‘Tea party’ Republicans get transition posts

Reporting from Washington — House Republicans announced Monday that four newly elected lawmakers who won with backing from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or “tea party” groups will help lead the transition to the new Congress.

The appointment of the four newcomers to the 22-member transition team offers a sign of the conservative influence on the Republicans’ new majority and shows the steps the party’s leaders are taking to assure that the movement’s leaders are seen as having a role in key decisions.

As the transition team began meeting Monday, another tea party favorite, Rep. Michele Bachmann, the populist firebrand from Minnesota, remained locked in an internal party battle for the No. 4 leadership position.

Bachmann’s long-shot leadership bid is the boldest expression yet of the tea party’s attempt to have a hand in the new Republican majority in the House.

House Republicans are well aware of the strength of the tea party movement and its patrons, including Palin. The GOP won nearly 60 seats in the midterm election mostly because of a rightward shift in the electorate.

Of the newcomers appointed to the transition, three of them knocked out Democratic incumbents — Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who is among the youngest members of Congress, Martha Roby of Alabama and Cory Gardner of Colorado. Another, Tim Scott, who won an open GOP seat, became the first black Republican elected from South Carolina since Reconstruction.

Though the four are newcomers to Washington, they are all seasoned lawmakers, having served time in local and state governments.

The transition group was huddled in the Capitol late Monday, eating Chinese takeout while hammering out organizational priorities as the party prepares to take control of the House in January. The panel will outline policies for the new schedule, rules, office budgets and other items.

On Monday, Bachmann was in an uphill battle with five-term conservative Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R- Texas) for the leadership position.

Julian Zelizer, a congressional scholar at Princeton University, said Republican leaders must walk a fine line between giving tea party candidates positions of power and not allowing them to overtake the GOP with demands for proposals that are politically problematic or at odds with the rest of the party.

“Most Republican leaders would rather keep the tea party Republicans on the campaign trail,” Zelizer said. “The trick is to place enough of them in positions with some power so that they don’t openly rebel against the leadership, while containing and constraining them so that the more experienced leaders can guide the party.”

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