The Tea Party Scorecard
How did the anti-tax activists do in the primaries?
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NEW HAMPSHIRE: 2/3 Establishment picks: Kelly Ayotte for Senate, Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass for House Tea Party picks: Ovide Lamontagne for Senate, multiple candidates for House Results: Chalk it up to the multiple candidate problem. guinta and Bass won, but Ayotte pulled it out in the Senate primary.
NEW JERSEY: 1/2 Establishment pick: Diane Gooch and Jon Runyan for Congress Tea Party pick: Anna Little and Justin Murphy Results: Little, a local mayor, narrowly defeated the self-funding newspaper publisher Gooch. Runyan, a former Philadelphia Eagle, held off Murphy by 18 points.
NEW YORK: 1/4 Establishment picks: Rick Lazio for governor, Joe DioGuardi for Senate, and Nan Hayworth for House Tea Party picks: Doug Hoffman, Carl Paladino, David Malpass, Neil DiCarlo, and Matt Doheny Results: The big headline went to Paladino, who destroyed Lazio, but the rest of the candidates with the most Tea Party support lost. That won't matter in the Senate race, but Republicans feel more confident about their shots at two House seats having nominated their preferred candidates.
PENNSYLVANIA: 2/2 Establishment picks: Arlen Specter, Mary Beth Buchanan for Congress Tea Party picks: Pat Toomey, Keith Rothfus Results: Toomey scared Specter out of the GOP, while Rothfus helped Buchanan disprove the truism that U.S. Attorneys make good candidates.
SOUTH CAROLINA: 3/3 Establishment picks: Gresham Barrett for governor, Paul Thurmond, and Rep. Bob Inglis for Congress. Tea Party picks: Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, and Trey Gowdy. Results: It was a rout: The establishment lost every race, and handily. Barrett and Inglis never overcame their support for TARP.
TEXAS: 0.5/1 Establishment pick: Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor. Tea Party pick: Debra Medina. Results: Medina, a Ron Paul supporter, surged in the final month of the campaign but imploded after appearing to indicate that she had doubts about the official story of 9/11. But it wasn't a big Tea Party defeat, as Rick Perry was renominated for governor.
UTAH: 1/1 Establishment pick: Sen. Bob Bennett Tea Party pick: Mike Lee Results: Lee was one of two candidates who beat Bennett at the state convention before narrowly winning the party primary, aided by FreedomWorks and Jim DeMint.
VIRGINIA: 0/2 Establishment picks: Robert Hurt and Scott Rigell for Congress Tea Party picks: Multiple opponents of Hurt and Rigell Results: In another election overinterpreted as a major Tea Party defeat, Hurt and Rigell overwhelmed their divided opposition.
WASHINGTON: 0/2 Establishment picks: Dino Rossi for Senate, Jaime Herrera for Congress Tea Party picks: Clint Didier for Senate, David Castillo for Congress Results: The Tea Party candidates entered their races before there was any sign of Democratic trouble and were easily defeated by candidates who jumped in after the pickings looked easy.
THE RESULTS: Tea Party activists made a real go at winning 51 races. They won 24 of them.
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David Weigel is a Slate political reporter. You can reach him at daveweigel@gmail.com, or tweet at him @daveweigel.