For the last five years, the Republican Party has been awash in a populist wave and now some of wondering whether it could be receding.
“For all intents and purposes, the tea party movement is gone,” Salena Zito writes in today’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
In her view, the “Tea Party” was a populist wave that has subsided and been absorbed by the Republican Party.
Yet, it wasn’t just the amorphous Tea Party that struggled. For example, the Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, a conservative group that predates the Tea Party, had a tough night as well.
Of the seven primary contests in which CAP endorsed a candidate, six of them lost. Only Cris Dush prevailed in HD-66 (CAP also pointed out that Scott Wagner already won a State Senate seat). Nevertheless, CAP remains optimistic about the future.
“We would’ve loved to see more of our guys win their elections,” CAP Executive Director Leo Knepper conceded before making his case that the campaigns proved conservative’s resiliency.
“In a lot of the races for the CAP-endorsed candidates in the open seats, the people they were challenging started to adopt our positions,” he said. “There’s been a shift in the right direction, largely as a result of pressure from the grassroots.”
Of course, winning solves most problems and should the GOP have a prosperous November there will be little talk of party squabbles.
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6 Responses
Blue Dog — Boyle is not a pro-lifer. He’s a standard Johnny Doc errand runner – won’t take any position unless Doc says so.
You can’t really call Boyle a Blue Dog. He ran a campaign based on economic populism and his up-by-the-bootstraps story.
How about the great night for blue dogs?!?! That is an under-reported story. Schwartz’ successor in MontCo will be represented by a pro-lifer?! Readshaw smokes Molchany?! Where is this story line?
Stack had lots of union support, so did Boyle.
Just a guess, but CAP probably “predates” rather than “outdates” the TEA party.
You know the other campaigns that struggled? Those backed by unions…..were there any two candidates w/ LESS union support than Wolf and Stack? Once again this proves that union executives and blow a lot of hot air threatening politicians but they can’t deliver.