GOP primaries underscore rise of fiscal right

ANALYSIS:

The bottom line on Tuesday’s primaries: The Republican Party is facing a purge, and limited-government conservatives are in the ascendance.

After years of taking a back seat as neoconservatives - big-government interventionists - and religious conservatives conducted a tug of war for the GOP’s heart, traditional conservatives and fiscally cautious “tea party” activists are shaking up the Republican establishment and also helping shape Democratic contests.

“A center-right coalition, which is not dominated by the religious right or neocons, seems to be emerging as a powerful force in American politics,” Republican National Committee member Saul Anuzis of Michigan said. “It doesn’t mean their issues aren’t important, but they are not necessarily the driving issues as our economy, jobs and ever-growing debt and deficit scare taxpayers.”

Broadbased sentiment against egregious government spending continues to gain steam as voters lashed out at Washington’s spendthrift establishment after the Bush administration’s years of record-breaking deficits, taken to a new extreme under President Obama.

Some saw Tuesday’s results as the harbinger of a more general conservative resurgence.

“In almost every race, the more conservative candidate won,” said Jim Bopp Jr. of Indiana, a constitutional lawyer and founder of a first-ever conservative caucus within the Republican National Committee.

There is plausible evidence for that view.

The win by moderately liberal Democrat incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln over a union-supported challenger who ran to her left, for example, reflects the center-right’s pre-eminence.

“The Democrats are also affected by the right shift in Arkansas, where Lincoln got renominated not because she is a conservative - she is not - but because Democratic primary voters weren’t buying the pitch that she is not liberal enough after supporting Obamacare,” Mr. Bopp said.

Tuesday’s results also underscored how deep suspicion of the political parties and their handpicked candidates runs among voters.

In Nevada, the state’s former Minority Whip Sharron Angle capped a come-from-behind win against establishment-backed candidate Sue Lowden as voters rewarded Mrs. Angle for her maverick behavior in stubbornly opposing Nevada GOP officeholders’ taxing and spending propensities.

Mrs. Angle’s record garnered her the backing of the Tea Party Express and the Club for Growth, and now the chance to take on the top of the Washington establishment, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“Angle’s victory sent two strong messages: GOP primary voters do not want their party establishment to pick a nominee for them, and Sen. Reid’s days are numbered, because [Nevada] voters want to hold him accountable for governing without the consent of the people,” said Oregon RNC member Solomon Yue, a co-founder of the RNC’s conservative caucus.

“This is consistent with the aspiration of this free movement led by tea partiers - to restore the power to ’we the people.’ “

The elections results show that the tea party is growing beyond just being a grass-roots movement and is now adding financial firepower.

“Sharron Angle in Nevada is a good example, where both the Tea Party Express and Club for Growth spent almost $1 million helping her take down the better-known and financed Sue Lowden,” said Mr. Anuzis, who was part of Mrs. Lowden’s “kitchen cabinet.” Mrs.Lowden, a former state senator and TV anchorwoman, finished a distant second, 14 percentage points behind.

But even where candidates with the backing of a local or statewide tea party group lost, the victor often met the criteria of the voter sentiment underlying the tea party movement.

In Iowa’s gubernatorial primary, tea party-supported Bob Vander Plaats was beaten by former four-term Gov. Terry Branstad 50 percent to 40 percent in a three-way race. A tea party defeat? Not necessarily, House Republican Whip Linda Upmeyer said.

“Branstad was able to convince people that he is a fiscal conservative, right on the social issues, and has experience necessary to get the state back on track,” she said.

In California, America’s most expensive television advertising market, former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina lent her own campaign $5.5 million, ran as a fiscal and social conservative and defeated former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell, who ran as a fiscal conservative but had a record that suggested otherwise to anti-spending primary voters.

A view emerging from many quarters within both parties is: the electorate is taking charge.

“The people are not looking for the political parties to tell them who to nominate, as they have in the past,” Mr. Bopp said.”They are taking charge, will make that decision themselves, and want the parties to fight to get their candidates elected and held accountable in office. The people are in charge, not the politicians.”