For Tea Party, Focus Turns to Senate and Shake-Up

The New York Times ^ | May 12, 2012 | JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JONATHAN WEISMAN

[Clintonfatigued]

Richard E. Mourdock, who last week defeated Senator Richard G. Lugar, a six-term incumbent, promises to bring an uncompromising ideology to Capitol Hill if he prevails in November. And he is not the only Senate candidate who contends that Senate Republicans are badly in need of new blood.

In Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas, Republican Senate candidates are vying for the mantle of Tea Party outsider. A number of them say that they would seek to press an agenda that is generally to the right of the minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and that they would demand a deeper policy role for the Senate’s growing circle of staunch conservatives.

Some say they have not decided whether they would support Mr. McConnell, who could find himself contending with the type of fractious rank and file that has vexed the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio.

“We need to shake up the Republicans,” said Sarah Steelman, the Missouri state treasurer, who is seeking her party’s nomination to run against Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat. Asked if that meant new leadership in the Senate, Ms. Steelman replied, “Possibly.”

John Brunner, another Missouri candidate, said conservatives needed to have a louder voice in the Senate leadership. “When you bring more people to the team, it raises the bar for everyone,” he said. Referring to Mr. McConnell, he added, “There could be people up there who could be sputtering now who could take it up a notch.”

Representative Todd Akin, a third Missouri Senate hopeful, said, “I haven’t made any commitments to anybody, and they haven’t made very many commitments to me either.”

Deb Fischer, who is seeking the Republican Senate nomination in Nebraska, said, “I don’t think anything is automatic."

[mrsmith]

Trying to get a central list going here:

‘Who are the tea party candidates state by state in both the Federal House and Senate races?’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2881856/posts

[Clintonfatigued]

Here’s my list from this posting:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2883318/posts?page=2#2

[lentulusgracchus]

So the NY Times is suddenly concerned over the potential election of a Senator with an ‘uncompromising ideology’?

Yeah, they never had a problem with that when "uncompromising" meant Paul Wellstone or Ted Kennedy or Bernie Sanders. They never had a problem with Russ Feingold's stiff neck, or Frank Church's.

Hypocritical birdcage-liner artisans.