Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Damon Political Report

Election 2012:

Why the fractured Tea Party movement failed to offer a presidential nominee

Activists agree on whom not to choose, but they haven’t put their own alternative in the race

Three years ago, when thousands of angry conservatives from Las Vegas to Carson City formed what would become the tea party movement here, some Republican politicians watched with glee, confident they could harness that passion for their own campaigns.

Others felt like the besieged establishment, frightened of what the anti-establishment masses might do to their re-election efforts — especially when they booed even the most stalwart anti-tax elected officials.

But while the Tea Party in Nevada and elsewhere has had some small successes in local and congressional races, they are now so fractured that nominating a presidential candidate to carry their mantel is all but impossible.

Nevada Tea Party activists and organizers interviewed by the Las Vegas Sun this week all admitted the movement is split among the candidates remaining in the presidential race.

The only consensus seems to be that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is not their guy.

“He’s not perceived as the conservative candidate by a lot of people,” said Las Vegas Tea Party organizer Jeri Taylor-Swade.

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney waves to supporters during his victory celebration after winning the Florida primary election Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, in Tampa, Fla.

But that doesn’t mean all Tea Partyers are particularly fond of the alternatives, nor are they settled on naming the “conservative alternative.”

“The conservative vote is split between Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich,” Taylor-Swade said.

Reno-area Tea Party organizer Richard Disney, however, gave a more brutal assessment of the movement in the presidential race.

“There’s so much infighting,” he said. “Santorum has a lot behind him, but he’s not going to win; everybody knows that. Gingrich has some behind him, but so many people in the Tea Party detest Gingrich. Half hate him and half say he’s more conservative than Romney so they’ll support him.

“Ron Paul, his foreign policy positions make it hard for Tea Partyers to pull the lever for him.”

In fact, Disney, who launched the Tea Party Fund, said he is so dismayed by the field that his fundraising efforts will focus on the U.S. Senate races, “basically, in our opinion, to defend the country against whoever wins the presidency,” Disney said.

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Sarah Palin signs her autograph for supporters after a rally to kick off the Tea Party Express bus tour Monday, Oct. 18, 2010, in Reno. Ahead of Saturday's Nevada caucuses, Palin this week reiterated her call for Republican voters to back Newt Gingrich's candidacy in an effort to extend the selection process for the GOP presidential nomination.

Gingrich’s sudden rise among some national Tea Party organizations, and the Tea Party backing that helped see him through South Carolina, surprised many in the movement.

Tea Party darling Sarah Palin, who came to Gingrich’s aid as he made a startling comeback in South Carolina, acknowledged he’s an “imperfect vessel for Tea Party support.”

“But in South Carolina, the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

In Florida, however, Gingrich saw that support erode to the benefit of Romney.

So, how did a former speaker of the House who has supported an individual health care mandate, appeared with Nancy Pelosi in a global warming ad, supported No Child Left Behind and rejected his party’s most extreme positions on illegal immigration earn Tea Party support in the first place?

“I’ve been trying to figure this out, and honestly I have no idea why,” said Eric Odom of Grassfire Nation. “Two years ago, I can’t think of a Tea Party rally that would’ve allowed him to stand on the stage. But I think they are trying to throw a wall against Mitt Romney getting the candidacy, and Newt is this guy who throws punches at the media, so he helps vent some of that frustration the Tea Party has.”

The Romney campaign is working to dispel the notion he’s not conservative enough.

In a conference call with reporters this week, former Sen. Jim Talent used the word repeatedly to describe Romney: “We have a tough conservative leader in Romney. He is running as a reliable conservative leader.”

Those still active in the tea party movement bristle at suggestions from the media that the Tea Party is broken.

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Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, left, accompanied by his wife, Callista, gestures during a campaign stop, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Walford, Iowa.

“The Tea Party people are not out holding signs in the street; they are actually working,” Taylor-Swade said. “No, they’re not gone; they are behind the scenes getting things done.”

She said Tea Partyers make up a majority of the volunteers working the caucuses Saturday and are volunteering for the campaigns of the candidates with whom they personally identify.

So, why not organize and work to ensure a Tea Party favorite wins the GOP nomination?

“Because the Tea Party is not a group,” Taylor-Swade said. “It’s individual people who have individual ideas of what they want. We’re not robots. We’re not told what to do.”

But Disney said he believes the Republican establishment has been successful in halting the campaigns of the conservative candidates who earned fleeting bursts of momentum against Romney: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, retired businessman Herman Cain and now, perhaps, Gingrich.

“The Republican establishment are doing their best to dismantle the Tea Party,” Disney said, “and they’re doing a good job, frankly.”

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