With a vow to “take away the mystery of campaigns,†organizers of the first-ever Tea Party Convention followed up Friday with the announcement of a new political action committee that would work to elect “tea party”-style candidates in as many as 20 national races this fall.
For example, the Tea Party Express PAC spent $285,000 on Scott Brown’s race in Massachusetts. His victory bolstered the fortunes of the tea party movement by breaking the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, putting much of the Democratic agenda, including healthcare reform, in jeopardy. Moreover, there are literally dozens of smaller tea party PACs from Tennessee to California working to raise money for local tea party candidates.
Such PACs are expected to play a role in dozens of upcoming congressional elections in Florida, Kentucky, Arizona, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and several other states.
How wide and deep-pocketed that appeal is, the organizers promise, will be apparent via a comprehensive website where donors can track the Ensuring Liberty PAC’s efforts down to the dollar. Skoda believes the PAC will raise $10 million this year.
