Tea Partiers Turn on GOP

Challenge party favorites who dared to vote for stimulus, bailout
By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 11, 2009 8:10 AM CDT
Tea Partiers Turn on GOP
In this Sept. 3, 2008 file photo, Carly Fiorina, former chairwoman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. and economic advisor to presidential candidate John McCain, waves to the crowed as she goes on stage at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Fiorina has been diagnosed with breast cancer,...   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

The Tea Partiers who shouted down health care reform at Democratic town halls this summer are turning their arsenal on the Republican establishment, campaigning against annointed candidates they think are too soft on big government. They're backing challengers to party favorites in Senate races, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist—who supported the stimulus and the bailout, and has appeared with President Obama—and Carly Fiorina in California.

They're also targeting House Republican incumbents in a handful of states, fronting challengers to punish them for supporting the bank bailout, TARP. “I think a lot of people have been angry at Republicans for betraying our trust,” the director of the National Taxpayers Union tells Politico, adding that TARP is “really kind of the flash point that started all of this.”
 
  (More tea parties stories.)

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