Joe Biden by Beatrice Gormley (free ebook reader for iphone TXT) 📕

out plays on the football field, or as he planned his rhythm and word choice to avoid stuttering. For one thing, he was unlikely to get reelected to the county council. The precincts were being redistricted by the Republicans so as to favor Republican candidates even more. Joe had actually heard them laughing about this legal but unfair trick.

Joe understood that the gap between county councilman and US senator might be too wide to bridge. He would have preferred to run for the US House of Representatives, a smaller gap. But the current representative in his district was Pierre S. du Pont IV. DuPont Chemical was a major industry in Delaware, wealthy and influential. Joe didn’t think he’d stand a chance against Congressman du Pont, backed by the money and prestige of his family’s company.

Although Joe was aiming for bigger things than the New Castle County Council, he did apply his talents and energy for the county during his two years in office. He fought, as he’d promised, against development that would break up the communities of Wilmington and build over open space. He prevented the corporate giant Shell Oil from polluting the environment with refineries on the Delaware seashore.

All this work was for causes that Biden sincerely believed in. It also made him known as a politician who was out to serve the people. And at every public appearance, Joe, naturally outgoing and likable, generated good publicity for himself. So did his young, appealing family.

The Democratic Party in Delaware had been weak and disorganized for years, but now there was a movement afoot to reform and strengthen it. Joe Biden, a young, talented, ambitious politician, had a lot to offer the Democrats. Henry Topel, the chair of the state Democratic Party, was impressed with Joe’s youth following. They couldn’t vote yet, but they’d already played an important part in Joe’s campaign for county councilman.

In fact, Topel’s own son David was one of the teenagers in Valerie Biden’s political network. David contacted high schools all over Delaware, arranging for Joe to speak to the students in classrooms and assemblies. Joe spoke passionately about how the US should end the Vietnam War, and the students responded eagerly. They wanted to do something—they only needed to be asked. Senator Boggs supported President Nixon’s running of the war, so these young people were inspired to help the Democrats beat Boggs.

Henry Topel could see that Joe Biden and his army of young activists could be a big help to the Democrats. He put Biden on the state party reform commission. This job gave Biden the chance to travel around Delaware and meet important Democrats outside the county of New Castle.

As the commission searched for the right person to run for the Senate in 1972, Biden didn’t push the idea of himself as the candidate. But by the summer of 1971, the Delaware Democratic Party had run out of other likely candidates. They’d asked the former governor, the chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, and several others, but none of them wanted to run against Caleb Boggs.

Finally, during a convention of the state party, Joe Biden heard a knock on the door of his motel room. He was in the middle of shaving, wearing shorts, but he let in Henry Topel and Bert Carvel, former governor of Delaware. They’d come to a decision: they wanted him to run against Boggs for the Senate. The Democrats needed to run a candidate, no matter how hopeless the chances looked. And nobody else wanted to be the “sacrificial lamb,” doomed to lose.

Joe said that he needed time to think it over. But he’d already been planning for this.

Triumph and Tragedy

For the second time, Joe Biden’s whole family plunged into a political struggle. This time, the stakes were much higher. If Joe was elected to the US Senate, he’d have the chance to influence the big issues he cared about so much: The Vietnam War. Women’s rights. Civil rights. The environment. The problem of crime.

Neilia was all in. She’d let go her dream of Joe becoming a Supreme Court justice. Now she advised him to give up his law practice, although it was their main source of income. Even with Joe’s unusual energy, she pointed out, he couldn’t run his law firm, do his work as county councilman, and run for a national office.

As for Valerie Biden, of course she’d be Joe’s manager for this campaign too. Her husband, Bruce Saunders, oversaw the campaign budget. Joe’s brother Jimmy accepted the job of raising money—they estimated that running for the Senate would cost Joe $150,000. Frankie, still a teenager, could help gather the high school volunteers.

The campaign gathered momentum. Joe Biden’s energy and joy were contagious, especially for the young volunteers. They felt like part of the family. And the Bidens treated them that way, encouraging the young people to drop by to play touch football and swim in the pool.

Jean Biden worried that running for the Senate would ruin her son’s so-far brilliant career. But Joe assured her that even if he lost the race, he’d win. The campaign would get him known throughout the state of Delaware, and maybe even get him some national publicity. As his mother had to agree, people who got to know Joe Biden almost always liked him.

Besides, Joe intended to win. He was confident that he could charm voters into giving him a chance.

Before Biden even announced that he was running for the US Senate, his campaign launched a series of “coffees”—meetings in private homes—around the state of Delaware. At that time, not many women worked outside the home, so they were able to attend daytime meetings. Each coffee was Joe’s chance to introduce himself to thirty people at a time, in person, and to explain why he was running for senator. And—very important—these meetings were a chance to listen to Delaware residents’ concerns.

During the fall of 1971, Joe’s campaign organized hundreds