There are other races as well, although the lines of division are harder as of yet to detail in the Iowa Senate race (where two-term state legislator Joni Ernst, backed by Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, is trying to unite the two factions against a number of opponents with no electoral experience) and the Arizona Governor’s race (in which most of the crowded field is running to the right). The Rhode Island Governor’s race is a two-man fight, but “Moderate Party” candidate Ken Block has actually been trying to run a more populist campaign than Cranston Mayor Allan Fung. Some of the races listed above are really just token opponents, and others don’t fit that neatly in the Tea Party/Establishment dichotomy.

But in evaluating their odds, it’s unavoidable that Wolf, Maness and Bowers have a tall hill to climb as political newcomers, two of them challenging incumbent Senators; Miller has an even taller one as a general election failure, albeit one who probably would have won in 2010 if Murkowski hadn’t run as an independent. That’s why conservatives are more excited about McDaniel, who’s a more experienced politician, and Shannon.

The most important decision in any election is who runs, and who doesn’t. Tea Partiers may occasionally find a diamond in the rough, but their desire to celebrate the citizen-politician shouldn’t obscure the fact that politics is a craft, and people who have practiced it for some time are more likely to have gotten good at it.