"Tea-Party Candidates Face Hard Reality of Campaigns"

[Clio the Leo]

Tea-Party Candidates Face Hard Reality of Campaigns
MARCH 29, 2010
By NEIL KING JR. And DOUGLAS BELKIN

Jason Meade of New Franklin, Ohio, is among hundreds of political hopefuls looking to ride the "tea party" wave to Washington this year. Like most, he's finding it a tough go.

Mr. Meade is running in the Republican primary in Ohio's 13th Congressional District against five candidates while juggling a 50-hour workweek at a plastics plant. His headquarters "is in the second-floor living room in the corner where the computer is," he says. His campaign has $3,000 to its name.

Mr. Meade's experience goes to the heart of a debate roiling the nascent movement: Should it back fervent long shots who hew to its antigovernment views, or should it rally around more traditional candidates, even if they don't perfectly reflect the movement's distaste for incumbents, taxes and spending?

The question is being asked as homegrown candidates confront brute realities of politics: reluctant donors, limited party support, inexperienced staffers and the uphill fight against incumbents

Grassroots support remains vigorous, as evidenced by the thousands of tea-party activists who gathered Saturday in Searchlight, Nev., to protest the health-care law and urge the ouster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Yet despite thronging primary races across the U.S., true tea-party candidates have stumbled at the polls. In the March 2 Texas primary, 18 incumbent Republican House members faced multiple challengers, including a flock of tea-party faithful. The incumbents won handily, with only one garnering below 60% of the vote.

Nor has a surge in Republican candidates translated into higher contributions. On average, Republican primary challengers have raised 37% less than Democratic counterparts, Federal Election Commission records show. Republican candidates for Congress have raised $294 million through 2009, nearly $30 million less than the Democrats, even though twice as many Republicans are running.

"The problem with the tea-party movement is it has inspired too many candidates," says Patrick Hughes, a candidate with tea-party backing who was trounced by Rep. Mark Kirk in the crowded Illinois Republican Senate primary. "The movement will fail if it can't coalesce behind candidates who can win."

more....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704734304575120362014554880.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

[zbdent]

1. Just wait until people actually see how batshi* crazy these "TeaParty" candidates

really are ...

and who they choose to associate with ...

[Kind of Blue]

2. Exactly. From the Quinnipiac Poll of March 24th

"By a 28 - 23 percent margin, American voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party, with 49 percent who say they don't know enough about the group to form an opinion.
'The Tea Party could be a Republican dream - or a GOP nightmare. Members could be a boon to the GOP if they are energized to support Republican candidates. But if the Tea Party were to run its own candidates for office, any votes its candidate received would to a very great extent be coming from the GOP column,' says Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute."

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1436

[Champion Jack]

3. "The problem with the tea-party movement is...

That they are a corporate sponsored, phony grass roots group made up of elderly white conspiracy nuts, gun fondling wacko racists and keyboard Kommandos headed by a brutally stupid, white trash cartoon figure in a black leather dominatrix outfit. They are for entertainment value only.

[livetohike]

4. The teabagger candidates are confortable in front of their computers, but

once they realize that campaigning is getting out in public and shaking hands and knowing the issues that affect your district, they will fade away.

[LiberalFighter]

5. If they were smart they would run as a Tea-Party ticket instead on the Republican Party ticket

That way they would be on the ballot in November.

There is a hidden message between here and the next visible text just for Democrats.

We want Tea-Party candidates to have their own ticket on the November ballot. It will dilute the votes for the Republican candidate.
Encourage them to run as a 3rd party candidate.
Shhhh

[Cosmocat]

7. yeah ...

agreed.

I would say that some states, Pa. for instance, have a lot of institutional barriers that hamper third party candidates ...

It will be interesting if these people try write ins or whatever, of if they just fold in to the R candidate to keep the evil dmeocrat from getting elected ...

[Bitwit1234]

6. I find it interesting that they had to bus people in from ALL OVER

THE COUNTRY TO RALLY. Remember..these people don't vote in the state they rush to.

[mkultra]

8. never interrup your enemy while they are making a mistake

Let the tea party dump the tea in the harbor. Its their tea.

[quiet.american]

9. IF they were to win, would they renounce their gub'ment salary paid for w/my tax dollars? nt

[Cha]

10. The problem with the teabagger candidates is..

the movement was built on ignorance and hate and there's too much of that in the world..with the bucks coming from craven greedmongers.