Ohio GOP races, issues brace for tea party impact

COLUMBUS (AP) — As the first birthday approaches for Ohio’s tea party activity, mainstream candidates are trying to read the tea leaves on the movement’s impact on this year’s elections.

Leaders of the loosely allied tea party, or liberty, groups around the state are increasingly on record saying their frustration with government has spanned both the Republican Bush and Democratic Obama administrations.

They argue that advocating a return to the values laid out in America’s Constitution and Bill of Rights isn’t partisan.

Yet their influence is coming to roost almost exclusively for Republicans.

Ohio tea party groups have scheduled Tax Day events for Thursday, the movement’s one-year anniversary.