Newsmaker

Every Friday, we choose an alum who has been making headlines—for better or for worse.
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9/17/10: Chris Coons ’92MAR, ’92JD

 

At the beginning of this week, Chris Coons ’92MAR, ’92JD, was the “who’s that?” Democratic nominee for Joe Biden’s old Senate seat. Now he’s the front-runner—thanks to the upset victory of Tea Party–endorsed Christine O’Donnell in the state’s Republican primary.

As the elected executive of New Castle County, Coons represents more than 60 percent of the First State’s tiny population. He’s got not only a Yale law degree but also a master’s from the Divinity School; as county executive during a fiscal crisis, he “cut millions in wasteful spending and restored fiscal responsibility to county government,” his campaign website proclaims.

But Republican congressman Mike Castle was expected to win handily in both the primary and general elections. Now, instead of facing one of Delaware’s most popular establishment politicians, Coons finds himself with an opponent who is plagued by charges of financial irregularities and who says that, during her first run for Senate in 2006, she heard “the audible voice of God.”

post-primary Rasmussen poll put Coons ahead, 53 percent to 42 percent, pegging the seat as “solid Democrat.” Glenn Beck branded Coons—formerly an in-house lawyer for the company that makes Gore-Tex—a “Marxist” and “staunch anti-capitalist.” Well, Coons did study in Kenya. …

 

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