O'Donnell Vows To Control Her Political Message

After nearly disappearing from public view following her upset victory in Delaware's GOP primary, Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell re-emerged Friday vowing to control her political message and saying she is not concerned with how the national media portrays her.

In an interview with The Associated Press after opening her Wilmington headquarters, O'Donnell denied she had been ducking the media or had gone into hiding.

Instead, she said the campaign took some time to reorganize and take care of necessities as fundamental as telephones.

"We asked for time to regroup and reassess because people were telling us their phone calls weren't being returned, and that's not my heart," she said. "I want everybody to feel like they're a priority, so now our office is up and running and phones are being put in."

Since her primary win, media reports have questioned whether O'Donnell misspent campaign contributions and misled people about her educational record. She also has been the target of late-night comedy show barbs about things she said years ago as a frequent guest on TV talk shows, including that she dabbled in witchcraft as a teenager and believes that evolution is a myth.

O'Donnell said she has stopped paying attention to what the national media was reporting about her, and she declined to say whether she believes she has been treated fairly by the media.

"It is what it is," she said. "I'm not concerned about that. We've got a great media team in place and we're going to control our own destiny and make sure that our message gets out there the way we want it to."

O'Donnell also granted interviews to local reporters, who had seen and heard little from her in the past two weeks. She had said shortly after the primary that she would not speak to members of the national media but instead would focus on Delaware voters.More here