Tea Party Movement: To Endorse Or Not?
Over the weekend, I received an email titled ‘First District Tea Parties will Endorse.’ The anonymous email was signed by ‘msfirstdistrict,’ and explained that a “grassroots effort to endorse a candidate in the First District by Tea Party members for Tea Party members who want to endorse was launched yesterday.”
The website for interested parties is msfirstdistrict.ning.com. There is not much more information on the site, where they describe themselves as a “group of Tea Party Members,” adding, “every Tea Party group is represented in our group.”
On April 10, there will be multiple locations where supporters will pick their candidate of choice in MS-01. The instructions are on the group’s website, and one of the requirements is that “you must register so we can confirm independently that you are a ‘Tea Party’ member.”
The Tupelo Tea Party, today, sent out an email blast today explaining that they do not know who this group is and that they are not part of the endorsement effort. The group added that they have “felt our membership is very diverse and many had a leaning toward different candidates so it would have been unfair and potentially a misrepresentation to attempt to endorse a candidate for the people in the primary.”
Regarding the GOP primary, the Tupelo Tea Party said “there is no clear consensus among the membership for the organizers to make that call (to endorse).”
An “official” Tea Party endorsement is a tricky endeavor. The main thing is is that there is not one universal group, this is not an official political party or a PAC. There are some groups that are bigger than others as they have backing of prominent leaders and the money that comes with that, but by and large Tea Party groups are simply a loose coalition of like-minded individuals. I suppose anyone could start a group and say they are the ‘XYZ Tea Party.’
The email from the Tea Party group making the endorsement stated that some groups in the Fourth District will also be endorsing.
Very well said,” Tea Party groups are simply a loose coalition of like-minded individuals”
msfirstdistrict is a group id. Our group has been meeting weekly in the First District for nine months. Two of the District 1 Tea Party organizers are part of our group that meets. Our group collected enough signatures in Desoto Co. last fall for the entire First District of MS for the Voter ID Ballot Initiative to be completed there. We then went on to District 2 and 5 to aid the effort down there. We are not newcomers to this movement by far.
As you can imagine, the intergrity of the vote is very important to our group. So we ask for Tea Partiers to register to vote, with only a name and username. Photo IDs will be checked at the polls. We do not ask for any personal information.
Grant Sowell has known about our group for a long time. He commended our effort on Voter ID in an email early February. And we spoke to him personnally on Sunday Mar. 14th at 3pm.
We are hoping the Tupelo group will poll their 1200 members to see if they want to endorse or not. We feel it is a decision that Tea Party members should be allowed to make. Until Saturday, they didn’t have a choice. It is unclear why one would be opposed to asking their members what they would like to do.
Our contact info is on the website. We do not have a 1 800 # yet for this new website but you can make any inquiries on that site.
I think it is a risky proposition for the so-called “Tea Party” to endorse prior to a Republican primary. One of the reasons is because they will reveal their hand (and strength) way too early. Another reason it is risky is because the media and pundits will no longer have to guess how big the organization is and/or how much of an impact it will have in a particular election. The general purpose of the Tea Party movement seems to be to encourage government to change from its path towards outward looking global socialism back to a more inward looking constitutional republic form of government. The groups I have read about openly state that they don’t support the Republican or Democrat parties but a set of ideals, principals, and common sense among other things. An endorsement does not help their general cause – it actually hurts it.
A pre-primary endorsement can also lead the errosion of the local movement. First through infighting because of the different camps supporting one candidate or the other, then when their chosen candidate possibly loses in the primary. Scott Brown’s victory was a good example of why they should not endorse. The best “Tea Party” candidate in that race was the former Republican (Independent) Mr. Kennedy his platform, his history, everything about him read tea party candidate. Brown was a mainstream Republican supported “establishment” candidate who’s history was moderate at best. The other one was not even worth mentioning here because she was not acceptable to any of the TP groups.
If the Tea Party would have united, debated, and voted to chose the “ideal” candidate… logic dictates that it would NOT have been Brown. However by not officially endorsing before the special election they could claim victory for the Brown win. And they did. Even though it was driven by the main stream righty press and establishment GOP groups.
Another couple of recent examples more appopriate for this issue would be the IL and TX Republican Primaries. The Tea Party movement did not endorse as a whole. Some local groups did, but most did not. Tea Party candidates failed misserably in both States. I think 1 scored a State House race in Texas, but beyond a few small races nothing really changed. In Texas every incumbent that ran was renominated. So much for “throw em all out.” If they would have made blanket endorsements it would have exposed their numbers and it would have struck a fatal blow to the movement. But because they didn’t they can claim victory in other ways – and have. Medina drew 18% and most of her supporters were libertarians, liberty republicans, and tea party folks. Rick Perry drew 51% and appealed to another minority of the tea party. The voter turn out was higher in Texas than in recent years. That too is attributed to the tea party. If they would have endorsed Medina as a whole it would have ended the movement in Texas; At least as we know it.
Now back to Mississippi. In D1 Nunnelee, Ross, and McGlowan all three have some Tea Party support. Ross (in my opinion) is probably the most “ideal” tea party candidate, but also the least likely to win. If the North Mississippi Tea Party groups endorse they risk destroying their movement before getting a chance to take on Childers in the general election. And they almost guarantee Childers victory should their “chosen one” lose the primary.
In D4 the 912 groups already endorsed a candidate and the other Tea Party groups are not far behind them. In my opinion it was a huge mistake. By endorsing a candidate prior to a primary they cut off opportunities for the other candidate to speak to their group and share what they have in common. They only see him now as the “establishment” opposition who will not change anything etc. and they spend their time trying to demonize him without thinking that this guy might actually win the primary.
The only chance the movement will survive in D4 in any meaningfull way is victory in June for their endorsed candidate. And right now it looks like a toss up which actually favors the other guy because he only just entered the race and the so called tea party candidate has been campaigning for over 10 months according to the blogs. The actions by the Tea Party groups in D4 virtually seals another Taylor victory regardless who wins the nomination even though Taylor didn’t really need the help. The only chance they ever had to defeat Taylor were if all of the conservatives and many moderates (yes I said Moderates) could come together and take him on, but that will not likely happen now in part because of their choice (912/tea party) to endorse prior to the primary. I hope I am proven wrong. Good luck D4 I hope you can keep it together.
One thing is for certain I will be watching the States Republican primaries on 5/4, 5/11, and 5/18. Those races should give us an idea of what to expect here.
I thought the Tea Party was about individual ideas? The website states “every one of you are the leaders of this movement” at the bottom of the left hand column. But then they want to know our vote so that we can get in line if we are not the majority. I thought it was our individuality that made the Tea Party what it is? For goodness sakes we have not even had a chance to hear a debate! I have not even decided who I want to support because I dont really know anything about any of them yet.
Whos to say that I want to support a GOP candidate anyway? There seem to be some interesting Ind. candidates as well. Personally I have had very little time to research any of them. I can tell you this there is one GOP candidate who will remain namless that I will not under any circumstances support Tea Party or no! Just my two cents but bad timing, and a bad idea.
I dont mean this as ugly as it sounds but this smells like a Tea Party power grab to me. I think the rush to get a consensus on our vote may be due to the fact that most everyone will probably be behind the same candidate after the primary anyway leaving no need for this waist of my time.
Tea Party peeps heed the words of the Peacemaker above especially the first three paragraphs theres alot of wisdom in them.
There has been much concern with various Tea Party leaders throughout District 1 that Angela McGlowan was being touted as the Tea Party Candidate. She in not. Several leaders were personally saying that she was their candidate and therefore the members of those groups were being influenced by that leader. Joe Dirt’s group has diligently been trying to arrange a District 1 debate for all the Tea Party groups and personally booked four places throughout the area for the debate. There has been little to no support from the other groups because each group wanted to have their own event. I am not sure about this flyer but if I had to guess it was to force the issue with other groups and ensure that the leaders were not unduly influencing their members.
Hello TPII. When you say that debates have been booked do you mean between all of the candidates GOP and IND? I have seen the debate dates for the GOP candidates but no mention of the IND. candidates. If we do not include them then are we not just deciding which GOP’er we are going to push? Right? I dont think we should limit ourselves like that. I think we should keep our minds open and support avial. until we have heard from all of the candidates. This is why I consider myself a Tea Party peep because I dont just vote for the GOP and a GOP debate less the IND voice would do just that. What would send a better message to the GOP than to have IND. candidates at the debate. I know this is for the REP primary but if we are going for a Tea Party consensus then we better get it right the first time.
I commend those of you with time in setting up the debates but if we are going to truly be independent thinkers then we need to invite some IND. candidates with conservative ideas to the “party.” If we dont do this then we are just another arm of the GOP!
I totally agree with you Frank as usual. Without all the candidates in the debate we will not get the full picture.
As a Tea Party leader can you make this happen? That would be great if you could.
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