"Bloedorn said last week's election was successful enough to recharge the Tea Party activists who started working together in 2009.
'We're not a political party — we're a movement,' he said. 'We're not going away and if the candidates we elected this week don't deliver on the promises they made to us, we'll replace them, too. The 2012 election is just around the corner.'"
'We're not a political party — we're a movement,' he said. 'We're not going away and if the candidates we elected this week don't deliver on the promises they made to us, we'll replace them, too. The 2012 election is just around the corner.'"
Let's review the bidding: the Tea Party fielded about 150 candidates nationwide, and 2/3s of those were defeated. This includes such high profile names as Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Ken Buck and Carl Palodino. In effect, the Tea Party saved the Senate for Democrats.
Locally, the profoundly flawed Dan Maes retained his support from the SC Tea Party while more rational members defected to Tom Tancredo's quasi-independent run for Governor. SC Tea Party lost there, as well as in the success of Scott Tipton, who prevailed over TP-annointee Bob McConnell. And we haven't even broached the topic of the SCTP's investigation by the Secretary of State's office for allegations of campaign funding violations.
And with this record, SC Tea Party boss Bloeddorn threatens to do more of the same in 2012. Can't help but be seen as good news for progressives.
