Angle gets Tea Party support

WASHINGTON -- The national Tea Party group shook up Nevada's U.S. Senate race by announcing Thursday it was backing Republican Sharron Angle, a former state legislator and deep-rooted conservative from Northern Nevada.

Organizers of the Tea Party Express introduced Angle as the group's choice in Nevada to carry the banner of believers in small government. The well-funded California-based movement is attempting to harness a mass of voters unhappy with the nation's leadership.

The announcement was made at an indoor rally that capped a 20-day series of Tea Party Express events across the country. The tour began March 27 in Searchlight, where activists declared hometown Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., their top target for defeat in November.

The endorsement figures to give Angle a boost in her bid for the Republican nomination to take on Reid in the November general election. But to get to Reid, Angle, a former four-term assemblywoman from Reno, first must surmount challenges to win the GOP primary on June 8.

She trails Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian by large margins in the most recent polling among likely Republican voters conducted for the Review-Journal earlier this month. Angle drew 5 percent support compared with Lowden's 45 percent and Tarkanian's 27 percent.

Several Nevada political analysts said Angle will get a bang from the endorsement but wouldn't predict whether it would be enough to propel her beyond two competitors who have been better funded and organized.

According to finance reports and figures from their campaigns, Lowden has raised nearly $2.2 million through March 31, counting contributions from her personal wealth. Tarkanian has raised an estimated $1.1 million.

Angle raised $584,000 through the end of December. Her campaign has not released updated fundraising numbers. Tea Party Express organizers said she was around $1 million before Thursday's announcement.

"The reality is this is extremely important to her campaign because this is a coveted group," said Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno. "One of the realities is, in a primary election, voter turnout is going to be miserable, so if you have anyone that seems to be organized, that is a leg up.

"What Sharron has lacked is enough fundraising and a lack of statewide recognition, but this type of endorsement gives her headlines. And the other candidates will have to be looking at this," Lokken said.

"Sharron's candidacy was probably not in the cross hairs, but as of this morning, she has moved up."

By wearing a Tea Party seal of approval, Angle will be introduced to a national network of potential donors and additional media attention, which was evident by the cameras surrounding her after her acceptance of the endorsement at the National Press Building.

At the event, Tea Party Express officials mentioned her with Scott Brown, another Tea Party-endorsed Republican who pulled off a U.S. Senate upset in Massachusetts in January. Angle did not seem to mind the comparison.

Angle told reporters she hopes for a "money bomb" of donations similar to what fueled Brown's ascendancy.

"The best thing they have done for me today is introduce me to the United States of America," Angle said.

The endorsement yielded almost immediate results.

"I just got a call from our webmaster, and the money is just pouring in like crazy right now," Angle campaign manager Jerry Stacy said a few hours after the announcement. He was not able to provide dollar figures.

Angle, 60, and her husband, Ted, flew to Washington on the hush-hush Wednesday evening to preserve the endorsement surprise that ended up leaking anyway later that night.

They were intending to fly home on Thursday, but Stacy said a string of media interviews including a request to appear on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace forced a change in plans.

Angle drew a loud ovation when she was introduced at the event. She launched into a 10-minute speech that mixed criticism of Reid with promises to seek spending cuts of 5 percent per year for the next five years on federal programs including the Department of Education and to seek the return of unspent stimulus money and "unappropriated budget funds" to the Treasury.

She said her first piece of legislation will be a bill to repeal the health care overhaul law.

"We are paying off this debt," she said. "We are not going to resign ourselves to be France. We are not going to accept socialism."

Angle has long been considered a Tea Party favorite for her strong conservative anti-tax record in the Legislature, although each of the other Nevada Republican Senate candidates also claims support from self-identified tea partyers and said they will continue to court those voters.

Both Tarkanian and Lowden spoke at Tea Party rallies Thursday in the state.

"The Tea Party movement is based upon less government intervention, more personal freedoms and lower taxes. These very issues are the foundation of Sue's campaign," Lowden spokeswoman Crystal Feldman said. "We have Tea Party supporters in Sue's campaign offices daily making calls and showing their support."

At a Tea Party rally in Carson City, Lowden's only comment on Angle winning the endorsement was that "in politics, everything is fair."

At a rally in Las Vegas, Tarkanian said, "There is a Nevada Tea Party group who I cautiously hope will endorse me. ... It's really the Nevada Tea Party that will be the biggest difference."

Also in the picture is Scott Ashjian, who filed to run for Senate as a member of the Tea Party of Nevada. Ashjian's candidacy was challenged, but a judge in Carson City ruled Thursday that he could remain on the ballot.

The Tea Party Express endorsement provoked a backlash of sorts among some conservative activists, who accused the California-based group of carpetbagging in Nevada and inserting itself into a competitive Republican primary.

"They are drastically overstepping their boundaries," said Barbee Kinnison, a retired Las Vegas businesswoman and activist who supports Tarkanian. "Anger is brewing. This is not how it is supposed to work."

Kinnison said she and friends e-mailed the Tea Party Express on Thursday asking for a return of money they had donated.

Debbie Landis of the Anger is Brewing organization, which helped put on a rally Thursday in Carson City, said the Tea Party Express did not consult her or other Nevada followers of Tea Party principles before announcing its endorsement.

Some activists, and Democratic operatives, question the legitimacy of the Tea Party Express.

It was launched as a project of the Our Country Deserves Better political action committee associated with Russo Marsh & Rogers, a Republican political consultancy, and has enjoyed fundraising success under the Tea Party banner.

"The Tea Party Express's high profile has angered Tea Party leaders who are suspicious of its big payments to Russo Marsh, view the bus tours as distractions from meaningful grass-roots organizing headed into the 2010 midterm elections and say the Republican ties of both the firm and PAC are wrong for a movement that has prided itself on independence from the political establishment," Politico.com reported in a story published Thursday.

In an e-mail, Tarkanian campaign aide Jamie Fisfis said, "The 'Tea Party' did not endorse Sharron Angle, the 'Our Country Deserves Better PAC' did.  The Tea Party is an official party in Nevada, and the Tea Party movement is made up of many groups.  We think that is an important distinction in the story as we have many Tea Party activists volunteering for us, and they are to say the least, displeased."

Neither Lowden nor Tarkanian was contacted by the Tea Party Express for interviews as it was forming its endorsement, according to those camps.

Republican candidate John Chachas, an investment banker and Ely native who returned to Nevada to run for Senate, said officials with the Tea Party Express had interviewed him by phone to ask about his views.

They asked about his ties to the "establishment" in Nevada.

"I said I don't belong to anyone," Chachas told the Review-Journal on Wednesday.

They also asked him whether he would eliminate federal programs and shrink the government as members of the anti-Big Government Tea Party desire.

Chachas said that he would cut the federal budget by rolling back spending to 2005 levels and by freezing hiring and Social Security spending for three years.

Finally, the group asked him how he felt about a proposal to impose a national sales tax on goods, and he said he was against the idea.

"It's a regressive tax that would hit the poorest people the hardest, the people buying a gallon of milk," Chachas said. "It's wrong."

Joe Wierzbicki, Tea Party Express coordinator, said the group "talked to virtually every candidate several times over" while participating in Nevada events and "could be content with anyone who gets the nomination against Harry Reid."

He said it was clear Angle was in tune with the group on conservative principles but needed help with money and organization.

"It was clear there was great affection for Angle but a belief maybe she did not have what it took to win," Wierzbicki said. "She did not have enough oomph to get her in there because Lowden has all the money and Tarkanian has all the name recognition.

"Well, guess what? We have name recognition and money."

He said Angle closed fast but fell short by narrow margins in her 2006 loss to Dean Heller in the Republican primary for Congress and in her 2008 loss to state Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio.

Wierzbicki said the Tea Party Express believes she can close the gap in the upcoming U.S. Senate primary with its support.

"This is a woman who is consistently under-ranked and surges in the end because she has a loyal following when all the sparks and bolts start to fly," he said.

Review-Journal reporters Kristi Jourdan and Ed Vogel contributed to this report. Contact Reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.