Biden’s son won’t seek dad’s Senate seat

Vice President Joe Biden's son has decided he will not seek his father's former U.S. Senate seat, turning aside the pleas of national and state Democratic leaders who through he was a sure thing.

In a letter e-mailed to supporters, Beau Biden said this morning that he has a "duty to fulfill" in his current job as Delaware's attorney general, to see through the prosecution of Earl Bradley, a pediatrician charged with 32 counts of sexually abusing young patients.

"My attention is focused on that matter like a laser beam, and it became very clear to me over the last several weeks that it would be impossible to mount a Senate campaign at the same time," Beau Biden, 40, said in an interview.

One of the central promises of his campaign for Delaware's chief law enforcement position was to establish a special unit to prosecute child-abuse cases.

"This what I signed up to do," Beau Biden said. "It is a duty I sought, and I intend to fulfill it."

Beau Biden's withdrawal is a boost to the Senate candidacy of U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, Delaware's top Republican vote getter.

Senate Democrats had long insisted Biden was a certain candidate, and their best one. Castle, also a former governor of Delaware, was leading Biden in hypothetical poll matchups, but his lead was not considered insurmountable.

The seat is currently filled by appointed Sen. Ted Kaufmann (D., Del.), the vice president's former chief of staff, who has said he does not want to win the seat

It is possible that Beau Biden and his advisers may have had doubts about a run in the wake of last week's defeat of Attorney General Martha Coakley in a Massachusetts special Senate election - an electoral debacle now viewed as a sign of how hostile the national political mode is to Democrats in this midterm year.

Voters in Massachusetts displayed a cranky attitude to their state's political establishment and polls are picking up a strong anti-Washington mood. It may turn out not to have been the best year for the son of a famous politician to seek his inheritance.

The Massachusetts win by Republican Scott Brown, which has scrambled political calculations around the nation, had no effect on his decision, Beau Biden said. "Not at all," he said.

Biden, an Army National Guard officer who has served in Iraq, said that the pedophilia investigation must be his main focus.

"I sound like the proud father I am, but all his life Beau has put duty over personal ambition," Vice President Biden said. "This decision is another example."

Beau Biden did not say when he made his decision to forgo the senate race or to what extent he discussed it with his father or any other family member, but he said that he and his wife Hallie made the final call.

"My family, at all levels, has been incredibly supportive," Beau Biden said.

With young Biden out, Democrats are considered likely to turn to New Castle County Executive Chris Coons as their preferred option, though some may try to encourage former Lt. Gov. Jack Carney to switch from a campaign for the state's single at-large House seat to the Senate race.

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Colin Reed said in a statement that the decision "represents a major recruiting setback for national Democrats, who have been counting on his candidacy to keep the vice president's former seat ... As we saw in Massachusetts last week, voters clearly stated that these seats belong to the people – not to either political party or dynasty."

Beau Biden said he did not accept the premise that the Senate seat is at risk for Democrats. "We have a deep bench in Delaware of fine Democratic officeholders," he said.