What does a tea party-run GOP look like? Look to Idaho to find your answer. The state Republican party executive director is welcoming the tea party cause into the party — and says he plans to use the movement as key part of his 2010 strategy.
That probably won’t be a tough sell to Republicans in the state: More than 60% of Republicans in Idaho call themselves tea party supporters according to a recent poll.
Tea partiers have already begun the process of cleansing the state GOP of elected leaders that don’t jibe with the movement’s goals and creating a state party in its own image. The result? A state GOP shifting to the right, tea party leaders in ascendancy, “establishment” conservatives running scared — and Democrats feeling confident.
After the votes were counted in the May 25 primary in Idaho, the results showed tea partiers had posted a strong showing. Not only did frustrated tea partiers send Vaughn Ward — the national GOP’s bumbling choice to take on Rep. Walt Minnick (D) — packing in the Congressional primary, tea party-backed candidates bumped off four incumbent GOP state legislators who didn’t meet their criteria for conservatism and gave other statewide Republican incumbents a run for their money as well. As the AP reported it, it was an election largely defined by “newly active tea party voters eager to make their presence felt.”
“You’re starting to see the influence of the movement,” Boise Tea Party president Brendan Smythe told me yesterday. “People are trusting us. People are listening.”
The state GOP couldn’t agree more. “Incumbent [state] Senators, who I would argue were more on the moderate side — who took issue with the tea party — were removed,” Idaho state GOP executive director Johnathan Parker told me. “The tea party has added a more conservative group into our state party, and they’ve definitely moved the party to the right.”
Parker says that puts the party in a good position for November, adding that he plans to take on Minnick with a special hybrid tea party-establishment GOP unit inside the state party. He’s hired two staffers to specifically focus on the Minnick race inside the party, an effort that will be funded in part with RNC money and, he says, will include utilizing tea party forces on the ground as well.
Of course, in Idaho, “moving to the right” is all relative. State Sen. Mike Jorgenson was one of the four Republican incumbents ousted by the tea party last week, and says he’s far from “moderate,” despite what the tea party might say, and has concerns that even in a state as conservative as Idaho, he said, the purity requirements of the tea party could drive the GOP into obscurity.
Jorgenson said that though the tea party was the public face of the primary, there were other elements pulling the strings.
“I don’t think the tea party knows what it’s doing,” Jogenson said. “It’s more about special interests getting involved than it is about the grassroots.” He said he was targeted because he’s pushed hard on immigration, calling for a law like Arizona’s to be enacted in Idaho and the punishment of employers that hire undocumented workers. That caused him to run afoul of the state’s powerful dairy industry, which Jorgenson said then funded efforts to paint him as a liberal because he supported a 2009 plan to raise gas taxes to pay for highway construction.
Jorgenson said the tea party is creating a “philosophical dictatorship” in the state GOP. “People who will swear allegiance to them are the only ones who will get support,” Jorgenson said. “If you won’t, you’ll get removed.”
Even in a state as conservative as Idaho, he said, the purity requirements of the tea party could drive the GOP into obscurity.
“Moving the party to the right will be detrimental,” Jorgenson said. “Business leaders are going to say ‘when are you Republicans going to come to grips with things?'”
One winner of the tea party shift will be Minnick, Jorgenson said. Minnick’s supporters agree. One source told me that the day after Ward was defeated by the tea party-backed Raul Laborador in the GOP primary was one of their best in terms of fundraising, and claimed that moderate Republicans are “flocking” to Minnick now.
Smythe, the tea party leader, dismisses Jorgenson’s take. He said that the tea party’s only allegiance is “to our founding documents” and men like Jorgenson just don’t get it.
“You either do what’s right and earns the support of voters or you fade away,” Smythe said. “[Jorgenson] faded away because people didn’t like what he was doing.”
Despite it’s already dramatic wins in the state, Smythe said that the shift toward the tea party allegiance among the state GOP is just the beginning.
“There’s still a lot of cleansing to be done,” he said. “This is generational.”
