Tea Party Activists

Tea Party Activists Ponder How to Win Elections

NASHVILLE—Tea Party activists gathered in Tennessee this weekend grappled with a central question looming over the burgeoning political movement: Where does it go from here?

The early consensus suggests the those most associated with Tea-Party activism might change their focus from staging political rallies like the one held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. last September, to attempting to win elections.
"The Tea Party movement is growing up," said Judson Phillips, a Nashville-based criminal defense lawyer who organized the National Tea Party Convention. "If 2010 is another year of rallies, we've lost."

Building a coherent movement isn't going to be easy. The Tea Party activism that sprung up in early 2009 remains a largely undefined and loosely organized concept, prone to infighting among activists over its leadership and ties to the Republican Party. It is guided by thousands of independent and conservative activists nationally who organize mainly through online social networking sites.

The Nashville gathering has been the target of criticism from competing Tea Party activists in Tennessee and elsewhere who questioned the spirit of Mr. Phillips' decision to turn his outfit, Tea Party Nation, into a for-profit corporation and charge the 600 attendees $600 for the three-day convention. The meeting included sessions on political organizing and a keynote address from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Opposing activists with a separate organization formed last month, Tennessee Tea Party Coalition, did not take participate in the convention and contended Saturday that their organization is the leading Tennessee movement, not Mr. Phillips's. The Coalition has organized 34 groups under their umbrella, representing some 18,000 Tea Party activists.

The Tea Party movement's electoral mettle will be tested in the coming months as primary elections take place across the nation. At a Friday break-out sessions, activists discussed how to coalesce around candidates early in primary contests to avoid losses by splitting their votes.

"We've got to wise up to that. We need to size up candidates early and get behind them," said Bruce Donnelly, an Illinois-based businessman who created SurgeUSA, a Web site that vets primary candidates.
The Tea Party has not outlined a specific platform but is held together by the broad beliefs that politicians in both parties are out of touch, fiscal responsibility has run amok and that the concept of American exceptionalism is faltering.

But there are tensions within that broad outline between those who think the Tea Partiers should remain a grassroots organization, and those who are more willing to partner with more established groups who can offer guidance on how to organize and run campaigns. Independents, for example, are skeptical at the movement's ties to groups such as like FreedomWorks. the Washington, D.C.-based anti-tax group led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

FreedomWorks is working to harness the Tea Party's grassroots base to raise money and elect conservative candidates. In January, FreedomWorks held a workshop attended by Tea Party activists from over 20 states.

In Nashville, the prevailing view was that the Tea Party should not seek to build a third party movement but work within the confines of the two-party system. "I suspect the Tea Party strategy is to commandeer the Republican machine," said Roger Webb, a 65-year-old freelance photojournalist.

Attendees were urged not to spend their money traveling to Tea Party rallies in 2010, but rather to support political candidates.

The message resonated with Janet Smith, a 70-year-old retired preacher's wife, who was thinking about attending a Tea Party rally planned for September in Washington, D.C.

"Maybe instead it's time to find good candidates," she said. Mrs. Smith splits her time between Indiana and Florida, where she is volunteering for Marco Rubio in the Florida Senate GOP primary contest against Gov. Charlie Crist, and Luke Messer, who is mounting a primary challenge to Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton.

The Tea Party movement boasts of at least one primary victory so far. Illinois venture capitalist Joe Walsh won a six-way contest on Feb. 2 to be the party's nominee against well-funded incumbent Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean in a suburban Chicago swing district.

"I ran as a Tea Party candidate in the primary, and I'm going to run as a Tea Party candidate in the general," said Mr. Walsh, who spoke in Nashville. He said he is the candidate for voters who are "pissed off, scared, and angry" at Washington.