Tea Party Sets the Agenda, and Legislators Fall in Line

As a result, the Tea Party’s objectives have been the top priorities of lawmakers. And in case the politicians lost sight of those goals, the Legislature’s new Tea Party Caucus has been a constant reminder.

“It’s been a huge success,” said Senator Dan Patrick, Republican of Houston and chairman of the Tea Party Caucus of Texas.

A month before the legislative session began, Mr. Patrick declared the Tea Party “the most important political movement of our lifetime” and announced the formation of the caucus with 48 fellow Republican legislators. The lawmakers would take cues from an advisory board of citizen Tea Party members and ensure that the message they sent at the ballot box was translated into legislation.

The caucus agenda included balancing the budget without increasing taxes, securing the border and ending illegal immigration, asserting state sovereignty and requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls.

Just days after the session started, Mr. Perry declared voter ID an emergency issue, putting it on the fast track for approval. Over the objections of Democrats who had successfully fought the requirement in previous years, the bill sailed through both chambers and onto Mr. Perry’s desk.

The House created a special “state sovereignty” committee that approved a slew of resolutions urging Congress to stay out of Texas’ business when it comes to issues like health care and the environment. One resolution — another emergency item declared by Mr. Perry — called for amending the United States Constitution to require a balanced federal budget. On Friday, the Senate, following the lead of the House, approved the resolution and sent it to Mr. Perry.

“They’re a very vocal and important constituency,” Mark Miner, the governor’s spokesman, said of the Tea Party.

Legislators came into the session facing a shortfall of up to $27 billion in the state’s 2012-13 budget. Mr. Perry and Republican lawmakers made it clear that gap would be closed without new taxes and without using the state’s Rainy Day Fund. “That was a call heard loud and clear at the ballot box,” said Representative Van Taylor, Republican of Plano.

In March, the Tea Party Advisory Committee issued a 14-point budget-cutting plan that included a state hiring freeze, suspending financing for parks and arts and historical sites, and cutting pay for state employees. When Republican budget writers in the Senate proposed dipping into the Rainy Day Fund, the group stepped in, calling on lawmakers. The plan was quickly shelved, and deeper cuts were made.

The Tea Party also found common cause with well-heeled conservative advocacy organizations like the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Empower Texans, which push strict conservative orthodoxy on budget cutting.

“There’s a real coalition of external forces here that really put moderates in the Legislature — never mind the Democrats — in a real bind,” said Jim Henson, who directs the Texas Politics Project in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin.

Without the Tea Party, Mr. Patrick said, he was certain lawmakers would have raided the Rainy Day Fund as they did in 2003 and in 2005 — under the governor’s leadership. “Pressure from the outside gave us the wind at our backs that we needed to prevail,” he said.

One issue on the Tea Party agenda that has not met with success, so far, is a call for stricter immigration enforcement. A measure that would abolish so-called sanctuary cities — where local governments prevent police from enforcing immigration laws — has been plagued with troubles. Still, the only part of the state’s budget to escape major cuts has been border security.

Democrats in the Legislature, pushed almost to the point of irrelevancy, have been reduced to using parliamentary maneuvers and complaining about the deeply conservative agenda enacted around them.

Representative Jessica Farrar of Houston, leader of the House Democrats, predicted the budget cutting would create a “fiscal disaster” that even conservative activists would not like. “What happened here actually will erode the Tea Party,” Ms. Farrar said.

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Mont. legislators sue "Three Cups of Tea" author

 

HELENA, Mont. - Two Montana lawmakers are trying to start a class-action lawsuit against "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson, claiming they were duped into buying Mortenson's best-selling book and donating to his charity based on lies they thought were true.

The claim filed Thursday in federal court in Missoula is the latest fallout from reports by "60 Minutes" and author Jon Krakauer last month that alleged that Mortenson lied in "Three Cups of Tea" about how he became involved in building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The reports also questioned whether Mortenson financially benefited from his charity, Central Asia Institute, and whether CAI built the number of schools it claimed.

Questions over Greg Mortenson's stories
Video: Full "60 Minutes" segment

The complaint, which tells only one side of a legal argument, alleges Mortenson and CAI induced state Rep. Michele Reinhart of Missoula to buy the book and Rep. Jean Price of Great Falls to donate to the charity. Reinhart and Price claim Mortenson and the charity engaged in fraud, deceit, breach of contract and racketeering under a statute normally used for prosecuting mobsters.

The Democratic legislators are seeking class-action status, saying the lawsuit potentially could be joined by millions of people who bought Mortenson's books, heard his speeches or donated to his charity.

"They purchased the book because of his heart-wrenching story which he said was true," said Great Falls attorney Alexander Blewett, who is representing Reinhart and Price. "If people had known all of this was fabricated, they would not have given the money."

Greg Mortenson could face $20M in back taxes
Montana AG to investigate Greg Mortenson charity
Can Greg Mortenson charity survive scrutiny?

Mortenson was in his Bozeman home awaiting word on whether he could safely undergo surgery to repair a hole in his heart, according to a statement by his doctor posted on the Central Asia Institute's website. A spokeswoman for the charity did not return a call for comment on Friday.

Mortenson has previously denied any wrongdoing, though he has admitted some of the events in his book were compressed over different periods of time. CAI has pledged full transparency and posted years of financial statements on its website.

Reinhart heard Mortenson speak at the University of Montana in 2007 and bought "Three Cups of Tea" in 2009. Price heard a presentation by Mortenson or CAI in Great Falls in 2009 and made a donation "relying on the truthfulness of his statements," according to the complaint.

Neither immediately returned calls for comment. Their attorney, Blewett, is the father of another Democratic state lawmaker, Sen. Anders Blewett.

The plaintiffs are asking a judge to rule that Mortenson and CAI violated the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO. They made the RICO claim because Price gave CAI a second donation after receiving a solicitation in the mail, which Alexander Blewett said constitutes mail fraud.

The racketeering claim allows the plaintiffs to seek triple the amount Mortenson and CAI have made from book sales, speeches and donations.

The complaint asks the judge to place the money into a trust administered by a court-appointed charity that would direct it to schoolchildren in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Three Cups of Tea" was released in 2006 and sold more than 3 million copies. That notoriety helped Mortenson grow the Central Asia Institute by generating more than $50 million in donations.

The fallout from the "60 Minutes" and Krakauer reports prompted Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock to open an inquiry into the charity last month.

Blewett said a class-action lawsuit represents the best way for the public to find out the truth because it could result in Mortenson's sworn testimony.

"We welcome the opportunity to let Mr. Mortenson testify under oath to all these things. To us, it seems overwhelmingly false and we will give him ample opportunity to explain away all of the falsehoods," Blewett said.

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