Indeed, gleeful liberal critics are following the disagreements between “establishment Republicans” led by Karl Rove, and an opposing coalition of traditional conservatives, who do not approve of Mr. Rove’s Conservative Victory Project, a new super pac meant to support emerging candidates in the 2014 race.
The disagreements are many. But they are a necessary part of the Republican Party’s quest for a new identity following the 2012 presidential election.
Mr. Rove has defended his organization on Fox News and elsewhere in the last 24 hours. But tea party stalwarts are not buying it.
“Rove mentioned that they raised and spent over $300 million. While this is true, when you consider their track record, they wasted the money. Perhaps it is time for Rove’s donors to donate to organizations who can produce a ground game to compete with the left,” says Jenny Beth Martin, co-Founder of Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest umbrella organization for the grassroots movement.
“The tea party did this in 2010, in the Wisconsin recall in 2012, and we did it in Washington state in 2012. For the first time in years, in a state the establishment deemed as unwinnable in 2012, the Washington State Senate is being run by a Republican conference rather than the Democrats,” she continues.
“That happened because of the tea party ground game. Rather than spend hundreds of millions of dollars on useless TV ads that only tear down the opponent, in Washington we articulated a conservative message that draws voters to our cause,” Ms. Martin declares.
“That’s what conservatives have always been about, winning the hearts and minds with a winning message of personal freedom, fiscal responsibility, and limited government., ” she adds.
