Tea Party Express gambles on Delaware

by Mike Memoli

Kathleen Hennessey and I reported for today's papers on Tea Party Express, a group credited in part for Joe Miller's upset win in Alaska's Republican Senate primary, and active in a number of other 2010 contests.

No other group has so been so ambitious in targeting high-profile races and pulling off primary victories. The Tea Party Express' success has come the old-fashioned way: with hundreds of thousands of dollars in political attack ads. That strategy has made it a divisive player within a movement that some believe should represent a new people-powered politics. But it's also made Tea Party Express a considerable opponent for establishment politicians.

The group has now turned its attention to the Delaware Republican Senate primary on September 14, a race featuring Mike Castle, the state's 9-term Congressman and former governor, against Christine O'Donnell, the 2008 nominee against Joe Biden.

Castle has been considered a heavy favorite, but the group is targeting him for his centrist positions.

"Castle is Republican in name only. He's not conservative," said Amy Kremer, director of coalitions with Tea Party Express. "We're going to give voters there a chance to compare and contrast their records. I think you'll see how liberal he is."

O'Donnell welcomes their support for her underfunded effort -- she said she just now has raised $250,000 total in the campaign; Castle had $2.6 million in the bank through the end of June.

"They've got a winning track record, so that's great news for us," she said. "For them to [potentially] drop six figures in a state like Delaware where the winner needs just 19,000 votes, those six figures can go a long way."

But Republican leaders in the state say the conservative group is making a huge mistake and putting its credibility at risk by backing someone they say is deeply-flawed.

"They're stepping into a race where we have the opportunity to take back what was Joe Biden's Senate seat and send a Republican to Washington," said Tom Ross, chair of the Delaware Republican Party. "The terrain in Delaware for Republican candidates is very difficult. ... It's just so foolhardy for the Tea Party Express to come in and waste their donors' money -- well meaning, conservative, grassroots activists -- when you could take that money and plow it into a state Wisconsin or a state like Washington where you have a Republican candidate who might be up only a point or two and really help make a difference."

Ross listed specific charges about O'Donnell, ranging from her lack of support for other state Republican candidates compared with Castle's decades of party-building work, to more personal accusations about her personal finances and lack of serious employment. (Some of those concerns are raised in this interview with a Delaware radio station._

O'Donnell calls Ross's comments "unbecoming" of a state leader.

"Maybe the reason why Tom Ross is pushing back so hard is because the Tea Party Express has a better win/loss ratio than the National Republican Senatorial Committee," she said.

Analysts are equally perplexed, however, by the conservative group's decision.

"On the one hand, they took out two incumbent senators. On the other hand, they did it in pretty Republican states. This is where I think going to Delaware gets a little tougher for them," said Jennifer Duffy, Senate race analyst for the Cook Political Report. "They clearly did no vetting [on O'Donnell] cause I don't think she meets their test on fiscal responsibility."

Ross remains confident that Castle will prevail in the race, and ultimately in November. But he doesn't take O'Donnell for granted, particularly with the added support of third-party funds.

"I liken an election to a football game: no matter how weak your opponent is you never want to look past it. You take all elections seriously," he said.