Ted Cruz to speak in Sarasota

Herald Tribune ^ | Tuesday, January 7, 2014 | Jeremy Wallace

[SoConPubbie]

The most influential, and likely the most controversial, voice in Republican politics is coming to Sarasota.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who was the catalyst in shutting down the federal government in a failed bid to block the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, has agreed to come to Sarasota next month to accept the local GOP’s annual statesman of the year award.

“He’s a principled leader who is not willing to back away from a fight,” Sarasota Republican Party chairman Joe Gruters said.

While Cruz’s first foray into Sarasota is under the guise of accepting Sarasota Republican Party’s suddenly nationally recognized Annual Statesman of the Year Award, it also serves to continue speculation that Cruz is eying a run for the White House in 2016.

In Sarasota, Cruz will be meeting some of the state’s most influential Republican Party donors and an aggressive activist base that could be critical in March of 2016 when a crowded GOP presidential field could be hinging their presidential ambitions on Florida, which is expected for be the 5th state to vote in the primary season in 2016.

Cruz is just the latest in a procession of GOP players Gruters has brought to Sarasota over the last four years. Conservative talk show star Sean Hannity, real estate tycoon Donald Trump, and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour are the last three recipients of the Sarasota Statesman of the Year Award over the last three years. About 1,000 people packed a Sarasota ballroom to hear Trump in 2012, and 1,600 filled a performing arts hall to hear Sean Hannity last year.

Gruters said he expects another big turnout for the event. He said no doubt that party’s past successes in turning out people to the events played a role in helping convince Cruz to come to Sarasota.

Cruz’s Feburary 20 appearance will come just about a week after another conservative star is expect to come through the area. Former U.S. Rep. Allen West, also a potential 2016 presidential candidate, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Sarasota Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner onf February 12.

The one-two conservative punch shows just how important Sarasota is becoming for presidential contenders. In 2012, major GOP candidates such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann all made stops in Sarasota before the primary that was eventually won by Romney.

“Sarasota is becoming the new Iowa,” Gruters said of Iowa status as a testing ground for presidential ambitions.

Cruz will be part of three events in Sarasota. A rally at 5:30 p.m. at the Sarasot Hyatt that will cost $15 per person. A VIP reception with Cruz will be at 6:30 p.m. and a private dinner reception with Cruz will cost $5,000.

For tickets visit http://www.statesmanoftheyear.com/

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

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[epow]

Several years ago my wife and I spent a week down there in a friend's Siesta Key beachfront condo, and the smell of folding money was so thick in the air it was almost palpable. Cruz should be able to harvest a heavy bag of coins from that area if he plays his cards right. I hope so anyway, he definitely has my vote if he's on the ballot here.