If you followed the news out of Nashville, you probably heard that some Tea Party folks are creating a Political Action Committee that will win 15 to 20 key Congressional races in 2010 and, perhaps, in years beyond. What you didn’t hear at the press conference was that several grassroots tea party organizers are so strongly in favor of this move that we have agreed to serve Ensuring Liberty PAC through its organizing parent, the Ensuring Liberty 501.c(4). Our local tea parties will continue unchanged.

Who Comprises the ELPAC

Very simply, ELPAC is led by six people from some of the most effective local Tea Party organizations in America:

• Mark Skoda of The Memphis Tea Party
• Steve McQueen of The Quincy Tea Party
• State Sen. John Loudon (MO-Ret.) of St. Louis Tea Party
• Rose Corona, a California farmer and Patriot
• Brad Ehmen of The Quincy Tea Party
• Bill Hennessy of St. Louis Tea Party

While you might not recognize all of these names, I do. These are the people who have been in the fox holes with us since day one. They are bold and resilient fighters for freedom. They are the men and women we turn to for counsel, support, advice, strength, and help across the Mid-West and across the the nation. We share mutual faith in each other. The men and women on this list have skills to win elections with grassroots activism. They embody what happened in NY-23 and Massachusetts.

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Nashville, TN:  As Sarah Palin spoke to the standing room only, sell out crowd at Tea Party convention, activists from across the nation were putting together the finishing touches on a strategy to channel the activism in an entirely new way.  The result is Ensuring Liberty, a 501(c)4 and affiliated PAC.

Many pundits debated the lessons from the the New York “23rd race” and the heralded defeat of Dede Scozzafava and subsequent loss of Doug Hoffman.  A couple things were clear.  The Club for Growth money that went to Hoffman was not enough to bring home a winner.  It was equally obvious from the loss, that the national outpouring of grassroots support from Tea Party activists all over the Country was not enough.

What was clear to those closer to the campaign was that all of the assistance poured into a flawed operation could not put humpty dumpty together.  An axiom from business holds that before you automate a process you must first perfect that process.  The cash and volunteer support were in effect the automation that the Hoffman campaign desperately needed.  The “machine” however, lacked the fine tuning so that most of the “inputs” ended up as waste and proportionally little product flowed out of the campaign apparatus.

Every campaign needs at least two critical element pairings; campaign and money or campaign and people.  Hoffman had plenty of money and people but too little campaign.  Next time, the Tea Party supported candidates will have all three elements.  Enter, the Ensuring Liberty PAC.

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The Tea Party folks keep getting mad at me for saying that in the end they might prove ineffective in races at levels higher than local because they aren’t organized enough. They puff up their chests proudly proclaiming that they intend to resist being organized and they claim that being organized is precisely what they are fighting against. I understand the feeling, even sympathize quite a lot, but there is a problem with this obstinacy. It means they won’t win on a statewide ballot very often. The Illinois primary just proved me correct, too.

Let’s take the race for Senate in Illinois as exhibit “A.” Of course the good old boys in the state party went with Mark Kirk, the center left candidate from a northern suburb of Chicago. He was the he-can-win candidate and the establishment choice. Not one Tea Party group, though, wants Kirk and for good reason — and I heartily concur with them, as it happens. So who was the “Tea Party candidate,” the one meant to beat out Kirk, the one backed by the newly found power of the Tea Party movement? There wasn’t one. There were three.

Sadly, the Tea Partiers in Illinois split their vote all up. Some Tea Party Groups went with Don Lowery and some went with Patrick Hughes. A few even went with John Arrington. Hughes, of course, was the only one that had even a remote chance as far as voter polls were concerned. Hughes at least registered in the polls, Lowery and Arrington barely showed up at all.

Now, I like Mr. Lowery to be sure. He is a great fellow and has some fantastic principles. I can see why Tea Party groups are attracted to him. I feel the same way about Mr. Arrington. On the other hand, the same can be said of Hughes (disclosure, I endorsed Hughes). The problem is not that one or the other Tea Party group chose the wrong candidate, it’s that they didn’t choose the same candidate. They petered away their votes by choosing three candidates allowing Mark Kirk to run away with it.

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It’s the end of 2009, the “aughts” are over, and we are about to embark on a new year — and what else are they but the “aughts”? Well, besides mostly a horrible and thankfully passed decade. In any case, we are at the end of the year and that means two things: lists about this year and predictions for the next. I’ve chosen the prognosticator’s art for this piece with the subject of what could be our biggest failure or mistake in 2010: the Tea Party movement.

We all know that just saying the words “Tea Party” is enough to raise American’s blood pressure. Some will become suspicious or even enraged by imagining I am about to attack the Tea Partiers, some on the left will be filled with disgust even thinking about the Tea Partiers at all, and still others will get their blood up thinking about why the Tea Party movement started in the first place. For 2009 “Tea” and “Party” were two words that raised American’s passions in a myriad of ways, for sure. That won’t change in 2010.

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Doug Hoffman lost his race in the 23rd Congressional District of New York, a seat held by Republicans for the past 120 years. John McHugh held the seat since 1992 and won with such large margins (he was even unopposed in 2002) that when I pitched him to provide polling for his campaign, it was a challenge to even argue why he needed polling in the first place.

Dede Scozzafava was chased out of the race by conservative Tea Party activists. Her campaign may have been inept, and local GOP leaders may have erred in selecting her, but activists had no business dictating terms from afar. Despite her flaws, Scozzafava was ahead in the polls before the Tea Party brouhaha. (So much for respecting local control.) Their result was to actually shrink the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives.  (Moreover, the newly-elected Democrat Congressman Bill Owens may provide the deciding vote on passing Pelosi Care, up for debate tonight in the House.) Just as conservative Democrats voted for Speaker Pelosi, liberal Republicans like Scozzafava would have supported the Party’s leadership. A RINO is better than no R at all.  The good news is that the district is likely to support the Republican candidate in 2010 after what I suspect will be a vigorous primary.

The most laughable criticism of Scozzafava was that she showed no loyalty to conservatives by endorsing the Democrat in the race–this from Tea Partiers who showed no loyalty to the Republican Party by pushing a third party candidate in the first place.

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In this first clip, Mike Flynn and Glenn Beck connect the dots between the White House, the NEA conference calls, and the beating of tea party-goer Kenneth Gladney by SEIU thugs.

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After the jump, Flynn talks with Larry Kudlow about the 2009 elections, the tea party movement, and the possible rebirth of the Reagan coalition.  (more…)

A message was sent to both the Republican and Democrat parties yesterday at polling stations across America, especially on the east coast. The perennially blue New Jersey now has a Republican Governor-elect. In Virginia, Republicans swept the top three spots in state office with Bob McDonnell winning that state’s gubernatorial race. Virginia was the coveted swing state last time around, a state that Keith Olberman cited as an example of permanent change. Interestingly enough, in exit poll questions asking voters why they chose the folks they chose were answered with one word: “change.”

New York’s hotly contested 23rd district was of epic soap opera proportions, a problem which is the direct result of party loyalists inability to see past their own navels. On October 16th I launched DumpDede.com and together with Bill Hennessy, held a last-minute presser (drive-bys and party hacks ignored that it was given on six hours’ notice and tried to use the crowd size as a way to neutralize the scope and power of the movement) and called on the GOP to dump the RINOs and support conservative Doug Hoffman. I heard “politics is local.” Absolutely – and when it is a federal congressional seat, a seat with a vote that could be the tiebreaker on legislation that could affect us all, the boundaries that separate districts and states fade away.

If you insert “conservatism” whenever you hear Doug Hoffman’s name, you get the point.

That’s not what the race was about.

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Republican leadership, at all levels, should have learned a quick lesson about the mood of America’s conservatives from the Dede Scozzafava debacle in upper New York state. Unfortunately, the GOP House Leadership might need some remedial instruction. And a group of conservative Republican lawmakers met Tuesday to draft that lesson plan.

Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has been one of the more vocal opponents of ObamaCare. Last week on Sean Hannity’s television program, Ms. Bachmann announced the “House Call on Congress.” She urged Americans to come to Washington, DC, to a press conference on the Capitol steps at Noon on Thursday, November 5.  After the presser, Ms. Bachmann will lead the citizens through House office buildings to confront Democrats on their own turf. She hopes to draw thousands to DC to tell the Democrats to their faces, “We don’t want a government takeover of our healthcare.” Yesterday, Ms. Bachmann announced that conservative talk radio host Mark Levin would join her.

Leaders, though, tend to be cautious.  Before the Hill brass swooped in to “help” organizers by providing speaker lists and talking points, a band of conservatives formed a steering committee to keep the message and the tactics authentically conservative. These rebels don’t want talking points; they want a battle cry.

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From the Associated Press:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Democrat Bill Owens has captured the special election for a New York congressional seat that became a fight over the identity of the Republican Party.

Owens defeated Conservative Doug Hoffman and Republican Dierdre Scozzafava (skoh-zuh-FAH’-vuh) in the heavily Republican 23rd congressional District in rural northern New York. Scozzafava abruptly withdrew Saturday and supported Owens.

Hoffman has conceded the race.

With 88 percent of the precincts reporting, Owens had 49 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Hoffman. Scozzafava had 6 percent.

The race has been getting national attention, with some calling it a referendum on President Barack Obama and others saying it could help Republicans focus their message to attract more people to the party. (more…)

Multiple sources on the ground in New York’s 23^rd Congressional district confirm that ACORN is expected to be actively protesting the election results in Clinton County, New York tomorrow. This move comes on the heels of a legal win for the Hoffman camp today as it was ruled that all poll watchers would have to be registered voters of NY 23.

Rob Ryan, spokesman for the Hoffman campaign, states that the legal decision is all about ballot security and that the move by ACORN is not a surprise.

“The Working Family Party is desperate, Today’s poll show that Doug Hoffman is drawing votes from all Demographics”.

While the focus tomorrow will be on securing a win for Hoffman, Ryan says there are still worries about:

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The withdrawal of Dede Scozzafava from the special election for Congress in upstate New York has predictably set off another wave of media-led hand-wringing about the health of the GOP. (See here and here, for example.) These stories are like crack for reporters, especially those with a hard-left slant. It is always framed as a battle between ‘conservatives’ and ‘moderates,’ but the focus is actually much narrower.

To Big Media, conservatism comes in only one flavor, social conservatism, namely anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage and a smattering of other issues that would fall flat over canapés and seltzer (liberals don’t seem to drink anymore). That Dede was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage fits the narrative perfectly for the media. End of story.

But, the media, and political leaders would be wise to dig a bit deeper into the story. Yes, Dede was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage, but she was also pro-government spending, pro-taxes and pro-Big Labor, to name just a few other issues. When a Republican candidate regularly seeks out the endorsement of ACORN and wins the endorsement of DailyKos, it isn’t much of a stretch to imagine that large segments of the party might have some misgivings about supporting the candidate. (And they would be right, since she has now endorsed the Democrat in the race.)

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The Tea Party movement has been quiet since the September 12 massive rallies in Washington, Quincy, Dallas, and elsewhere.  Paul Krugman was so bold as to write on October 26, “the tea baggers have come and gone.”  On the same day, CBS News blogger Charles Cooper asked rhetorically, “Did the Tea Partiers Party Too Soon?”  The message from the White House talking points memo was clear:  that annoying fit of folksy patriotic crap is over, and we in the political class can get back to the business of tyranny.

Congressional Candidate, and Big Government Contributor, Doug Hoffman took to the New York Post today:

At this time, three months ago, I was wrestling with a decision. A decision as to whether or not to run in a special election to fill the seat vacated by the new secretary of the Army, John McHugh. If you had told me 90 days later I would be penning an op-ed piece for the New York Post, I would have laughed in disbelief. I would have laughed even louder had you told me that I would be receiving endorsement and support from political leaders like Fred Thompson, former Majority Leader Dick Armey, or Sarah Palin. Or appearing on broadcast media with national audiences, as their hosts peppered me with questions about the future of the GOP and our nation. 

You see I’m not a professional politician; I’ve never sought elected office. I grew up poor in Saranac Lake, in the heart of the Adirondacks. My siblings and I were raised in a single-parent household by our mother. We worked to help her pay the mortgage. But, like so many others in this great land, I worked hard, got a good education, did a six-year stint in the military, married, landed a good job with a “big eight” accounting firm and started living the American dream.

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Once upon a time, ‘Republican’ Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava was the front-runner in the special election to replace actual Republican Rep. John McHugh. That was then, the video below is now:

In politics, a good rule-of-thumb is that the candidate calling for more debates is the candidate that is losing. It usually means they are just about out of money and need staged, public events to even hope to get their message out. For a big government liberal like Dede, it figures she would resort to this. It seems noone is buying what she’s selling, so she’s trying to orchestrate her own bailout. That is fairly typical.

What isn’t typical, however, is her campaign’s apparent–and total–lack of competence. Who stages a press conference and fails to control its visuals? City council races in Nebraska have more discipline.

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Tea Partier and blogger Michael Leahy reports:

In an exclusive interview with the TCOT Report, George Joseph, Republican Party Chairman of Oneida County, one of the eleven counties in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, today slammed Republican Party nominee Dede Scozzafava. This damaging news comes on the heels of Scozzafava’s ill advised attempt to intimidate a reporter from the Weekly Standard by calling the cops on him after he asked persistent questions about her position on card check legislation at a meeting held last night in Lowville, New York. Lowville is located in Lewis County, immediately to the north of Oneida County.

According to Joseph

“ I wasn’t sold on Dede from the beginning. That race represents 8% of Oneida County. Throughout the nomination process, I would have thought there would have been more sensitivity, in light of what happened with Tedisco in NY 20, who was the annointed front runner. [Republican Tedisco was defeated in a special election for an open Congresssional seat earlier this year]. Just with [Dede] coming out of Albany — any legislator in Albany is so tarnished why would we nominate them ? We acted very tone deaf in how we selected this nominee.”

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The GOP candidate is the most liberal in the race. As Big Government readers know, there is a philosophical battle brewing in upstate New York. A special election to replace departing Congressman John McHugh features a GOP candidate, Dede Scozzafave, backed by national GOP ‘leaders’, DailyKos and the state teachers’ union, a Democrat, Bill Owens and a Conservative Party Candidate, Doug Hoffman.

National GOP figures claim Dede Scozzafava is the best candidate hold the seat for the GOP. If that is true it begs a question, is it worth holding? Dede Scozzafava has regularly sought the support of ACORN’s Working Families Party, supported higher taxes, increased government spending, the stimulus bill, bailouts, Card Check…oh, lets just stop there. Newt Gingrich has called her “the future of the Republican party.” Well.

I call upon my fellow tea partiers, if you think the GOP should be commited to limited government, individual liberty and lower taxes, join with me in the DumpDede campaign. To act as a clearinghouse and mobilize our support, I’ve created the following website:

www.DumpDede.com

Pass it on to your friends. Battle is engaged.

I did not make the decision to run for Congress lightly. I have never aspired to be a politician, but seeing the direction our country was heading, I had to act. I believe in the bedrock principles that have made our nation great; limited government, individual liberty and personal responsibility.  I also think the public is more receptive to that message than ever before. The tea party and townhall movements have awakened the public and reconnected Independents, Democrats and Republicans to the ideals that made our nation, in the words of Ronald Reagan, “the shining city on the hill.”

Unfortunately, some individuals in the GOP leadership forgot their principles and misread the public sentiment. They orchestrated the nomination of a far-left candidate as the Republican nominee. Rather than compromise the principles I believe, I proudly threw my hat in the ring as the Conservative Party candidate.

The GOP candidate, Dede Scozzafava, has voted for taxpayer funded abortions, higher taxes, more government spending and has regularly sought the support of ACORN’s Working Families Party.  She loudly voiced support for the stimulus bill that has increased our national debt but has failed to improve the economy. She is a vocal supporter of legislation that would force many workers into unions. She is an Olympia Snowe Republican willing to sell out her party and GOP principles of limited government, lower taxes, and more individual liberty.  These are principles I hold strongly.

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Politico today turns its attention to the special election in upstate New York, where GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava is, basically, out of cash:

Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in a key upcoming House special election, is running dangerously low on campaign cash, according to several GOP sources familiar with her spending and fundraising. 

While Scozzafava’s official fundraising numbers will not be known until Thursday, the third-quarter Federal Election Commission reporting deadline, the GOP sources acknowledged to POLITICO that she’s unable to compete financially with her two opponents. 

Scozzafava supporters blame her cash crunch on the Washington Republican establishment, which they contend has not embraced her campaign enthusiastically.

Some of this lack of enthusiasm may be due to the fact that, as Capitol Confidential noted last week, Scozzafava is a long-time ally of ACORN and its Working Families Party in New York. (Doesn’t the GOP have enough problems than to associate themselves with these folks?)

The Politico story also notes that Scozzafava’s campaign tries to dismiss concerns about her chances by mentioning that it has the full backing of the state’s teachers’ union. This is, um, less than encouraging.

Read the whole Politico story here.