Tea Party movement goes to precinct level

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Tea Party movement is trying to take over the Republican Party precinct by precinct, party activists said.

The recently formed National Precinct Alliance aims to get Tea Partiers to become Republican precinct leaders, The New York Times reported. The alliance says it already has coordinators in most states and has increased the number of conservative Republican committee members in Nevada and Arizona.

In Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district in the Philadelphia suburbs, the Democratic incumbent, Patrick Murphy, squeaked in with only 1,500 votes to spare in 2008. The local Republican organization plans to back a challenger rather than have an open primary but Tea Party members say they have other ideas.

The group organized a candidate's night and says it will hold a debate if necessary, the Times reported.

"We kind of changed the rules," said Anastasia Przybylski, an organizer.

Last year, in the 23rd District in upstate New York, Tea Partiers and their allies succeeded in driving the Republican candidate out of the race, making the candidate on the Conservative line the GOP choice as well. The Democrat won, barely, in an area that had been Republican since the Civil War.