TEA PARTY PERFORMANCE: The organisation found much to celebrate but it may not be as advanced as previously thought
THE TEA Party celebrated decisive victories on Tuesday night, proving that it has matured from a protest movement into a powerful force for political change.
The movement claimed its first wins in the Senate, as Republican Rand Paul defeated attorney general Jack Conway in Kentucky and Marco Rubio claimed Florida. Later in the night, Tea Party-backed Pat Toomey defeated Democratic congressman Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania.
South Carolina senator Jim Demint, who has been a leader of the Tea Party movement, endorsing candidates and raising money for their campaigns, called the wins part of an “awakening going on in our country”.
The victories, while significant, were offset by some big losses: Senate majority leader Harry Reid held on to his seat after a tough Nevada race against Republican Sharron Angle. Democrat Chris Coons grabbed a double-digit win over Tea Party favourite Christine O’Donnell in Delaware; and in West Virginia, Democrat Joe Manchin beat back a strong challenge from Republican John Raese.
Still, Tea Party candidates and supporters found much to celebrate, calling their wins a mandate for change in Washington.
“We’ve come to take our government back,” Paul said during his victory speech.
“The American people are not happy with what’s going on in Washington. Tonight there is a Tea Party tidal wave, and we’re sending a message to them. It’s a message that I will carry with me on day one. It’s a message of fiscal sanity, a message of limited government and balanced budgets.”
Paul, a Tea Party activist and son of Texas congressman Ron Paul, a former presidential candidate, won a tough Republican primary where he challenged a candidate backed by his party’s top leaders. He excited Tea Party supporters this summer at his campaign stops, which were feisty affairs heavy on a populist call to arms against what he describes as Washington’s unsustainable spending, crippling debt, career politicians, a “socialist” healthcare law and a failure to close the nation’s borders to illegal immigrants.
Rubio, who emerged early on as a marquee Tea Party-backed candidate, beat incumbent Florida governor Charlie Crist, who ran as an independent, and Democratic congressman Kendrick Meek. In his acceptance speech, the newly elected senator warned that wins by Tea Party-backed candidates should not be taken as a sign of support for Republicans.
“The stories are being written about what this election is about,” Rubio said.
“We know that a growing number of Republicans will be elected to the Senate. We make a great mistake if we believe that these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party. What they are is a second chance.”
The Tea Party effort, which has captured attention with its dramatic, sometimes angry displays of conservative, anti-government fervour, proved its ability to sway Republican primaries in a number of stunning upsets this year, in Delaware, Utah, Nevada and Alaska.
Still, uncertainties remain. First is the finding, in a Washington Post canvass conducted last month, that local Tea Party groups are less organised and politically active than previously thought. Much of the grassroots organisation that swayed primaries was co-ordinated and financed by large national groups led by Republican insiders, including FreedomWorks, the Tea Party Express and Americans for Prosperity.
Second is the question of how, and whether, such a disconnected army can make a real difference in governing. Polls show that more Americans than not are turned off by the Tea Party, with many viewing the movement as extreme.
The Tea Party movement fared better among voters who came out, according to exit polls. Nationally, 40 per cent of those who voted said they support the Tea Party but the majority of voters said the Tea Party was not a factor in their congressional vote.
In a haze of cigarette smoke at the Doylestown Moose Lodge in eastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, a few Tea Party supporters and Republicans formed a conga line and belted out the lines of an old Twisted Sister hit. As election returns showed projected wins by Paul and other Tea Party-supported candidates, the celebrants sang their opposition to the policies of Democrats and the Obama administration: “We’re not gonna take it anymore!” The Kitchen Table Patriots, which threw the party, celebrated victories of Republicans Pat Toomey for Senate and Mike Fitzpatrick for the eighth district house seat.
Kathy Posnett, a retired secretary, logged more than 5,500 calls on a phone bank to help make it happen.
“I kept thinking of my daughter,” Posnett said. “I didn’t want her to pay off the stimulus . . . Murphy voted with Pelosi 70 per cent of the time. It made me ill. Now he got his.”