By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-920896.mp3
LANSING, MI –
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The first big test of the Tea Party's clout in the Michigan Republican Party comes this weekend at the state GOP convention in East Lansing . As Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta reports, tea party activists say their goal is to act as a watchdog from the inside the Republican Party.
AUDIO:
Tea party activists flooded many county caucuses earlier this month to win spots at the state convention, and some estimate they could make up 40% of the convention's 2,078 delegates. Since the caucuses, they've been meeting, brushing up on convention rules and parliamentary procedure, and plotting how to best use this opportunity.
Voices: "You have time for some pickled asparagus "
Homemade pickled asparagus, a bag of pretzels, and a pot of coffee make up the buffet at this board meeting of the Southwest Michigan Tea Party Patriots being held in the basement of the Right to Life headquarters in Kalamazoo. Chairman Gene Clem calls the meeting to order.
"We've got a lot of stuff to cover," he says. "It looks worse than it really is."
The group discusses convention strategy, and plans training for delegates who've never attended one before.
"As far as the convention is concerned, we intend to show up and make sure the rules are followed "
The tea party is holding a pre-convention caucus and has invited candidates seeking G-O-P nominations for attorney general and secretary of state to address them. A straw poll could help measure -- and maybe even decide -- who gets the tea party's support on the convention floor.
Clem says he's been meeting with party leaders, but has warned them tea party intends to maintain its distance from the political establishment.
"The GOP in Lansing was very nervous about the tea party and our intentions. Good," he says, and laughs.
Michigan Republican Chairman Ron Weiser says Republicans are not and should not be nervous about the tea party.
"These are people who share our principals and values and they are interested in being active to support our principals that's exactly what we need in the party," he says. "They're conservatives. In general, Republicans are much more conservative than Democrats are and so they have seen fit to become part of our process. The fact that they want to be delegates to our convention is something that we welcomed."
Democratic political consultant Joe DiSano says his party does not have much to fear either from the tea party.
"They'll have a short-term impact, but long term." he says, "I don't think they'll have any impact at all."
He says the movement is a populist flash in the pan made up of people who already voted Republican anyway. DiSano says a fiery populist like the Democratic nominee for governor Virg Bernero might also have some hope of tapping into that anger.
"I do think those tea party members that are not exclusively affiliated with the Republican Party - which is a minority of them - they might see something in Bernero that they like," he continues.
Won't happen, says Southwest Michigan Tea Party Patriot Jim Lefler. He says the tea party is a conservative movement, and it's not going away. He says nominating and electing conservatives is just a starting point for his group.
"The real work begins on January 1," Lefler says. "Now we have what are purported to be, what they told us are conservative candidates in office. Now we have to make sure we hold their feet to the fire."
But how seriously politicans take that watchdog role will depend at least in part on how successful the tea party is at showing its political muscle. The movement just has to decide how it wants to do that.
Election 2010 - WKAR
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