Originally published on Forbes.com Mar 2nd, 2014
Tea Party Patriots, Inc just celebrated the fifth anniversary of the movement. Apparently, the founding event was a rant by Rick Santelli on February 19, 2009
There was some irony in a group that characterizes itself as 100% grassroots throwing a party at the Hyatt Regency in Washington DC to celebrate its fifth anniversary. Somehow, simultaneous potluck suppers in church basements and VFW halls throughout the land would seem more in keeping with grassroots. But, maybe, that’s just me. They did give the people out in the hinterland a way to celebrate though. That would be by sending money.
On February 27th, the Tea Party celebrates its fifth anniversary.
That’s five years defending liberty. Five years standing up for the American people. Five years fighting back against the big government “ruling class”!
And to celebrate, we just shocked these Washington “elites” like never before by raising $1.2 million in just ten days!!
This unprecedented money bomb will strike fear into the hearts of the political establishment. It will prove to them that the Tea Party movement is more powerful than ever. And it will supply us with the necessary resources to fight back against their destructive big government policies!
You will be glad or not so glad to hear that they met their goal. Someone forwarded me the email announcing the achievement.
The funds raised from this whirlwind money bomb will be immediately sent to the grassroots initiatives that have made and will continue to make Tea Party Patriots the most powerful citizen organization in America.From grants to local Tea Party groups, to grassroots activist training, to national rapid-response campaigns on hot-button issues and legislation, Tea Party Patriots will continue to be the leading resource for freedom-loving patriots looking to make a difference.
I think it is intriguing that they lead with “grants to local Tea Party groups” as a use of funds. According to their Form 990 (which you have to ask them for) out of the $20,238,287 that TPPI raised in the year ended May 31, 2012 grants to local organization at $105,071 was not that big an item for them compared for example to offices expense of $6,932,241 and total fund raising costs of $8,607,639. Of course that $105,071 is more than half Jenny Beth Martin’s salary of $192,010. Who knows? Maybe more of that money will be trickling down to the grass roots in the coming years.
An Alternative For Conservatives
The odd thing about Tea Party Patriots Inc. is that it wants to transform the political landscape, but it has adopted the stance in applying for tax-exempt status under 501(c)(4) that it is not mainly political. (By the way the IRS did just approve exempt status for TPPI. so, in a few months you will probably be able to get its 990 on guidestar.org.)
What Dan Schultz advocates is that conservatives who want to change politics, should get involved in politics. He has a very specific plan that he recommends. He suggests that conservatives who want to change things should become Republican precinct committeemen. In his state, Arizona, you run for the office of precinct committeeman, in the primary. In order to get on the ballot you need to get 10 signatures.
As he explained it, if not enough people get nominated to fill the ballot, the county, to save money, will not even print it, allowing you, in effect to get elected to the post by 10 people. The rules vary from state to state but apparently are not that onerous. He explains the strategy in some detail on this website. Here is a presentation he put on last year for the Arizona Tea Party Patriots.
There are two things that precinct committeemen get. One is access to proprietary GOP software that can be used to help mobilize voters in both the primaries and the general election. The other thing is the right to vote on who the party leadership will be. In a sense, precinct committeemen are the party.
According to Dan, there are 400,000 Republican precinct committeeman slots in the country. Roughly half of them go begging. He believes this gives conservatives an opening to firmly grasp control of the Republican party. He also does not think that party insiders are that enthusiastic about having additional participation in party governance, which is why you don’t hear a lot of politicians calling for volunteers to fill those open slots.
Campaign HQ raised $699,656 for Tea Party Patriots in the year ended May 31, 2012. It was paid $539,838. (That is better than MDS Communications which raised $1,199,816 but only netted $33,044 to TPPI) Campaign HQ prides itself on “turning activists into donors”. Dan Schultz thinks that more will be achieved by moving in the opposite direction.
You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.
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