Buyer's remorse hurting the Tea Party!

http://news.yahoo.com/politician-kept-budget-vow-now-tries-keep-job-165524872--election.html

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Shortly after newly elected Rep. Dan Benishek arrived in Washington, staffers raised a banner that proclaimed to visitors in his Capitol Hill suite: "If you are here to ask for more money, you're in the wrong office!"

The message was fitting for a tea party favorite who had railed against federal spending and a "nanny-state mentality" during the 2010 campaign that led to a Republican takeover of the House. But it was something new for his constituents in northern Michigan, a largely rural area where a spirit of self-reliance coexists with the reality that government — popular or not — is a crucial economic player.

For decades, Michigan's 1st Congressional District elected representatives who sided with conservatives on social issues like abortion while energetically seeking federal dollars for local projects — most recently Bart Stupak, a Democrat who retired after nine terms.

But Benishek aimed to fully embrace the conservative ideal. And now after two years in office, he finds himself in an unusual predicament, a politician taking heat for staying true to his campaign rhetoric rather than failing to do so. Whether he wins a second term will offer clues about how well the less-government-is-better philosophy actually plays out in the countryside and small towns where the staunchly conservative movement has flourished.