Heating the kettle
Still flush from mid-term congressional victories and rising influence over budget talks, tea party leaders say they hope to see their movement propel election of their eventual presidential candidate in 2012. Andrew Hemingway, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, told a forum hosted by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Harvard Kennedy School that he expects the party to be a potent force in the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary in the Granite State. Tea party activists already are holding sway over seats and issues in state politics and helped their own Jack Kimball defeat former Gov. John Sununu for the state Republican Party chairmanship in January. Now, Hemingway said, he is fielding calls from presidential candidates. “Right now, 50,000 votes wins the presidential primary, and we have that many members in New Hampshire,” Hemingway said. “And we will be getting behind one presidential candidate.” In contrast, Jenny Beth Martin, national...