HAS THE TEA PARTY PEAKED? It might be time for a Tea Party reality check. Although the power the movement has exerted over the Republican Party -- and the electoral successes their candidates enjoyed in the primaries -- is surely one of the most important story lines of the 2010 cycle, with exactly one week until Election Day where is the Tea Party now? As Republican and conservative groups shift their attention to get-out-the-vote efforts, some Tea Party activists are "refusing to cooperate with more mainstream Republicans," according to the Los Angeles Times' Tom Hamburger and Kathleen Hennessey. They write that unlike in previous years, the GOP turnout effort is taking a "patchwork" approach rather than a unified one led by the Republican National Committee: "FreedomWorks, a Washington-based group that has supported tea party activists across the country, expects to spend $500,000 on its own program that taps into the network of tea party supporters. Brendan Steinhauser, director of state and federal campaigns at FreedomWorks, said the distance from the party was an advantage in recruiting new activists. 'A lot of people don't want to work with the Republican Party, for the most part,' he said. 'They like the candidate, but they don't want to go to GOP headquarters. They'll work with us.'" http://lat.ms/blYT18
At the same time, many of the Tea Party candidates who scored stunning wins over establishment Republican contenders are now locked in tight races. Politico's Shira Toeplitz surveys the Senate landscape and finds that the Tea Party could get a "mixed return" on Nov. 2. "With about a week to go until Election Day, several candidates stamped with the tea party seal of approval are either locked in statistical ties with their Democratic opponents or sinking in the polls, despite well-funded war chests and endorsements from influential conservatives like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). In several cases, the candidates' staunchly conservative views, thin political credentials and lack of campaign experience -- the same assets that helped them upset the GOP status quo -- have become liabilities in the general election." http://politi.co/cAlvK7
CRESTED WAVE? Nevada's Sharron Angle, Kentucky's Rand Paul and Alaska's Joe Miller, among others, may eventually prevail, but right now all three contests look tight. It may be all be part of a wave that "seems to have crested," according to political odds-maker Charlie Cook. "This is approximately where the 1994 election was -- something in the range of eight Senate seats, 52 House seats," Cook told the Washington Post's Michael Gerson. "A month ago, there was a chance it could have gone from gigantic to titanic. But the possibility of Republican House gains in the 60s or 70s has declined in the last month." http://wapo.st/dDosy8