Tea Party sets sights on Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander
In wake of Cantor defeat, Tea Party sets sights on Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander
But what are the chances of success?
MICHAEL COLLINS, SCRIPPS NEWS 9:28 AM, JUN 12, 2014
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
ALEX WONG
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Steve Osborn thinks there are a lot of messages to be found in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning defeat by a tea party challenger in Virginia’s primary election on Tuesday, but the most jarring one for politicians just might be this:
“The grass-roots can actually swing an election, regardless of the money the GOP throws at them,” said Osborn, chairman of the Sevier County Tea Party in East Tennessee.
Cantor’s loss to political novice David Brat confounded the nation’s campaign cognoscenti and left many wondering whether it should be interpreted as a warning sign to other establishment Republicans facing their own re-election battles.
Cantor’s downfall, coupled with U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran being forced into a primary run-off against a tea party challenger in Mississippi, could energize Tennessee’s tea party movement, which has set its sights on another high-profile target, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.
Alexander’s campaign said Wednesday that Brat’s David-vs.-Goliath victory over Cantor won’t change his own campaign strategy.
“Sen. Alexander is doing what he’s always done: staying connected with Tennessee and being the best senator he could possibly be,” said his campaign spokesman, Brian Reisinger.
While Alexander’s team has been watching other races around the country, “every race runs on its own two legs,” said Tom Ingram, the senator’s former chief of staff and a general consultant to his campaign.
“Our race is a guy who has been serving Tennessee in the same hard-working, loyal fashion for years as governor and as a senator and staying connected, listening to and representing the interests of his constituents and trusting them to make the right decision on Election Day,” Ingram said.
Alexander’s most serious challenger in the Aug. 7 primary, state Rep. Joe Carr, interprets the tea party’s recent victories as signs of an energized, fed-up electorate.
“From Virginia to Mississippi, a transformational change is underway that is being led by a true grassroots movement,” Carr said in a statement shortly after Brat’s victory over Cantor.
The Carr campaign said it already is seeing signs of a rejuvenated tea party in Tennessee. “We have seen an influx over the last 12 hours of people signing up to volunteer, people coming into our office and wanting signs and bumper stickers, wanting to know how to help,” said Carr’s campaign manager, Donald Rickard. “It has really been overwhelming.”
Still, political analysts caution against drawing any parallels between Cantor’s and Cochran’s races and Alexander’s re-election bid.
For starters, national political figures haven’t rallied around Carr the way they did Cantor’s and Cochran’s opponents, said Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University.
While huge campaign spending could not save Cantor, money is more often than not a potent weapon in a political campaign – and one where Alexander has a significant advantage. Alexander’s campaign had more than $3 million in the bank at the end of March, the last period for which reports are on file with the Federal Election Commission. Carr, by contrast, had just $466,000.
In Virginia, Cantor alienated many voters by failing to spend much time in his district and running negative ads against Brat that backfired by drawing attention to the little-known challenger, said Jennifer Duffy of The Cook Political Report, a respected, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns.
“I don’t think anybody can accuse Alexander of not going home or not paying attention to home,” Duffy
What’s more, Alexander’s team has been in campaign mode for months. Back in 2012, two years before the election, Alexander’s chief of staff at the time called her office to discuss the race, Duffy said. Since then, she said, she has been getting calls from Alexander’s pollsters.
“They’re not taking anything for granted,” Duffy said.
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