Tea Party looks longingly at Senate

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WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. D-Nev., said the Tea Party was beginning to infiltrate the upper house, a shift some Republican candidates applaud.

"I used to just talk about the House wing of the Tea Party, but it is over here now," Reid said this week, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Richard Mourdock's victory in Indiana last week over six-term incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar is the most recent tangible evidence that right-leaning Republicans have the ability to displace center-leaning Washington insider Republicans.

Tea Party hopefuls are also running for the Senate in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas. In Utah, candidate Dan Liljenquist is endorsed by the Tea Party and he is looking to unseat Sen. Orin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who has been a senator since 1976.

The message from many Republican candidates to the old guard is move to the right or move over. This is a vexing issue for Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., who is viewed as a deal-maker, a label that some consider a synonym for sell-out, the Times said.

"We need to shake up the Republicans," said Missouri state treasurer Sarah Steelman, who is running for a chance to challenge Sen. Clair McCaskill, D-Mo.

Was it time to replace McConnell in the Senate? The answer to that is "Possibly," Steelman said.