'Tea party' backers target GOP candidates

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Anti-tax "tea party" conservatives are struggling with the Republican Party establishment by backing insurgent candidates, political activists say.

One example is in Florida, where the anti-tax and limited government advocacy group FreedomWorks is backing former state House Speaker Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate against the candidate preferred by GOP centrists, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the Washington publication Politico reported Monday.

Everett Wilkinson, an organizer for Tea Party Patriots, said his group is disappointed by Crist's acceptance of federal stimulus funding and for appearing publicly with President Barack Obama.

"The opposition comes from Crist's support for the largest spending plan ever and the environmental policies he's pushing on the American people," Wilkinson told Politico, vowing his group would launch an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort for Rubio.

The publication said anti-tax activists are also backing challengers to GOP establishment Senate candidates in Colorado and Connecticut while in California former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has been targeted by tea party supporters in her U.S. Senate primary against conservative state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

"It's an outgrowth of the frustration people have had with the Republican Party," Andrew Moylan of the National Taxpayers Union told Politico.