WTSP.com
LOUISVILLE - They defined the election. Now, they hope to redefine the Senate.
Relying on an anti-Washington message of limited government and less spending, a growing number of Tea Party candidates are pulling even with their Democratic rivals or are frontrunners in some of the nation's most closely watched Senate races of this year's midterm election.
With less than two weeks to go before voters decide which party will control Congress and the fate of President Obama's agenda, conservative Republicans in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, West Virginia and Wisconsin are contending for spots in the largest class of incoming GOP senators since the 1994 "Republican Revolution." That year, voters elected 11 new GOP senators.
HOPEFULS: The candidates and their politics
Even if Republicans don't win the 10 seats they need to recapture the Senate majority, the upstart Tea Party candidates say their presence will be felt.
"The base has revolted and sent a clear message to the Republican Party," Ken Buck, who won Colorado's GOP Senate nomination with Tea Party help, told USA TODAY. "The freshman class will challenge the status quo in the Republican conference."
Most of the candidates, including Kentucky's GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul, talk about repealing or scaling back the new health care law. Others, such as Alaska's Republican nominee Joe Miller, oppose spending on pet projects directed by lawmakers, or earmarks. All vow to tackle the nation's growing budget deficit, pegged at $1.3 trillion this year.
Democrats have tried to cast them as extreme - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calls his GOP opponent, Sharron Angle, "dangerous" - but South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative who has endorsed many of the candidates, says that approach won't sway voters.
"What people call radical are common sense ideas of let's don't bankrupt our country," said DeMint, who prefers the term "new Republicans," to the "Tea Party" label. "This is a matter of survival of our country."
The growing influence of the anti-tax Tea Party, which began as an uncoordinated effort, appears to reflect a shift taking place across the country. More than half of likely voters see themselves as "conservative," compared with 42% in 2006, the last midterm election, according to a Gallup Poll in early October.
Some of the candidates have stirred controversy. Miller, for instance, refuses to answer questions about his background after reporters sought a personnel file from his time as a local government employee. Buck, in a televised debate, compared homosexuality to alcoholism.
But ask Louisville resident Sherry Gerst, 63, why she supportsPaul and she offers a sentiment shared by many who are backing Tea Party candidates: "I'm just absolutely sick of the Democrats."
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