evangelical Christian. She has stated that she prays on every decision she makes and that during the 2006 primary she, "heard the audible voice of God".

In a 1996 discussion on CNN, O'Donnell advocated the teaching of creationism in public schools. O'Donnell was also critical of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, asserting that it is merely a theory.

O'Donnell also once took a stance against masturbation accompanied with lust, biblically equating it with adultery. She has since stated her youthful views have "matured" and that sexual behavior is personal matter, and that her political actions will be based on a the Constitution, rather than her personal views.

Writings

The Women of Middle Earth, Christine O'Donnell, Catholic Exchange, December 18, 2003

The Case for Chastity,Christine O'Donnell, The Cultural Dissident, November 9, 1998

Politically Incorrect Clips

In a 1999 appearance on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, O'Donnell stated she had "dabbled into witchcraft" in high school. Said O'Donnell, "I dabbled into witchcraft — I never joined a coven. But I did, I did. ... I dabbled into witchcraft. I hung around people who were doing these things. I'm not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do." She added, "One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's little blood there and stuff like that," she said. "We went to a movie and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar."

Electoral history

Year	Office	Election		Subject	Party	Votes	Pct		Opponent	Party	Votes	Pct
2006	U.S. Senator	Primary		Jan C. Ting	Republican	6,110	43%		Michael D. ProtackChristine O'Donnell	Republican	5,771 2,505	40% 17%
2006	U.S. Senator	General		Thomas R. Carper	Democratic	170,567	70%		Jan C. TingChristine O'Donnell	Republican Write-in	69,734 ?	29% 4%[19][nb 4]
2008	U.S. Senator	Primary		Christine O'Donnell	Republican	n/a	n/a		Uncontested
2008	U.S. Senator	General		Joe Biden	Democratic	257,484	64.7%		Christine O'Donnell	Republican	140,584	35.3%
2010	U.S. Senator	Primary		Christine O'Donnell	Republican	30,561	53.1%		Michael N. Castle	Republican	27,021	46.9%

Notes

^ O'Donnell's father is of Irish descent, her mother is of Italian descent. See "Tea Party's newest darling turned her life around in Morris County, NJ". Daily Record. 2010-09-16.

^ Her bio on the Claremont Institute website, see "2002 Lincoln Fellowship". Claremont Institute. and her 2006 Senate campaign website identified her as a college graduate. However, she did not receive her bachelor's degree until September 2010, see "Meet Christine O'Donnell ...". Politico. 2010-09-15.

^ In the ISI lawsuit, O'Donnell claimed she had been accepted into a master's degree program at Princeton University; in actuality, she had not yet received a bachelor's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson and had only attended one non-graduate course at Princeton, see "Citing 'Mental Anguish', Christine O'Donnell Sought $6.95 Million in Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Conservative Group". The Weekly Standard. 2010-09-12.

^ Write-in votes were not counted as part of the official tally of election results for candidates on the ballot, see, "The Power of One Vote: State of Delaware 2006 Election Results". Delaware Commissioner of Elections. pp. 2, 28ff. Retrieved 2010-02-26. which is why the vote totals add up to 103%.

(source:wikidia)