Tea Party supporters have challenged both Democrats and Republicans across the country, but now in one race some are taking on conservatives.

The challenge comes in New York, on behalf of Republican congressional hopeful Christopher Cox, the grandson of former President Richard M. Nixon. He is one of several candidates running for the GOP nod in the 1st Congressional District on eastern Long Island, now represented by Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop. He is also battling for a spot on the Conservative Party ticket.

Cox has just announced that he has secured enough signatures to force a Conservative Party primary, a move that is a direct challenge to Conservative Party leaders who have already backed another Republican hopeful, businessman Randy Altschuler. And Cox says it was petitions gathered by Tea Party and Suffolk County 9-12 Project supporters who did it.

“Democracy does work,” Cox declared in a written statement. “The Tea Party movement has been a central part of this game-changing drive…I’m proud that the Tea Party Patriots have joined this historic and unprecedented initiative.”

The New York State process is called Opportunity to Ballot, and it enables voters to petition a party to include the name of a candidate that did not get the party endorsement. It basically provides a choice against the party’s own designated candidate.

Cox says the Opportunity to Ballot process “has put the choice back in the hands of the people, where it always belonged.” The decision to endorse Altschuler was taken by the party’s Executive Committee, by a decisive vote of 52 to 1.

“What gives Chris Cox, who is a son of blue-blooded Republicanism, a chance is that he has the Tea Party behind him,” notes Democratic political consultant Doug Schoen, a Fox News contributor and longtime New York political adviser.

“This very obscure primary, which could be decided by 1,000 votes or less, could make the difference between whether Tim Bishop will or will not be re-elected,” Schoen says.

A Fox News analysis shows there has been only one Conservative Party primary in a congressional race in New York State since 2000, and that the New York State Board of Elections does not even keep a list of so called “Opportunity to Ballot” races.

The Chairman of the Suffolk County Conservative Party, who backs Cox’s opponent, predicts the effort won’t work.

“If they qualify I would be surprised, but they would have virtually no chance to win an Opportunity to Ballot race,” says Edward Walsh, who earlier this month publicly asked Cox to drop out of the race.

“To think you are going to go against the party that’s been in the forefront… is just nonsense,” he said in a Fox News interview.  “I’m (Babe) Ruth, pointing to the outfield and we’re going to hit a home run,” he predicted about Altschuler.

Walsh also does not believe the Tea Party supporters bucking his party’s choice signal a significant split between the groups.

“I think the Tea Party movement is phenomenal,” he said, saying that those supporting Cox are just “a couple of leaders who don’t like our candidate.”

Walsh sent Conservative Party registered voters a letter urging them not to support the “Opportunity to Ballot” effort, calling it “an attack on OUR Conservative Party.”

“The individuals carrying these petitions are working against the best interests of our party and are working to subvert decisions made by our duly elected Executive Committee,” declared the letter.

But Cox cites that as an example of what he calls the “vehement opposition of the Conservative Party leadership” to the Opportunity to Ballot operation, saying those who supported it “all worked for a fair and open electoral process.”

Schoen says the move by the Tea Party supporters on behalf of Cox sets up a classic political battle.

“It will be the party machinery versus the energy and enthusiasm of insurgents, and a congressional seat hangs in the balance,” he observes.

Another candidate, George Demos, also says that Tea Party members have been supporting his candidacy and helping get his name on the ballot.  He hailed the Opportunity to Vote strategy, in a statement  titled: “People Defeat Party Bosses.”

In it, Demos said that “for months we have been told that party bosses had anointed the Conservative nominee and that allowing people to vote was unacceptable. This could not stand and did not stand. The dedicated work of the Conservative Society for Action and the Suffolk 9-12 Project has restored the peoples’ right to vote.”

Demos said the Opportunity to Vote also opens the Conservative primary to him, which means there will likely be a spirited race, even if the Conservative Party leaders thought contention was behind them.