Dems stretch 'tea party' label in ads

Richard Tisei is an openly gay, pro-choice Republican running for Congress as a Massachusetts moderate.

You wouldn’t know that from watching Democratic TV ads in his district, where he’s being pegged as a tea party extremist who wants tax cuts for billionaires and plans to outlaw all abortions.


Democrats are using these types of attack ads against a handful of suburban, moderate Republicans, believing that in these crucial swing districts around the country, the “tea party” label may be enough to sink some of the most promising GOP congressional candidates.

Never mind that the attacks seem wholly disconnected from the actual records of the Republican candidates — Democrats believe the tea party brand is unpopular enough in major suburbs that they can take out a few candidates with a guilt-by-association strategy.

Listen to Democratic Rep. John Tierney’s TV ad against Tisei: “The tea party Republican agenda. Outlaw abortion … Restrict birth control … Billionaire tax cuts … Middle-class tax hikes,” adding: “Tea party Republicans and Richard Tisei… What it is … Is too extreme.”

Tisei, in an interview, bristled at the attack.

“In the last 10 days, there have been eight different mail pieces sent out to people calling me a tea party extremist,” Tisei said. “All I can say is I refused to sign the Grover Norquist pledge, I’m openly gay, I support gay marriage and I’m pro-choice.”

Illinois Rep. Robert Dold, a freshman Republican from suburban Chicago who is among the most vulnerable incumbents in the country, is facing similar attacks. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently sent out a press release accusing Dold of being loyal to the tea party and has a page on its website headlined, “Tea Time with Congressman Robert Dold.”

“I think if you look at what the DCCC is trying to do, [it] is an ‘insert-here’ campaign against anybody. They’re trying to put everyone in lock step with the tea party,” Dold told POLITICO, pointing to recent bipartisan legislation he’s worked on as proof of his moderate bona fides. “I have never self-identified in that way.”

And there’s Nan Hayworth, a suburban New York City freshman Republican who is the subject of a new Democratic TV ad that casts her as a tea party soldier. “Some tea parties are nice. But Nan Hayworth’s Washington tea party would roll back decades of progress for women,” said the ad from House Majority PAC, a super PAC that is investing heavily in congressional races. “Nan Hayworth. Wrong kind of tea party.”

What the ad doesn’t mention is the fact that Hayworth, who was elected in 2010 with conservative support, sought to establish herself as a cross-the-aisle deal maker during her first two years in Congress, even starting a bipartisan “breakfast club” with Democrats.

The tea party attack line isn’t new for Democrats — they used it in 2010 as a means of portraying Republicans as out of the mainstream. It’s also being used in districts in Colorado, Connecticut and Washington state — a clear sign that Democrats have a national strategy of hanging the tea party label on the necks of Republicans in otherwise moderate districts.

Democratic strategists say the effort is taking on particular importance this year as the party pushes to dislodge Republicans who swept into suburban districts during the 2010 red wave.

“Some of those moderate, swing suburban districts — that’s where you’re going to see Democrats using that language,” said Dave Beattie, a Democratic pollster who counts many congressional candidates as clients. “Most of the swing districts are kind of moderate, and they don’t like extremism from either side.”

At a recent press conference, DCCC Chairman Steve Israel stood at a podium emblazoned with a giant pink slip declaring, “Fire the Tea Party.”

“The same tea party tsunami that swept many of these Republicans into office has now receded and left them high and dry with their extreme voting records that are out of step with the districts they represent,” Israel said at the event. “It is clear that the tea party experiment has failed. When you fail, you’re fired.”

Democrats compare the tea party message with the offensive Republicans launched against House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in 2010, when they sought to wrap the unpopular then-speaker around the necks of Democrats in conservative districts. The “Fire the Tea Party” slogan, some Democratic officials pointed out, is similar to the “Fire Pelosi” banner that hung outside the offices of the Republican National Committee during the midterm elections.

Democratic strategists said polling they conducted in recent weeks revealed the tea party as an unpopular boogeyman in suburban districts where moderation is the path to victory. A DCCC poll of Hayworth’s district found just 26 percent of voters expressing a favorable view of the tea party. In the suburban Denver district currently held by GOP Rep. Mike Coffman — on whom Democrats are also trying to affix the tea party label — just 33 percent said they had a favorable impression, according to a DCCC survey.

Jef Pollock, a prominent Democratic pollster and a DCCC adviser, called the tea party a recognizable symbol that Democrats could easily attach to Republicans in districts where conservative ideology is out of favor.

“The tea party’s numbers have gotten worse over the year,” Pollock said. “There are a lot of things you can say about people. But it is always going to be easier to link a GOP candidate with a group that voters, that people don’t like than to a single issue.”

Republicans say Democrats are miscalculating by taking aim at the tea party at a time when many voters say tackling the nation’s deficit — a priority embraced by the tea party — is critical.

“Democrats misunderstood and underestimated the tea party from the very beginning, and that’s one reason why they lost their majority in 2010,” said Paul Lindsay, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman. “They’re now in danger of losing more seats in November by attacking these same Americans who have the audacity to ask for fiscal sanity in Washington.”

For Republicans like Tisei, the tea party attack highlights a central challenge of his candidacy: how to run in a Democratic district at a time when the tea party-infused wing of the party has moved the House GOP’s agenda sharply to the right.

“It’s easier to run in Massachusetts as being openly gay than it is to run as a Republican. But people here are pretty independent, and they’re pretty sophisticated, too,” Tisei said. “Maybe in other areas, it has more of an effect.”