Nevada’s Third Party Tea Party Candidate for US Senate and the Democratic-Republican Conspiracy of Dunces

Following reports that a group calling itself the Tea Party had registered as an official political party in Nevada and would run a candidate for US Senate to challenge Democrat Harry Reid, Republican Party activists immediately began to argue that the Tea Party was nothing more than a Democratic front group dedicated to reelecting Harry Reid.  While there is little evidence, at this point, to support the assertion that the Nevada Tea Party is a part of a Democratic conspiracy to “split” the conservative vote, one might reasonably wonder whether such insinuations regarding the Nevada Tea Party are not themselves part of a Republican conspiracy to discredit the third party group in the eyes of independent and conservative voters as we head into this year’s election season.  More comprehensive media reports on the Nevada Tea Party and its candidate for Senate, Jon Scott Ashjian, are now beginning to find their way into print. The Las Vegas Review-Journal, for instance, has now published a profile of the candidate. Kristi Jourdan reports:

Ashjian says he’s learning the ropes through this grass-roots movement, where he is his own communications director who answers the phone, relies heavily on family and friends for help and schedules his own TV and radio appearances, which are starting to pick up. Don’t call him a politician, though. “I’m a frustrated patriot,” Ashjian said. “I’m not a politician. I’m not savvy with radio and TV. But I believe I can make a change, and that’s what I’m here for. I’m here to give people a third voice.”