Christine O'Donnell Cancels On Heritage, Visits Senate Offices

Christine O'Donnell visited the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington on Wednesday afternoon, according to two Democratic Senate staffers who spotted her on their way to lunch.

O'Donnell, said the staffers, was wearing large black sunglasses, a red jacket and an American flag lapel pin. A Delaware Republican, O'Donnell has sought to avoid the national media, asserting that her time is better spent focusing on Delaware. Her trip to Washington was also to include a candidate briefing at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank and activist organization. O'Donnell canceled the visit earlier Wednesday, a Heritage official told HuffPost.

O'Donnell's attempt to avoid the national spotlight came after HBO's Bill Maher replayed tapes of her talking about how she had "dabbled in witchcraft." Her latest ad, where she asserts that she is "not a witch," has done little to slow the political bleeding. "We didn't see the broomstick," joked one of the aides who walked past her.

Polls give Democrat Chris Coons a healthy lead over O'Donnell in a seat the GOP thought it had locked up. Two new polls have her down between 17 and 19 points.

The staffers saw O'Donnell at around 1:00, they said. About an hour earlier, @politicalbrief tweeted that she, or someone looking just like her, was heading into the Catholic church near Hart.

Sam Stein contributed reporting