Some R.I. tea party leaders form new group focused on State House

Leading members of Rhode Island’s statewide tea party group have defected to form their own organization focused on state legislative issues.

Lisa Blais, a board member of the two-year-old RI Tea Party, announced Friday the formation of Ocean State Tea Party in Action.

Blais said the group formed out of a growing unhappiness with the direction of the RI Tea Party, which was founded by Colleen Conley in 2009 as the tea party movement –– generally in favor of reduced government spending and against tax increases –– gained momentum across the country.

“We’re going to continue the work that has proven effective,” Blais said Friday. “We’re not looking to compete with the RI Tea Party, but, organizationally, it took a different direction.”

Ocean State Tea Party in Action, which filed with the state earlier this week as a domestic nonprofit corporation, expects to be a “strong voice” at the State House and provide a “constant spotlight” on elected officials and their voting records, according to Blais.

She and other members of the new group were among the tea party advocates most vocal this past legislative session, strongly opposing a proposed overhaul of the state sales tax as well as the creation of binding arbitration for teachers, two proposals that ultimately did not pass.

Both Blais and Conley denied that there was any open hostility between the two tea party factions.

“We look forward to collaboration with all good-government groups, tea parties and citizen advocates,” said Blais, a Providence resident who worked at the now-defunct advocacy group The Education Partnership. “We’re all really working towards many of the same goals.”

Said Conley: “I know they’ll do a fantastic job. They are very passionate, focused and detail-oriented women.”

She says RI Tea Party, which last April said it had more than 2,500 people on its e-mail list, will continue to focus on the national debt and federal spending, help coordinate the state’s many local tea party and “patriot” groups (which mostly focus on municipal or regional issues) and push a statewide agenda through its media presence and its own State House lobbying.

“RI Tea is the core,” Conley said. “You got to think of it as the mother ship. And it just launched another ship.”

The union-backed progressive coalition Ocean State Action poked fun at the apparent splintering of its philosophical foil in an e-mail to supporters Friday.

“We’re flattered that the RI Tea Party likes us so much that they would stick their name in the middle of ours. Who knew that they wanted to be us when they grew up?” Kate Brock, the group’s executive director, wrote. “We thought about calling the press. We thought about calling a lawyer for name infringement. But the most important place to beat the Tea Party is at the ballot box in 2012. We need progressive champions in the General Assembly, not ‘Tea Party Patriots’ who are committed to dismantling our state one piece at a time.”

Among those involved in Ocean State Tea Party in Action are four members of the RI Tea Party steering committee, who, like Blais, resigned from their volunteer posts recently.

They include Lyn Jennings, who this year helped found an advocacy group of her own: RI Salons United, which represented hair salon owners opposed to Governor Chafee’s proposal to lower the state sales tax but broaden it to a number of currently exempt items and services, like haircuts.

Blais says state Rep. Doreen Costa, R-North Kingstown, who has been active in the RI Tea Party, is also expected to join the new group’s board of directors.

Costa says she’ll also continue to be involved with RI Tea Party. “The more groups we have, the better,” she said. “That’s the way I look at it.”

RI Tea Party, meanwhile, is still set to organize the Tax Day rally at the State House in April, produce the “TeaTV” show that started airing in this past April on the same channel that airs sessions of the state General Assembly (Cox Channel 15), as well as prepare for the coming election, according to Conley.

The group recently announced that the national Tea Party Express Bus Tour is making a stop in North Kingstown’s Wilson Park on Sept. 7. That bus may potentially bring a presidential candidate or two to the Ocean State, according to the announcement.

pmarcelo@projo.com

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Tea Party favorite Herman Cain launching White House bid

ATLANTA — If there is an early crowd favorite in the Republican race for president, it may be Herman Cain.

The businessman, author, talk radio show host and tea party darling knows how to wow a conservative gathering. Now the 65-year-old Cain will try to see if he can use that grass-roots enthusiasm to turn a long-shot presidential campaign into a credible bid.

He plans to announce his candidacy at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, an announcement that’s hardly a secret.

Cain has been crisscrossing the country for months now, his intentions abundantly clear.

So are his views, espoused for years on his radio show and in speeches. He supports a strong national defense, opposes abortion, backs replacing the federal income tax with a national sales tax and favors a return to the gold standard.

He’s never held elected office, having lost a three-way Republican U.S. Senate primary bid in Georgia in 2004 with a quarter of the vote. His “Hermanator” political action committee has taken in just over $16,000 so far this year.

Cain says he’s running “a bottoms-up, outside-the-box campaign.” And supporters say he taps into the tea party-fueled desire for plain-speaking citizen candidates.

“I just love him,” gushed Laura Miller, a self-described “Cainiac” from Jessup, Ga. “What he says makes so much sense.”

Born in Memphis, Tenn., and raised in Atlanta, Cain is the son of a chauffeur and a maid. He attended historically black Morehouse College, earned a master’s degree from Purdue University and worked as a mathematician for the Navy before beginning to scale the corporate ladder. He worked at Coca-Cola, Pillsbury and Burger King before taking the helm of the failing Godfather’s Pizza franchise, which he rescued by shuttering hundreds of restaurants.

He burst onto the political stage when he sparred with President Bill Clinton over the Democrat’s health care reform plan at a 1994 town hall meeting.

“On behalf of all of those business owners that are in a situation similar to mine,” asked Cain, “my question is, quite simply, if I’m forced to do this, what will I tell those people whose jobs I will have to eliminate?”

Republican Jack Kemp described Cain as having “the voice of Othello, the looks of a football player, the English of Oxfordian quality and the courage of a lion.”

In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with liver and colon cancer. He says he’s been cancer-free since 2007 and credits the nation’s health care system with keeping him alive. He says it’s one reason he’s so passionately opposed to the federal health care law championed by President Barack Obama.

At a speech last week in Macon, Ga., Cain gave a glimpse of the rationale for his candidacy, arguing that the American dream is under attack from runaway debt, a stagnant economy and a Democratic administration forcing a legislative agenda citizens don’t want.

___

Online:

Herman Cain: http://www.hermancain.com

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A House Divided? Tea Party Vs. Traditional GOP

Some leading Republicans are trying to entice a more established candidate to jump into the presidential race, a courtship that's aggravating tensions between tea partyers and the GOP's traditional business wing, a deep-pocketed source of financial support in the campaign.

Influential GOP donors have sought to coax Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run. The goal is to find a contender with a strong record as a fiscal conservative and the political stature to challenge President Barack Obama.

The behind-the-scenes efforts have been taken as a snub by some tea party organizers who favor the anti-establishment messages of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who are in the race or are considering it. New contenders could undermine their chances for donors and for success.

"It's extremely upsetting to hear that the establishment is courting their own candidate when Michele Bachmann, the gold standard, has been in the fight, bucking the establishment that got us in this mess," said Katrina Pierson, a Dallas tea party leader and emerging national figure for the movement.

Daniels, Bush and Christie are all connected with the GOP's organized fundraising bigwigs, not the more numerous but less affluent grass-roots conservatives, said Connecticut tea party leader Bob MacGuffie.

"We're trying to lead the big money with the small money, and they won't let it," said MacGuffie, who helped coordinate confrontational town hall meetings with members of Congress in 2009 about federal health care legislation.

The 2012 Republican field is wide open.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is considered the closest to a front-runner, but his support for his state's health care plan has alienated some conservatives. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is not widely known.

The tea party movement, which advocates a much smaller government, was an energetic force in the 2010 elections. It has provided an audience for possible candidates such as Bachmann, a junior House member who has reveled in clashing with GOP elders.

Bachmann has generated enthusiastic responses from tea party activists in Iowa, where the GOP nominating caucuses are set to begin the 2012 run to the nomination. She said the search for a more traditional candidate could turn off some newly engaged conservative voters, whom the GOP needs to defeat Obama.

"I think people really want to know they are being heard, and when it appears that people's concerns are being bypassed, by looking at other candidates, they really do feel like they are being ignored," Bachmann said. "I understand that frustration."

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are trying to appeal to both tea party and establishment Republicans. Neither has made much visible headway in Iowa.

Joan Fabiano, a tea party leader in the Lansing, Mich., area, weighed in about Bachmann and the other more confrontational candidates. "The establishment believes they aren't controllable. And that's a big problem with us," she said.

Pawlenty promotes himself as outside the Washington establishment but with a record of winning in a politically divided state. He said the search by dissatisfied donors for better candidates could help endear him to anti-establishment conservatives.

"To the extent there is an attempt by the establishment to coronate somebody, I can easily see that frustrating and alienating activists across the board," Pawlenty said.

A group of Iowa Republican donors plans to meet with Christie in New Jersey later in May to try to persuade him to enter the race. The first-term governor, who has attracted national attention as an aggressive budget-cutter, has ruled out running. Daniels, formerly a former business executive and White House budget director, plans to announce his plans in the next few weeks. Bush has said he isn't considering a campaign.

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GOP efforts to court mainline White House candidates for 2012 race seen as tea party snub

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DES MOINES, Iowa — Some leading Republicans are trying to entice a more established candidate to jump into the presidential race, a courtship that’s aggravating tensions between tea partyers and the GOP’s traditional business wing, a deep-pocketed source of financial support in the campaign.

Influential GOP donors have sought to coax Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run. The goal is to find a contender with a strong record as a fiscal conservative and the political stature to challenge President Barack Obama.

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) - FILE - In this May 12, 2011, file photo New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks at a New York conference of the Committee of 100, group of business, government and civic leaders who work to bridge U.S.-China relations. Tensions between tea partyers and more traditional Republicans are rising as GOP’s traditional business wing tries to entice a more established candidate to jump into the 2012 presidential race. These influential donors have sought to coax Christie, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush run.

The behind-the-scenes efforts have been taken as a snub by some tea party organizers who favor the anti-establishment messages of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who are in the race or are considering it. New contenders could undermine their chances for donors and for success.

“It’s extremely upsetting to hear that the establishment is courting their own candidate when Michele Bachmann, the gold standard, has been in the fight, bucking the establishment that got us in this mess,” said Katrina Pierson, a Dallas tea party leader and emerging national figure for the movement.

Daniels, Bush and Christie are all connected with the GOP’s organized fundraising bigwigs, not the more numerous but less affluent grass-roots conservatives, said Connecticut tea party leader Bob MacGuffie.

“We’re trying to lead the big money with the small money, and they won’t let it,” said MacGuffie, who helped coordinate confrontational town hall meetings with members of Congress in 2009 about federal health care legislation.

The 2012 Republican field is wide open.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is considered the closest to a front-runner, but his support for his state’s health care plan has alienated some conservatives. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is not widely known.

The tea party movement, which advocates a much smaller government, was an energetic force in the 2010 elections. It has provided an audience for possible candidates such as Bachmann, a junior House member who has reveled in clashing with GOP elders.

Bachmann has generated enthusiastic responses from tea party activists in Iowa, where the GOP nominating caucuses are set to begin the 2012 run to the nomination. She said the search for a more traditional candidate could turn off some newly engaged conservative voters, whom the GOP needs to defeat Obama.

“I think people really want to know they are being heard, and when it appears that people’s concerns are being bypassed, by looking at other candidates, they really do feel like they are being ignored,” Bachmann said. “I understand that frustration.”

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are trying to appeal to both tea party and establishment Republicans. Neither has made much visible headway in Iowa.

Joan Fabiano, a tea party leader in the Lansing, Mich., area, weighed in about Bachmann and the other more confrontational candidates. “The establishment believes they aren’t controllable. And that’s a big problem with us,” she said.

Pawlenty promotes himself as outside the Washington establishment but with a record of winning in a politically divided state. He said the search by dissatisfied donors for better candidates could help endear him to anti-establishment conservatives.

“To the extent there is an attempt by the establishment to coronate somebody, I can easily see that frustrating and alienating activists across the board,” Pawlenty said.

A group of Iowa Republican donors plans to meet with Christie in New Jersey later in May to try to persuade him to enter the race. The first-term governor, who has attracted national attention as an aggressive budget-cutter, has ruled out running. Daniels, formerly a former business executive and White House budget director, plans to announce his plans in the next few weeks. Bush has said he isn’t considering a campaign.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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