By Todd J. Gillman
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS – In just more than a year, the Tea Party movement has spawned campaigns in Texas for governor, the Legislature and Congress. Election returns Tuesday will help gauge how potent that force has become.
But the movement is still maturing, and its direction remains in flux. A third party? A rump caucus within the Republican tent? Or will it fade, ideas cannibalized, or energy sapped by squabbles and diffuse leadership?
“We intend to be involved for many, many years,” said Greg Holloway, head of the Common Sense Texans Network, a statewide consortium of about 40 Tea Party and affiliated groups. “We view this movement as being a very sustainable one.”
Texas has one of the nation’s earliest primary dates this year, and as the biggest Republican state on the map, it serves as the first widespread test of the Tea Party movement. Political novices claiming Tea Party roots are taking on state senators and House members. Debra Medina, an obscure Wharton County Republican leader not long ago, made herself a factor in a contest pitting a sitting governor and U.S. senator.
Eleven of Texas’ 20 GOP incumbents in the U.S. House have drawn challengers.
With no “party” to offer endorsements, foot soldiers or donor lists, most candidates claiming the Tea Party mantle have little funding and have attracted only limited attention. Mistrust of the major parties remains, yet there is also much overlap with Republicans, at least in Texas.
Cathie Adams, chairwoman of the state Republican Party, said she welcomes the movement and sees no threat – though she said targeting GOP incumbents “may not have been the best approach.”
“In Texas we’re already conservative,” she said. “So what are you going to accomplish here that you can say was specifically a result of the Tea Party movement? With that said, every one of these people I’ve met, I love them.”
The Tea Party began a year ago as a backlash to federal spending and fears Barack Obama would leverage Democratic control into a government power grab. Republican leaders say that still captures the national zeitgeist.
“I don’t know that it’s the Tea Party movement that’s driving the mood. It’s the mood that’s driving the Tea Party movement,” said Dallas County Republican chairman Jonathan Neerman. “We’re not working at cross purposes.”
One key Republican strategist, former Virginia congressman Tom Davis, who leads the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership, said recently Tea Partiers should not be underestimated as a potential asset, “if deployed appropriately.”
“It takes some finesse on the part of leaders. But it is an energy factor, and Republicans haven’t had a lot of energy in a long time,” he said.
The potential of that energy hasn’t been applied to many elections yet. There was a moderate-conservative fight in a New York congressional race in November that became a rallying cry, and led to a schism that allowed a Democrat win. And there was the GOP’s huge upset win in the Massachusetts race for Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat six weeks ago.
“The Texas primary is in a very real way Round 3 for the Tea Party movement, for going from just a rallying and protest movement to being a force in politics,” said Ken Emanuelson, a co-founder of the Dallas Tea Party.
Early voting in the GOP primary doubled from the 2006 last gubernatorial election, and Tea Parties take some credit.
But success has come with problems. There’s grumbling about opportunists claiming the Tea Party mantle, and incumbents who toe the line out of self-preservation more than sincerity.
“Where’s the energy of the Tea Party movement going? It’s kind of hard to tell sometimes,” Emanuelson said.
Among founders and leaders, there is broad agreement the movement will survive without being subsumed into the Republican Party. Texas activists express no interest in trying to create a third party.
Adams sees the movement on a path similar to her own; for years, she wore two hats, as a party activist and head of the Texas Eagle Forum, which focuses on abortion and other social issues.
“Most of these people are conservatives, so the Republican Party is a natural fit for them,” she said. “But I don’t expect them to give up the title of Tea Party.”
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One measure of success would be victories at the ballot box. That will likely be limited.
On the congressional front, most Texas Republican incumbents have sterling conservative records. They demand lower taxes and rail against deficits. They have fought President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the stimulus, health care and most everything else.
“That is hardly the Birkenstock/hippy crowd,” said Neerman, the Dallas GOP chairman.
Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, puts it bluntly: “Tea Party loves me, because I vote the right way.” At his town hall meeting Saturday in Trophy Club, a handful of Tea Party activists handed out material but offered no protest.
The fact that he and so many colleagues drew challengers, he said, simply shows “it’s an anti-incumbent year.”
One unique case is Rep. Pete Sessions. The Dallas Republican boasts one of the most consistently conservative voting records in Congress. But as chairman of the party’s House campaign effort, he has backed moderates in some races around the country – notably in the lost New York district.
Sessions’ primary opponent, David Smith has attacked him over that, and his support of the federal bank bailout.
“I’m in this to win it,” Smith said. “But if all I accomplish is getting Pete Sessions on the straight and narrow 1/2ellipsis 3/4 I’ll take it.”
Sessions spokeswoman Emily Davis brushed off the attacks but said the congressman believes Tea Party activists “have a valuable role in inspiring grassroots activity” and helping conservatives take on Democrats.
Dallas Tea Party leaders defend Sessions. “Pete’s voting record is stellar,” said co-founder Katrina Pierson. “That’s important.”
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The Tea Partiers’ anti-incumbent sentiment runs deep, but can lack some focus.
At a rally Saturday outside Dallas City Hall, A.J. Jumper, 43, a peace officer, was waving a handmade sign that read “Give ’em the boot.”
Asked who, exactly, he wanted to boot, he said: “All them voting for the bailout. Anybody in Congress who refuses to listen.”
The anger didn’t seem to have a specific name attached to it, and when pressed, he eventually conceded his own congressman is Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a staunch fiscal conservative.
“He is voting with his constituents,” Jumper said. Still, he added, “we keep watch on him.”
In Tarrant County, there are two state House races and a county commissioner race with active Tea Party involvement. And U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, has been under assault.
“There’s some boots on the ground. Is she in trouble? That’s really difficult for me to gauge,” said county GOP chairwoman Stephanie Klick, who said she supported the Tea Party at its inception and still does.
After the primaries, she predicted, the energy will be redirected against Democrats.
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(Staff writer Ian McCann contributed to this report.)
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