Tea Party rocks Republicans with sweeping primary victories
The Tea Party delivered fresh shocks to the Republican establishment in a series of primary elections that highlighted the apparent civil war being waged among US conservatives.
The grassroots movement backed by Sarah Palin pulled off a dramatic coup in Delaware and New York and ran a close second in another bitterly fought election in New Hampshire. The upheaval could damage Republican hopes of taking the US Senate from the Democrats in November's mid-term elections.
Tim Kaine, the Democratic party chairman, in an NBC interview, said the victories were a sign of the battle raging in the Republican party. "That creates opportunities for us," he said.
Although the Democrats are on course for their biggest election drubbing since 1994 in November's Senate, House and gubernatorial elections, the Republican party infighting could prove costly, denying it vital seats to win the Senate.
The biggest of the surprises was Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party-backed candidate in Delaware, who beat the Republican establishment candidate, Mike Castle, a party veteran and former governor. She won with 53% of the vote against Castle's 47%, and will be the Republican nominee in the US Senate race.
Her win comes on top of a series of Tea Party scalps dating back to Republican Scott Brown's win in January to take the late Ted Kennedy's former Massachusetts seat. Since then, they have won primaries across the country, including Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina, Utah and Alaska, shifting the Republicans to the right.
Although Brown is a moderate, the Tea Party candidates in these other states are further to the right. The Tea Party, a populist movement that believes the Republican party has shifted to the left, is intent on infiltrating the party in what amounts to a takeover bid.
Almost as unlikely a win for the Tea Party as O'Donnell's was that of Carl Paladino for the Republican nomination for the governor's race in New York who won 62% of the vote. Few pundits had suggested that the political novice would beat the former congressman Rick Lazio, a Republican establishment candidate. Paladino will face the Democrat, Andrew Cuomo, in November.
Paladino, a multimillionaire, is a controversial figure who has supported turning prisons into places where those on welfare can attend hygiene classes and has reportedly emailed images containing racist jokes to his friends.
In his victory speech, Paladino, a first-time candidate who was accompanied on the campaign trail by a pitbull terrier called Duke, said: "New Yorkers are fed up. Tonight the ruling class knows. They have seen it now. There is a people's revolution. The people have had enough."
The Tea Party reflects public anger, at least among conservatives, over Barack Obama, who is seen as a socialist, particularly over the billions of dollars spent trying to stimulate the economy.
In New Hampshire, another Tea Party-supported outsider was engaged in a tight race with the Republican establishment favourite in the battle to represent the party in the Senate race. Kelly Ayotte narrowly beat the Tea Party's Ovide Lamontagne, who was described by the Democrats as "extreme" and who opposes same-sex marriages.
The contests on Tuesday marked the end of a series of bitterly fought battles, full of surprises, that have been going on for months. With almost all the candidates chosen, the focus shifts to November's elections.
drive from www.guardian.co.uk
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