The battle looks a little different when the other side finally starts fighting back...
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/06/politics/ ... y-results/
GOP establishment 1, tea party 0 after North Carolina Senate primary
(CNN) -- In the intraparty battle for the GOP, score Round 1 for the Republican establishment over the tea party.
CNN projects that North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis has won the state's GOP Senate primary. Tillis, who was backed by many mainstream Republicans, topped 40% of the primary vote Tuesday, avoiding a runoff in July.
Tillis beat a bunch of more conservative candidates for the chance to face off this November against first-term Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, who is considered very vulnerable in the general election. Flipping her seat and five others held by Democrats would give Republicans control of the Senate.
In his victory speech, Tillis slammed Hagan's record, tying her to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and calling them "an echo chamber for President Obama's worst ideas."
"We need to be clear, it's not the end of a primary, it's really the beginning of a primary mission, which has been the mission all along and that is to beat Kay Hagan and to make Harry Reid irrelevant," he said.
Rand Paul stumbles and four other takeaways from election night
"You know, their failures, both Obama's and Kay Hagan's, are obvious," Tillis added.
"We know a lot of them -- our government is borrowing too much money and it's dangerously in debt to China. Obamacare is not working. And Obama and Hagan's left-wing political agenda is driving up our energy prices and making our country less safe.
"For six years, she's voted with Obama and against North Carolina," he said.
Trailing Tillis is tea party activist Greg Brannon. He enjoyed the support of many tea party groups, other influential conservative organizations and endorsements from the likes of Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who joined Brannon on Monday at a rally in Charlotte.
Mark Harris, a prominent Baptist minister who helped drive the 2012 passage of a constitutional amendment that strengthened the state's same-sex marriage ban, is on his way to a third-place finish. Harris was backed by a high-profile fellow pastor, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential candidate who may run again in 2016.
Since the birth of the tea party movement in 2009, primary challenges from the right have produced major headlines and headaches for the GOP and hurt the party's chances of winning back the Senate from Democrats in the past two election cycles. Candidates backed by the tea party movement and other grass-roots conservatives effectively cost the GOP five winnable Senate elections the past two cycles in Nevada, Delaware, Colorado, Indiana and Missouri.
The establishment strikes back
This election cycle, mainstream Republicans don't want another sequel.
In North Carolina, Tillis won recent endorsements from two high-profile Republicans: 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential 2016 White House hopeful.
More importantly, while none of the candidates in the GOP primary, including Tillis, raised or spent a lot of money in the campaign, the state House speaker won the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Crossroads, two outside groups that combined have spent millions this cycle to run ads in support of Tillis and other establishment picks that they feel are "electable" come November.
Last week, in what was described as a major buy, the pro-business Chamber launched a television commercial that described Tillis as "a bold conservative who balanced our budget and reduced regulations. A businessman who delivered tax relief."
And Crossroads, the big-spending outside group co-founded and steered by Karl Rove, says it has spent nearly $2 million in support of Tillis. That spending dwarfed the money shelled out by outside conservative groups that backed Brannon.
"It was clear from the start that Thom Tillis is the only proven conservative who can defeat Kay Hagan and take on President Obama's liberal agenda, and tonight's victory is the first step toward making that happen," said American Crossroads President and CEO Steven Law.
The biggest loser last night was The Odious Harry Reid, who isn't going to be able to count on GOP primary voters nominating nut house candidates to save his sorry ass as Senate Majority Leader a third time...
