Tea Party fuels GOP challengers

AUSTIN (AP) - The Texas House is Republican-led and about as conservative as any political body in the country. But for some in the state's GOP, it's not nearly conservative enough.

A wave of anti-establishment fervor -- first harnessed last year with the grassroots conservative "Tea Party" movement -- has led to a surge of challenges to Republican state House incumbents in the March 2 primary elections. Challengers say the GOP veterans are too moderate and have repeatedly failed to meet conservative benchmarks.

"From our perspective, the participation in the Texas Legislature is not nearly conservative enough," said Barry Walker, director and co-founder of the conservative grassroots group New Revolution Now, which is raising money and campaigning for legislative candidates. "We would like to see a much more conservative body for the next session."

The same hostility over Wall Street bailouts, the national debt and government spending that led to the Republican capture of Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts is playing out in Republican House districts all over Texas and around the country.

The movement has been fueled by the so-called Tea Party, a coalition of grassroots activists who oppose government spending. They have held rallies across the country -- including events at the Alamo and the Texas Capitol -- in protest of the federal bailouts of the financial system and auto industry, as well as President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul and $787 billion stimulus plan. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry has been one of their favorites, but even he isn't conservative enough for some, who are backing Republican challenger Debra Medina.

"There are more competitive, spirited primaries in 2010 than in some of the recent election cycles and that's a function of the energy on the Republican side," said Alan Philp, a regional political director for the Republican National Committee. "Republicans are looking at very fertile landscape for victory ... that's led to more candidates choosing to run."

In Texas, 17 of the 77 Republicans in the state House have at least one opponent on the ballot. Many of those challengers are bucking out of the gate with substantial support -- from grassroots and establishment causes.

In the legislative races, the conservative challengers say the Texas House has raised taxes on businesses, ignored the costs of illegal immigration and failed to pass a bill that would require voters to show photo identification at polling places.

The slate of challengers on the GOP primary ballot is "a very good start," Walker said. In rural East Texas, for instance, small-town businessman David Simpson is challenging longtime Rep. Tommy Merritt of Longview.

Simpson says voters in his district are upset about politicians "ignoring the Constitution, destroying our freedom, grabbing all this power," Simpson said. "People are angry ... they're frightened, they think they're going to lose their country."

Simpson, who says he was recruited to run by Tea Party activists, has been endorsed by Empower Texans, the Young Republicans of Texas and will likely be endorsed by New Republic Now. Merritt says Simpson is wrong to channel voter anger at the federal government to the Texas statehouse.

"You'd think he should be running for Congress, he talks about all the congrssinal issues so much, but doesn't have a stand on state issues," Merritt said of Simpson. It's too early to predict how a possible shakeup would affect the leadership of relatively moderate Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, who rose to power with the help of Democrats in the closely divided House. He doesn't have primary or general election challengers and no other speaker candidates have announced plans to oppose him.

"Republicans smell blood in the water this election cycle and the loss of the Kennedy seat only has the sharks more excited," said Republican strategist Eric Bearse, who works for Straus and four Republicans challenging Democratic incumbents in the November general election. "It's really questionable whether any of those candidates can raise money. In some cases it will amount to a nuisance for established incumbents. In other cases, it may be a true threat."

University of Texas professor of government Daron Shaw says the anti-establishment and fiscal conservative tenets of the tea party movement nationally might not translate well to the Texas Legislature, where anti-incumbent mostly means anti-Republican.

"They're asking people who are mad at the status quo to essentially dump their own [GOP] candidates," Shaw said. "The problem is if you really want to shake some things up, you have to find an economic issue where the incumbents or incumbent party has made a major mistake and is way out of step with public opinion. I don't really see that in Texas."

In one of the most competitive races, 29-year House veteran Rep. Delwin Jones is facing two primary opponents in a West Texas district where cotton