Tea Party flags at Scott Brown's victory celebration, Tuesday, January 19, 2010.
Posted on 02/02/2010 10:46:22 PM PST by Syncro
THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT
Brown's Campaign Buoyed By Tea Party
The Group's Members 'Want To Know Who's Next,' Says One Local Leader In Massachusetts
Tea Party activists claim some credit for Scott Brown's Senate upset in Massachusetts, and there's good evidence that the decentralized movement played an important, albeit indirect, role.
Way back last April 15, Brown courted the movement by appearing at two anti-tax Tea Party events. "I've been up there for 11 years, and I've never voted for one tax increase.... You have to hold your legislators accountable," he told the crowd at a rally in Worcester. Those Tea Party activists provided much of the initial support for the campaign, partly because Brown's criticism of big government united local advocates driven by libertarian, social conservative or national security concerns.
The movement also aided in the home stretch, by facilitating a considerable share of the individual small-bore contributions that Brown's campaign credited with allowing him to match Democrat Martha Coakley in TV and radio advertising. Early on, his campaign hosted a fundraising breakfast that was sponsored by the Greater Boston Tea Party, although the group did not endorse him. More importantly, on Jan. 11 Brown put out an online appeal for a $500,000 "money bomb" of online donations. Money came in from donors nationwide so fast that the appeal netted $1.3 million for Brown in 24 hours. In subsequent days, Brown raised additional millions, which he used to fund a wave of TV and radio advertising.
More Coverage: The Insurgents Emerge
"Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter enabled us to finance this campaign in the final stretch," Brown aide Eric Fehrnstrom told a reporter for National Review. "We didn't have to hold events to collect and had virtually no overhead involved. We were able to raise millions of dollars in the final week."
The state has roughly 7,000 Tea Party members organized into roughly a dozen groups, said Christen Varley, the lead organizer of the Greater Boston Tea Party. Her group has roughly 1,300 members, 300 of whom contributed $12,000 to the campaign on Jan. 2, she said. Almost half the members volunteered to work in phone banks, put up posters and e-mail pro-Brown testimonials to friends, she said. Varley added that the movement also spurred interests and donations from out-of-state Tea Party activists.
Varley said the group includes social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, libertarians and some people who voted for third-party candidate Joe Kennedy -- who identified himself as a principled libertarian and a candidate for the Tea Party members. But most members are fiscal conservatives who aren't registered Republicans or Democrats, Varley said. The group's general viewpoint, she said, is that "we need to show people they can do [things] for themselves.... They certainly don't need a bunch of elitist know-it-alls telling them how to live their lives."
The Brown victory will galvanize other Tea Party-backed campaigns in Massachusetts and elsewhere, Varley said. Members "want to know who's next.... I feel a little sorry for [Rep.] Barney Frank, because everyone is gunning for him." Because so many Tea Party people, including herself, are filling party posts, and 12 are volunteering to run for office, she said, "we're going to have primaries where we haven't had a candidate for four to five years."
On Election Day, Brown had close to 80,000 friends nationwide on Facebook, far more than Coakley's 15,000 friends. By election night, Brown had also far outpaced Coakley on YouTube, according to SearchEngineWatch.com. His 58 videos had attracted 774,314 views (which then jumped to 1.4 million by the end of the month). In contrast, Coakley's 59 videos had earned only 102,389 views on YouTube by election night.
However, Brown did not advertise his support from Tea Party activists, identifying himself instead as a "Scott Brown Republican."
Democrats sought an advantage by tying him to the movement. On Jan. 13, for example, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., released a fundraising message that said Brown was a "far-right tea-bagger Republican." On the same day, the SEIU released a TV and online ad that said Brown was backed by an "extremist group that backed Sarah Palin." The ad cited support from the TeaPartyPatriots.org network, which urged its supporters to back Brown. But an election-night survey by Rasmussen showed that 40 percent of Bay State voters had a favorable view of the Tea Party movement, and 41 percent had an unfavorable view.
After the election, on Jan. 27, Brown announced a three-day tour of the state to thank his local activists. "There are so many of you I want to thank and I look forward to representing you in the United States Senate.... I truly appreciate all that you have done for this movement," said his press release.
Not every Tea Party activist is on board with Brown; some dismiss him as not conservative enough by national standards. But while Brown "is not a picture-perfect Tea Party guy that we would agree with on every issue," Russell said, "... he will be a powerful voice for Massachusetts, a big technical and emotional victory for the grassroots, who see him as their best bet to block the government takeover of the health care system." This willingness to back candidates who help the conservative coalition suggests that libertarian and social-conservative Tea Party activists may be able to rally behind more moderate Republicans from liberal-minded districts.
Come November, it’s gonna be real fun, don’t ya think?! I’m stocking up the popcorn and party things already in anticipation of sending those anti-tea party types a packin’.
Scott had to be more low key and really try to get the support of Independents. Good guy and great job by all the Tea Party people, volunteers and people who donated including me.
What is nice is it look likes the polling that MA is shifting towards being a bit more conservative. 40% of the people had a favorable view of the Tea Party and 41% unfavorable.
I think what really happens in the bluer states is the endless endless liberal newspaper and TV media pounding the DNC orthodoxy into peoples brains and smearing conservatives and repubs.
Well I think a lot of tea party and conservatives and others will have to get to polls to act as monitors. Need a huge GOTV effort too.
Tea Party flags at Scott Brown's victory celebration, Tuesday, January 19, 2010.
WOO HOO! Bring it on!
On Election Day, Brown had close to 80,000 friends nationwide on Facebook, far more than Coakley's 15,000 friends. By election night, Brown had also far outpaced Coakley on YouTube, according to SearchEngineWatch.com. His 58 videos had attracted 774,314 views (which then jumped to 1.4 million by the end of the month). In contrast, Coakley's 59 videos had earned only 102,389 views on YouTube by election night.
Astounding!
for tomorrow
I want to know why Scott hasn’t been sworn in yet?
Because it really is Ted Kennedy's seat
1. His re-education to Romney-ism and Obama-ism is not
complete
2. The DNC has a scheme, and he must not be there.
3. The DNC wants to show its power over the PEOPLE.
4. al Qaeda and Soros, running the DNC,have not issued
orders to the DNC to act, so they wait.
I met TONS of SB fans/friends on Facebook. I did a lot of cross posting from FB to FR and back. There was a movement of FB to change your profile picture to a Scott Brown themed one. I did it and there were MANY folks who also did. Very effective!
There should be a textbook, an anti-Alinsky manifesto written based on SB’s campaign!
Sound good Chazz?
I spent some time in Mass. last August and was involved in two Tea Parties.....
One was in Hyannis at the office of Congrssman Delahunt who refused to hold Town Halls on HealthCare. His constituents were furious!
It was an early indication that things were changing.....Tea Party people all over the USA helped Scott Brown by donations, calls and sending emails.
Thanks for the ping!
My husband and I took part in 3 of Scott Brown's rallies in MA on election eve. I can report that I saw several Tea Party groups in attendance, several from Masssachusetts and a big group from the Albany, NY militia (Tea Party organization) drove a long distance to support Brown. I know several Tea Party groups contributed money to Brown's campaign, as I'm sure Mitt Romney and many others did.
It was a collective "let's forget our differences for this race and get this guy elected to save us from ObamaCare" effort. Scott Brown was elected by Republicans, Democrats and independents, and the #1 reason he won was that he would be the 41st vote in order to kill (or greatly stall) ObamaCare.
That's right, Julie! Glad you had a chance to participate in those Massachusetts Tea Parties last summer. I predict this summer will be another very busy one here in the northeast... and all over the country for Tea Party Patriots. ;-)
LOL... have you seen this? ;-D
Good stuff! Thank you!!!
The “Tea Party flags” you refer to symbolize the 2nd American Revolution. Some may say political revolution, others may lean more Lexington & Concord.
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