# Tea party shaping Republican Party, fall faceoffs



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

AP - Former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin 
poses with an unidentified woman.

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer Charles Babington, Associated Press Writer - 2 hrs 10 mins ago

WASHINGTON - The tea party movement shows some growing pains, but it still wields remarkable powers to shape the Republican Party and set up a fall election with unconventional candidates and stark choices for voters.
In two high-profile primary elections Tuesday, establishment GOP candidates were stunned by come-from-behind winners backed by tea party activists and other conservatives who don't necessarily associate with that loose-knit group.
National Republican leaders are sifting through the results. Voter fervor on the right delights them, but some fear their insurgent nominees might stray too far from the mainstream to win in November.
The party purity drive has a weaker grip on the Democratic Party, as centrist Sen. Blanche Lincoln illustrated when she held off a union-backed challenger in Arkansas.
In South Carolina's Republican gubernatorial primary, state Rep. Nikki Haley trailed a congressman, the lieutenant governor and attorney general for months. But a tea party surge and Sarah Palin's endorsement propelled her to an easy first-place finish. She faces Rep. Gresham Barrett in a June 22 runoff.

Tea party shaping Republican Party, fall faceoffs - Yahoo! News


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Tea Party's Next Wave Rising in Alaska to Colorado










In this June 8, 2010, file photo Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, leads a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)

Rifle through a stack of Tea Party candidate resumes, and Joe Miller's will stand out.
The man who wants to turn a fellow Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, out of office is a graduate of Yale Law School and West Point, a decorated combat veteran and former judge. Many Tea Partiers share his disdain for Washington, its political gridlock and mounting debt, but not his credentials.
The message he conveys, though, is straight from the Tea Party script: He fears the nation is veering toward socialism and insolvency. He says Murkowski is too liberal.
To Miller, Alaska's senior senator is complicit in the ballooning U.S. debt and spending and has a voting record that would make a Democrat proud. His agenda envisions a federal government with reduced limits. He would cut off federal dollars for the United Nations, gradually privatize Medicare and Social Security and disband federal departments that aren't spelled out in the Constitution, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Education Department.
"The problem," he says, "is incumbency."

Full Story:
FOXNews.com - Tea Party's Next Wave Rising in Alaska to Colorado


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