What the Tea Party appears to be doing, across the country, is helping a lot of candidates in Republican primaries defeat incumbents or moderate Republicans. Most polls are showing that, when this happens, it usually benefits whoever the Democrat candidate is on the other side of the race.
I'm wondering if the anti-incumbent mood has had an effect in the governor's race in Texas. The Democrat, Bill White, has pushed fiscal responsibility and has pointed out that Perry misses an inordinate number of days on the job, as well as his spending on things related to his own personal office. He's slowly chipped away at Perry's lead in the polls, appears to be leading among independent voters, and has, within the last week, moved into a tie in the polls, unheard of in heavily Republican, conservative Texas.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... id=7514195