Mediaboss Marketing

CANTON, Ga. Nowhere in the United States did the tea party seem better poised for victory than in Georgias open Senate race. The Peach State, along with South Carolina, has anchored the movement for the past five years, providing Congress with four of the 25 most conservative voting records.

Yet on a recent evening, Rep. Jack Kingston (R) strode across the stage at Cagles Family Farm with the surprising air of a front-runner. He is exactly the kind of candidate the tea party movement most reviled: a 22-year member of Congress with a history of doling out federal dollars.

In this crowded Republican primary, however, Kingston has seemingly found a path toward the top and is poised to advance beyond the May20 primary to what is likely to be a two-candidate runoff in July. His most conservative challengers, meanwhile, have struggled to catch on.

The Savannah congressmans position in this Senate race is emblematic of the tea partys pains nationwide. On Tuesday, the movement floundered in North Carolina, where the establishment choice, Thom Tillis, cruised to the nomination over underfunded conservatives. In Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) has eviscerated his tea party challenger ahead of the May20 primary.

The movements Washington-based advocates, disappointed in the quality of conservative candidates, have stayed on the sidelines or have latched on to people who dont fit neatly into their anti-establishment mold.

Kingston, 59, has not run from his experience or his time in Washington. Instead, he has trumpeted them and has tried to make the warfare inside the GOP an issue. At the candidate forum in this northern exurb of Atlanta, Kingston asked the crowd of about 300: How many of you think the conservative family is divided? And how many of you know divided we fall? Most people raised their hands. He spent the next two minutes outlining his career in the House, distancing himself from the loudest voices on the right.

We have got to win the Senate back, and we cant do it with rhetoric. We have got to do it with a plan, he said.

Kingston and businessman David Perdue a multimillionaire cousin of former governor Sonny Perdue have been atop most polls and have raised more money than their most conservative rivals, creating the possibility that the July 22 runoff will leave conservatives without a candidate. If no one receives more than 50percent of the vote in the primary, the top two candidates will proceed to the runoff.

A victory by Kingston or Perdue would make it harder for Democrats to take over the seat of retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R). Michelle Nunn, a fundraising dynamo from her years running a large charity organization, has been one of the best Democratic recruits this season. To help her win, Democrats had hoped that Republicans would nominate one of the more conservative candidates in the race someone such as Rep. Paul C. Broun, a hard-right firebrand who might struggle among centrist suburban voters.

With no candidate expected to be close to 50percent in the May 20 ballot, the fight is to advance to the runoff. This means that Broun and two other more natural conservatives Karen Handel, a former secretary of state running as a Sarah Palin acolyte, and Rep. Phil Gingrey have a chance if they can somehow make it into the top two. Handel is the only one of the trio to show momentum in recent weeks, but many party strategists question whether her underfunded campaign can break through in the closing days.

Continue reading here:
Tea party faces uphill climb in crowded Republican Senate primary in Georgia