Tea Party Candidates Get Some Surprising Help

In a handful of hotly-competitive races, Tea Partiers are running as third-party candidates. As CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, Democrats are doing what they can to help them - hoping they'll siphon votes away from the Republican.

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Never perhaps have there been stranger political bedfellows. In Nevada, a pro-Harry Reid group -- he's the Senate's lead Democrat -- promotes a little-known Tea Party candidate running against Reid: Scott Ashjian.

Illinois Democrat Alexi Giannoulias is running for Senate, yet funding ads propping up his Libertarian opponent.

And in Pennsylvania, Democratic House candidate Bryan Lentz, awkwardly admitsto helping an opponent collect petition signature to get on the ballot. The video came from Lentz's interview with the Delaware County Daily Times.

"If somebody's already made the decision to run, I didn't think that helping with the process of signature petitions was improper," Lentz said.

There are examples across the country of Democrats spending time and money to help out the competition. No, they're not crazy; it's actually a well-though out maneuver to increase the party's odds.

Interactive Map: CBS News Election 2010 Race Ratings

When the Harry Reid supporters promote the little-known Tea Party candidate, it stands to siphon votes from the more popular Tea Party Republican Sharron Angle - thus helping Reid.

Democrat Lentz helps a third-party opponent siphon votes from Republican Pat Meehan.

Democrat Giannoulias helps a long shot Libertarian to try to take votes from Republican opponent Mark Kirk.

Some Democrats openly disclose their efforts. But for others, the tie is harder to find. You'd think this one flyer was put out by conservatives: it calls Iowa's Republican candidate for Governor Terry Branstad "liberal" like "Clinton, Obama and Pelosi."

But IRS filingsshow it's the Democratic Governors Association behind the ads. They're hoping to split Republican votes.

Democrats say there's nothing illegal or even unethical about the tactics. Besides, Republicans have been accused of it in the past - notably in 2004. They supported the Green Party's Ralph Nader to drain votes from Sen. John Kerry.

[fashinrashin]

EVERYONE HERE - independents/ DEM, old school GOP -call their bluff.
Get on the blogs, letters to the editor etc and DEMAND that all so called entitlements be scrapped. Thats SS, MEDICARE, CHIPS, VA (thats right VA !!!), ALL OF IT ! AND DEFUND the federal government as well Boehner while you are at it, Thats right shut it down.

I want to call the bluff of these wind bag reactionary TEA Partiers THEY WANT CHANGE lets give it too them. Lets see how long their mothers and retired fathers and the legions of unemployed that count on the FED right now to just EAT, will go along with this absurd notion that all goverment is bad for you.

[Demitri25]

Sorry my mistake, Tea Party Canceled.


Tea pot has crack in it and can't hold the tea.

[Demitri25]

Sorry, Tea Party Canceled.

Too many cracked pots to hold the tea....

[freepress6]

My guess is that Dems will stay away from the polls in record numbers Tueday, their way of voicing opposition to the big bank and credit card company bailouts. I doubt Dems will turn out thirty percent.
Sterling Greenwood/AspenFreePress

[JV1970]

I hope so! I'm a Republican and if what you say is true then the Republicans will have no trouble taking control of the house and the senate!

[RedStateBlues]

Why would Dems not vote for Dems because of something Republicans did?

[stickbowman]

Grudge-holding incumbents/partisans, especially democrats (this cycle), are what's for dinner this Tues. Yum!

[rwpfile]

As Harry Truman pointed out in his 1948 nomination speech? Confidence and security have been brought to the people by the Democratic Party. Today we have Medicare added to the Social Security?.if the Social Security & Medicare recipients don't do their duty by the Democratic Party, they are the most ungrateful people in the world!

[Frankiebee4]

In response to several comments below...

MYTH: Future deficits are "the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program."

Fact: These policies play a relatively minor role in the growth of future deficits.

During his 2010 State of the Union Address, President Obama asserted:

At the beginning of the last decade, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. By the time I took office, we had a one-year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program.

In other words, according to President Obama, the massive budget deficits are President Bush?s fault, but the data do not support this assertion. President Bush implemented the three policies mentioned by President Obama in the early 2000s. Yet by 2007?the last year before the recession? the budget deficit had stabilized at $161 billion. Since the combined annual cost of these three Bush-era policies is now relatively stable, they cannot have suddenly caused a trillion-dollar leap in budget deficits beginning in 2009.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/the-three-biggest-myths-about-tax-cuts-and-the-budget-deficit#_ftn7

[wordpros]

Wow. You need to read more and fast. Check out the Pentagon's estimates of the pending costs for Iraq and Afghanistan...

[Arzantine]

Isn't it getting boring; all the talk about politics! I can hardly wait until the elections are over! Wow! What an ordeal it is to listen to the blather going on about politics! Enough already!

[rustbkt]

"In Nevada, a pro-Harry Reid group -- he's the Senate's lead Democrat -- promotes a little-known Tea Party candidate running against Reid: Scott Ashjian."

Nice try CBS. Why don't you just call yourselves the "Clinton Broadcasting System", everyone else does. There is no "Tea Party" political party, it's a movement. The Dems have scraped up a few unknown candidates and are marketing them as "Tea Party" candidates to try and draw votes from the Republican and Independant bases. Since the left doesn't understand the "Tea Party" movement, they actually think stunts like this will work. Whew!

[pubsrtoast]

There is no "Tea Party" political party, it's a movement.==================== No it isn't, it is a bunch of bellicose Republicans and nothing more.

[Bisk1]

A movement that votes EXCLUSIVELY REPUBLICAN ?? Dumb Dumb Repugs !!

[rustbkt]

Those comments speak for themselves.....the Dems just don't get it. See ya on November 3, you won't be able to miss me, I'll be wearing my Republicans took over the house shirt!

[msimamaji]

Jobs. That's the issue.

Before Americans cast their vote, they should remember these words:

"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore."
Those are the sacred words of Carly Fiorina, California's Republican candidate for the Senate

On October 28, CBS published an article by John Gapper titled,"Obama must Learn to Love Big Business." Gapper tells everyone what they can expect once the GOP gets control of Congress.
Gapper argues that the jobs Carly Fiorina and other Republican CEO's shipped to China will never come back. Gapper favors trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia, notorious for its anti-union terrorism, so corporations can off shore more American jobs to countries with cheap labor, supposedly they can get tax cuts for doing so.

In addition Gapper want to " ease restrictions on visas and work permits for foreign students who will otherwise take their skills elsewhere." In more direct language, Gapper wants to expand the so-called "guest worker" program, so that imported workers, who will work for slave labor wages, will take American jobs.

While Gapper suggests that we need to invest in a better trained labor force and a better infrastructure to attract multi-national businesses, he also wants drastic budget cuts. In other words, businesses want the benefits of a 21st century infrastructure, but they don't want to pay for it. As far as more education, we have millions of young people deeply in debt with college degrees who can't get jobs- simply because their jobs have either been outsourced or given to an imported work force

The only things the GOP guarantees are pink slips as corporations give jobs to cheaper labor. In fact, when Carly Fiorina laid off thousands of Hewlitt Packard employees, these employees were forced to train their slave labor work force that took over their jobs.

So if you vote Republican next week and get a pink slip just before Christmas remember, I warned you this would happen. I urge every one to vote Democratic ticket because the job you save may be your own.

[Bear589]

Oh, yes... the age-old fear-mongering cry of the Democrats: "Vote for us or your life will fall apart!" The job you save may be your own?? Jobs in places like... Flint, Saginaw, Detroit, Cleveland..?? Yeah, those are real job juggernauts, aren't they? If Democrats are so wonderful at creating jobs, what Republicans do or fail to do shouldn't matter to you. But, you guys will always need someone else to blame, since elitists never take respinsibility for anything.

[commenterID]

GOP/BUSH were outsourcing our jobs as far back as 2004 and they're still voting AGAINST the people.

Republicans block bill to prevent jobs from moving overseas
Senate Democrats attempted to pass one more jobs-related bill on Tuesday (Sept 28) that would make it more difficult for U.S. companies to ship jobs overseas, but Senate Republicans successfully filibustered the bill.

This latest filibuster is another sign the Republicans truly do not care about the American people and are more worried about corporate interests.

BUSH: SENDING JOBS OVERSEAS HELPS THE U.S.
February 10, 2004

WASHINGTON ? The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said yesterday.

The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the U.S. economy.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001854367_bushecon10.html

[Harden_Tar]

The dems will do anything (Crist) to keep from having the public teat ripped out of their mouths. What else do they know how to do but be a burden on the rest of us? They have no real job skills or experience other than being on the government payroll (Obama and his hangers on). They are scared, they are desperate, and I will not be suprised in the least with any fantastic thing they come up with in the next week to get votes.