Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s upset victory in a 2010 special election to win the seat once held by liberal icon Edward Kennedy was the tea party movement’s first big electoral triumph. Once in office, Senator Brown voted with Democrats more than any GOP senator except Susan Collins of Maine.
This time, tea party groups are not endorsing their former poster boy, but neither are they targeting him for defeat in the GOP primary. His battle against likely Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor, is expected to be the most high-profile Senate contest of Election 2012.
“People have a responsibility to represent their states and districts,” says Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express. “He’s a RINO, but he’s our RINO,” said one Bay State tea-party activist.
