The tea parties may soon have to decide whether their movement is about winning campaigns or winning on the issues.

So far, that question has been largely theoretical. As a minority based movement, the activists have been united around rejecting liberal policies and getting Democrats out of power.

If candidates sympathetic to the tea parties advance in the midterms, the tea parties will be faced with what's next.

As an electoral movement, the tea party's goals would be to win elections. Activists would focus on identifying candidates, raising money, and strictly opposing anything the other side proposes. The downside is they may not have much control over what the candidates they favor do once in power.

As a political movement, the group would work on bills that forward its policy agenda. In the process, the activists would have to be willing to compromise and give up some of their demands.

Leaders in the movement have already begun to discuss the dilemma.

"We don't have to get along but we do have common goals and we need to find a strategy or we'll be screwed," Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, said.

An electoral movement

Phillips believes the tea parties should keep their eyes on elections, especially the upcoming presidential race in 2012. That would make the tea parties similar to the Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative group that promotes anti-abortion candidates as way of forwarding that agenda.

"I want to see the movement coalesce around a particular candidate for president," he said.

Tea parties in Virginia and Michigan disagreed on which candidates to support during the midterm elections, a sign that it may not be so easy for the broad-based movement to agree on a presidential candidate.

But many tea-party activists believe they must do so or risk settling for a Republican candidate they don't like.

"We absolutely have to continue to work on the electoral part of it," said Mark Williams, the controversial radio host and tea partyer who recently became president of the third-party Conservative Party U.S.A.

Phillips and Williams also have some legislative goals in mind. Namely, they want lawmakers to repeal health care and defund Democratic programs. But they believe conservative activists can make the biggest difference on government through the polls.

"It's time to put down the protest sign and pick up the campaign sign," Williams said.

A political movement

Not everyone agrees. Some tea partyers have been waiting to gain power so that they can work on policy, and they are working to push the movement in that direction.

They want the tea parties to model themselves after groups like FreedomWorks, which use their grassroots base to pressure Congress into passing favorable bills.

Many of them look for direction in the Contract From America, a 10-point policy plan created by Texan tea partyer Ryan Hecker. The document, which was created out of an online poll, lays out policy goals that range in specificity from "reject cap and trade" to "stop the pork."

Hecker, who works closely with the D.C. based advocacy group FreedomWorks, said he plans to solicit volunteers who can turn those goals into actual bills for lawmakers to introduce after elections.

"Obama will probably try to veto what the House passes, but who cares," he said. "The point is to show that you have guts and take a stand that the people voted you in for."

Keli Carender, a Seattle-based activist who organized one of the first tea parties, does care whether bills pass. She believes the tea parties need to find common cause with liberal groups to break through the partisan deadlock in Washington.

"Once the elections are over, it will be a perfect time to work with whoever gets elected to get them on the transparency wagon," Carender said, suggesting a coalition with groups like the liberal MoveOn.org.

Disagreement persists

It remains to be seen whether mainstream tea partyers are willing to go down that path. Some simply want to continue the protests and keep a watchful eye on lawmakers.

"In 2011, our concern is to keep the fires burning: more tea parties, more protests," said William Temple, an avid protester known for dressing up in Founding Fathers costumes at rallies.

And while fiscal issues may be what all tea partyers can agree on, social issues like immigration are clearly a bigger draw for rally attendees. Yet there is no broad agreement on how to address amnesty.

"Is there a tidal wave going in a certain direction? Is there an overall blueprint, a unified purpose? That doesn't exist as far as the tea-party movement is concerned," said Apostle Claver of Raging Elephants, which works with tea parties and recruits minorities to the conservative cause.

Still, Glenn Beck's rally on the National Mall last month demonstrated that the movement continues to grow. The Wall Street Journal reported that the crowd – which was estimated to be between 87,000 and 200,000 – was bigger than any previous tea-party event.

Whether they head for the polls or work on bills, the activists believe their movement will remain strong over the next year.

"Regardless of what happens on November 2, you're still going to have a progressive in the White House," Claver said. 

Ambreen Ali writes for Congress.org.

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