WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The conservative “Tea Party” movement’s rise within the Republican Party gives President Barack Obama’s Democrats an opportunity to limit their losses in the Nov. 2 US congressional elections, the Democratic Party chief said yesterday. Republicans are aiming to regain control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate in the elections. Tea Party candidates have knocked off better-known Republican establishment candidates in key primary races. The latest example came last week when conservative upstart Christine O’Donnell beat nine-term congressman Michael Castle in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary. Castle, a moderate targeted by Tea Party conservatives, had been forecast to win the general election, but Democratic nominee Chris Coons is now seen as having a good chance against O’Donnell.
“I think it’s become very clear now … that the control of the Republican Party is in Tea Party candidates who do not speak for independent or moderate voters at all,” Democratic Party Chairman Tim Kaine said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ programme.
“We have a feeling that we’re going to do very, very well in closing that gap with independent voters between now and the second of November, because independents do not like what they see from this ascendant Tea Party and the Republican Party,” Kaine added.
The struggling US economy and a poisonous US political atmosphere have made Obama’s Democrats vulnerable in November.
Independent voters backed Obama in his 2008 presidential victory but opinion polls show them leaning toward Republican congressional candidates in the November elections.
