Feather River Tea Party Patriots
Ordinary Citizens Reclaiming America's Founding Principles
This FoxNews.com article is very well written and explains our BIG picture view in the political landscape. We would seek to influence the current conservative political party RATHER than becoming our own party. Tea Party Patriots want to PLAY 2 WIN in 2010... and we will. Make sure you are part of making history!
FOXNews.com -
December 15, 2009
Tea Party Movement
Evolves Into Political Force With Eye Toward
2010
The "tea party" movement that gained steam shortly after President
Obama took office is seeing a surge in popularity, with a string of
candidates and officials willing to take up its cause and a
political infrastructure that's starting to mirror that of an
actual political party.
What started as a conservative protest klatch has evolved into a
political force with enough muscle to potentially alter the course
of the 2010 mid-term elections.
The "tea party" movement that gained steam shortly after President
Obama took office is seeing a surge in popularity with a string of
candidates and officials willing to take up its cause and a
political infrastructure that's starting to mirror that of an
actual political party.
The tea party activists rallied for smaller government and lower
taxes again on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon -- among the
headliners were Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, and former Texas Rep. Dick
Armey, whose FreedomWorks group has acted as somewhat of an
umbrella organization.
That's just the latest affirmation of tea party momentum:
-- Various tea party groups and supporters, including FreedomWorks,
are launching political action committees to back candidates
financially in the 2010 elections.
-- A Rasmussen poll last week showed that more voters would rather
elect a "Tea Party" congressional candidate than a Republican
one.
-- A documentary film was recently released tracking the evolution
of the movement.
-- And several groups are pulling together the National Tea Party
Convention in early February in Nashville, where former Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin is set to headline.
Sherry Phillips, vice president of convention organizer Tea Party
Nation, said the event will be a chance for hundreds of delegates
to figure out the future of the movement.
"It needs to move past just the rallies," Phillips told
FoxNews.com. "We can't just stand around holding signs."
Prominent Republicans including Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and
Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn plan to speak at the convention.
Phillips said the overarching goal of the tea partiers is to affect
the 2010 elections and support candidates who reflect their
values.
She said there's a split within the multifaceted movement over
whether tea party should be big "T" or little "t." In other words,
do the activists form their own party, officially, or try to
influence the composition of the existing ones?
Tea Party Nation opposes the creation of a new third party. And
FreedomWorks' Matt Kibbe said the special election in upstate New
York last month -- in which Conservative Party candidate Doug
Hoffman drove the Republican candidate out of the race with the
help of tea party activists -- can be considered an "anomaly."
(Hoffman ended up losing narrowly to Democrat Bill Owens.)
"I think a more practical solution is to take over the GOP," Kibbe
said, explaining that the tea party movement can have the most
impact by directing volunteers and money in support of GOP
candidates who reflect their small-government values.
He mentioned Pennsylvania, where Pat Toomey is carrying the
conservative banner in the U.S. Senate race, and Florida, where
Marco Rubio is doing the same, as two model states.
"We're going to see a new set of leaders in Washington come
November," Kibbe said.
FreedomWorks, meanwhile, is planning to put its money where its
mouth is in the coming months. Armey told Fox News his group will
start a PAC, not to fund candidates directly but to fund activities
who support them.
Organizer Eric Odom recently launched his Liberty First PAC, and
Phillips said her group is also considering creating a PAC.
The Republican Party would prefer to invite tea partiers into the
fold rather than run against them in general elections, and this
may force a change in the makeup of the GOP itself.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said his hope
is that "we can all come together."
"This is the conservative party of the country," Steele said. "We
offer that ... political infrastructure, if you will, if you want
to run for office or if you want to be involved politically. This
is the best place to do it."
The Rasmussen poll spelled out the kind of vote-splitting trouble
the tea party movement could stir if it forms a third party. It
showed that 23 percent of people would pick a "Tea Party" candidate
on a congressional ballot without knowing who that candidate is,
while just 18 percent would pick the Republican. Thirty-six percent
would pick a Democrat.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Dec. 4-5 and had a
margin of error of 3 percentage points.
FoxNews.com's Judson Berger and Fox News' Molly Henneberg
contributed to this report.
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