Waning or Winning TEA Party Influence on the GOP?

He Never Was All That He Was Quacked Up To Be!

I was listening to the replay of the Columbus, Ohio WOSU public radio show, All Sides with Ann Fisher tonight. The general agreement of the obvious liberal hostess and various panel members was that the TEA Party’s influence was waning and was not a major factor in the Republican sweep of statewide offices in Ohio and U.S. House and Senate GOP victories around the country. Then I received the following Press Release from the Ohio Citizens PAC in an email.

 

 

TEA PARTY CANDIDATE STEVE KRAUS DEFEATS

OHIO DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN CHRIS REDFERN

IN RACE FOR OHIO HOUSE 89th DISTRICT

Akron, OH - In a major victory by the Ohio TEA Party Movement, TEA Party Republican Candidate Steve Kraus from Sandusky, Ohio, has defeated Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern for Ohio House seat in the 89th District that includes Erie and Ottawa Counties. Redfern had been in the Ohio House since 1999 and has been State Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party since 2005.  Kraus made a strong but unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2012.  He decided to run for Ohio House against Redfern after the Ohio Republican Party showed little interest in fielding a candidate in the race.  Kraus got little support from the ORP even after early poling showed him with a small lead. The Ohio Citizens PAC did robo calls into the district as did the TEA Party run Ohio Republican PAC in and effort to get Kraus over the top. Kraus won 51% to 49%.

Tom Zawistowski, President of the Ohio Citizens PAC, said "Steve is a great citizen candidate who will faithfully represent the people of Erie and Ottawa County - not himself or some political party.  He ran a terrific race two years ago but I was surprised when he told me he thought that he could beat the Ohio Democratic Chairman. But he worked very hard and ran a great race and with a little help from his friends in the TEA Party he pulled off the biggest upset in the State tonight. Hopefully this will stop the whining by Republicans who claim we never go after Democrats. This win proves that the TEA Party does not care about political parties, we care about people and the way government serves them.”

Ironically, Chris Redfern was the Chairman of the Democrat Party in Ohio, and he was beaten by a TEA Party candidate. To me that is really big news, but obviously it was not to the biased media. The connection was never made by anyone on the public radio show to the fact that it was a TEA Party backed candidate, who received negligible support from the Ohio Republican Party, who defeated Redfern.

 

Nationally, Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Mike Lee will be receiving some reinforcements from newly elected conservative Senators Ben Sasse (Nebraska) and Tim Cotton (Arkansas). These men will strengthen the conservative movement within the Senate. This handful of patriots has to battle not only Harry Reid and the Democrats, but more times than not the Mitch McConnell misled Republicans.

 

Acknowledged by even the liberal public radio show I mentioned above was the fact that the TEA Party Movement has helped to move the stubborn GOP in a more conservative direction. The GOP leadership tends to be a party happy-with-the-status-quo when in power. Hopefully the voice of Ted Cruz and others along with some of the newly elected Senators will hold their fellow Republicans feet to the fire and halt the poisonous Progressive Agenda that has been foisted on America these past six years. Maybe they can give America a chance to begin to recover from the failed and damaging Obama policies, legislation, and administrative decisions and programs. And just maybe we can begin to reverse the “fundamental transfortation” of the now lame duck President.