Did 'tea party' governors go too far? Voters are about to weigh in. (+video)
Washington In conservative Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback finds his job at risk because his tax cuts ate a big hole in state revenues. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker in trouble with voters for a conservative agenda that includes curbing the bargaining rights of public sector labor unions.
From Alaska to Michigan and Maine, other Republican governors also face tough battles for reelection.
This is true even though 2014 is shaping up as a great year for Republican candidates generally from Congress down through legislative seats in state capitals. The governors races stand out as an anomaly.
Did these leaders go too far with a tea party approach to governing? Tuesday's elections are, at least in part, a referendum on that question, even though these governors might not formally tag themselves with the tea party label.
Governors Walker and Brownback, like several other governors at risk, rode to power in 2010. That was the year the tea party movement took hold as a force in American politics as a backlash to recession, to President Obama, and to the bailout ethos of Washington policymakers.
In that year, the House of Representatives didnt just flip from Democratic to Republican control. The election also brought in a freshman class with conservatives who didnt blink an eye at tactics like allowing a government shutdown or refusing to raise the federal debt limit if it might help nudge the nation toward fiscal discipline.
The new class of governors carried a similar spirit into state-level politics, to varying degrees.
Its a style that can win some big political victories, but can also fuel opposition.
When Walker severely curbed the bargaining powers for public unions, he billed it as a necessary move to chart a sound fiscal course for the state. But protesters flocked to the state capitol and mounted a recall drive in an effort to oust the governor.
More recently, Walker was among a number of Republican governors who opted out of the expanded Medicaid enrollment provided through Obamacare a position that even some of his supporters have criticized. And Cosmopolitan magazine is among those who have editorialized against Walkers efforts to make it harder for women to get abortions.
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Did 'tea party' governors go too far? Voters are about to weigh in. (+video)