Posted on 05/27/2010 5:38:46 PM PDT by mdittmar
BOISE -- The biggest Idaho primary voter turn out in a decade may have been strongly steeped by an energized Tea Party movement, says Secretary of State Ben Ysursa.
About 27 percent of registered voters cast ballots Tuesday. Ysursa had been projecting 26 percent turnout.
That amounts to some 202,700 voters, an unofficial figure but probably the most since 2000 when about 210,000 primary voters cast ballots.
Tea Party favorite Raul Labrador certainly benefited, upsetting opponent Vaughn Ward in the GOP first congressional district race.
Ward outspent Labrador six to one and brought in political star Sarah Palin, a Tea Party sweetheart herself nationally.
But Labrador says Palin's presence for Ward did not really matter.
"I like Sarah Palin," Labrador said Tuesday night. "But I knew (Ward) worked for her, that she supported him. I don't think it made a difference."
Maybe that's because Labrador got the endorsement of the Boise Tea Party.
Our KBOI-TV 2NEWS/Idaho Statesman poll showed the strength of the Tea Party movement in Idaho.
When we asked: do you generally support the Tea Party agenda, 63% of those queried said yes and 20% twenty percent said no.
Right-leaning Republican candidates ejected four incumbents whose recent votes - on state's rights and taxes - left them at odds with newly-energized tea-party voters eager to make their presence felt.
Sens. Chuck Coiner of Twin Falls, Mike Jorgenson of Hayden Lake, Gary Schroeder of Moscow, and Lee Heinrich of Cascade all lost to rivals who are either tea-party adherents, or at least courted voters who believe in the movement's limited-government, states-rights philosophy.
"I think this is going to make the Idaho legislature even more conservative," said John Freemuth, Boise State political science professor.
Idaho tea party organizers contend this success will force even
GOP candidates like Gov. Butch Otter and U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson to pay closer attention to their demands.
Rusty Satterwhite, with the Twin Falls-based Tears of the Patriots, says, "They're going to have to think twice about how they cast their votes."
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
Wahoo!
Labrador is an immigration attorney (so we know where he stands on amnesty).
Just because he has some Tea Party support doesn’t mean he’s a wise choice.
No matter what the score, I’d rather have him in office than Minnick. A Democrat is a Democrat is a commie.
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