Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid Top Tea Party's Target List for 2010

Activists with the Tea Party Express, one of several grassroots organizations related to the Tea Party movement, held a press conference in Washington Thursday morning to release their list of targets they plan to take out of office in November.

Organizers promised to marshal their followers' time, money and energy to work against several Democratic incumbents who they say are responsible for growing the size of government and for the ballooning federal deficits.

Topping the Senate list were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), all of whom are facing tough reelections.

On the House side, organizers say they'll work to defeat Democratic Reps. Betsy Markey (Colo.), Alan Grayson (Fla.), Baron Hill (Ind.), Barney Frank (Mass.), Dina Titus (Nev.), House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (S.C.), Tom Perriello (Va.), Gerry Connolly (Va.) and Alan Mollohan (Va.). The House member they most wanted to unseat, Bart Stupak of Michigan, announced last week that he will retire from office.

In addition to the Democrats they want out, Tea Partiers have picked Republicans they want voted into office, several of whom are up against more established candidates in GOP primaries this summer. That list includes early Tea Party pick Marco Rubio, who will face Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in their Senate primary; California's Chuck Devore, who is badly trailing the more moderate Carly Fiorina for the California Senate seat nomination; and Rand Paul, the son of libertarian Rep. Ron Paul, who is out ahead of Trey Grayson in the Kentucky race to replace retiring Sen. Jim Bunning.

Beyond the races the group plans to be involved with, it also named several Tea Party Express "heroes": Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), and of course, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). Although none of them are likely face tough elections in November, they have endeared themselves to the movement since it began a year ago with their outspoken criticism of government spending generally and the Obama administration in general.

Despite the fact that all of the candidates endorsed on Thursday are Republicans, Mark Williams, the Tea Party Express' co-chair, insisted that the movement is anything but homogeneous. "We're rogues, we're the island of the misfit toys, we are a broad background of America," he said. "We're ethnically diverse, we're religiously diverse, we're even politically diverse. . . . That's what we're fighting for. The right to be diverse."