Rep. Michael Castle (R-At Large) Elected 1992, 6th term
Born:	July 2, 1939, Wilmington
Home:	Wilmington
Education:	Hamilton Col., B.A. 1961, Georgetown U., LL.B. 1964
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Jane)
Elected  Office:	DE House of Reps., 1966-68; DE Senate, 1968-76, Minority Ldr., 1975-76; DE Lt. Gov., 1980-84; DE Gov., 1984-92.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1964-80; DE Dep. Atty. Gen., 1965-66.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Offices · Committees · Ratings · Key Votes · Election Results
More On Delaware
At A Glance · State Profile Redistricting · Almanac Home

Michael Castle, a Republican first elected in 1992, has been in public office for most of his adult life. A direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin, he grew up in Delaware, the son of a DuPont lawyer. After college and law school, he returned to be a deputy attorney general. In 1966, at 27, local Republicans urged him to run for the state House in a Democratic seat; the competitive Castle was elected. Two years later he was elected to the state Senate, and in time became minority leader; he left the legislature in 1976 to practice law. In 1980 Governor Pete du Pont asked him to run for lieutenant governor; he did and won. He was elected governor in 1984 and 1988. In 1992, barred from running for re-election by term limits, he traded jobs with Democratic Congressman-at-Large Thomas Carper. Castle won the Republican primary for Congress by 56%-30% over state Treasurer Janet Rzewnicki, and won the general 55%-43% over former Senate candidate and Lieutenant Governor S. B. Woo.

At that point it seemed unlikely that Castle, as a moderate member of a conservative minority party, could be influential; yet he was. He was a leader of the bipartisan freshmen who offered their own budget cuts. In August 1994 he withdrew his support from the crime bill when he thought Democrats overreached; then, at Newt Gingrich's suggestion, he led a group of moderate Republicans to negotiate with the Clinton administration. This delivered a stinging rebuke to Democrats--it broke their majority apart, in fact--and yet ultimately produced a crime bill with less spending on prevention but with the gun control provisions that Castle, unlike most Republicans, supported.

Castle has a voting record at the middle of the House; he was one of the 10 Republicans to support Clinton administration positions on most issues and is a leader of the informal Tuesday Group of moderate Republicans, 30 or 40 of whom meet for lunches every Wednesday (don't ask). In July 1999 he opposed the Republican leadership's tax cut as overlarge, and was one of a group of moderates who got the leadership to agree to make the income tax cut contingent on progress in reducing the national debt; then he was one of four Republicans who voted against the tax cut anyway. He voted for the 2001 Bush tax cut with some ambivalence; he had voted against repeal of the estate tax and wanted the tax cuts made contingent. In September 2002 he said moderate Republicans would vote against the Labor-HHS appropriations unless more money were available for all the appropriations. After Republicans gained seats in the 2002 elections, he was asked if he was worried that the party would go too far to the right. "I actually am very worried about that. It's the role of moderates to try to rein that in. If the conservatives go too far on issues like the environment or education, I believe we'll have sufficient votes to block them."

Castle is on the Financial Services Committee, which is of great importance to Delaware. Castle sponsored the bill for the commemorative quarter, with different designs for each state. He was present when the first such coin was issued, which shows Delaware Revolutionary leader Caesar Rodney, atop a galloping horse, rushing to Philadelphia in 1776 to sign the Declaration of Independence. He was pleased to announce in 2002 that Dover Air Force Base was to get new C-17s and that its aged C-5s were being refitted with new avionics and engines. He is interested in local land use issues. In August 2002 he went on CNN's Crossfire to defend the honor of his state against Jonathan Chait who had written in the New Republic that Delaware is "a rapacious parasite state with a long history of disloyalty and avarice." To Chait's criticism of Delaware's management-friendly incorporation laws, Castle said, "The reason [corporations] like to come to Delaware is because the court system is so good, and they know what the laws are, and they know that they will be treated fairly. I understand you didn't do as much research as you might."

Castle serves on the Intelligence Committee and was part of the joint Senate-House hearings on intelligence failures before September 11, and he endorsed the joint report. In May 2002, a month before George W. Bush called for a Department of Homeland Security, Castle advocated giving homeland security adviser Tom Ridge authority over the budgets of the FBI and CIA. He also called for biometric identification of all foreigners entering the United States and for biometric identification for Americans who choose it. He was one of the first four members of Congress to visit in January 2002 Camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay where foreign terrorists were held. Castle chairs the Education Reform Subcommittee, and while he may support higher spending than some other Republicans, he also questions the worth of programs mostly fashioned by Democrats. "Eliminating the Department of Education is not the answer. But neither is simply spending more for programs that fail to give our children the education they deserve." Castle has strongly supported the Shays-Meehan campaign finance legislation. He was one of the first four Republicans to sign a discharge petition on it in May 1999, and worked on the successful July 2000 bill to require disclosure of Section 527 committees. When advocates of Shays-Meehan finally got 218 signatures on their discharge petition in January 2002, the bill was promptly passed.

Castle played a role in the elevation of Speaker Dennis Hastert. In November 1998, after Newt Gingrich announced his resignation, Castle and Thomas Ewing of Illinois moved to draft Hastert to run for majority leader; Hastert demurred, because he had committed to Dick Armey. But when Bob Livingston renounced the speakership December 19, Hastert was quickly selected to be speaker. Castle has been re-elected by wide margins in Delaware, 68%-31% in 2000 and 72%-27% in 2002. He has often been mentioned as a candidate for the Senate in this small state, and said that he would have run if Republican Senator William Roth had retired in 1994. But Roth chose to run again then and, at 79, in 2000, when he lost. But even if Roth had not run, Castle might not have; he said in 1998, ''as time has evolved, I have grown to like my role in the House.'' Still, it is interesting that both of Delaware's Democratic senators won their seats by beating older incumbents who chose to run despite the fact that younger popular Republicans (Pete du Pont in 1972, Castle in 2000) were waiting in the wings.

Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, House Race Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form below:

DC Office
1233 LHOB 20515, 202-225-4165; Fax: 202-225-2291; Web site: www.house.gov/castle

State Offices
Dover, 302-736-1666; Georgetown, 302-856-3334; Wilmington, 302-428-1902.

Committees

• Education & the Workforce (6th of 27 R): 21st Century Competitiveness; Education Reform (Chmn.).
• Financial Services (6th of 37 R): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade & Technology; Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	25	40	0	38	87	100	58	95	76	72	33
2001	30	--	10	79	--	--	56	83	48	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	49%	--	52%		45%	--	54%
Social	54%	--	45%		58%	--	42%
Foreign	48%	--	53%		29%	--	67%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development Y 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Michael Castle (R)	164,605	72%	$760,161
	Michael Miller (D)	61,011	27%	$13,202
	Other	2,789	1%
2002 primary	Michael Castle (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Michael Castle (R)	211,546	68%	$588,911
	Michael Miller (D)	96,538	31%	$28,831
	Other	4,832	2%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (66%); 1996 (70%); 1994 (71%); 1992 (55%)