Having thetea party movement’s blessing may help a candidate during a Republican primary,a contest in which most voters are entrenched conservatives who distrustPresident Obama and want to repeal health care reform. But whether a teaparty-backed candidate can win over independents, moderates and ex-Republicansin a general election in a blue state like Wisconsin is anyone’s guess.
“It’s a veryinteresting dance that these candidates have to do,” said Mike McCabe,executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC). “They have toreach out to the tea party groups and distance themselves at the same time. Ithink the tea party can be a curse as well as a blessing for them.”
UW-Milwaukeepolitical science professor Mordecai Lee said the tea party movement is anexample of a long-standing divide in the Republican Party between Wall StreetRepublicans and Main Street Republicans, a conflict that broke out into theopen in the 1964 race between conservative Barry Goldwater and the moremoderate Nelson Rockefeller.
“Over aperiod of three or four years the conservative activists at the grassrootsgradually took over the Republican Party and essentially kicked out the countryclub, cosmopolitan sort of knee-jerk pro-business Wall Street wing of theparty,” Lee said.
But aretoday’s tea parties part of mainstream Republicanism? Or is their brand ofconservatism too extreme for the average voter?
Leecommended the tea party groups for insisting that the Republican Party standfor something, but he said that the tea partiers’ insistence on ideologicalpurity could be its downfall.
“Is thisleading the Republicans off the cliff?” Lee wondered.
DemocraticParty of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski said that although the teaparties seem to be this season’s media darlings, their influence on the generalelection would be minimal.
“They aren’tthe only ones who have a say in these elections,” Zielinski said. “There areother people who will vote in November who don’t fit this demographic.”
Right-WingEstablishment
Wisconsin’s 90 or so tea parties are fiercelyindependent and difficult to categorize. The main statewide organization is theWisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity(AFP), which formed as an anti-tax, pro-free market group in 2007.AFP-Wisconsin is led by former Republican operative Mark Block and has latchedon to the tea party movement.
“I keeplooking for the tea party movement to level off,” Block said. “But people arestill enthusiastic about it.”
AFP is thecreation of the Koch brothers, rabidly conservative oil executives whosecombined wealth ($32 billion) and right-wing pedigree (their father helped tofound the John Birch Society) make them formidable forces on the right.
AFP-Wisconsinis part of the Wisconsin Prosperity Network (WPN), a relatively new umbrellaorganization whose plans were first reported by the Wisconsin State Journal in May 2009.
According tothat report, WPN was looking for $6.4 million annually to build on a fewexisting right-wing groups and to create 14 new groups. (Block disputes thatreport.)
As of now,those groups include AFP-Wisconsin; First Freedoms Foundation, which works onlegal issues; the MacIver Institute, a right-wing media outlet; American Majority,a national group set up to recruit conservative candidates for office; andProsperity 101, which “educates employees in their workplace about the linkbetween their job security and business prosperity” and public policy, as WPN’sLinda Hansen told a tea party crowd.
WPN’swebsite states that its application for tax-exempt recognition is pending.Members can pay annual dues of $500 to become a “prosperity warrior,” whichincludes materials from its affiliated groups, free admission to events and aWPN lapel pin.
WDC’s McCabesaid that AFP is drawing money and attention to what had been rumbling aroundwithin conservative and libertarian groups at the grassroots level.
“They turnedit into an Astro-turf movement,” McCabe said.
TheGrassroots
While AFP isthe main statewide corporate-style organization, has national support and knowshow to play the media, AFP isn’t the only game in town. There’s anotherAFP-less coalition of roughly 70 Wisconsinpatriot groups, said Tim Dake of Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty. Thiscoalitioncomprised of local and regional groups that formed within the lastyear or sois sponsoring pre-primary debates and will then decide if it willform a political action committee (PAC), which can endorse a candidate.
Someindividual groups cannot endorse candidates because of their tax-exempt status.But groups can “educate voters” about their chosen issues without forming a PACand endorsing a candidate.
Dan Horvatinof the Rock River Patriots said his organizationfounded last yearisdeveloping a pledge they want candidates to sign and is considering setting upa PAC. Currently, the group is vettingcandidates and meeting to discuss issues important to themthe Constitution,the Patriot Act, immigration.
Horvatinsaid tea party groups aren’t automatically supportive of Republican candidatesput forward by the party.
“We’d liketo get candidates from our movement to run for office,” Horvatin said. “We wantto take back the Republican Party.”
Dake of theGrandSons of Liberty said recent tea party successes in Iowa Countyraces show that their candidates can win.
“If we don’tlike the candidates that are running, we’ll put our own people up,” Dake said.
RonJohnson’s Turbulent Candidacy
The mostvisible tea party candidate in Wisconsin isU.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson, an Oshkoshbusinessman who came out of nowhere, delivered two speeches at tea partyrallies about his love of “freedom,” and won the Republican endorsement.
Even RockRiver Patriots’ Horvatin was scratching his head about that one.
“We didn’teven know who he was,” Horvatin said.
Dake saidthat Johnson seems to be connected to the Oshkoshtea party, which isn’t part of the main patriot group coalition, and thatJohnson wasn’t technically a “tea party candidate” even though Johnson hasdanced around that question.
“There hasbeen no endorsement,” Dake said.
Questionshave also been raised about Johnson’s opposition to a bill that would allowvictims of clergy sex abuse to get their day in court; his support of racist Bell Curve author Charles Murray; andhis enthusiasm for drilling in the Great Lakes.
UWM’s Leesaid that Johnson’s perceived close relationship to the tea party movementcould hurt him in the election.
“You’ve gotto imagine that all of the Republican pragmatists are whispering in his earthat if he wants to win the election he’s got to tone down his tea partypositions,” Lee said. “You’ve got to imagine the mental wrestling he’s engagingin within his own psyche of ‘How expedient do I want to be’ versus ‘How pure doI want to remain?’ I think that’s a very tough dilemma.”
In recentdays, Johnson’s former rival, developer Terrence Wall, told a Madison radio reporter that he believes thatJohnson bought the Republican endorsement. Horvatin told the Shepherd he’s heard the same rumors.Johnson’s campaign didn’t respond to the Shepherd’srequest to comment for this article, but has denied Wall’s allegations.
Johnsonspoke to the Rock River Patriots and got a lukewarm reception because, Horvatinsaid, the candidate didn’t have specific positions on issues that are importantto the group.
He saidJohnson’s Republican Party endorsement wasn’t exactly a plus.
“Some peoplefelt disenfranchised by the endorsement,” Horvatin said. “That’s why theprimary exists. The voters should decide.”
The grouphas hosted the other Republican still in the race, David Westlake, who seems tobe a dream tea party candidatehe’s an outsider, he opposes the Patriot Act,and he actively wants tea party support. While Horvatin didn’t say if Westlake would be his group’s favored candidate to take onSen. Russ Feingold, Dake said that Westlakeis “very popular with the tea party groups.”
Walker v.Neumann, Swift-Boating Lassa
Tea partyactivists are planning to make their presence known in races at all levels ofgovernment.
In thegovernor’s race, both former Congressman Mark Neumann and Milwaukee CountyExecutive Scott Walker have appeared at tea party rallies around the state.While both appear to be solid conservatives, UWM’s Lee said that Neumann seemsto be a better fit for the tea party movement.
“I thinkScott Walker represents the sort of modern Republican Party,” Lee said. “He hasconservative principles, but a lot of his principles are driven by whateverbusiness wants or by talk radio.”
He said Walker’s endorsement byRepublican Party leaders could work against him in a year that may favoroutsiders.
“I thinksome of the grassroots will follow the party, but I don’t think it’s guaranteedthat all of them will,” Lee said.
Dake said that“behind the scenes there’s been a lot of work done” on the gubernatorial race,although the coalition hasn’t decided if it would back one of these candidates.
“It’s one ofthe most contentious issues right now,” Dake said.
Then there’sthe race to replace retiring Congressman David Obey, in which two conservativeRepublicansreality TV figure and Ashland County District Attorney Sean Duffyand organic farmer Dan Mielkeare competing to take on state Sen. Julie Lassa,a Democrat, in the general election.
While Duffyseems to be the front-runner and has gotten the endorsement of Sarah Palinwhohas a mixed record in picking winnersMielke would also be a good fit for thetea party movement.
AFP-Wisconsin’sBlock wouldn’t comment on the Duffy/Mielke matchup, but his organizationprotested Lassa’s voting record on its “Sick of Spending Tour” a few weeks ago.Block called it “voter education,” and promised more of it in this race.
The tour wasannounced by CRC Public Relations, a Virginia-based PR agency whose clientshave included the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the FederalistSociety, the Republican National Committee and the Christian Coalition. In Wisconsin, the firm wasinvolved in races for the state Supreme Court, siding with conservativecandidates Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman, both of whom won their races.
