Tea parties plan victory celebrations, even if candidates fall short - Washington Post

The lively if disjointed tea party movement faces its biggest test yet as a lasting American political force in Tuesday's midterm elections. With as many as a dozen high-profile House and Senate races featuring tea-party-backed candidates still too close to call, it's completely unclear how that test will turn out.

The tea party movement, which has captured the nation's attention with its dramatic, sometimes angry displays of conservative, anti-government fervor, proved its ability to sway Republican primaries over a series of stunning upsets this year, from Utah and Nevada to Alaska and Delaware.

But at least two uncertainties remain. First is the finding, in an extensive Washington Post canvass conducted last month, that local tea party groups are less organized and politically active than previously thought - and that much of the grassroots organization that swayed primaries was coordinated and financed by large national groups led by Republican insiders, including FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express and Americans for Prosperity.

Second is the question of how, and whether, such a disjointed army can make a difference in a general election. Polls show that more Americans than not are turned off by the tea party, with many viewing the movement as extreme.

U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said voters have "grave reservations" about tea party candidates, many of whom were recruited by former Alaska governor and tea party favorite Sarah Palin.

"That's causing great concern to voters from moderate swing districts, because those voters aren't looking for right wing ideologues. They're looking for centrist problem solvers," Van Hollen said.

Not surprisingly, local tea party organizers, in addition to well-monied, national conservative leaders, took a different view, unanimously agreeing that the tea party deserves credit for what is widely expected to be an increase in the number of conservatives elected to Congress.

To prove the point, they are planning raucous victory parties across the country, with festivities planned in Charlestown, W. Va., Bucks County, Pa., Las Vegas and even that most despised of cities - Washington. It doesn't matter, they say, that some of those parties are likely to have a backdrop of a political race in which the tea party candidate will fall short.

"You're going to have a conservative Republican majority in the House -- nobody doubts that," said Richard K. Armey, the former House majority leader who is now chairman of FreedomWorks, the Washington-based conservative organizer that has supplied local tea party activists with resources. "That means that it's been a transformation, a restoration and a rehabilitation of the Republican Party. And with that, they beat the Democrats."

In the Senate, Armey continued: "One way or another, the Republican caucus in the Senate is going to be a conservative caucus. Everybody in the Senate who is a Republican is saying, 'How can I make peace with this movement and this commitment to grassroots conservative Republicans?'"

But it remains to be seen how much larger that caucus will be.

Joe Miller of Alaska, for instance, shocked the nation with his primary victory over incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. But Miller's fortunes have fallen considerably in recent weeks with revelations that his security guard handcuffed a reporter and that he admitted to lying about misconduct while working as a government lawyer in Fairbanks. Now Murkowski, who is mounting a write-in campaign, and Democrat Scott McAdams are considered the leading contenders for the seat.

Christine O'Donnell of Delaware is widely measured in public polls to have blown Republican chances to pick up the Senate seat of Vice President Joe Biden. O'Donnell, who defeated moderate U.S. Rep. Mike Castle in that state's GOP primary, has come under fire for denying the view that the First Amendment's establishment clause should be interpreted to mandate a separation of church and state.

Other Senate races remain tighter, including Sharron Angle's effort to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) in Nevada and Republican Ken Buck's race against incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet in Colorado.

If enough of these seats remain in Democratic hands, that party will seize the chance to call election night a rebuke of tea party conservatism. But if enough of them don't, then the tea party movement will undoubtedly claim a mandate to control the agenda in Washington come January - not to mention the presidential nominating process in 2012.

"The American people are about to speak loud and clear," said Mark Meckler of Sacramento, a founding member of Tea Party Patriots and one of the first truly grassroots organizers to hold tea party rallies and connect with like-minded conservatives on Facebook and Twitter.

Meckler said it's crucial that the American people see a takeover of the House by Republicans as a victory for the tea party's conservative principles -- and not for the Republican Party.

"All the polling still shows that the Republicans are terribly unpopular," Meckler said, "so people are not suddenly in love with the Republican Party. People are in love with liberty. This is not a victory for Republicans. It's a victory for the country, for we the people, taking back our country."

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