Tea party threat again hangs over Republicans’ efforts to take Senate
Tea party threat again hangs over Republicans’ efforts to take Senate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-threat-again-hangs-over-republicans-efforts-to-retake-senate/2013/12/10/8cdf470c-61d6-11e3-8beb-3f9a9942850f_story.html
By Paul Kane, Published: December 10
More than half of Senate Republicans facing reelection next year face potentially viable tea party challenges — a historically large threat to the GOP establishment that could, once again, kill the party’s chances of taking back control of the chamber.
A surprise challenge to Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 GOP leader, emerged at the last minute before Texas’s election filing deadline late Monday, and on Tuesday a conservative group with deep pockets threw its financial support behind a radiologist, who has never run for office, in a primary against Sen. Pat Roberts (Kan.), a 16-year veteran.
Many of the upstarts are considered long shots, and some are in states that are so deeply conservative that even a gadfly Republican would be likely to win in the general election. But a similar situation has tripped up Republicans in the past two elections, costing them seemingly winnable seats in states such as Nevada, Missouri and Indiana.
Moreover, in a year in which the electoral map and President Obama’s sagging poll numbers provide Republicans their best opportunity to win back the Senate in a decade, GOP veterans are increasingly frustrated by the amount of time, energy and cash that will be spent trying to deal with internal feuds.
“They’re really undermining everything we’re trying to do here,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), ............
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