As GOP Eyes 2014, Tea Partiers Sit on Wallets

Party sees 'total split': insider
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2013 1:03 PM CDT
As GOP Eyes 2014, Tea Partiers Sit on Wallets
In this June 18, 2013 file photo, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. is seen on Capitol Hill.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

The divide between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party is growing wider, analysts say. Case in point: Politico reports that eight of the 20 most ardent members of the House pro-shutdown faction haven't given a red cent to the National Republican Congressional Committee, though midterm election are looming. "These members ... talk until they are red in the face about how this shutdown effort will somehow help Republicans in 2014," says a party aide, but "none of them have stepped up to the plate to make sure the party has the resources it needs to actually win races."

They include congress members like Michele Bachmann, Idaho's Raul Labrador, and Texas' Louie Gohmert, all of whom have plenty of political cash on hand. At the Hill, a top Republican tells Juan Williams of a "total split" between $30 and $30,000 party donors; the former are Tea Partiers while the latter are big businesses, who opposed the shutdown over fears of its economic impact. Indeed, with five Senate incumbents seeing primary challenges, an analyst is comparing the party's divide to the French Revolution, notes Business Insider—"when the Committee for Public Safety became more and more radical, beheading the moderates, until the revolution imploded." (More Louie Gohmert stories.)

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