Tea party leader* endorses Saul Anuzis for RNC chair
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One day after getting many headlines for suggesting Sarah Palin as Republican National Committee chair, Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips endorsed former Michigan GOP chairman Saul Anuzis. (His endorsement is behind a cumbersome online registration process.)
But before Anuzis is anointed as the tea party candidate of choice — Phillips has minimal influence in tea party circles. A Washington Post survey of 647 tea party groups showed only nine with connections to his organization. By contrast, 208 groups said they worked mainly with the Tea Party Patriots. The for-profit Tea Party Nation did hold a January 2010 convention — the first of its kind — in Nashville featuring Sarah Palin, but her $100,000 speaking fee and the ticket price of $550 were criticized by other tea party groups. An August convention in Las Vegas was called off. David Weigel called up several tea party leaders yesterday and they agreed that Phillips wasn’t a big player anymore in the movement.
Another reason to discount this endorsement as influential: Look at who hosted last week’s RNC debate — it was not Tea Party Nation but FreedomWorks. Though all of the RNC candidates at the debate were varyingly deferential to the tea party, and tea party questioners want ownership of the RNC, there just isn’t a candidate that the tea party has coalesced around. But that’s almost beside the point, as 168 members of the RNC decide the chairman, not activists in primaries.
Great pick Tea Party!!! Let’s show the world how amazing a candidate he really is. A list of bona fides for the masses:
- Unable to defeat a single Democratic incumbent in a state or federal election in 2006.
- Worst performance by a Republican candidate for Governor in 20 years, despite unlimited resources.
- Lost 6 seats in the Michigan House of Representatives to the Democrats, despite a Republican gerrymandered map.
- Lost 1 seat in the Michigan Senate to the Democrats despite a Republican gerrymandered map.
- Fewest Republicans and most Democrats in the Michigan Senate in 15 years.
- Lost control of Michigan House of Representatives to the Democrats, producing a Democratic Speaker for the first time in 12 years.
- Mailings to voters in Kent County helped Michigan Democrats send a second state representative to Lansing from Grand Rapids. Apparently Saul is even more effective at turning around Grand Rapids than Dick DeVos!
- Total Democratic sweep of all elected educational board seats for the first time in 20 years.
- Lost control of numerous county boards to Democrats.
Endorsed Republican incumbent in 7th Congressional District defeated in primary.
-Urged the Republican National Committee to spend $1 million late on failed Senate campaign of Mike Bouchard rather than devote precious resources to defending Republican incumbents in Montana and Virgina, who in turn lost close races and swung control of the United States Senate to the Democrats!
Awesome pick people! Good Grief
[...] National Committee chairmanship, implying that the tea party supports him. Only problem is, he leads a for-profit tea party group that has minimal connections to the rest of the movement — only six out of 647 tea party groups surveyed by the Washington Post said they had ties to the [...]
