Delaware Senate candidate: 'I'm not a witch'

updated 10/5/2010 7:39:29 AM ET

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DOVER, Del. — In her first TV campaign ad since winning the GOP primary, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell assures voters: "I'm not a witch."

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The Republican Tea Party-backed candidate has been dealing with questions about witchcraft since a 1999 confession on a late-night talk show surfaced that she had dabbled in it as a teenager.

The ad begins running statewide on Tuesday. It opens with O'Donnell looking into the camera and immediately telling voters that she's not a witch.

She goes on to say that nobody's perfect and suggests that she's just like everybody else or, in her words: "I'm nothing you've heard. I'm you."

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Coons spokesman responds
O'Donnell faces Democrat Chris Coons in November.

"It's surprising that Ms. O'Donnell, in her first television commercial, offers no solutions to the problems facing working families," said Coons campaign spokesman Daniel McElhatton. "There's no ideas here; there's no plan."

O'Donnell's comments about witchcraft were made during a taping of comedian Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" TV show.

"I dabbled into witchcraft. I never joined a coven," she said on the video, a clip of which hit the Internet just days after she stunned longtime congressman Mike Castle in last month's GOP primary in her third bid for Senate.

"One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's little blood there and stuff like that," she says. "We went to a movie and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar."

In the ad, O'Donnell says, "None of us are perfect, but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us — politicians who think spending, trading favors and backroom deals are the ways to stay in office. I'll go to Washington and do what you'd do."

O'Donnell has made light of the witchcraft comments.

"How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school?" she asked fellow Republicans at a GOP picnic in southern Delaware last month.

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>>> and now to politics. the tea party showed it's power during this year's primary season, but now some of its high profile candidates are attempting to remake their images with the midterm elections exactly one month away. we're going to talk to carl pal paladino, the tea party 's candidate right here in new york .

>>> some of the biggest personalities and most talked about candidates are trying to deal with impressions that are less than flattering. that was also true in connecticut 's first senate debate. where the former head of wwe wrestling linda mcmahon has closed a gap held by attorney general richard blumenthal .

>> reporter: in connecticut a smackdown over money and politics. the superwealthy wrestling executive over the connecticut attorney general. linda mcmahon hit blum on thal for falsely claiming that his military service included time in vietnam.

>> he lied about vietnam, what else has he lied about?

>> reporter: blumenthal who has apologized before explained again.

>> on a few occasions out of hundreds where i commented on it, i described it inaccurately.

>> mcmahon said the minimum wage should be looked at.

>> she took home $46 million and now she's talking about lowering the minimum wage .

>> you know that's a lie, i never said it.

>> and republican candidate christine o'donnell is now taking on those old tapes of herself on tv.

>> i dabbled in witchcraft, i hung around people who were doing these things.

>> i'm not a witch, i'm nothing you have heard. i'm you. none of us is perfect. but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us.

>> another attempt at an image makeover in new york .

>> this campaign is not about my family, it's not about divorces or affairs.

>> wealthy buffalo businessman carl paladino is trying to change the subject and the tone in his campaign for governor, after this hostile shougt matting match last week with a newspaper reporter.

>> i'll take you out?

>> you're going to make me out?

>> watch.

>> and he's acknowledged an affair and a child out of wedlock. paladino also suggested that an debris cuomo cheated on his wife.

>> i'm a builder, i know we can rebuild new york and get our state back on the road to a strong economy.

>> and paladino had said these things about cuomo without offering proof. when he's ask to back down, he has not and has not offered an apology. and he says he can spend as much as it takes to get his message out.

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