AUGUSTA, Maine — A tea party tempest is losing steam in Maine, a state that prides itself on its independence and moderation.
With inspiration from tea partiers, Republicans there adopted a party platform last month that raised eyebrows nationally, with planks calling for the elimination of the Department of Education, a reference to global warming as a “myth” and a declaration that health care “is not a right. It is a service.”
But even Republican candidates for governor have backed away from the platform, which replaced a pro-forma document up for+ adoption at the state party convention.
That ambivalence creates a mixed bag for tea partiers, who advocate little government interference in citizens’ affairs — a concept attractive to many Democrats and Republicans alike but one that has been overshadowed by some of the movement’s louder voices.
In a state that favors centrists such as Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and former independent Gov. Angus King, adhering to a rigid platform may be a turnoff to voters who will be choosing party nominees Tuesday.
After the convention, Democrats gasped and demanded that the Republican candidates repudiate it. None of the seven GOP hopefuls went for the bait, but most later expressed reservations, parsed their words or simply sidestepped inquiries.
“I support the spirit behind the new platform, though the letter of the document does leave room for improvement,” conservative candidate Bill Beardsley said.
The most moderate of the GOP candidates, Peter Mills, borrowed tea party rhetoric to defend his belief that health care is indeed a right, calling it “a part of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“That platform is an expression of anger about government,” Mills said. “And what I’m seeing as I visit with people in their homes and in their kitchens is even moderate voters are fed up, they’re frustrated, they’re exasperated. And they don’t think that they’re getting value for their tax dollars.”
Outside Maine, the tea party movement has already had an impact on major political races in more conservative states, including Florida, Kentucky, Texas and Utah, while contributing to a heavy lineup of congressional challengers.
At the same time, tea partiers nationwide are debating whether to endorse candidates, a step the movement’s leaders discourage, said Andrew Ian Dodge, Maine coordinator for Tea Party Patriots.
How much influence they’ll have among registered Republicans and Democrats is unknown.
“I don’t think anybody can say with any degree of certainty how big the movement is and how united they are,” said Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine. What Brewer, Dodge and others are sure of, however, is that the tea partiers will be among those voting.
They are forcing Democrats as well as Republicans to re-examine their positions, said Eric Lusk, a Republican activist from Portland.
Democratic governor candidate Rosa Scarcelli believes the tea party movement is not just a Republican phenomenon, but also a reflection of frustration by Democrats who feel disenfranchised, said Dennis Bailey, a worker for her campaign.
Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, who also has a centrist reputation, is completing his second four-year term and is constitutionally barred from seeking a consecutive third term.
Scarcelli, a businesswoman, has staked out the right and the outsider’s role in the four-way Democratic race. The other three are government insiders — Senate President Libby Mitchell, former Attorney General Steve Rowe and Pat McGowan, a former legislator who also served in Baldacci’s Cabinet.
The seven-way Republican primary bridges the political spectrum, from Waterville Mayor Paul LePage, who’s been wooing tea partiers, to moderate Mills, a state senator. The others include Beardsley, Steve Abbott, Matt Jacobson, Bruce Poliquin and Les Otten. Most stress themes of reducing state government and creating jobs — and avoid references to the party platform.
Poliquin said he agrees with some parts of the document but finds others “unnecessarily divisive.”
Abbott acknowledged his dislike for the more extreme planks, but added, “When you get past some of the rhetoric, what I do see is support for the Constitution (and) fiscal responsibility.”
Jacobson, asked whether he supports it, sidestepped the issue, as did Otten. LePage, who’s been wooing tea partiers, didn’t respond to a query.
Snowe and Collins are often swing votes in the Senate and occasionally stray from Republican Party lines — Snowe most famously during the congressional debate over health care. Neither is announcing a favorite in the GOP race, although Abbott was Collins’ chief of staff for the past 12 years.
Both senators play down the furor over the state GOP platform and say there’s seldom universal agreement over the planks.
But through a spokeswoman, Collins noted, “The tea party’s emphasis on fiscal responsibility is consistent with a core Republican principle.”
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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WASHINGTON — In Kentucky, the Republican Senate candidate stumbles over a question on racial segregation. In Connecticut, the party’s hopes rest on an executive who banked millions on female wrestlers in skimpy outfits. In Nevada, one contender wants to phase out Social Security and another suggests trading chickens for medical care.
Welcome to the 2010 battle for the Senate.
It’s midway through President Barack Obama’s term, and high unemployment, an outbreak of anti-incumbent fever and political history are pointing to strong Republican gains in the fall. Yet to a degree unimaginable a few months ago, the party’s fate is tied to conservatives with tea party support, scant or no political experience, and views or backgrounds that are largely unknown to statewide electorates.
“A tsunami of conservatism is coming in waves across our country,” says Sharron Angle, a tea party-endorsed candidate in Nevada running for the nomination to oppose Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader. “My message is, this is what people want.”
Democrats claim otherwise.
“The mainstream in their party is being expelled by the extreme,” says Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who heads the Democratic campaign committee. “That trend is hurting the Republicans.”
Their early campaign plans upended by Rand Paul in Kentucky, Linda McMahon in Connecticut and Marco Rubio in Florida, even Republican leaders occasionally acknowledge worries about a political wave they cannot control.
“New candidates make mistakes,” says Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who leads the GOP campaign effort. He adds their emergence is sign of “considerable political unrest. … I like our chances.” The party also has tea party-infused primaries ahead in New Hampshire, Colorado, California and Arizona.
Democrats hold a 59-41 advantage in the current Senate, and Republicans must gain 10 seats to win a majority.
Menendez doesn’t dispute that his party is in line to lose ground. “The question is how much of a robust majority” will remain after the elections, he says.
Republicans don’t lack for targets.
Obama’s former seat in Illinois, Vice President Joe Biden’s in Delaware and the one Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gave up in Colorado are competitive.
Officials in both parties say Sen. Byron Dorgan’s retirement in North Dakota gives Republicans their best opportunity for a gain. Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh’s decision to leave Congress gives them another strong chance. Arkansas Republican Rep. John Boozman holds a lead in the polls, while endangered Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln and her labor-backed challenger, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, scrap toward a June 8 primary runoff.
Another top GOP target is Pennsylvania, where tea party-backed Rep. Pat Toomey is running against Rep. Joe Sestak. Sestak defeated Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter in a primary after first saying the White House offered him a job if he would drop out — a controversy the administration tried to put to rest on Friday.
On the West Coast, Republicans were cheered last week when Dino Rossi announced he would run against Washington Sen. Patty Murray. Democrats are sufficiently concerned about veteran Sen. Barbara Boxer for Obama to fly three times to California to raise funds for her.
But before they can begin counting Democratic-held seats, Republicans must defend several of their own — races where the impact of tea party activists has been strongest so far.
Gov. Charlie Crist’s unraveling and Rubio’s ascension in Florida was the first sign of turmoil for the establishment. Once an odds-on favorite to move to the Senate, Crist now is a former Republican and an independent in an unpredictable three-way race with Rubio and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek.
In Kentucky, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell recruited Secretary of State Trey Grayson to run after first pushing Sen. Jim Bunning into retirement for fear Bunning would be an easy mark for the Democrats.
But Grayson was swamped by Paul, a political novice who said on primary night he carries a message from the tea party: “We have come to take our government back.”
The first post-primary polls rated Paul a favorite over Democratic rival Jack Conway. But the political newcomer stirred controversy by questioning the wisdom of the federal government enforcing racial desegregation in private businesses.
“I think he’s said quite enough for the time being in terms of national press coverage,” remarked McConnell.
More recently, Paul appointed a new campaign manager who has no prior experience in Kentucky or in running any statewide race. Paul has yet to select a pollster for the fall, and several Republicans say privately it will be difficult for him to win once his anti-government views are spread statewide by the Democrats.
Tea party activists figure in an unpredictable race in Nevada, where unemployment is 13.7 percent, and Reid has poll numbers as weak as any incumbent in the country.
GOP leaders hoped Lowden, a former state party head, would emerge from the primary. But Angle has financial backing from the tea party express, Lowden committed a gaffe by suggesting consumers use chickens to pay their doctor bills, and a union-backed group friendly to Reid jumped in with television commercials ridiculing her. Reid is now even in polls with Lowden and Angle.
Polling also suggests momentum in the June 8 primary belongs to Angle, whose website invites visitors to read her record. It says she favors abolishing the federal income tax, phasing out Social Security for younger workers and turning a proposed nuclear waste dump site at Yucca Mountain into a facility for reprocessing waste. In a state that is 20 percent Hispanic, she supports a requirement for voters to show identification before they can cast ballots.
Connecticut sets the standard for unpredictability. Sen. Christopher Dodd announced plans to retire, to the relief of Democratic officials who feared a five-term-incumbent would lose the seat.
Former Rep. Rob Simmons, the early Republican candidate-to-beat, suspended his campaign last week, then told the National Review he didn’t believe Linda McMahon, former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, could win in the fall because of “countless entertainment products that she’ll have to defend, especially when Democrats make them known.”
He later said he had spoken too freely, but as of late last week, his campaign channel on YouTube.com included a video showing women in various states of undress groping one another during a WWE event.
Not that Democrats are coasting.
Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has spent days explaining his erroneous statements about having served in Vietnam. It turns out he was stateside in the Marines Reserve during the war.
The furor had begun to fade when Biden drew fresh attention to it.
“I didn’t serve in Vietnam. I don’t want to make a Blumenthal mistake here. Our attorney general from Connecticut, God love him,” said the vice president.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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LAS VEGAS — Sarah Palin and thousands of tea party activists plan to descend on Sen. Harry Reid’s hometown in the Nevada desert Saturday to call for the ouster of Democrats who supported the health care overhaul.
Organizers predict as many as 10,000 people could come to tiny Searchlight, the hardscrabble former mining town where the Senate Democratic leader grew up and owns a home. But a light turnout or disruptions could lead to questions about the emerging movements’ credibility and direction.
Since the health care vote, “Everyone is waiting to see if the tea party movement is reinvigorated or if we’ve resigned ourselves to defeat,” Joe Wierzbicki, a spokesman for event sponsor Tea Party Express, said in an e-mail.
The rally that’s been called a conservative Woodstock takes place just days after the historic health care vote that ushered in near-universal medical coverage and divided Congress and the nation.
The vote was followed by reports of threats and vandalism aimed at some Washington lawmakers, mostly Democrats who supported the new law.
Police don’t expect problems but the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is sending dozens of uniformed and plainclothes officers to patrol the crowd.
Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, is scheduled to appear after spending Friday campaigning for Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who led the 2008 ticket.
Now a Fox News analyst and potential 2012 presidential candidate, Palin faced criticism after posting a map on her Facebook page that had circles and cross hairs over 20 Democratic districts. She also sent a tweet saying, “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!”
She said Friday she was alluding to votes, not guns.
A string of polls has shown Reid is vulnerable in politically moderate Nevada after pushing President Barack Obama’s agenda in Congress. His standing has also been hurt by Nevada’s double-digit unemployment and record foreclosure and bankruptcy rates.
The tea party movement is a far-flung coalition of conservative groups angered by Washington spending, rising taxes and the growth and reach of government. It takes its name from the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when colonists dumped tea off English ships to protest what they considered unfair taxation by the British crown.
The rally kicks off a 42-city bus tour that ends in Washington on April 15, tax day.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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