Tea Party’s future influence uncertain as GOP takes over

By Anjeanette Damon

Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010 | 2 a.m.

The Tea Party movement had as its aim reversing the course of government in Nevada and beyond. Its inspiration, the American Revolution itself.

Results at the ballot box in Nevada, however, were far from revolutionary.

Many down-ticket candidates endorsed by the collection of grass-roots groups associated with the Tea Party in Nevada won, but their top prize — ousting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — slipped their grasp.

Don’t expect those results to cause Nevada activists to pack up their tri-corner hats and go home. With lessons from 2010, activists are intent on avoiding becoming what critics said all along — that they’re nothing but a flash in the pan.

“This Tea Party movement has made a real impression on America,” said Sheila Danish, one of a dozen or so newly minted Nevada Tea Party organizers. “When we started we looked really silly, but we just kept going. Now if it falls to the wayside, the only reason that would happen is a real lack of leadership in the movement. We better have our act together and I do believe we will.”

The Tea Party’s greatest strength, a fiery enthusiasm for toppling what it sees as an out-of-touch, spend-happy establishment, has also blunted its ability to become a significant force in electoral politics.

Reid’s defeat of Tea Party darling Sharron Angle proved that. A deliberate, well-funded organization can trump enthusiasm at the ballot box.

“We had no leader,” Danish said. “But we didn’t want one. Everybody’s group had their own agenda and they also had their own candidates. We were very divided, especially in the primary. This was our downfall in Nevada.”

That dynamic continues to frustrate activists. “We either get organized or we’ll be a little blip in history,” Danish said.

But the need for organization isn’t a new concept to Tea Party activists. They knew early this year that they needed a better organization but it didn’t happen.

Few see that changing in time for the 2012 races.

“When we say ‘the Tea Party,’ it implies some unity that really isn’t there,” said Eric Herzik, a political scientist at UNR. “So will the Tea Party become organized and start looking more like a real party or is it more of a broader social movement? If it remains a social movement, then its impact is going to be very ad hoc, very dependent on specific races and specific candidates.”

The diffuse collection of Tea Party activists who have organized their own small groups throughout the state remain divided on fundamental issues.

For example:

What’s the top target? Some say the presidential primary, in which Nevada will play a prominent role as an early caucus state. Others want to focus on promoting who they see as conservative up-and-comers in local races.

What’s the goal during the interim? Some say to organize ground operations to compete with those of the Democrats. Others say it is to be watchdogs, to ensure the newly installed Republican majority in the House conducts itself according to Tea Party values.

What’s the value of outside groups such as the Tea Party Express? Some say that’s where the real strength of the movement resides. Others vow to make sure such a group doesn’t “hijack” the movement.

What should be the next move for Angle, the Tea Party’s champion du jour? Some say U.S. Senate. Some say Congress. Some say state Legislature.

“Part of the strength and weakness of Tea Party organizers in Nevada is they like to work alone,” said Eric Odom, director of Liberty First, a Chicago-based political action committee devoted to organizing Tea Party activists in Nevada and other states. “They don’t like to join up efforts in the North and South or even among organizations. There’s got to be some conversations happening on how to unify, how to make it habitual, how to do (get out the vote) activities starting in the next week or two and going all the way to 2012.”

Indeed, some candidates are looking at how to continue cultivating the Tea Party energy heading into 2012.

“I believe this is just the beginning,” U.S. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said recently on “To the Point.” “2012 is when you’re really going to see some big real change with the Tea Party movement.”

That could be good or bad for Heller, who has worked to establish ties with the movement while making sure he doesn’t become its poster boy.

Some speculate the Tea Party enthusiasm could be sapped in 2012 if the Republican majority in the House is able to put the brakes on the Democratic agenda, the rallying point that has so energized the movement.

“I don’t think there will be as much demonstration as we have seen in the past,” said Tony Warren, a Las Vegas Tea Party organizer. “I don’t think the Tea Parties will be out there on the streets in numbers unless the Republicans really screw up.”

Also a factor: Republicans are now in the driver’s seat and can be held responsible for whatever measures do make it through Congress.

It wasn’t too long ago that a Republican president and Congress drew the ire of Tea Party activists, even if they weren’t called the Tea Party then.