Smarting from losses in two of the state’s largest races, Colorado’s Tea Party and grassroots groups are already in regroup mode.

In 2012, they plan on playing nicer with establishment Republicans. They want to get better at vetting candidates. They hope their members are less “extreme” on social issues, and they plan to home in more on fiscal problems.

And they are working now to fortify their ground game to beat the Democrats in two years.

“When we were the newly energized, we just thought we could get out there and motivate and talk to people and talk to our friends and our neighbors and that would be enough,” said Lu Busse, chairwoman of 9.12 Project Colorado Coalition. “Unfortunately, that was not enough.”

In Colorado, both Tea Party picks — gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck — lost to Democrats.

This after both men beat out more establishment Republicans in primary elections and in a year when right-leaning candidates had advantages among unaffiliated voters.

“We’re happy with the nationwide progress,” said Linda Hoover, leader of a 9.12 group in Centennial. “But we have a lot of work to do in Colorado.”

Better at vetting

Exit polling conducted by Edison Research for major television networks, The Associated Press and The Denver Post showed 41 percent of people who voted in the Senate and gubernatorial races supported the Tea Party movement, 34 percent opposed it and the remainder had a neutral view.

Grassroots leaders say they want to work at vetting candidates so that those candidates will stand stronger — and be more appealing — in front of undecided moderates.

An aggressive vetting process should churn out candidates prepared for what tight statewide races dish out: negative ad campaigns, fierce debates and tough television interviews, observers say.

“They’re going to work to make sure they have experienced candidates who have a chance for success,” said Colorado State University political scientist Kyle Saunders.

Or, as Western Slope Conservative Alliance chief Jennifer Bailey put it, “We should be able to Google someone.”

Truce with the GOP

Grassroots organizers also acknowledged that to beat a formidable Democrat get-out-the-vote operation in 2012, they will have to work alongside the Republican machine.

This isn’t an easy pill to swallow for many ardent grassroots leaders, because their very strategy to stir up support started with blaming Republicans — as well as Democrats — for the nation’s fiscal crisis.

GOP Senate hopeful and Tea Party nominee Buck used this line frequently on the campaign trail, never giving a pass to the George W. Bush administration for driving up the federal deficit before President Barack Obama was elected.

“We need to find ways to work together,” Busse said of the state GOP. “But there are some things we won’t compromise on, like fiscal issues.”

Hoover said the 2010 election showed “the party is not able to do what we need to do.”

Saunders said the state’s losses in the gubernatorial and Senate races could be a bigger problem for the GOP machine than the Tea Party — which might use the losses to agitate more people in 2012.

“As the Tea Party’s prominence grows and their power grows, I can only imagine they’ll have more of a say with regard to putting themselves in positions of power,” he said.

Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com