WASHINGTON: Spring election hopes dim for the tea party movement | Congress | McClatchy DC

WASHINGTON — The tea party movement’s 2014 prospects began to crumble in North Carolina this week, and more trouble appears to be on the way around the country in the next few weeks.

North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis crushed the tea party’s candidate in Tuesday’s Republican U.S. Senate primary in the state.

Next up is a Nebraska Senate primary Tuesday featuring more tea party hopefuls, with a bigger test for the party on May 20. Tea party candidates are running behind establishment figures in Senate contests in Georgia and Kentucky that day, and they trail incumbent Rep. Mike Simpson in Idaho.

Georgia’s outlook is more muddled. Five Republicans are given a decent chance of winning the party’s Senate primary, and unless someone gets more than 50 percent _ highly unlikely _ a runoff will be held. But that runoff might leave out onetime tea party favorite Rep. Paul Broun.

He’s running well behind others in recent polls, and Tea Party Express backed former Secretary of State Karen Handel on Monday, who’s seen as having more widespread appeal.

Todd Rehm, an Atlanta-based Republican consultant, looked at Tuesday’s low North Carolina voter turnout and warned that anything could still happen in Georgia.

“A lower-turnout race usually favors ideologically driven and personally charismatic candidates like Paul Broun,” he said. “Turnout remains the million-dollar question, and that is currently unsettled.”

Then again, he also looks at the polls and gauges the mood of other Republicans, and finds, “I think the window of opportunity is closing fast for Broun.”

via WASHINGTON: Spring election hopes dim for the tea party movement | Congress | McClatchy DC.