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Tea Party challenges DeWine in attorney general race

The movement’s challenge to Mike DeWine may show how much clout it has in Ohio politics.

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By William Hershey  and Jack Torry
Columbus Bureau Updated 12:34 AM Sunday, February 7, 2010

COLUMBUS — Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine is running for Ohio attorney general, but the Tea Party movement and some other conservatives would like to run the Cedarville Republican right off the ballot.

The angry undercurrents surfaced last week when about 30 anti-DeWine protesters braved sub-freezing temperatures in Columbus to demonstrate against the state Republican Party’s plan to endorse Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost for auditor, giving DeWine a clear path to the attorney general nomination. The Tea Party likes Yost, but not DeWine.

“People will not support (Mike) DeWine,” said protester Mark Haverkos of West Chester. “They can throw all the money in the world. It won’t help.”

The Tea Party movement has risen up to become a force in national Republican politics. Sarah Palin on Saturday, Feb. 6, headlined the first national Tea Party Convention in Nashville, and it was anti-tax, anti-big-spending Tea Party backers and their allies who helped Republican Scott Brown score an upset win in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race. But Ohio’s statewide races this year may provide the first real test here of whether the Tea Party faithful can set an agenda for the party and energize voters.

The Yost switch raises questions about just how agenda-setting the Tea Party can be. The switch, orchestrated by Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine, Mike DeWine’s second cousin, made Tea Party favorite Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, an immediate underdog in the auditor’s race.

Working with the Tea Party movement is a challenge for the GOP, political scientist Mark Caleb Smith said in an e-mail. “The movement is anti-establishment, anti-politics as usual,” said Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University. “The Republicans have to be careful how they interact with the movement.”

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