Are Republicans and Tea Party supporters heading for a potential showdown? Unless things start to change, an unpleasant implosion within the U.S. conservative movement appears to be imminent.
Republicans hoping to capture a majority in the Senate are casting wary eyes on the tea party, well aware of 2010 and 2012 races that opened the flood gates to candidates outside the GOP ticket.
"I don't vilify all Republicans, I don't believe all Republicans are evil, I believe there are lots of good people who just believe differently," Tim Robbins told a packed audience last week in Santa Monica, where he was interviewed by liberal comedian Marc Maron.
The former leader of a tea party group says the Republican Party and stupid statements by some candidates are to blame for GOP losses in last month's congressional elections.
Polls show the race is neck-and-neck to fill Jim Webb's vacant U.S. Senate seat in Virginia.
Republican Mitt Romney is renewing his focus on the nation's economy while facing continued pressure to break his silence on a GOP Senate candidate's statement that any pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended."
Top Republicans were slow to embrace tea-party-backed Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock after he beat longtime GOP Sen. Richard G. Lugar in the May primary. Though Mr. Mourdock eventually won their support — and money — he could see both fade after telling a live television audience that when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape, "that's something God intended."
Outside political groups are spending nearly the same as congressional campaigns themselves in about two dozen competitive elections this year.
The National Federation of Independent Business is endorsing Republicans over Democrats by a better than 10-1 margin in congressional races this year. But when the small business group needed someone to head its campaign for rolling back federal regulations, it turned to former Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.
With the easy defeat of an unexpectedly aggressive primary challenger, Arizona Rep. and GOP Senate nominee Jeff Flake brushed off speculation of a bruised candidacy with a vow to repeal President Obama's economic and health care policies.
George Allen, the odds-on favorite to win Virginia's GOP Senate primary Tuesday, is already working feverishly to win over the coveted independent vote for a high-stakes November matchup with Democrat Tim Kaine that will help determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate come January.
Polls, pundits and the press all see Tuesday's Republican Senate primary is little more than a partisan coronation for former Sen. George Allen.
One by one, several candidates hoping to be Texas' next GOP Senate nominee made their pitches to the Republican Party's forum in Erath County, just west of Fort Worth - but the few dozen voters packed inside the small meeting hall on a hot afternoon last week were getting antsy.
Kansas is one of those schizophrenic states that produce movers and shakers on both sides of the aisle, plus a lot of moderates like Viagra pitchman Bob Dole.
Super PACs — the outside fundraising groups expected to play a big role in the November elections — already have been involved heavily in GOP Senate primary races, in which they have boosted the campaigns of underfunded insurgents.
