While the Tea Party can trace its origins to anger over the Wall Street bailouts in 2008, the sharp edge for that movement of the Republican Party to the right has been dulled at the polls recently, much to the relief of the banking industry, which sees the shift as a better chance for the establishment Republicans to retake control of the Senate. Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID) was taken to task for supporting the bailouts, but handily bested his conservative opponent, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did the same to primary challenger Matt Bevin who highlighted the Wall Street rescue (for which McConnell voted) as a central theme of his platform.

The financial industry was not pleased with the conservative-led shutdown of the government nor the skirmish over the debt limit, preferring to not rock the boat of a shaky economy, but at the same time knows its bread is not best buttered by the Democrats either. While recent elections have seen conservative challengers win primaries over centrist Republicans and then lose to Democrats in the general elections, according to thehill.com, that is less likely to happen with more mainstream candidates on the ballot. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is a frequent critic of Wall Street, and while he is not up for re-election until 2018, he is the heir apparent to head the Senate Banking Committee when Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) retires, making a Republican-controlled Senate more desirable for the banking industry.

Francis Creighton, head of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, tells MHProNews, “As an industry, we have to look at every member of Congress independently, we can’t just assume that there’s going to be one party for us and one party against us.” While the economy remains in an iffy gear, Wall Street is prepared for more criticism on the presidential campaign trail, hoping a viable Republican contender will step forward and pull the debate to the right.

MHProNews publisher L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach suggests that any who think the the GOP’s right wing is dead has misread the tea leaves. “It’s not the ‘Ice Tea Party,’” Kovach quipped. “That movement is maturing and is backing more candidates who can win in the general elections. It’s still the hot Tea Party for millions who see endless scandals, a weak economy and foreign policy reversals as goads to do more to fix DC politics, not less.” ##

(Image credit: Tea Party)