I get that money at the early stages of the primary has more leverage, but the early stages aren’t the main problem of the GOP. The problem is not enough votes in the general election. As Ramesh Ponnuru points out, both Tea Party and establishment candidates did rather badly in 2012. Spending money to educate persuadable voters (including one who don’t know they are persuadable) between elections sounds like a more fruitful course for both the “establishment” and “Tea Party” than spending money on Candidate X rather than Candidate Y in the primaries and then carpet bombing the airwaves in support of whatever Republican wins the primary in the month before the election

Karl Rove and the Tea Party are probably hoping to push the needle toward their policy preferences mostly at the early stages of races, encouraging “their” type of people to run; money from the PAC’s and 501c4′s at the later stages is much less cost-effective at changing the policy preferences of the parties (though still important in some cases- see Santorum vs. Romney campaigns in the primary)

Quit dancing with Mr. Rove, the eastern monied interests, and the statist/progressivists that make up the power base of the GOP. The Tea Party has NOTHING in common with these people.