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Washington. A Republican civil war is raging, with righter-than-thou conservatives dominating more and more primaries in a fight for the party’s soul. And the Democrats hope to benefit.

The latest examples of conservative insurgents’ clout came this week.

In Florida, political newcomer Rick Scott beat longtime congressman and state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

And in Alaska, tea party activists and Sarah Palin pushed Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the brink of defeat, depending on absentee ballot counts in her race against outsider Joe Miller.

Such results are the fruit of attempts to mobilize the movement as a campaigning force.

FreedomWorks, a Washington advocacy group which is working to build the tea party movement, has been holding “boot camp” events across the country to train supporters in how to win votes for some 18 months, The New York Times reported.

“This movement, if we can turn out hundreds or thousands to the streets to protest and wave signs and yell and make an impact on public policy debate, then we can make a lot of difference,” Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks’s chief organizer for tea party groups, said.

“But if those same people go and walk neighborhoods and do all the things we’re talking about, put up the door-hangers in the final 72 hours and make the phone calls, we may crush some of these guys,” he added.

The GOP is likely to survive its bitter intraparty battles in such states as Alaska and Utah, even if voters oust veteran senators.

But tea party-backed candidates might be a godsend to desperate Democrats in Nevada, Florida and perhaps Kentucky.

The conservative insurgency is hardly all-powerful, though, as Sen. John McCain proved by easily winning renomination in Arizona despite a challenge from the right by J.D. Hayworth.

The Republican Party’s chief danger lies in battleground states such as Florida and Nevada.

Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek defeated millionaire newcomer Jeff Greene for the party’s Senate nomination inFlorida.

The likely impact of tea party activism is unclear in other states.

Kentucky Senate nominee Rand Paul defied the GOP establishment and gave Democrats some ammunition with his strongly libertarian stands. But many expect him to defeat Democrat Jack Conway in November.

The dynamic is similar in Colorado. Senate nominee Ken Buck beat an establishment favorite in the GOP primary, and some polls show him ahead of Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.
 

Associated Press