Big Lincoln tea party planned for next week

Lincoln Journal Star ^ | April 7, 2010 | DON WALTON

[mdittmar]

Lincoln's largest scheduled tea party event is expected to attract several thousand participants Tuesday.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we have 3,000 or 4,000 people," organizer Bob Bennie said Wednesday.

"With all the increased interest, particularly the recent passage of the health care bill, I think we might overflow the Lancaster Event Center."

The event will be held two days before the federal income tax filing deadline date. It's scheduled to feature music, videos and speakers from 5 to 7 p.m.

Smaller conservative tax day gatherings, sponsored by other organizers, are scheduled for Thursday afternoon and evening north of the Capitol.

Gov. Dave Heineman will headline a taxpayer rally on Centennial Mall, which begins at 5:30 p.m.

Grassroots in Nebraska, which identifies itself as an organization "working toward constitutional, limited government," will hold a tea party event on the north steps of the Capitol beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The competing events prompted an online protest from Grassroots, which charged the rally on the mall represented an attempted "Tea Party Hijack" by the Republican Party and Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy organization.

Kyle Kollmorgen, who is helping organize the event on the mall, said it is not billed as a tea party, but rather as "a tax day protest for conservative-minded folks."

State Sen. Tony Fulton, a Republican candidate for state treasurer, and City Councilman Adam Hornung, a Republican, will also address the event.

Bennie, a Lincoln wealth management adviser, was master of ceremonies at last year's biggest tea party gathering in Lincoln and appears to be spearheading this year's event.

Sponsors said more than 1,500 people participated in the 2009 tea party rally.

The tea party movement embraces a number of conservative causes, but it is fundamentally directed at opposing the rising cost and reach of the federal government.

Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, has embraced the tea party, but most of its leadership is determined to avoid identification with any political party.

Bennie said participants at Tuesday's event will have an opportunity to sign "a fairly aggressive letter" to Sen. Ben Nelson, who provided the climactic 60th vote that allowed the Senate to pass its original health care reform bill.

Nelson, a Democrat and the only member of Nebraska's congressional delegation to support the health care reform plan, later voted against a follow-up reconciliation bill amending the legislation.