Posted on 02/05/2010 3:56:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
I already signed up to monitor my local voting place.
Mark Skoda, a talk radio host who founded a Memphis “tea party” group
Mark Skoda, a tea partier from Memphis, made it sound like his new Ensuring Liberty Corp. is backed broadly by the tea party movement. But he finally acknowledged under questioning that it’s actually not. “Ensuring Liberty Corporation and the affiliated PAC which is being formed is distinct and separate from Tea Party Nation and the tea party movement,” he told reporters.
Who’s PAC is it? “I’m the leader of the PAC,” Skoda said.
B U M P
The organizers of the National Tea Party Convention today announced that they will be forming a 501(c)4 corporation and related political action committee (PAC) to raise money to support 15-20 candidates for Congress or the Senate in the 2010 elections. “I have long said that the Tea Party movement doesn’t endorse candidates, candidates endorse it,” Judson Phillips, the convention’s main organizer told reporters. “But there are exceptions and this new entity will be completely separate from the Tea Party movement.”
Phillips said he would not be affiliated with the newly incorporated firm, Ensuring Liberty, but the convention’s spokesman Mark Skoda, a Tea Party activist from Memphis, said he’s been asked to be Ensuring Liberty’s president. Skoda would not say if he’d accepted the role and refused to name four others who have been asked to be on the board, though he did promise unprecedented transparency. He said the new group will seek small dollar donations but will also accept corporate money. They have not yet decided if they will take money from registered lobbyists. “This was created as an outlet for donors interested in giving money and time,” Skoda said. Ensuring Liberty (already in my head I’m confusing it with Operation Enduring Freedom) would support “conservative candidates” and would help “counter the fragmentation that exists today,” he added.
Skoda has said repeatedly the last two days that he does not support forming a third political party, but when asked by Fox News if he speaks for all convention attendees – many of whom have said they would like to see that happen – Skoda said he was only speaking on behalf of himself and Ensuring Freedom. “We are not attempting to replace the RNC. We are not attempting to co-opt the RNC,” Skoda said.
Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/05/the-tea-party-goes-mainstream/#ixzz0eiEm7sQe
Well said. I like how the Tea Party movement makes people aware of good candidates that we can choose to support.
I’ll keep my TP donations with the local TP to support operations.
I don’t mine TPs sending reps to “conventions” to share info and such, but I think it’s better kept as a grass roots movement.
Yep!
This could be a positive for the Tea Party Movement.
There IS a need for a group large enough to tackle the “big guys” and use Saul Alinsky back at them. Small Tea Party Groups cannot do this.
IF their agenda is to focus on combating ACORN, I’d be happy to donate a few dollars, and I think many of you would, too.
IF they’re going to TELL US who we are to support in 2012 . . . they will get an envelope from me with a Tea Bag in it.
And IF Politico is reporting on it . . . maybe 50% of what they’ve written is true. Bit MayBe.
The politics and the money grubbing by the Tea Party movement turns me off.
They’ve lost my support.
I am afraid their goal will be a strong 3rd party presidential nominee, who will split the Republican vote.
The politics and the money grubbing by the Tea Party movement turns me off.
They’ve lost my support.
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and it’s only February.. wait ‘til ‘competition’ heats up ;-)
By July , we’ll see who’s back in the streets. Keep your pocketbook handy. :-)
I think I prefer the local grassroots driven model of the movement more too.. supporting your state candidates and hold the line on national party control
Deep post. Articulated my thoughts better than I could.
Same here. My words and thought are sometimes very disjointed. FReeper ThePatriotsFlag is quite the wordsmith.
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