Twice a year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce convenes what it calls its Committee of 100 — which is composed of heads of regional chambers and Washington trade associations. They hear about the business climate from the chamber’s longtime president, Thomas J. Donohue, and about the political landscape from Bruce Josten, its chief lobbyist.

In the summer of 2012, a few months before the elections, the bulk of the meeting, according to people who were there, was devoted to one subject: the importance of electing Republicans. The Chamber of Commerce — which once supported its share of pro-business Democrats — went almost completely to the Republican side, spending millions to oppose such Democratic senatorial candidates as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who was up for re-election; and former Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia. It ran ads against Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri who often took pro-business positions, accusing her of being anti-jobs because she supported the Affordable Care Act.

The chamber had done much the same thing during the 2010 midterms, with great success, helping to hand the House of Representatives to the Republicans, thanks largely to the influx of Tea Party freshmen. Now, said the chamber brass, it was time to finish the job and give the country a Republican Senate as well.

As it turns out, the 2012 strategy was a flop. According to The Washington Post, the chamber’s candidates lost in 13 of the 15 Senate races it poured money into. On the House side, the chamber went four for 22. Thus did the chamber find itself in the worst of all worlds. It had alienated Democrats, including the kind of pro-business Democrats who believe in the sort of practical politics that business prefers. Yet it had also helped usher in the Tea Party, only to discover that its strain of right-wing populism was as disdainful of business as it was of government.