Complaints that tea party hurt GOP’s Senate hopes
November 6th, 2010 . by TexasFredWASHINGTON (AP) - Tea party-backed candidates helped and hindered Republicans, injecting enthusiasm into campaigns but losing Senate seats held by Democrats in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada that the GOP once had big hopes of capturing.
Republican leaders and strategists are muttering that the same tea party activists who elevated Speaker-to-be John Boehner and the party to power in the House simultaneously hobbled the GOP’s outside shot of running the Senate. Tea partiers largely spurned establishment candidates in the GOP primaries and helped nominate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado.
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Complaints that tea party hurt GOP’s Senate hopes
It had to happen. Someone was bound to point their finger at The TEA Party and look to pass the blame for losses along to them (The TEA Party). It was inevitable.
The truth is, The TEA Party DID influence some races by supporting candidates. What the TEA Party is NOT responsible for is the LOSS of a race, particularly the ones in question in this story from AP.
Republicans won Senate races in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That put them within three seats of a 50-50 split. In the case, Vice President Joe Biden would have broken the tie and allowed Democrats to retain their majority.
A 50-50 split would have been a workable solution, not the perfect solution, but one that would have been very workable in a *super majority* situation. The TEA Party worked hard to promote candidates that had true Conservative beliefs, sadly, The TEA Party didn’t take things like having a BIG MOUTH or a questionable past into consideration.
In Delaware, tea party activists rallied behind O’Donnell over nine-term moderate Republican Rep. Mike Castle. Party leaders tried to crush O’Donnell; the state party chairman said she could not be elected dogcatcher, much less a senator.
Voters went with O’Donnell and Republican officials in Washington largely abandoned the race. There were revelations about financial troubles and the emergence of TV footage in which she spoke out against masturbation and talked about dabbling in witchcraft as a teenager.
On Friday, she blamed Washington Republicans for her loss to Democrat Chris Coons.
That’s right Christine, it was everyone but YOU. Your past, your words, your financial skills, or lack thereof, had nothing to do with your not being elected, it was all because the GOP didn’t back you.
Then there’s Sharon Angle.
Sure, she would be a better Senator than Harry Reid, a monkey would be a better Senator than Harry Reid, but is a person that makes gaffs reminiscent of Joe Biden what the TEA Party wants or someone the Conservative could support and vote for? Apparently not.
Angle was dogged by missteps. She told a group of Hispanic students they looked Asian, drew ridicule for avoiding reporters and suggested a “militant terrorist situation” has allowed Islamic religious law to take hold in some American cities.
“My thoughts are these, first of all, Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas, are on American soil, and under constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don’t know how that happened in the United States,” she said. “It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States.”
Unlike in Delaware, national Republicans and their allies stood with Angle and waged a bruising campaign that came up short against Reid.
I agree, Sharia law has no place in America, but wouldn’t Angle have been a lot better off to have focused on HER senatorial race and not making racial gaffs? As to why the GOP stood with Angle and not O’Donnell, maybe even the GOP recognized O’Donnell for what she really was, an unelectable ding-a-ling with a questionable past.
Now, let’s take a look at Colorado.
In Colorado, Republicans nominated tea party favorite Ken Buck over Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. Republicans hoped Norton would have an easy race against Sen. Michael Bennet, appointed to the seat that Ken Salazar vacated when he stepped down to become President Barack Obama’s interior secretary.
“Did they help Ken Buck win the nomination? You bet,” said Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams. “Were they responsible for his defeat? Absolutely not.”
Buck, a district attorney, proved an easier opponent. Although he had tea party backing, he also had expressed views that Democrats seized on to peel away enough voters, mostly women who disagreed with his comments on rape and abortion.
