Alum seeks congressional seat

Penn graduate Dennis Spivack says he wants to prove the idealism that defined his generation isn't lost.

He intends to do it by running for Delaware's sole seat in the House of Representatives, even though he has never held elected office.

It may not be an easy road, though. He is up against a seven-term incumbent who won the last election with 69 percent of the vote.

Spivack, who graduated from the University in 1969, is a real-estate lawyer and a Wilmington, Del., native. He made the decision to run last summer, after reading about the state of American health care, the war in Iraq and a recent Delaware business merger which cost the state numerous jobs.

"I ... looked at myself in the mirror and said, 'If I don't do this, I won't be able to live with myself,'" he said.

His opponent is Republican Mike Castle, who served as governor for two terms before being elected to Congress in 1992.

Spivack said there are a lot of issues he'd like to address if he gets the chance -- which may be unlikely, according to several assessments that indicate Delaware is a safe Republican seat.

Mike Castle's spokeswoman Kaitlin Hoffman said that Castle was too busy to comment but that he "welcomes all of the opponents to the race and looks forward to the election in the fall."

Spivack said he is angry about the "unabashed recklessness" of America's growing national debt and President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which he said is not sufficiently funded at the federal level.

And then there is the war in Iraq.

Spivack served in the Navy as a combat information officer during the Vietnam War and said he sees many parallels between that war and the current one.

"In both, you have brave men and women fighting under inept and incompetent leadership for an unwinnable war," he said.

Though Spivack is running on a number of issues, he says he sees them all as related by a single purpose: making the middle class the focus of government again.

"Our policies have been so skewed to the vested interests and to the lobbyists and to the wealthy that we are crippling our middle class," he said.

Spivack's concern for larger national issues hasn't necessarily translated into local party support, however.

Delaware State Sen. George Bunting (D-Bethany Beach) said that he plans to meet with Spivack but is happy with the job Castle is doing.

"We're of opposite political parties, but we're able to work" together, Bunting said. "He knows the issues down here. He's done a good job."

Bunting said that he would consider Spivack's campaign but that right now his vote is with Castle.

Spivack hopes that labor groups will help to fund his campaign, which was officially established March 7. Castle has already raised $1.2 million.

Spivack admitted that money is an issue, but said that by being efficient and economical, he could face his opponent without matching his funds.

Though 2006 may turn out to be a good year for Democrats, Delaware will be less affected by this trend because it is such a small state, said Larry Ceisler, co-founder of Ceisler Jubelirer LLC, a media-relations firm.

"It's very hard to beat an incumbent in a state where everyone knows everyone else," Ceisler said. "I don't think voters in Delaware will punish Castle for Bush's mistakes."

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