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FORT MYERS, Fla., April 23 (UPI) -- A businessman and self-proclaimed "outsider" backed by the Tea Party won the Republican primary for a special congressional election in Florida.

Curt Clawson of Bonita Springs won 38 percent of the vote Tuesday in the district, which includes a strip of Florida's southwest coast from Marco Island to Fort Myers. He spent more than $3 million of his own money.

"I got into this race because I felt like we needed more outsiders in Congress," Clawson tweeted after the results were in. "The career politicians aren't getting the job done."

The district had been represented by freshman Trey Radel. He resigned in January after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor drug charge after buying cocaine from an undercover Washington police officer.

Clawson is believed to have a good chance of defeating the Democratic candidate, April Freeman, on June 24. The seat will also be up for grabs in November.

On Monday, the Tea Party Express called the primary "first tea party vs. establishment showdown" of the election year. The runners-up were state Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto and former state Rep. Paige Kreegel.

Original post:
Tea Party candidate wins Republican congressional primary in Florida

AUGUSTA, Maine Top party officials are promising unity at the Maine Republican State Convention this Friday and Saturday in Bangor. If the predictions are right, the event will be a much smoother gathering than the two prior conventions, which saw factionalism split the party along ideological lines.

The push for party cohesion is evident in the conventions theme: United for freedom, united for jobs, united for Maine. Its an attempt to bring all flavors of Republicans back under one big tent after two consecutive conventions in which tea party activists and supporters of libertarian icon Ron Paul bucked party leaders and pushed through their own agenda.

The Republican Party is not the vehicle for one point of view on a narrow set of issues, or one candidate or one cause, said state party Chairman Rick Bennett on Wednesday. Its a big tent and I believe that.

The theme is also clear in the proposed Maine Republican platform.

Party platforms, in which partisans lay out their values and goals, used to be relatively obscure documents in Maine. For decades, platforms were the purview only of hard-core party insiders.

Then, in 2010, a minor firestorm was created when tea party activists muscled through their own platform, edging out a more traditional offering by party officers. The new document took the agenda firmly out of Maine, focusing mostly on national policy issues. It called for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education, for example, and called on the U.S. to withdraw from all treaties with the United Nations.

It also called for term limits, an elimination of political correctness, and a provision urging the U.S. military to fight to win the War on Terror. It declared health care a right, not a service, and name-dropped Ron Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas and the darling of the tea party.

Some critics within the party faulted the platform for catering to only one faction within Maines Republican community.

The platform was adopted again in 2012, when Paul supporters backing his presidential bid hijacked the convention from party officers and again rejected a more broad, inclusive proposal by party leaders. Democrats used the document to their campaign advantage, telling their supporters that the GOP had been taken over by extremists.

This year, the party is proposing a platform meant to focus on areas where all Republicans agree. Gone are references to Austrian economics and in their place are broad references to constitutional fidelity, limited government and other GOP hallmarks that appeal to all members of the party.

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After tea party uprisings in 2010 and 2012, Maine Republicans expect unity at Bangor convention

Curt Clawson celebrates along with a cheering crowd at his election party at the Hyatt Regency...

Tea Party candidate Curt Clawson won the Republican primary in the special election seat to replace Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., who resigned after pleading guilty for cocaine possession, a victory that the Tea Party Express is claiming as "the movement's first victory of 2014."

Clawson received 46 percent of the vote, according to Naples News. The results tonight were clear, Curt Clawson's Tea Party message of economic growth and fiscal responsibility resonated with the voters of Southwest Florida," said political strategist Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express, which was one of the first Tea Party groups to support Clawson.

"It was exactly that kind of platform that fueled Republican victories in 2010 and 2012, and were starting 2014 with another decisive victory here tonight. Curts success sends a clear message to candidates across the country: you win elections by campaigning in bold colors, not pale pastels, as President Reagan once famously said."

The race divided national Tea Party icons, though, as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., backed Clawson while former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Florida state Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, who received about 16 percent of the vote.

Clawson, a former CEO "who put at least $3.4 million into his campaign" according to Politico, also received the endorsement of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

Tea Party Express co-founder Amy Kremer resigned last week as chairman of the group, just as the organization planned to campaign in Florida on Clawson's behalf, saying that she preferred to focus on Matt Bevin's challenge to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"I've wanted to move in a different direction for awhile, but also wanted to make sure that any change I make was also a positive change for the conservative movement," Kremer wrote in a Facebook post.

See the rest here:
Tea Party claims first victory of 2014

Part of an occasional series on the hottest races of the 2014 midterm election.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham recognized the threat years before it had a chance to form and knew immediately what he had to do.

After the tea party wave in the 2010 election, right-wing groups were itching to get one of South Carolinas newly elected conservative congressmen to challenge Graham, the blunt-spoken, deal-making congressional veteran of two decades. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a favorite of the grass roots, was high on their list.

So when Graham got wind in 2012 that Mulvaney wanted a seat on the House Financial Services Committee, he quietly lobbied his longtime friend, Speaker John Boehner, to make it happen. During regular dinners and breakfast meetings, the senator made clear to Mulvaney and other up-and-comers in the delegation that he was there to help with their districts needs. All the while, Graham was busy assembling a daunting multimillion-dollar political operation.

(POLITICO's On the Ground series)

Lo and behold, Mulvaney and others thought better of taking on Graham when the time came. Not being able to win is a really good reason not to run, Mulvaney said in an interview.

Grahams deft maneuvering shows why hes become the dominant political figure in this deeply red state and is skating to another six years even as hes angered the base on immigration and other hot-button issues. Far from pandering to the partys tea party wing in order to get reelected, hes challenging it head-on: Graham warns that the GOP is caught in a death spiral with minorities, says it needs to get real about climate change and defends his move to open debate on gun control legislation after a school massacre.

His legwork to protect his seat could serve as a model for other endangered incumbents looking to fend off more conservative challengers.

(PHOTOS: Senators up for election in 2014)

Theres a head wind for all incumbents, Graham, 58, said over a dinner of chicken livers and fried green tomatoes in nearby Charleston last week. Ive tried to insulate myself.

Excerpt from:
How Graham outflanked the tea party

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