Bill Johnson Quits Senate Race

Bill Johnson has quit the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. (H/t: Page One.) He had self-financed his campaign and the poll numbers were not good.

Whom does this help? Some of the Tea Partiers argued that Johnson was more authentically Tea Partiesh than Rand Paul. Will they settle for Paul now that Johnson is no longer an option? There was some real animosity between the Johnson and Paul campaigns on who best represented the spirit of the Tea Parties.

On the other hand, Johnson -- Gulf War veteran -- was stronger on national security than Paul. Grayson should pick up some Johnson supporters on that issue alone.

Tea Partiers Dumping Rand Paul

Rand Paul likes to open his stump speeches by saying that he "has a message from the Tea Parties: we've come to take our country back."

The problem for Paul is that his endorsement from Sarah Palin has infuriated many in the Kentucky Tea Party movement, who prefer Bill Johnson in the Republican primary.

In addition, two organizers of last summer's Tea Parties, Sue Jaycox and Debra Tennison, complain about Paul's audacity at claiming to represent a movement that arose around issues and ideas rather than a candidate's charisma:

We believe any candidate who claims to be "the" Tea Party candidate is clearly out of touch with its spontaneous and diverse nature that is truly non-partisan and completely free from being bound to any one candidate.

This race may be on the verge of becoming a three-way. If Paul and Johnson split the Tea Party vote, Trey Grayson wins.