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Cleta Mitchell’s New Dark Money Elections Group Raised $3.9 Million in Its First Full Year of Operations - EXPOSEDbyCMD

JUL 2025

Insurrectionist and voter suppression advocate Cleta Mitchell formed a new dark money group in 2023 to channel funds to organizations that promote the Big Lie of a stolen 2020 election and spread misinformation about the threat of widespread noncitizen voting.

Housed in the offices of the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), the Foundation for Accountability Integrity & Research in Elections Fund (FAIR Elections Fund) brought in $3.9 million between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, and disclosed $2.1 million in expenses, more than three-quarters of which was disbursed in grants to other organizations.

The FAIR Elections Fund has no website as of publication. A Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) analysis of the group’s first tax filing, recently made public, offers the first internal look into Mitchell’s group since she disclosed leading it in biographies and news reports.

The group’s IRS filing says that it made no payments for salaries or other compensation, while claiming Mitchell is working 50 hours per week for the group. This raises the question of who is paying Mitchell for her work.

Mitchell has worked to manufacture a crisis around noncitizens voting and partnered with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to push for model bills and amendments to state constitutions banning it — despite the fact that evidence of noncitizen voting is scarce. “Every legitimate study ever done on the question shows that voting by noncitizens in state and federal elections is vanishingly rare,” the Brennan Center reported in 2024.

A senior legal fellow at CPI, Mitchell launched her previous project, the Election Integrity Network (EIN), with the help of the right-wing group, which was founded and led by former U.S. senator and congressman Jim DeMint and Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows (also an insurrectionist). In 2023, EIN moved out of the CPI constellation of nonprofits and is now “administered and managed by the Virginia Institute for Public Policy with Virginia Institute president Lynn Taylor also serving as EIN’s Chairman as Cleta Mitchell retains an active EIN role as its founder,” according to a 2023 booklet obtained by CMD.

EIN’s latest IRS filing shows that as of December 2023 it was still registered at CPI’s office address, with just $213 left in the bank.

Serving on the FAIR Elections Fund board of directors alongside Mitchell, its president, are Vice President Heather Honey, Vice President Daniel Bean, Secretary Don Workman, and Treasurer Pat Corrigan.

Honey, also an executive director at the Election Research Institute, is a close ally of Mitchell who worked with her to sow doubt about the efficacy and trustworthiness of the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which has resulted in many states opting out of this interstate effort to help ensure accurate voter rolls.

A 2024 analysis by Votebeat and Spotlight PA found that conclusions in Honey’s report on ERIC “are false, often based on out-of-context examples, and… are frequently not backed by the data she presents.”

The IRS filing shows that the FAIR Elections Fund paid $121,284 to Honey’s organization Verity Vote LLC for “consulting.”

Vice President Daniel Bean is an attorney who represented Trump advisor Andy Surabian when he was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Secretary Don Workman is a partner at Baker & Hostetler and was a partner at Foley & Lardner, the Washington-based law firm that Mitchell was forced to resign from after she participated in the infamous post-2020 election phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes for him to claim victory in that swing state.

Treasurer Pat Corrigan runs Compass Direct LLC, a fundraising company that works for CPI, where his brother Edward is president. Given Corrigan’s role as treasurer, he is likely the one tasked with raising funds for the organization.

$1.6 Million in Grants

The FAIR Elections Fund distributed $1.6 million in grants in 2023-24 to 10 allied groups.

The FDRLST Media Foundation, which publishes the right-wing web magazine The Federalist, received $400,000, the largest grant. In 2020, The Federalist falsely accused Democrats of trying to steal the election in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania during extended vote counting in the days following the presidential election.

The pro-Trump outlet also published a column EIN’s Kerri Toloczko misinforming readers that noncitizen voting is a crisis that needs to be addressed through federal legislation. Since 2019 it has run nine pieces by Mitchell on noncitizen voting, purging voter rolls, and voting by mail.

EIN’s administrator, the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, received the next largest grant of $325,000. The Institute held its fifth Election Integrity Summit on May 16, and holds “infrastructure trainings” twice a month.

The FAIR Elections Fund funneled its third largest grant of $300,000 to the State Freedom Caucus Foundation, the sister organization of the State Freedom Caucus Network (SFCN). CPI incubated SFCN, which Meadows launched in 2021. From the beginning, the group has touted “election integrity” as a priority.

The network has been deployed to ban noncitizens from voting at the federal level as well as at the state level in places like Missouri.

Mitchell also spoke at the 2024 State Freedom Caucus Network Summit, where Wyoming State Freedom Caucus Chair Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R) said she “shared some shocking statistics about American elections and illegal immigration.”

The Immigration Accountability Project (IAP) received $150,000 from the FAIR Elections Fund, the IRS filing shows. IAP President Chris Chmielenski collaborated with Mitchell and Ken Cuccinelli, national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, to work a room of 150 attendees at ALEC’s 2024 Annual Meeting to approve an Only Citizens Vote Coalition model bill banning noncitizen voting, The Guardian reported.

The FAIR Elections Fund, Immigration Accountability Project, and Election Transparency Initiative are all members of the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, with Mitchell serving as a “co-convener.”

Also receiving FAIR Elections Fund grants between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 were the Tea Party Patriots Foundation ($100,000); Citizen Outreach Foundation ($89,100); John K MacIver Institute for Public Policy ($75,000); Strong Communities Foundation of AZ ($75,000); Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty ($75,000); and Wisconsin Voter Alliance Corp ($25,000).

In November, Wisconsin voters passed a ballot measure to change one word in the state constitution to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting in any local, state, or federal election. The right-wing MacIver Institute and Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty were proponents of its passage.

Funding is Dark

Despite the new IRS filings, funding information about the FAIR Elections Fund is scarce. The organization is not required to disclose its donors, and a CMD search of the filings only identified a single contribution of $795,000 from CPI, which does not note the original source of the funds. A CMD analysis of CPI’s known funders is available here.

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mma 6 24

project 2025 partners use right-wing media to sow distrust in American elections

Several Project 2025 partners were involved in attempts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory and have already cast doubt on the 2024 election

WRITTEN BY AUDREY MCCABE

PUBLISHED 06/04/24

As Project 2025 maps out its conservative agenda for the next GOP presidential administration, several of its partner organizations have employed figures involved in efforts to overturn former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss — and others have already begun sowing distrust in American elections ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Led by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 lays out staffing and policy priorities for Trump’s potential return to the White House. The project has over 100 partners, ranging from extreme anti-LGBTQ groups to prominent conservative think tanks, many of which have employed individuals directly involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 election, including figures who served as Trump’s “fake electors”; urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to delay the certification of the electoral count; and pushed disputed legal theories to keep Trump in power. Right-wing media have platformed these individuals, championing their schemes and validating their election lies.

Other partners have turned their sights to the 2024 election, spreading doubts about its legitimacy months before it occurs under the guise of concerns about “election integrity.” Despite lacking evidence of systematic issues across American elections, some of these Project 2025 partner organizations baselessly suggest to their supporters that the 2024 election is being “rigged” as part of “a concerted effort by Democrats,” setting the stage for Trump and his media allies to once again contest the legitimacy of November’s results.

Center for Renewing America

The Claremont Institute

Conservative Partnership Institute

Hillsdale College

Tea Party Patriots

Turning Point USA

The Heartland Institute

The Heritage Foundation

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pjt 2025

https://www.teapartypatriots.org/about/

context

an 10 23 common dr

as GOP Congressman Jim Jordan tried (and failed for the third time) to claw his way up to Speaker of the House this week, he deployed the MAGA base to pressure those representatives who were reluctant to vote for him. Some extremist MAGA supporters even made death threats to fellow Republicans who didn’t support Jordan.

Who actually forms the backbone of this MAGA base that Jordan desperately turned to?

Media and social media enterprises have reinforced the idea that the MAGA base is composed of uneducated white working-class voters. Supposedly, these are the very voters who Hillary Clinton, as Democratic nominee for president in 2016, infamously described as a “basket of deplorables,” (racist, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist.) With the vivid images of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol burned into our national consciousness, if we’re honest, many of us now add ‘violent’ to Clinton’s picture of these working-class deplorables.

"These strivers don’t care all that much about ideology or issues or making America great again. What they care about first and foremost is the power and money they can gain for themselves."

While researching Wall Street’s War on Workers, however, our Labor Institute team found compelling data that turns this image of the right-wing Republican base on its head. It is a destructive stereotype that doesn’t square with reality.

Let’s start with the Tea Party, which sprung to life in 2009. It is usually assumed that it was driven by disgruntled white working-class reactionaries who fundamentally resented intellectuals and the media. But a comprehensive study by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism(2012), provides an entirely different view of the socioeconomic status of Tea Party members:

“Tea Party supporters and activists are better-off economically and better educated than most Americans. . . . Most are not truly wealthy, however. Comfortable middle-class might be the best way to describe grassroots Tea Partiers.”

White? Yes, almost entirely so. Working class? Decidedly not, as defined by income, education, or occupation.

What about Republican primary voters? The 2018 Primaries Project at the Brookings Institution provides detailed profiles of Republican primary voters during the Trump presidency:

How about the January 6th insurrectionists?

The Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago published demographic information on 656 of the 861 insurrectionists who, as of July 22,2022, had been charged with illegally entering the Capitol or Capitol grounds. The study found the following:

The study does not say how many of the insurrectionists had graduate degrees, but we do know that the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes (sentenced to 18 years in prison for sedition and other charges for his January 6 activities), is a graduate of the ultra-elite Yale Law School, the same law school from which Bill and Hillary Clinton graduated.

*January 6, 2021, was not a working-class riot.

To be sure, members of the working-class form a significant portion of the MAGA base, but not disproportionately so. Instead, we see that the true MAGA base is disproportionately higher-income, white-collar white people who are enthralled by MAGA politics. And when we step back a bit and look at the many conspiracists who organized, staffed, and drove the election lies, this makes sense. Nearly all are lawyers and businesspeople, many with advanced degrees, backed by a vast ultra-right media and social media ecosystem of highly educated influencers. You don’t find labor union activists leading the MAGA charge.

The real drivers of the MAGA base—the ones the Ohio Republican was calling on to support his ultimately failed bid to become Speaker of the House—are financially successful people who are hungry for more power and wealth. MAGA is their ticket to move up the political ladder, to amass greater influence, and to garner more resources for themselves.

These strivers don’t care all that much about ideology or issues or making America great again. What they care about first and foremost is the power and money they can gain for themselves. And precisely because they are not burdened by ideological consistency or deeply held principles, they rely on one overriding trait—a formidable will to power.

So, as many of us do, let’s not lay blame on white working people for the decline of our democracy or today’s rise of Jim Jordan. The authoritarian, oligarchical—yes, even violent—impulses of political life today are really the responsibility of a basket full of highly-educated elites. And because they are so unencumbered by principle, they are really dangerous.

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GUK1

Pro-Trump donors in huge cash drive to boost doctors pushing states to reopen

This article is more than 6 years old

Save Our Country coalition, with links to Trump administration, building support for new tax cuts and curbs on Covid-19 spending

Peter Stone in Washington

Mon 1 Jun 2020

A powerful conservative coalition whose key members have strong Trump administration ties, is seeking to raise $5m to back hundreds of doctors pressing states to open rapidly and to build support for new tax cuts and curbing pandemic spending, say its leaders.

The Save Our Country (SOC) coalition was launched in April by veteran advocates of small government policies who lead rightwing groups like FreedomWorks Foundation, Tea Party Patriots and the shadowy state policy network the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec).

Nearly all top public health voices, like the White House adviser Dr Anthony Fauci, urge caution in reopening states. There is broad consensus among most public health experts worldwide that too swiftly ending lockdowns risks a potentially devastating second wave of infections in a pandemic that has already cost more than 100,000 American lives.

But the Tea Party Patriots have spearheaded a drive, in radio and TV interviews, to mobilize doctors urging states to move faster. It is now attracting broader financial support from rightwing donors and groups in the shape of the SOC. Doctors in the group have also pushed unscientific theories about the pandemic in ways that have sparked anger and criticism.

The Tea Party leader Jenny Beth Martin said the group has about 800 members and its mission is to “educate the American public about the unintended side-effects” of the shutdown. Martin said 800 doctors signed a letter in May to Donald Trump which called the lockdowns a “mass casualty” event causing depression and other ills and urged Trump to end the “national shutdown”. A copy of the letter is going this week to governors nationwide.

The coalition’s key groups are dark money non-profits that historically have been funded by a mix of wealthy donors, corporations and conservative foundations. One leading figure in the loose-knit coalition is the FreedomWorks economic adviser and free markets advocate Stephen Moore.

The coalition’s economic and health agendas are drawing fire from scientists and economists of all political stripes

Brandon said the SOS coalition has raised just over $800,000 towards a $5m goal for projects including new ad efforts – online, radio and print – to rev up grassroots pressure to reopen states faster, plus curtail more federal spending and promote business-favored tax cuts.

Los Angeles-based Dr Simone Gold, who has been prominent in the doctors’ drive, was featured over Memorial Day weekend at a rally in Los Angeles which drew the conservative radio host Dennis Prager.

According to the Associated Press, the Council for National Policy Action, another SOS member, on 11 May held a call about the doctors’ effort with Trump campaign officials who indicated they plan to launch a similar drive soon. Gold told the AP that there was “no scientific basis that the average American should be concerned about” Covid-19 – something that downplays all medical evidence about the pandemic’s risks.

Gold has also used talk radio to tout the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine – which Trump has taken in hopes of blocking Covid-19 – despite growing scientific evidence it carries big health risks.

The coalition’s economic and health agendas are drawing fire from scientists and economists of all political stripes.

“The fact that these organizations have found doctors who are willing to support a rightwing agenda designed to help Donald Trump against all scientific evidence and appropriate public health practices is shameful,” said Irwin Redlener, a professor of public health at Columbia University.

Critics notwithstanding, Brandon said the coalition recently spent $50,000 for videos on Facebook, Hulu and Twitter targeting independents and Republicans with the message that Covid-19 mostly hits the elderly to minimize risks for others.

FreedomWorks, which boasts an arm whose tax status permits lobbying, has also been prodding the Senate “to pump the brakes on new spending”, Brandon said referring to the $3tn-plus that has already been allocated for corporate relief and the pandemic’s painful fallout for tens of millions.

Besides coalition projects, Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks have tapped their email lists and social media to mobilize activists to join “liberate” demonstrations in more than 10 states including North Carolina, Wisconsin, Virginia and Michigan, with the latter attracting some gun-toting activists.

Key groups in the SOC coalition, which has 200 members, have been funded by prominent billionaires, including some who have been active in the sprawling big-money network led by the oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch.

Tea Party Patriots, for instance, received almost $2m in 2017 and 2018 from Richard Uihlein, whose net worth in early 2020 was almost $25bn according to public records. Charles Koch, whose net worth Forbes last month pegged at $46.5bn, has been an Alec funder. The Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, whose net worth in February was $6.5bn, has backed Job Creators Network which also belongs to the coalition.

The coalition and some member groups have held strategy conference calls that include some wealthy donors and underscore White House ties. FreedomWorks and Brandon hosted one such call on May 21 with Vice-President Mike Pence and Moore.

A GOP source who heard the call said Pence offered mostly familiar rhetoric about “restoring American greatness” and congratulated the call’s “distinguished” participants.

In turn, Moore stressed FreedomWorks support for a payroll tax cut, an idea Trump has pushed but which has faced bipartisan Senate opposition in part because it mainly helps workers with jobs, and not the tens of millions newly unemployed.

Jerry Taylor, who heads the non-partisan Niskanen Center and used to work at Alec leading a taskforce on energy and the environment, faults the coalition’s economic and health analyses.

“The political actors involved with these groups are united both in their hostility to mainstream science – which they consider a conspiratorial leftist plot to destroy free market capitalism – and their superficial understanding of economics. Fully reopening the economy will not produce an economic recovery until the coronavirus is contained and can stay contained,” he said.

boing no lnx 8 22

The dark money billionaire-funded Tea Party Patriots has an "action guide" for disrupting public health measures

JENNIFER SANDLIN  9:30 AM MON AUG 22, 2022

DALLAS - SEP 04 : A conservative Tea Party Express protest of big government and Obamacare in Dallas. Taken September 04, 2009 in Dallas, TX. Ken Durden]

Where I live (and probably where you live), if you wandered outside and looked around at restaurants, bars, shopping centers, airplanes, airports, municipal buildings, movie theaters, universities, schools, office buildings, and heck, even medical offices, you'd never know COVID is still a 'thing,' despite the fact that official case counts hover around 100,000 cases in the US per day and deaths are consistently around 500 a day, according to the New York Times.

The situation is even worse in reality, though, as many epidemiologists assert that official cases are vastly undercounted, and state that actual numbers of cases might be up to thirty times higher than officially reported. And maybe you're willing to accept that 500 deaths a day is just "the new normal." Death isn't the only bad outcome, however—experts assert that as many as 1 in 5 people who had COVID develop "long COVID," which can be debilitating for months or years.

Where I live (and probably where you live), if you wandered outside and looked around at restaurants, bars, shopping centers, airplanes, airports, municipal buildings, movie theaters, universities, schools, office buildings, and heck, even medical offices,you'd never know COVID is still a 'thing,' despite the fact that official case counts hover around 100,000 cases in the US per day and deaths are consistently around 500 a day,according to the New York Times.

The situation is even worse in reality, though, as many epidemiologists assert that official cases are vastly undercounted, and state that actual numbers of cases might be up to thirty times higher than officially reported. And maybe you're willing to accept that 500 deaths a day is just "the new normal." Death isn't the only bad outcome, however—experts assert that as many as 1 in 5 people who had COVID develop "long COVID," which can be debilitating for months or years.

If you still care about COVID and wonder why the entire country seems to be being gaslit by the folks running the public health system, here's an interesting analysis that helps explain what happened. Journalist Walker Bragman recently posted a link on Twitter to an "action guide" on "stopping medical mandates," created by the "Action" arm of the Tea Party Patriots. The mission of "Tea Party Patriots Action" is:

to equip Americans with the resources and training they need to be engaged citizens and effective activists. Our vision is for a nation where individual liberty is cherished and maximized, where the Constitution is revered and upheld, and where Americans are free to pursue their American Dream.

:{

}:

They have three main platforms, including "personal freedom," "economic freedom," and "debt free future," as well as a whole host of topics about which they produce action guides, including "National debt, Healthcare, Tax reform, Big government, Immigration, First Amendment rights, and Second Amendment rights." The guide that Walker Bragman is referring to was published in Summer 2021 and is called "I do not consent: Stop UnAmerican Medical Mandates, A How-To Guide for the American People." It includes guidance about how to "Host a Sign-Waving Event," along with sample slogans to put on signs such as:

Tyrants never let a crisis go to waste! They're using Covid to control you!

Let our kids BREATHE! No more mandates!

No more Covid fear mongering! We are FREE AMERICANS!

Don't let the panic porn manipulate you into giving up your rights!

The guide also includes information about how to "Organize Parents & Concerned Citizens," and how to "Make Some Calls" (including scripts) to federal elected officials, governors, state legislators, and more. The guide ends with a request for donations, naturally.

Bragman asserts that this Tea Party activist work helps explains how we got to our current state of affairs regarding COVID. Along with the link to the guide, he tweeted, "Big money has poisoned our national discourse around COVID. This guide was published last summer by the billionaire-funded dark money group Tea Party Patriots Action to help people defeat public health measures like mask requirements." It's probably not the entire reason we've gotten to the point of being told to just 'live with the virus' while cases and deaths rage on, but it's certainly part of the story.

TWEET  COMMENTS

TEA PARTY USEFUL IDIOTS

hERE ARE THE DONORS TO TEA PARTY GROUP THAT HELPED ORGANIZE PRE-RIOT RALLY DONORS TO THE Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that helped organize the January 6 rally preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, include the Jewish Community Federation and late billionaire Republican donor Sanford Diller, according to a 990 form submitted to the IRS by the tax-exempt nonprofit in 2019.

theright-wing organization was listed on the March to Save America website alongside groups like Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action (an affiliate of Turning Point USA), and Women for America First, according to areportlast week from Documented, a watchdog group that investigates corporate influence. The March to Save America website is down, but archived versions list several participating organizations. Supporters of President Donald Trump gathered for a mass event outside the Capitol last week, aiming to coincide with challenges to Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The rally culminated in a mob attack on the Capitol that left five people dead.

The Tea Party Patriots’ tax filing was obtained by Eli Clifton, the a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who shared it with The Intercept.

A  screenshot of a tax filing showing donations to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that organized the “March to Save America” rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.

Screenshot: Obtained by Eli Clifton

In a statement, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said her group did not fund the rally and denounced the violence that followed it. “Neither Tea Party Patriots Foundation, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, nor Tea Party Patriots Action spent any money on the rally,” Martin said. “We condemn the violence. We are shocked, outraged, and saddened at the turn of events on January 6. One of the reasons we revere our Constitution is that it created a framework that allows for the resolution of political conflict in a peaceful manner.”

The Intercept sought to reach out to people listed on the form. The form lists a person named Lewis Stahl and a man by that name is in prison for tax evasion. There was no available contact information for the Will Moose Fund or the John 3:16 FDN.

DonorsTrust, a little-known organization that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into right-wing causes over the years and given wealthy contributors the ability to do so anonymously, donated to the Tea Party Patriots a total of $103,000, according to the filing. DonorsTrust has bankrolled a range of causes in the conservative movement, from climate change denial to the right’s attacks on organized labor. Wealthy conservatives use these tax-exempt charities and similar organizations — known as “donor-advised funds” — as a go-between to pump money into controversial groups and causes since they can direct their donations without legal obligations to name their donors. (DonorsTrust did not respond to requests for comment.)

The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund was among the biggest donors on the Tea Party Patriots list, giving the group a total of $100,000. The Jewish Community Federation, which also functions as a donor-advised fund, previously contributed $15,000 to Turning Point USA. In a now-deleted tweet, Charlie Kirk, leader and founder of Turning Point USA, claimed that Turning Point Action would be sending more than 80 buses “full of patriots” to the Washington rally.

Of the Tea Party Patriots donation, the Federation said in a statement, “This was a grant made in 2017 by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund to support a donor’s philanthropy. We conducted due diligence prior to approving the grant to ensure the grantee was a qualified 501(c)(3). We have not received a grant request for this organization since 2017.”

while the donations from these funds aren’t direct, donor-advised funds still have the power to vet contributions. “Donors can only make non-binding recommendations” from their fund, according to JCF’s fund policies, and “they cannot control when and how the Federation will make grants nor control decisions about which grantees will receive funding.”

The form said a person named Tad Taube donated $70,000 to the Tea Party Patriots, and a philanthropist from the San Francisco Bay areawith that name did not respond to requests for comment. John Binkley is listed as giving $29,000. John Binkley from Alaska, a Republican former state senator who launched a failed gubernatorial run and served as one of the state’s three electors to the Electoral College, denied that he had made any donations to any Tea Party groups. And Sanford Diller, a billionaire Republican donor who died in February 2018, made the second-biggest contribution on the list at $150,000.

Martin, the Tea Party Patriots co-founder, tweeted late last year that she would be speaking at the “Stop the Steal” rally and promoted the event in the weeks leading up to it. She called for “peaceful” protest as the rally became violent. A few hours earlier, Martin had tweeted, “We will not allow them to steal this election!” — though the tweet did not name the perpetrators.

The Tea Party Patriots, which was formed in 2009 and describes itself as the “nation’s largest grassroots Tea Party organization,” is funded by two nonprofits and a political action committee.

action 501c4 cpi voter suppression

CPI's Voter Suppression Network Holds Statewide Summits

Starting in February 2022, CPI's Election Integrity Network organized and held statewide voter suppression summits in the states. CPI's Election Integrity Network is chaired by voter suppression advocate and GOP attorney Cleta Mitchell.

The Center for Media and Democracy tracked the summits as they were announced. As of April 4, 2022, below are the statewide events held/announced:

Georgia

CPI held the Georgia Statewide Election Integrity Summit on February 18 & 19, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. The summit featured a number of breakout sessions on elections and a "special" keynote from Mark Meadows, “What Happened in 2020 and What We Must Do to Protect Future Elections in Georgia."[6]

Arizona

CPI held the Arizona Statewide Election Integrity Summit on March 11 & 12, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. The summit featured a number of breakout sessions on elections and a "special" keynote from Mark Meadows,“What Happened in 2020 and What We Must Do to Protect Future Elections in Arizona." The summit also held a "bonus session" on "Special Grassroots Training / Building the Citizens Campaign to Win the Fight for Voter ID in Arizona."[7]

Sponsors of the Arizona event included: AMAC Action,America First Policy Institute, America Pack, Arizona Free Enterprise Club, Election Transparency Initiative, EZAZ.org, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, Public Interest Legal Foundation, **Tea Party Patriots** Action, Virginia Institute for Public Policy, and Voter Reference Foundation.

Florida

CPI held the Florida Statewide Election Integrity Summit on March 25-26, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. The summit featured a number of breakout sessions on elections and a "special" keynote from Sen. Jim DeMint and a speech from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The summit also held Florida specific sessions, "How Floridians Vote: Mail, Machines, and Role of the USPS – How to Be Citizen Watchdogs", and "What We Must Do to Enhance Florida’s Election Code."[8]

Sponsors of the Florida event included: AMAC Action, Citizens United Foundation, Defend Florida, Foundation for Government Accountability, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, James Madison Institute, Tea Party Patriots Action, and Virginia Institute for Public Policy.

According to a report from AMAC Action, over 400 Floridians attended and other speakers included Cleta Mitchell, Florida state Rep. Cord Byrd, Chair of the Floria Election Commission Nick Primrose, Republican National Committee's Josh Findlay, and Virginia Policy Institute's Lynn Taylor.[9]

Pennsylvania

CPI held the Pennsylvania Statewide Election Integrity Summit on March 31, 2022 in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. The summit featured a number of breakout sessions on elections, a sneak preview of “Rigged": a "New Citizens United Documentary" and a speech by Kristen Eastlick from the Capital Research Center titled “The Real Kraken — How Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg Manipulated the 2020 Election." The summit also held a Pennsylvania specific session, "Understanding Absentee Voting, Recent Court Decisions about No Excuse Absentee Voting in PA, & the Role of US Post Office in Election Mail"[10]

Sponsors of the Pennsylvania event included: AMAC Action, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, Tea Party Patriots Action, and the Virginia Institute for Public Policy.

Virginia

CPI scheduled a Virginia Statewide Election Integrity Summit for April 22-23, 2022 in Williamsburg, Virginia. The summit will feature a number of breakout sessions on elections, and a specific session on Virginia titled, "What Did the Virginia Legislature Do this Year? What Remains to Be Done?"[11] A special screening of "Rigged: The Zuckerberg-Funded Plot to Defeat Donald Trump", the new documentary from Citizens United will be held. Speakers are not listed for this event.

Sponsors of the Pennsylvania event included: AMAC Action,Heritage Action for America, Middle Resolution, T**ea Party Patriots** Action, Virginia Fair Elections, and the Virginia Institute for Public Policy.

Michigan

CPI scheduled a Michigan Statewide Election Integrity Summit for May 13-14, 2022 in Detroit, Michigan. The summit will feature a number of breakout sessions on elections, and a specific session on Michigan titled, "Building the Michigan Election Integrity Infrastructure".[12] A special screening of "Rigged: The Story of How Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg Manipulated the 2020 Election", the new documentary from Citizens United will be held. Speakers are not listed for this event.

Sponsors of the Michigan event included: AMAC Action, Heritage Action for America, Michigan Election Protection Team, Tea Party Patriots Action, and the Virginia Institute for Public Policy.

Ties to the Council for National Policy

evil but not wrong

https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/tea-party-patriots-action/

tea Party Patriots Action (TPP Action or TPP) is a right-of-center advocacy organization aligned with the “Tea Party” movement. The organization is affiliated with the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, a charitable organization, and the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, a super PAC. [1] [2] [3] The TPP network supports limited government intervention in the market, decreased government spending, a flat tax, election security, and right-of-center immigration and health care policies. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

TPP received national attention for its role in organizing opposition to the Affordable Care Act shortly after its founding. [9] In summer 2020, the group again rose to national prominence for its opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns and other mandates. TPP produced a viral video in which doctors resisted state mask mandates which was later removed by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. [10] [11] [12]

TPP has been criticized for its involvement in the rally leading up to the January 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol building. [13] The organization has also been criticized for its financial management practices, with former supporters accusing the group of a lack of transparency and misallocation of its funding. [14]

CONTENTS

History

TPP has been called one of the core organizations within the Tea Party movement. Founded in March 2009, TPP was one of the six original tea parties in the country, and the group helped to organize the highly influential September 12, 2009, March on Washington which launched the movement. [15]

In its first year, TPP made national news when it organized grassroots opposition to the Affordable Care Act. TPP encouraged volunteers to protest the bill at local town hall meetings, circulating a memo encouraging them to “pack the hall” and “stand up and shout and sit right back down” in opposition to the bill. [16]

TPP also made a name for itself early on by opposing some mainstream Republican policies. In 2009, TPP organized the Contract from America initiative, which called for “real economic conservative” governance in Congress. The contract ultimately got hundreds of thousands of signatures and received the support of major right-of-center, anti-establishment organizations, including FreedomWorks, the Liberty Lab, and Americans for Tax Reform. [17]

By 2010, TPP had grown to 2,200 local chapters and claimed over 115,000 members on its website. In 2011 and 2012, TPP reported receiving $20 million per year in contributions. [18]

In 2010, TPP incorporated a charitable organization, the TPP Foundation, which provides activist training and educational resources to the public, in addition to filing amicus briefs to support right-of-center policy. [19] [20] Two years, later, the organization formed a super-PAC, the TPP Citizens Fund, in order to support candidates to push the Republican Party further right. [21]

In 2017, TPP refiled for tax-exempt status under the name Tea Party Patriots Action. While the original TPP organization founded in 2009 still exists, all TPP activities are now run through the TPP Foundation, TPP Action, and TPP Citizens Fund, with the organization celebrating its tenth anniversary under the TPP Action name. As of 2021, TPP claims over 15 million memberswho work across the United States . [22]

Advocacy Activity

TPP Action focuses on three categories through its advocacy work: personal freedom, economic freedom, and reducing the national debt. [23] TPP places a central role on the Constitution, criticizing both mainstream Republicans and Democrats for allegedly going outside of the boundaries of the Constitution to pass policies to please their constituents. [24] TPP supports its policy positions by organizing demonstrations, leading petition drives, and recruiting right-of-center candidates for office. [25]

PERSONAL FREEDOMS

Through its work on personal freedoms, TPP has adamantly opposed government surveillance of American citizens, efforts to implement government-controlled healthcare programs, and attempts to restrict speech. [26] [27] Much of TPP’s work focuses on criticizing the size of government. TPP has argued that the National Security Agency (NSA) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have become politicized and used to persecute Americans for political reasons, especially under the Obama administration and the Biden administration. [28] [29]

When Democrats in the House of Representatives called for boosting funding for the IRS in late 2020, TPP officials called the request “a bigger concern than any budget appropriations” and accused the IRS of attempting to “suspend the First Amendment for their political foes, as they did before” in reference to a 2013 scandal in which the IRS was shown to suspend or deny tax exempt status to Tea Party organizations based on their political views. [30]

GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND TAX POLICY

TPP has also advocated for right-of-center reform on economic issues, supporting a free market with decreased government intervention. TPP has argued for a decrease in taxes for all Americans and a simplification of the tax code, coupled with a massive cut in government spending in order to decrease the national debt. [31] TPP has previously expressed support for a flat, fixed tax rate across all businesses and income brackets. [32]

Much like the Tea Party itself, TPP has become known for its aggressive calls to decrease the national debt, with the organization calling for a decrease in government spending by 1% per year for the next ten years to reduce the debt by $4.5 trillion. TPP has also called for the passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to force Congress to cut spending if a balanced budget cannot be maintained. [33]

ELECTORAL ISSUES

TPP built its reputation by supporting right-of-center candidates outside of the Republican mainstream, often challenging incumbent Republicans to move the party further right and establish the Tea Party as a national force. Aside from using its PAC to fund Republican campaigns, TPP organizes grassroots initiatives in support of right-of-center candidates. [34]

In 2012, TPP criticized then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, calling him a “weak moderate” that was “hand-picked” by the Republican establishment. TPP vowed to stop the “mushy-middle” members of the Republican Party from “getting rolled” by Democrats, calling for “fighter” candidates to support far-right policies. [35] In 2014, TPP gained national attention for supporting Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel’s nearly successful challenge to former U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). [36]

Despite frequently challenging mainstream Republicans early on in its history, TPP became a notable supporting organization for former President Donald Trump. In January 2020, TPP executive Jenny Beth Martin called for the articles of impeachment against President Trump to be dismissedby the U.S. Senate and referred to the impeachment proceedings as a “sham, from start to finish.” [37]

In 2021, TPP began to pivot in its focus, with Martin saying that the group’s “animating issue’ had become “faith in the elections” following the 2020 cycle. Martin described the shift as a logical next step in the group’s campaign against government overreach, alleging that the local management of elections represented such an overreach. [38] In March 2021, TPP joined a coalition of organizations to provide financial backing to efforts to implement right-of-center election security reforms. TPP announced that it would be working with Heritage Action for America and FreedomWorks to make an eight-figure [tens of millions] investment into the efforts. [39]

COVID-19 ACTIVISM

TPP gained national attention in July 2020 when it organized a group of doctors to stage a press conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest COVID-19 lockdowns and compulsory mask policies. [40] [41] [42] At the press conference, the doctors claimed that people did not need masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was effective in treating COVID-19. Other health authorities disputed the claims. [43]

The video of the press conference went viral on Facebook, becoming one of the site’s top performing posts and receiving more than 14 million views and over 600,000 shares. Then-President Trump shared the video on Twitter before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube banned the video for allegedly promoting COVID-19 misinformation. [44]

Aside from the press conference, TPP was active in opposing COVID-19 lockdowns. During the pandemic, TPP published the Second Opinion Project, which hosted videos of doctors criticizing COVID-19 lockdowns and other state-imposed mitigation efforts. [45] TPP also joined conservative organizations including FreedomWorks and the Susan B. Anthony List in urging the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to consider intervening with states to block lockdown orders, claiming they were unconstitutional. [46]

OTHER ISSUES

TPP works to a lesser extent in advocating for right-of-center policy on healthcare and immigration. TPP has opposed attempts to implement greater government control over the health care system, including the Affordable Care Act, instead advocating for health care reform that encourages competition in the free market and minimizes the role of government in the health care sector. [47] While supporting immigration in principle, TPP has called for an end to amnesty policies and advocated for fully securing American borders before loosening immigration restrictions. [48]

Capitol Riots Controversy

In January 2021, TPP was listed as one of the groups supporting the March to Save America, a rally on January 6 to protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election results by Congress. TPP leaders were outspoken after the election, claiming without substantiation that there had been widespread fraud and that the election results should be overturned in favor of then-President Donald Trump. [49] After rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol building following the rally, critics blamed TPP and other sponsors of the peaceful march for subsequent rioting. [50]

TPP officials denied funding the rally and immediately denounced the violence which followed it. Despite its denunciation, left-of-center critics accused the organization of promoting “conspiracy theories of voter fraud and a ‘deep state,’” claiming that those theories inspired “predictable” violence at the Capitol. The left-of-center Washington Postwent so far as to publish a letter to the editor which called on the IRS to “take action” against TPP for “the safety of our nation and its citizens.” [51]

Financial Management Controversies

In 2011, the far-left magazine:{Mother Jones:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:published a three-part expose on TPP’s financial management practices, alleging that the organization refused to publicly disclose its financial information and silenced supporters who asked for such records. [52]

The expose criticized TPP for not filing the required tax Form 990s prior to receiving official tax-exempt status from the IRS, despite the fact that TPP broke no laws in failing to do so. Other right-of-center figures and even some TPP supporters criticized the move, accusing the organization of hypocrisy for demanding financial transparency in government while keeping its own financial information private. [53] TPP also received criticism for the amount of money it spent on consultants and fundraising events, with some supporters claiming to be upset that the money was not instead used for grassroots initiatives. [54]

TPP faced further criticism for its executive compensation, allowing its executive officers to fly in private planes and treat themselves to expensive hotel stays and meals while on work trips. Former TPP supporters criticized the organization for treating its executives “like kings and queens on donated money.” One former TPP supporter who criticized TPP fundraising practices claimed she was threatened by a lawsuit if she spoke publicly about the organization, while others claimed they were forced out when they questioned the group’s finances. [55]

The controversy continued following the launch of the TPP Citizens Fund, which spent nearly $2 million on fundraising, polling, and consultants in the first three months of 2014 and only $56,000 on candidate expenditures. At the same time, the PAC was paying Martin a $15,000 monthly consulting fee, in addition to her $272,000 salary from TPP Action. [56]

People and Funding

Tea Party Patriots was founded by Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, and Amy Kremer. Martin and Kremer have been called the “founding mothers” of the Tea Party movement for their involvement in founding TPP, though Kremer has since split off from TPP and become a prominent supporter of former President Trump. [57]

Martin worked in politics for most of her life, working as a Republican consultant and for former U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) before founding TPP. Martin founded TPP after struggling under more than $1.4 million in tax debt and becoming frustrated with American fiscal policy following the Wall Street bailouts. [58] [59] In 2010, Time named Martin one of its 100 most influential people in the world for her work with TPP. [60]

Meckler worked with TPP for several years before becoming interim CEO of the conservative social media platform Parler in February 2021. [61] Meckler is also president of Citizens for Self-Governance, another right-of-center organization which advocates against government regulations, and the co-founder of Convention of States Action, an organization which calls for the states to call a convention to amend the Constitution directly in order to limit the size and power of the federal government. [62] [63]

TPP has received funding from prominent right-of-center donors and organizations in the country. The organization has received $103,000 from DonorsTrust, $100,000 from the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, and $150,000 from late billionaire Republican donor Sanford Diller. [64] The TPP Citizens Fund has received over $4.3 million from Republican donor Richard “Dick” Uihlein.[65]

References...

Where are Tea Party Patriots Action’s headquarters?

Tea Party Patriots Action’s headquarters are in 80 M St Se , First Floor, Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, 20003, United States

What is Tea Party Patriots Action’s phone number?

Tea Party Patriots Action’s phone number is (206) 796-8353

What is Tea Party Patriots Action’s official website?

Tea Party Patriots Action’s official website is www.teapartypatriotsaction.org

How many employees are working in Tea Party Patriots Action?

Tea Party Patriots Action has <25 employees

What is Tea Party Patriots Action's tech stack?

The technologies that are used by Tea Party Patriots Action are: Twitter for Websites, Google Global Site Tag, iubenda, Google Font API

igor salon

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/glenn-youngkin-2655355138/

A billionaire Trump donor who funded a group that marched on the Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is bankrolling a dark-money group boosting Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin's attacks on Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe.

The Republican-aligned Restoration PACthis week launchednew ads attacking McAuliffe, who served a previous term as governor, over crime rates. (Virginia's unusual term limits restrict governors to one term, but does not bar them from running again after leaving office.) The PAC has spent $1.767 million funding ads against McAuliffe, making it by far the largest independent expenditure group in the race.

The group is funded almost entirely by Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein, co-founder of the Wisconsin shipping supply giant Uline. Uihlein contributed $24.5 million to the group in the 2020 election cycle, making up 97% of its funding, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. He put another $1.5 million into the group in May, according to FEC filings.

Uihlein and his wife Liz are among the biggest Republican donors in the country, having given more than $65 million to former President Donald Trump,Republican candidates and conservative groups since 2019. The Uihleins have also contributed $4.3 million over the past five years to theTea Party Patriots, including $800,000 in October 2020, making them by far the group's biggest donors. 

The Tea Party Patriotsparticipated in the "March to Save America" rally that preceded the Capitol riot and were one of 11 groups listed as part of the "#StopTheSteal coalition," according to WBEZ. The group also contributed to Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who was accused by "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander of helping plan the rally, which Brooks has denied. Tea Party Patriots also contributed to Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who led objections to the certification of Electoral College results in the Senate.

Restoration PAC last month also gave $942,000 to Women Speak Out Virginia — 2021, a PAC affiliated with the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List that launched a $1.4 million campaign to attack McAuliffe on abortion.

Uihlein's foundation also contributed $275,000 to Trump booster Charlie Kirk's Turning Point Action between 2014 and 2016. The group was listed as a participant in the Capitol protest and Kirk took credit for "sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president" in a since-deleted tweet.

Turning Point Action also previously received $50,000 from the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative dark-money group that helped Trump fill federal courts with conservative judges and is pushing to restrict voting. The group also funds theRepublican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), giving it $2.1 million last October and a total of $12.7 million since 2014. RAGA's fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund,**sent out robocalls**urging supporters to "march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal" on Jan. 6.

The Judicial Crisis Network has multiple legal aliases it uses for other initiatives, including The Concord Fund and Free to Learn Action.That latter group has launched a $1 million ad campaign focused on "critical race theory" in schools, an issue Youngkin and other conservatives have seized on. The group is spending $1 million attacking McAuliffe for arguing that parents should not dictate school curricula.

The Judicial Crisis Network is also closely aligned and shares staff with the Judicial Education Project and its Honest Elections Project, a conservative initiative pushing voting restrictions. The Judicial Education Network is almost entirely funded by the Donors Trust, a dark-money group backed by the Koch network. Donors Trust in 2019 gave more than $20 million to at least a dozen groups who would later question the results of the election. Last year, the Honest Elections Project announced a six-figure ad campaign stoking fears of a "brazen attempt to manipulate the election system for partisan advantage" before the election even happened.

Youngkin has tried to walk a fine line on Trump's election lies as he tries to solidify his Republican base without alienating independent and suburban voters in the increasingly blue state. He refused to acknowledge President Biden's election victory while seeking the Republican nomination, doing so only after he had already triumphed over Republican rivals. And while Youngkin has said he would have voted to certify the election results, he is nonetheless calling for an "audit" of voting machines in Virginia (something the state already does) and boosting election conspiracy theorists.

Youngkin, the former CEO of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, is also the primary funder of Virginia Wins, contributing $1 million to back Republican candidates in down-ballot races. The PAC has funneled tens of thousands to candidates who attended the Stop the Steal rally, organized transportation for others to attend the event, defended Capitol rioters or pushed election conspiracy theories, Mother Jones reported on Thursday.

Social media platforms elevated a video featuring disinformation about COVID-19. Right-wing media figures embraced it.

On July 27, a video making false claims about COVID-19 began circulating on Facebook, and soon other social media platforms. Within a day, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter committed to taking it down, but copies are still spreading -- and even worse, mainstream right-wing media figures are embracing the video, even as we learn about the deranged figures behind it.

First promoted by the Tea Party Patriots and Breitbart, the video featured members of a group called “America’s Frontline Doctors” holding a press conference in front of the Supreme Court. One of the speakers, Dr. Stella Immanuel, falsely claimed that “you don't need masks” to prevent the spread of COVID-19; she also falsely claimed hydroxychloroquine was a cure for the disease. It's not, and the fact is that trusted studies have repeatedly shown no effect.

Within hours, Donald Trump had retweeted claims from the video.

The Daily Beast found that Immanuel has made some truly bizarre claims, including that alien DNA can be used in medical treatments, and that some medical problems are caused by sex with demons. Eric Hananoki found that Immanuel had a long track record of anti-LGBTQ remarks, including calling homosexuality "the agenda of the Devil." The rest of the "Frontline Doctors" are hardly any better.

Facebook and Twitter removed the original video, with a Facebook spokesperson saying the reason was it shared “false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” and a Twitter spokesperson saying, “We're taking action in line with our Covid misinfo policy.” However, Media Matters found multiple instances of the video being re-uploaded on Facebook and Twitter following the platform’s statements.

Fox News and right-wing media did a full-throated defense of the video and the doctors, despite the lies and the extremist personalities. Rush Limbaugh extensively defended Immanuel, claiming the Daily Beast ran a "hit piece" on her. Tucker Carlson complained about the video being removed while also attacked the Daily Beast's reporting. Immanuel herself said that the Daily Beast's reporting did "a great job summarizing our deliverance ministry and exposing incubus and succubus.”

Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham also complained about the video being removed. Ingraham hosted one of the "Frontline Doctors," who repeated the false claim that hydroxychloroquine was a "cure."

The entire right-wing ecosystem is built upon and thrives upon conspiracy theories. While conspiracy theories once took weeks or months to reach millions (for example, conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's birth certificate), the process now happens in a matter of minutes -- and this time, the misinformation puts public health on the line. Even worse, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are either unwilling or unable to stop it.

https://www.the GUK .com/us-news/2020/apr/18/coronavirus-americans-protest-stay-at-home

no lnx many pix

Thousands of Americans backed by rightwing donors gear up for protests

Conservative activists to demand governors lift stay-home orders – and movement has been driven by wealthy conservative groups

Adam Gabbatt

@adamgabbatt

Sat 18 Apr 2020

Many of the rallies have been inspired by a protest at the Michigan state capitol.

Thousands of people are preparing to attend protests across the US in the coming days, as a rightwing movement against stay-at-home orders, backed by wealthy conservative groups and promoted by Donald Trump, continues to take hold.

Conservative activists are demanding governors lift orders designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, despite the recommendations of public health officials. Trump, who has clashed with Democratic governors over how soon to reopen the US economy, tweeted his support on Friday, in an unprecedented endorsement of civil disobedience by a sitting president.

Many of the planned rallies have been inspired by a protest at the Michigan state capitol on Wednesday, which was attended by thousands.

2:09

Armed protesters demand an end to Michigan's coronavirus lockdown orders – video

Yet while organisers claim the protests are grassroots- and people-driven, a closer look reveals a movement driven by traditional rightwing groups, including one funded by the family of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos.

The rallies have drawn comparisons to the Tea Party movement, which sprang into life in 2009 following the election of Barack Obama and was driven in part by Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by rightwing donors Charles and David Koch.

As with the Tea Party, the anti-stay-at-home movement has been promoted by a rightwing media eager for the economy to reopen, including Fox News which on Friday aired a segment on protests in Virginia, Michigan and Minnesota. Two minutes later, Trump tweeted to his 77.4 million followers the need to “liberate” those states.

1:40

'They seem very responsible to me': Trump defends anti-lockdown protesters- video

A majority of Americans support the lockdowns, with a Pew Research Center poll finding that 66% are concerned state governments will lift restrictions on public activity too quickly. But protests, helped by media coverage, have spread around the country.

The two groups behind the “operation gridlock” rally in Michigan on Wednesday have ties to the Republican party and the Trump administration.

The Michigan Freedom Fund, which said it was a co-host of the rally, has received more than $500,000 from the DeVos family, regular donors to rightwing groups.

The other host, the Michigan Conservative Coalition, was founded by Matt Maddock, now a Republican member of the state house of representatives. The MCC also operates under the name Michigan Trump Republicans, and in January held an event featuring several members of the Trump campaign.

“Absolutely the Michigan event was a huge inspiration and it was a huge success,” said Evie Harris, organizer of a ReOpen Maryland protest planned for the state capitol on Saturday.

“That was the model for our event.”

Thousands drove to the Michigan state capitol in Lansing, while the Michigan Freedom Fund purchased Facebook advertising to promote the rally. Protesters, many waving Trump campaign signs, honked their horns and chanted for Governor Gretchen Whitmer to end the stay-at-home rules.

The protest was covered exhaustively by the rightwing media.Harris said her Facebook following grew from “700-800 people” to more than 15,000 members following the Michigan rally, inspiring her to organize “Operation Gridlock Annapolis” for Saturday.

Harris said her group had support from some elected officials in Maryland, but declined to name them.

While ReOpen Maryland might not have funding from rightwing advocacy groups, it appears to be linked to at least four other “reopen” organizations.

“Government mandating sick people to stay home is called quarantine,” ReOpen Maryland said. “However, the government mandating healthy citizens to stay home, forcing businesses and churches to close is called tyranny.”

That text is identical to text on Facebook pages calling for rallies in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Virginia. ReOpen Virginia aims to hold its own “gridlock” rally on Wednesday – again inspired by the conservative-funded Michigan event.

Despite ReOpen Virginia billing itself as a “grassroots group of people and small business owners”, founder Kristen Lynne Hall said the idea for the protest came from the organizers of the “Lobby Day” demonstration earlier this year.

That demonstration was organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights group that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to politicians.

Hall, who said Candace Owens, a rightwing activist and favorite of Trump, had been in touch to discuss the event, said the president’s tweet about “liberating” Virginia was “great”.

“It could be spreading the movement,” she said. “Any support is appreciated right now.”

A decade ago, the Tea Party movement billed itself as “grass roots”, despite receiving money from the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and the conservative organization FreedomWorks.

Jenny Beth Martin, who founded the Tea Party Patriotsgroup, promoted this week’s Michigan protest. The Tea Party Patriots also supported the protest, in messages to its200,000 Twitter followers.

Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, said the similarities between the Tea Party and ReOpen movements went further, with rightwing media boosting both.

Fox News ran favorable coverage of the Michigan rally and hosts including Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro endorsed the protest.

“Fox gave the Tea Party a phenomenal amount of attention and promotion,” Gertz said. “It really sort of boot-strapped it to another level, and made it a political force, and we see something similar happening with these anti-stay-at-home order movements.”

Gertz said he was not “simply” concerned with “the conservatives having a strong election the next time out”.

“It’s a real chance for devastating consequences with regard to the coronavirus,” he said.

==

==

Tea Party PatriotsCitizens Fund

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00540898&cycle=2018

2018 pac

Total Receipts$2,900,635
Total Spent$2,852,253
Begin Cash on Hand$71,688
End Cash on Hand$120,070
Debts$0
Independent Expenditures$127,652
Date of last reportMay 31, 2018

2018 PAC Contribution Data

Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients)$0
Contributions to this PAC from individual donors of $200 or more ( list donors)$2,120,970

Official PAC Name:

TEA PARTY PATRIOTS CITIZENS FUND 

Location: WOODSTOCK, GA 30189

:{Industry: Republican/Conservative

Treasurer: KILGORE, PAUL }:

FEC Committee ID: C00540898

(Look up actual documents filed at the FEC)

2016

Grand Total: $1,371,544

Total For Democrats: $0

Total Against Democrats: $378,296

Total For Republicans: $993,248

Total Against Republicans: $0

CandidateStatePartyOfficeTotalForAgainst
Brat, DaveVARHouse$3,367$3,367$0
Clinton, HillaryDPresident$378,296$0$378,296
Cruz, TedRSenate$160,115$160,115$0
Cruz, TedTXRSenate$5,119$5,119$0
Fleming, JohnLARSenate$16,498$16,498$0
Garrett, ScottNJRHouse$3,366$3,366$0
Gerritson, BeckyALRHouse$2,954$2,954$0
Glenn, DarrylCORSenate$2,974$2,974$0
Gohmert, Louis B JrTXRHouse$8,061$8,061$0
King, Steven AIARHouse$6,341$6,341$0
Lee, MikeUTRSenate$6,341$6,341$0
Meadows, Mark RNCRHouse$6,341$6,341$0
Paul, RandKYRSenate$6,341$6,341$0
Ramsland, RussTXRHouse$2,029$2,029$0
Rubio, MarcoFLRSenate$29,408$29,408$0
Shelby, Richard CALRSenate$6,341$6,341$0
Tenney, ClaudiaNYRHouse$2,239$2,239$0
Toomey, PatPARSenate$120,795$120,795$0
Toth, SteveTXRHouse$1,675$1,675$0
Trump, DonaldRPresident$602,943$602,943$0

u

UIHLEIN, RICHARD E

LAKE FORST, IL 60045

ULINE08/26/16$500,000

UIHLEIN, RICHARD E

LAKE FORST, IL 60045

ULINE10/04/16$500,000

UIHLEIN, RICHARD E

LAKE FORST, IL 60045

ULINE10/26/16$415,000

UIHLEIN, RICHARD E

LAKE FORST, IL 60045

ULINE04/08/16$50,000

HILLMAN, TATNALL

ASPEN, CO 81611

RETIRED10/31/16$30,000

UIHLEIN, RICHARD E

LAKE FORST, IL 60045

01/19/16$25,000

DAVIS, WILLIAM S MR

FORT WORTH, TX 76116

DAVOIL, INC.10/03/16$20,000

JANICK, JOSEPH

PHOENIX, AZ 85028

RETIRED06/30/16$20,000

GALKIN, WARREN

WARWICK, RI 02886

HATCO PRODUCTS CORP.08/19/16$15,000

GALKIN, WARREN

WARWICK, RI 02886

HATCO PRODUCTS CORP.01/25/16$15,000

THE JOHN 316 FOUNDATION

DALLAS, TX 75205

10/14/16$12,500

WRIGHT, MICHAELON

TROY, MI 48084

TMW ENTERPRISES INC.10/14/16$5,000

FISHER, RICHARD B MR

PITTSBURGH, PA 15222

FEDERATED SECURITIES COMPANY07/11/16$5,000

MOORE, JANET

SPRING BRANCH, TX 78070

06/27/16$5,000

STEINKAMP, JEFFREY

ROCHESTER, VT 05767

RETIRED03/17/15$5,000

GALKIN, WARREN

WARWICK, RI 02886

HATCO PRODUCTS CORP.07/22/15$5,000

GALKIN, WARREN

WARWICK, RI 02886

HATCO PRODUCTS CORP.09/25/15$5,000

GALKIN, WARREN

WARWICK, RI 02886

HATCO PRODUCTS CORP.12/16/15$5,000

HILLMAN, TATNALL

ASPEN, CO 81611

RETIRED08/21/15$5,000

MURPHY, JOE

SHAVANO PARK, TX 78230

03/24/16$5,000

MUZI, FREDERICK O

DOVER, MA 02030

RETIRED03/01/16$5,000

GALKIN, WARREN

WARWICK, RI 02886

HATCO PRODUCTS CORP.09/15/16$5,000

PUZDER, ANDY

CARPINTERIA, CA 93013

CKE RESTAURANT HOLDINGS09/29/16$5,000

MUZI, FREDERICK O

DOVER, MA 02030

RETIRED04/08/16$5,000

TAUBE, THADDEUS

BELMONT, CA 94002

TAUBE INVESTMENTS, INC.10/11/16$4,995

HILLMAN, TATNALL

ASPEN, CO 81611

RETIRED02/12/16$4,000

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT LLC

LANSDOWNE, VA 20176

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT LLC

LANSDOWNE, VA 20176

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT LLC

LANSDOWNE, VA 20176

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT LLC

LANSDOWNE, VA 20176

biggest yr 1st 2014?

EA PARTY PATRIOTS

WOODSTOCK, GA 30189

05/20/14$300,000

KATZ, CARY

LAS VEGAS, NV 89134

COLLEGE LOAN CORPORATION04/17/14$50,000

KATZ, CARY

LAS VEGAS, NV 89134

COLLEGE LOAN CORPORATION10/21/13$50,000

PRISTO, ELAINE

PHOENIX, AZ 85022

06/23/14$50,000

PRISTO, ELAINE

PHOENIX, AZ 85022

06/19/14$25,000

GALKIN, WARREN

WARWICK, RI 02886

09/19/14$25,000

DALBOSCO, DONALD

KATY, TX 77450

06/27/14$20,000

GATES, ALONZO E MR II

SAN ANTONIO, TX 78230

09/19/14$12,000

BLUDWORTH, JOHN L MR III

HOCKLEY, TX 77447

04/22/14$10,000

MANN, RACHEL K

SARASOTA, FL 34230

04/24/14$10,000

PRISTO, ELAINE

PHOENIX, AZ 85022

04/14/14$10,000

DAVIS, WILLIAM S MR

FORT WORTH, TX 76116

05/05/14$10,000

DAHLGREN, WILLIAM R MR

PLS VRDS EST, CA 90274

AIRTECH INTERNATIONAL01/31/14$10,000

MURPHREE, TERENCE H

HOUSTON, TX 77077

USSI10/22/14$10,000

MURPHREE, TERENCE H

HOUSTON, TX 77077

USSI10/28/14$10,000

LYNCH, BARBARA B

MILWAUKEE, WI 53211

11/26/13$10,000

DICKSON, M ALLEN

SHREVEPORT, LA 71135

RETIRED08/14/13$10,000

WRIGHT, MICHAELON

TROY, MI 48084

09/25/13$10,000

BLUDWORTH, JOHN L MR III

HOCKLEY, TX 77447

07/11/14$10,000

HILLMAN, TATNALL

ASPEN, CO 81611

RETIRED10/15/14$10,000

QUILHOT, JEANETTE S MRS

ROANOKE, IN 46783

RETIRED11/14/14$7,500

HILLMAN, TATNALL

ASPEN, CO 81611

RETIRED11/14/14$7,500

WRIGHT, MICHAELON

TROY, MI 48084

10/17/14$7,500

QUILHOT, JEANETTE S MRS

ROANOKE, IN 46783

RETIRED04/24/14$7,500

BROOKS, MARIANNE MRS

TALLAHASSEE, FL 32312

BROOKS, MARIANNE MRS

TALLAHASSEE, FL 32312

BROOKS, MARIANNE MRS

TALLAHASSEE, FL 32312

BROOKS, MARIANNE MRS

TALLAHASSEE, FL 32312

=

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-15/club-for-growth-tea-party-patriots-support-pence-pick

“Mike Pence would be an outstanding vice president,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh says in release.

}:

==

==

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/10/tea-party-pyramid-scheme

→ Must Reads, Politics, The Right

How the Tea Party's Like Herbalife

— By Stephanie Mencimer

| Tue Oct. 19, 2010

Tea party leaders love to talk about how their grassroots movement is a revolutionary new way of doing politics from the bottom up, organized more like a regenerating starfish than a top-down bureaucracy. But what if the tea party isn't a star fish but more of a pyramid? At least one of the biggest tea party organizations in the country, Tea Party Patriots, bears a striking resemblance to companies like Herbalife that operate what some critics consider nothing more thanlegalized pyramid schemes. And that's not just because, as I report today, one of the group's top leaders was a top earner at Herbalife. Consider some of the parallels:

CONSTANT RECRUITING

Herbalife: Ninety percent of Herbalife’s low-level distributors quit within a year, requiring constant recruitment to keep the company afloat.

Tea Party: Lorie Medina, a recruiter for the Dallas tea party, recently told the *National Journal*: "What I see is, every three, four, five months about 10 to 20 percent of your active people trail off. Those numbers have to be replaced every few months. It's a continual grind to keep the numbers up." Dawn Wildman, a California based national Tea Party Patriots coordinator, said: "The message is important, but people are expendable."

LOW OVERHEAD

Herbalife: By using "independent distributors," Herbalife keeps its costs low and shifts overhead to the little people.

Tea Party: *National Journal* touts cheapness as one benefit of the tea party's "leaderless" structure: "The network never outgrows the infrastructure, because each tea party is self-reliant. And the groups make it their business to seed more groups, producing sometimes dizzying growth."

FONDNESS FOR SIGNS

Herbalife: Responsible for ubiquitous telephone pole signs offering work from home deals.

Tea Party: Tea Party Patriots recently launched a “One Million Yard Signs” project as part of a “branding” and recruiting effort.

MEGA RALLIES

Herbalife: Motivational rallies, complete with testimonials, are a staple. Company founder Mark Hughes (who died of a drug overdose in 2000), once told rally crowds selling Herbalife products would make the world a better place.

Tea Party: Rallies often seem to be the movement’s raison d'etre. They often feature testimonials from an activist claiming that before the tea party, she had been "just a mom" who didn't care about politics, but now, her life has been transformed through work to make the country a better place for her children and grandchildren.

PEOPLE AT THE BOTTOM GO BROKE

Herbalife: Class action lawsuit settled in 2004 for $6 million alleged that thousands of people who signed on as Herbalife “supervisors” lost anywhere between $10,000 and $50,000.

Tea Party: Pam Silleman, a single mom who founded the Napa Tea Party in California, says she has depleted savings and run up $100,000 in credit card bills getting local tea party off the ground.

PEOPLE AT THE TOP MAKE $

Herbalife: The average "president's team" member, a group that makes up less than one percent of Herbalife’s distributors, reportedlygrosses about $600,000 a year.

Tea Party: Jenny Beth Martin, a national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots has saidshe now earns $6,000 a month. Co-coordinator Mark Meckler, the former member of Herbalife's "president's team," draws a salary, too, though won’t disclose the amount. (Conspiracy minded and disgruntled patriots suspect it is at least six figures, paid with donations vacuumed up from local groups whose organizers are going broke.)

THRIVING IN BAD ECONOMIC TIMES

Herbalife: While the stock market was in a serious slump and the country in a dire recession, Herbalife’s stock price has more than doubled as the unemployed turn to desperate money-making schemes.

Tea Party: Didn’t exist before February 2009. Tea Party Patriots, for its part, now claims 15 million members.

==

wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Patriots

The organization was founded by Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, and Amy Kremer in March 2009.[5]

Tea Party Patriots was a co-sponsor of the 9/12 March on Washington,[6] but refused to participate in the National Tea Party Convention.[7] Tea Party Patriots is most notable for organizing citizen opposition at the healthcare town hall meetings of 2009,[8] as well as various other anti-government run health care protests.[9]

Controversies

Liberal political opinions by Rolling Stone and Talking Points Memo have alleged that the organization is run with the help ofFreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit.[16][17] Tea Party Patriots denies this claim.[citation needed]

A 2011 investigation by the liberal magazine Mother Jones alleged that the Tea Party Patriots organization was using its 501(c)(4) status to avoid disclosing its expenditures both to the IRS and to local contributors. The magazine reported that when local Tea Party groups pressed for more details on the group's expenses, they were removed from the umbrella organization and threatened with legal action.[18]

owa state Senator Joni Ernst paid for ALEC membership with campaign funds, and her ALEC ties became an issue in her race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tom Harkin (D), according to Mother Jones. Ernst, the underdog early in the crowded Republican primary, soon became the darling of outside spending groups, maintaining a $12 million lead in outside spending over Braley into the final weeks of the race, according to CRP. This Senate campaign joined North Carolina's and Colorado's in the top threebiggest spending in the country. Earnst won the election with 52% of the vote.

Spending supporting Ernst or attacking Braley came from the Koch-tied 60 Plus Association, American Future Fund, Freedom Partners Action Fund, Freedomworks for America, National Federation of Independent Business, andTea Party Patriots Citizens Fund; the ALEC member American Chemistry Council; Karl Rove's Super PAC American Crossroads and 501(c)(4) Crossroads GPS; the Tea Party-affiliated American Majority Action; the Koch-founded and -funded (and ALEC-tied) Americans for Prosperity; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and more. (In a race that consistently skirted serious issues, the Chamber's ad attacking Braley featured a chicken dance.)

- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/12654#sthash.DkN3oZ13.dpuf

==

6.14

The people who have absolutely no problem equating President Obama with Hitler have very thin skins when it comes to their own prominent figures.

Tea Party Patriots has filed a complaint against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) with the Senate Ethics Committee to protest his repeated attacks against Charles and David Koch.

Jenny Beth Martin, the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, filed the complaint, charging Reid with “unlawfully and unethically targeting private citizens.” […]

“It’s been generations since a member of the Senate has abused the power of his office to attack private citizens the way Harry Reid has sought to vilify Charles and David Koch,” Martin said.

She said Reid’s tactics are “nothing more than a continuation of the thuggish intimidation campaign mounted by the Obama administration to target and silence people and organizations Democrats disagree with.”

With partisan politics trumping science-based solutions all too often these days, it's especially heartening when people overcome political differences to let solid data point the way toward practical solutions. That's what happened in Georgia last month when state regulators voted to require Georgia Power -- the state's sole investor-owned electricity provider -- to expand the use of solar power in its energy mix.

Regulators on the all-Republican commission voted 3-2 in favor of a plan that requires Atlanta-based Georgia Power Co. to increase its solar power capacity by 525 megawatts by the end of 2016. The decision comes on the heels of the announcement that Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co., is planning to retire more than 2,000 megawatts worth of coal-fired generating capacity.

The vote in Georgia is notable not just for the commonsense outcome of adding more cost-effective renewable energy in a state ranked fifth in the nation for solar potential but just 21st for installed solar capacity. The real surprise here, after more than a year of often acrimonious debate, is the nearly unprecedented coalition that made the decision possible -- a mixture of not just environmentalists and solar advocates but also conservative lawmakers and Tea Party members.

Koch-Sponsored Misinformation

The latter groups in particular had to face down a barrage of misinformation from Americans for Prosperity (AFP), an organization founded and underwritten by the billionaire Koch brothers, whose predecessor organization, Citizens for a Sound Economy,virtually founded the Tea Partyitself. AFP's Georgia chapter mounted a scare campaign against solar power in Georgia that, as usual, supported the Koch's bottom line as fossil fuel magnates even as it played fast and loose with the facts.

Virginia Galloway, director of AFP's Georgia chapter, for instance, warnedthe group's 50,000 members that the solar proposal would "reduce the reliability of every appliance and electronics gadget in your home" and could increase Georgia electricity rates by up to 40 percent. As the Associated Press pointed out, neither of these claims bore much resemblance to the truth. In fact, at the hearing before the vote, Kevin Greene, Georgia Power's attorney, said that the utility didn't believe the solar requirement would cause any increase in electricity prices for ratepayers.

All of which underscores the really surprising part: even the Tea Party faithful didn't seem to be buying the AFP line this time around. Despite the mass emails, handouts, and phone calls put out by AFP's Georgia chapter, when the group held a protest during the Public Service Commission deliberations, hardly anyone showed up.

What's more, a separate branch of the Tea Party in Georgia, known as the Tea Party Patriots, came out strongly in favor of more solar power in the state. Debbie Dooley, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots told the press: "AFP Georgia is putting out absolutely false data," that doesn't take into account the fact that "solar prices have plummeted" in recent years. Dooley quipped that her group was forming "a Green Tea Coalition" because it saw the proposed solar expansion as a free market issue that "gives consumers more choice."

Solar Power is Growing for Good Reason

Michael Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the facts in the energy sector speak for themselves. As Georgia regulators wisely recognized, he says, the price of coal has risen, while prices for solar panels have dropped some 60 percent since 2011.

The fact is, solar has been one of the nation's fastest growing industries for the past several years, now supporting more than 100,000 jobs at 5,600 companies operating in every state in the nation. With the rate of utility solar installations more than doubling since 2012, the United States is now on track to add another 4,400 megawatts of photovoltaic power in 2013.

All of which has been noted with considerable alarm by some electric utilities. A recentreport distributed by the Edison Electric Institute, the industry's main trade group, for instance, calls the growth of small-scale solar systems the "largest near-term threat" to the industry and warns of a disruption to the industry similar to the one wrought by cell phones on the landline telephone industry.

Next up: Arizona

In a number of states recently, utilities have sought to fight back by charging extra fees to customers with rooftop solar panels. Moves to change so-called net metering arrangements were notably beaten back this spring in both Louisiana and Idaho -- hardly states known for liberal politics or environmental activism.

The latest battleground is Arizona, where the state's largest electric utility -- Arizona Public Service Company -- has similarly asked regulators to raise electric rates for residential customers who install solar photovoltaic systems at their homes. And, as in Georgia, the battle lines are forging some surprising alliances. In this case, Barry Goldwater, Jr. the son of the late politician who served five terms in the U.S. Senate and whose name is practically synonymous with conservatism in America, is among those leading the fight for solar power in his state, heading a recently formed organization called TUSK -- "Tell Utilities Solar Won't Be Killed."

Jacobs notes that the populist nature of rooftop solar power seems to be causing a paradigm shift in many people's political perspective. "Instead of being forced to buy power from a monopoly, people now have a real option to go buy rooftop solar panels as they would a television or a refrigerator. There's no question," he says, "that this aspect is particularly appealing to a segment of the population that prefers the free market and doesn't want utilities or government to mandate what they do."

While Koch-funded groups like AFP are unlikely to heed the message anytime soon, there is every indication in the solar energy field that the political terrain is starting to shift dramatically

Seth Shulman, Senior Staff Writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a veteran science journalist and author of six books whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Discover, Nature, Technology Review, Parade and many other publications. You can sign up to receive his monthly Got Science? column via email at the Union of Concerned Scientists website: www.ucsusa.org.

==

  1. ### More Internal Strife For The :{Tea Party Patriots:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: As **...** - :{TPMMuckraker:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: 

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/.../more_internal_strife_for_the_...‎

Feb 24, 2012 - Mark Meckler, the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, announced Friday that he would be leaving over differences in the group's direction.

  1. ### Party Foul! Tea Partiers Eat Their Own In Bitter **...** - :{TPMMuckraker:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: 

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/.../party_foul_tea_partiers_eat_t...‎

Nov 12, 2009 - Emails obtained by TPMmuckraker detail how a rogue faction of Tea Party Patriots is lashing out at the board for going ahead with the suit ...

  1. ### Defamation Suit Against Tea Party Group Part Of **...** - :{TPMMuckraker:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: 

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/.../defamation_suit_against_tea_...‎

Oct 20, 2011 - The :{Tea Party Patriots:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: say that a defamation lawsuit filed against them is just part of continued “animosity” from Amy Kremer, **...** :{TPMMuckraker:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:.

  1. ### :{Tea Party Patriots:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: Rally Against NPR After O'Keefe Video **...** 

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/.../tea_party_patriots_rally_again...‎

Mar 8, 2011 - The Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group for state and local Tea Party groups around the country, is rallying its supporters against NPR in ...

  1. ### 'The Tea Party Movement Is About To Be Hijacked **...** - :{TPMMuckraker:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: 

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/.../the_tea_party_movement_is_...‎

Jan 11, 2010 - Tea Party Patriots, which helped put together a September rally that ...anything like that,” Meckler told TPMmuckraker, referring to the price tag.

  1. ### :{Tea Party Patriots:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: | TPMDC 

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/tea-party-patriots/‎

May 2, 2013 - TPMDC Tea Party Patriots. ... On Wednesday, Tea Party Patriots' co-founder Jenny Beth Martin penned an op-ed on Breitbart.com decrying the ...

  1. ### Tea Party Movement Spreads To Military | :{TPMMuckraker:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: 

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/.../tea_party_movement_spreads...‎

Apr 12, 2010 - A new Tea Party group, Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots, has grown ... at Camp Pendleton in southern California — told TPMmuckraker in an ...

===

BENJY SARLIN MARCH 8, 2011, 1:33 PM

The Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group for state and local Tea Party groups around the country, is rallying its supporters against NPR in response to hidden camera footage of an NPR executive, Ron Schiller, describing the movement’s members as “seriously, seriously racist people.”

The video was filmed by James O’Keefe’s group, Project Veritas, and featured the group’s members having lunch with Schillerwhile posing as a phony Muslim advocacy groupinterested in donating $5 million to NPR. In addition to his comments on the Tea Party, Schiller is shown in the video saying that NPR does not need federal funding, which the Patriots argue demonstrates that House Republican efforts to cut the news organization’s funds are on the mark.

“Mr. Schiller himself candidly admits in the video that NPR doesn’t need federal funding, and welcomes the opportunity to slant their reporting without the oversight of the taxpayer,” Mark Meckler, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots wrote in an e-mail to supporters today. “At a time when the country is upside down by more than a trillion dollars, can we really afford to provide huge subsidies to entities that openly state that they don’t need the money? Let’s take his advice and pass legislation that would defund the clearly biased news organization that is out of touch with Americans across the country.”

Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin also targeted Schiller’s comments, writing that they were “indicative of the mentality of ruling elites who are threatened by the power of the Tea Party Patriots. This bizarre behavior comes at a time when Americans are taking their country back through the legislative process. Political victory has led to policy victory, and the elite had better wake up to the new reality.”

The e-mail called on Tea Party Patriots members to contact their members of Congress to keep pressure up against NPR as the House and Senate debate whether to defund the organization. The House has already passed a bill that would cut NPR’s funding and Senate Republicans introduced similar legislation this week. NPR has put out a statement in response to the video saying the organization is “appalled” by Schiller’s filmed remarks.

==

http://grist.org/news/tea-partiers-fight-over-solar-power-in-georgia-and-the-solar-fans-win/

Tea Partiers fight over solar power in Georgia, and the solar fans win

By Claire Thompson

In Georgia on Thursday, the Tea Party scored a victory against the Tea Party by helping push through a plan requiring the state’s largest electric utility to increase its capacity for solar power.

Never a dull day in Southern politics, is there? A proposal by Public Service Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald to more than double the amount of solar energy produced by Georgia Power pitted the Tea Party Patriots against the local chapter of Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity (of the notorious “No Climate Tax Pledge”). Virginia Galloway, director of AFP for the state, warned the group’s 50,000 Georgia members that the proposal could increase electricity rates by up to 40 percent, and that this “mandate” — as she called it — would “reduce the reliability of every appliance and electronics gadget in your home.” But the Patriots see an increase in the availability of solar as an expansion of the free market and the ratepayers’ right to choose their energy sources.

Those on the left might have a hard time distinguishing between brands of Tea Party, but there are real differences. From the *Athens Banner-Herald*:

Disagreement between the two groups isn’t unusual. [Debbie Dooley, national coordinator of the Patriots,] says Galloway is using outdated figures since solar-panel prices have dropped by more than half in the last three years. She also accuses Galloway of being swayed by the fossil-fuel interests that contribute to AFP nationally.

And, to hear Dooley tell it, AFP’s opposition to solar may not reflect the will of the people (or at least the people comprising its target audience).

Dooley tells Climate Progress that despite AFP’s misinformation campaign, which “was based on misleading data and was not accurate,” most of the Tea Party activists she works with support the proposed solar plan because they see it as a “way to help protect the environment, give consumers choice and in the long-term help lower their rates.”

Help protect the environment? Tea Party, are you feeling OK?

The Patriots advocate an all-of-the-above energy strategy, saying in an email to supporters that they “just don’t believe it is responsible to be completely reliant on one or two energy sources to generate needed electricity.” Bubba, for his part, sees the writing on the wall when it comes to the traditional forms of energy on which Georgia Power has long relied. The Associated Press:

McDonald called for expanding the renewable energy source as a hedge against environmental rules that might force coal plants offline or future increases in the price of natural gas. …

“We don’t know what tomorrow is going to be with coal. We don’t know what tomorrow is going to be with natural gas,” McDonald said after the vote. “But we know the sun will be shining.”

The *Atlanta Business Chronicle* has the deets on the new plan:

Commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of a broader long-term electrical generation plan that requires Atlanta-based Georgia Power Co. to increase its solar power capacity by 525 megawatts by the end of 2016.

Of that amount, 425 megawatts would come from large “utility-scale” solar projects and 100 would come from projects small enough to be installed by individual residential or commercial property owners.

Georgia Power already is working to develop 260 megawatts of solar energy through two projects previously approved by the PSC.

But supporters of a motion by Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald to up the ante argued that recent technological advancements have brought down the costs of solar power enough to justify additional investment.

“We’ve got to approach this in a businesslike fashion and try to stay ahead of the curve,” McDonald said after the vote.

Solar will still make up just a small fraction of the utility’s overall energy mix. Solar providers will engage in a competitive bidding process, with oversight from the Public Service Commission, to ensure that rates don’t go up.

No Republican wants to get on the Tea Party’s bad side. Maybe if solar boosters joined forces with grassroots Tea Party groups across the nation, we could give AFP a run for its money. (Well, probably not literally.)

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/monsanto-protection-act-tea-party-partiots_n_3000073.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

The so-called "Monsanto Protection Act," a controversial provision protecting the biotech giant from litigation, has found an unusual critic in the tea party.

The provision, Section 735, was slipped anonymously into the Senate version of the continuing resolution as part of the Agricultural Appropriations Bill, subsequently passed by the House and signed into law by President Barack Obama late last month.

Since then it's ignited an advocacy firestorm, with 250,000 people signing a petition opposing the provision and Food Democracy Now network organizing a protest at the White House last week. Critics -- including members of the tea party -- have expressed dismay, not only at the provision's contents, but at the secretive way in which the biotech rider was introduced.

"It is not the purview of Tea Party Patriots to comment on the merits of GMOs -– that is a discussion and debate for experts and activists within that field," wrote Dustin Siggins, who blogs for Tea Party Patriots, on the group's website. "From the perspective of citizens who want open, transparent government that serves the people, however, the so-called 'Monsanto Protection Act,' Section 735 of the Continuing Resolution, is one heck of a special interest loophole for friends of Congress."

The Center for Food Safety is placing blame for the measure's covert introduction with the Senate Appropriations Committee and its chairman, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). "While there are no definite fingerprints for whoever is responsible for the rider, the earmark was allowed under the direction of Senator Barbara Mikulski," the center wrote on its website. Most lawmakers appear to have been unaware the provision was even included in the C.R., according to reports.

Last week, Mikulski's office issued a statement distancing the senator from the provision. "Senator Mikulski understands the anger over this provision. She didn't put the language in the bill and doesn't support it either," the statement reads. "As Chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Mikulski's first responsibility was to prevent a government shutdown. That meant she had to compromise on many of her own priorities to get a bill through the Senate that the House would pass. "

The provision's impact is unclear, since the underlying spending bill expires Sept. 30. Siggins argues in his lengthy Tea Party Patriots post analyzing the issue that it sets a "dangerous precedent." He concludes:

This all can be boiled down into a single, common phrase: a special interest loophole, and a doozy at that. We are used to subsidies, which give your tax dollars to companies to give them advantages over competitors. We are used to special interest tax loopholes and tax credits, which provide competitive and financial benefits to those with friends in Congress. And we are familiar with regulatory burden increases, which often prevent smaller companies from competing against larger ones because of the cost of compliance.

However, this is a different kind of special interest giveaway altogether. This is a situation in which a company is given the ability to ignore court orders, in what boils down to a deregulation scheme for a particular set of industries.

Rove, meanwhile, is racing full speed ahead on all fronts. On February 15, he trekked up to Capitol Hill to deliver a lesson on messaging to House Republican leaders. American Crossroads came out swinging early-and hard-in the Kentucky Senate race, bashing actress Ashley Judd for even thinking about challenging Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. (Beyond the leader's obvious VIP status, there is a personal element to this: Crossroads' Law once served as McConnell's chief of staff.) And Rove just keeps on talking about the Conservative Victory Project, as media outlets devote vastly more ink and airtime to the subject than it could have garnered without the attendant controversy.

Of course, Rove isn't the only one poised to benefit from this spectacle. Even as he pokes purists in an apparent effort to jumpstart his 2014 money machine, the purists are looking to fill their coffers by poking back. "They need their shiny ball strategy too," observes the veteran strategist. "Everybody is trying to raise money." And just like Rove, these groups play rough-at times a little too rough. Last week the Tea Party Patriots had to issue an apology for a help-us-fight-Karl-Rove fundraising plea that included a Photoshopped image of their target dressed as an SS officer. (An outside vendor took responsibility for the pic.)

TP remake book:

PACs sell services to recip eg RussoOur Cty Deserves Better (lied in ~ BO ads 08 (axis of evil dict laughing about BO meet w/o precond; rev jere etc; w/ kaloogian and radio mark wms [later booted for racist remarks 112]--> TPP; supported scott brown ted's seat

2/27 crowds small, but post Fox 100 of K? 8

aug rx town hall; 9/12/09 60-70K DC  p 8

ef AFP had Or for newbie congress ( gave populist cover )  esp TP Express

FW --> TPP p10  TP is recycled old ideas , lots of misinfo 12

,,, TPP supported by FW, boosted net neutral which TP care/now nothing about; webinars; $ to trad gop consultant 109 note 71

TPP vaugue aims (no tax increase) but never lists pgms to cut

TP more links to to Heritage than cato

agenda 21 talk

:{afp etc do not so much control TP as get them mad and give a simplistic worldview 116

loose ties work well enough (and allows distance from failures) and scandals}:

rx town halls hyped by press; CNN called FW  a "leading grassroots org"  tho armey insider lobbyist

...

kochs want to remake and discipline gop ; TP "go nuclear" if compromise

effect on 2010 exxag: most gps less than 50, no budget, did not endorse, not much GOTV

TPE and FW rode TP wave, not cause 159

but helped in that end run around damaged gop brand; funneled $ to cands not thru party; media coverage 160

armey did orientation , no compromise (no problem biz as usual lobbying etc) 173 ; maj leader under newt, did complex deals

david koch schmmozed; TP hired longtime lobbyists p 174 note 55 eg matt canham SL trib 11/11/10 eggen pompeo koch wapo

FW tech support TP

FW etc want to convert soc programs into market subsidies 191 (obamacare sorta does that?]

FW etc has more connections/strings into TP/grasroots?