Tea Party Keeps Humming Along

Much of the analysis of yesterday's primary elections in a handful of states is that President Obama avoided an embarrassing night. The reason—the candidate he backed for Senate in Colorado, Michael Bennet, won in a primary race where he faced a candidate endorsed by former President Bill Clinton. Bennet was appointed to the Senate last year and is running to keep the seat.

The other reason yesterday's handful of contests were seen as a plus for the White House was that establishment Republicans lost in their primary contests. The thinking here goes that Democrats will stand a better chance in November going against Republicans who are seen as being loose cannons.

Another term for those kind of Republicans: Tea Party members. Far from being a political fad, this year's primary elections are showing the Tea Party to be a real political force. A Tea Party-backed candidate, Ken Buck, will take on Bennet in the Colorado Senate general election. Buck, the Weld County district attorney, narrowly defeated former Lt. Governor Jane Norton.

According to First Read, NBC News' daily political wrap, Buck's win make it the fifth big victory for a Tea Party candidate in Senate contests. Rand Paul in Kentucky, Sharron Angle in Nevada, and Mike Lee in Utah all won spirited elections while Marco Rubio in Florida "won his primary by default."

The biggest hanging question from Tuesday's races doesn't involve a Senate contest, but one for governor. In Georgia, the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination is so close, it hasn't been called. That race pitted Nathan Deal, the GOP-establishment backed candidate and a sitting member of the U.S. House, against Karen Handel, a former Georgia Secretary of State who had the backing of Sarah Palin. Palin, of course, is the darling of the Tea Party movement.

The Deal-Handel race ended being a slug fest over who was more fiscally and socially conservative. It's a mantra that surely will play out further as we head to November.