Patrick Hughes in NewsMax

The conservative news site NewsMax.com has just posted an article on Republican Senate candidate Patrick Hughes. Why is this important? For one, NewsMax is a national site devoted to the hard right, the very voters (and potential donors) Hughes is courting in his fight against Rep. Mark Kirk. So it's a nice spot for Hughes.

Additionally, as Illinois Review posts, Tea Party Nation, which is an organization trying to put some political muscle behind the protests from last year, has targeted Kirk in favor of Hughes. From the IR post:

Mostly ignored because of the news surrounding Scott Brown, the Illinois primary is coming up on February 2, 2010. RINO Congressman Mark Kirk is running for Obama's old seat. If he wins the Republican nomination, this fall Illinois will have a choice between two liberals for the Illinois Senate seat.

Mark Kirk is one of 8 Republican Congressmen who voted for Cap & Trade. His voting record is consistently liberal. Illinois voters do have a choice on February 2.

Pat Hughes is a solid Conservative who is running for the Republican Nomination.

Now that Scott Brown has won, consider donating your time and money to support Pat Hughes' campaign.

It's to be decided whether the budding movement of Tea Party activists we saw last year can influence a major federal race. The far-left "netroots," comprised of those sites like DailyKos.com, have had mixed results on their electioneering. For instance, they scored in Connecticut a few years ago with Ned Lamont's defeat of then-Democrat Joe Lieberman (who consequently turned independent and beat Lamont in the general), but have had some spectacular flameouts as well. Few remember that Barack Obama was not the preferred candidate among the the majority of netroots. It was John Edwards -- or, for the highly delusional, Dennis Kucinich.

In any case, the Tea Party folks want to make a showing here in Illinois and they've decided Hughes is the guy to back.