Herman Cain Victory In Florida Reveals Tea Party Strength
By Peter Lee
East Side Tea Party
The Chairman of Florida’s Orange County Republican Executive Committee, a group that doesn’t endorse before the primary, announced to the media a few weeks ago that he was endorsing Rick Perry for President. This was the host county of the Presidency 5 (P5) national debate and straw poll.
He is certainly permitted his opinion, but it may have been better to withhold his opinion in order to not potentially influence the straw poll voters. The timing of his announcement was, coincidentally, made in tandem with many other prominent Republicans.
It was curious to see GOP Staff and additional volunteers stuffing delegate bags with Perry campaign materials on the first day of registration. Volunteers, me included, were previously tasked with this duty and all 3500 bags had been filled the day prior. Bags included a lanyard for identification badges, as well as materials and flyers from vendors and candidates.
An excessive amount of material was placed in the bags for Perry. More than all other candidates combined. It included multiple Perry stickers, several fliers, a folder, and an invitation to an incredibly expensive breakfast, free to ALL 3000+ delegates.
All of this does not include two phone calls from campaign staff that went out to delegates and a “grassroots” branded tele-town hall (40% of the questions went to existing politicians, not grassroots activists). No one spent more money, time and effort than Perry to win the Florida delegate vote. All of the money, hype, endorsements, and kitsch seemed to ensure a tidy victory in the straw poll.
If Perry won, the punditry and the media would only be talking about the time frames for the other candidates to admit defeat. Instead, the Tea Party has changed the conversation again.
Whether or not you promote Herman Cain or another candidate, you have to admit we’ve sent a message. We’re not going to be force fed a candidate and we are strong enough to select our own. The GOP may need to postpone their victory parade until the people speak.
We cannot ensure Herman Cain will be the Republican candidate at the end of this process. However, the Tea Party movement of Florida can assure the nation that our candidate will not be selected by money, the media, racial identities, the left, the DNC or the RNC.
We hope the states that follow Florida will also vote with their heads and their conscience. We can restore this nation with your help.
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Cheap shot sums it up. First let me point out that having filled the Presidency 5 bags(close to 700 of them) I never placed a campaign material from the Perry campaign into the bags. In fact of all the candidates that were on the straw poll only two of them had material that went into them. Congressman Ron Paul and Herman Cain.
If the Perry campaign had people in the room or at the registration room door. more power to them. As for Lew Oliver’s endorsement. He is free to endorse any candidate that he so desires as long as he does not speak for OCREC. And let me say that he has always made it clear that it is his personal endorsement. He may include that he is the Chairman of OCREC. and so be in it. He has earned the title.
As for Herman Cain goes he is a great Orator. I seem to recall 2008 there was another great Orator in that campaign. It takes more than great speeches to win a nomination. This little tirade has convinced me to not send Mr. Cain any money. In fact a donation has been made to another candidate, and it is NOT Governor Perry. I would like one his bumper stickers.
I have great deal of respect for anyone that says ” I am a republican and I am running for President of the United States. There is more to winning the nomination of the Republican Party then giving good speeches. It takes an understanding of the nomination process and a strategy to win the nomination.
Having seen the various tea party organizations in action many of them are acting like any special interest group. Bow down to us and we will support you. That is why I will not join any tea party group. The simple fact is that they do not speak for me. I am individual. No group speaks for me.
The best part of Presidency 5 was that it showed that the media will not be allowed to choose our candidate.
Not a Perry Supporter: The initial “stuffing” happened on Tuesday. Wednesday more volunteers were rounded up and Perry’s materials were stuffed in the bag. Lots of them. I still have mine, full of Perry material. Your information is incomplete. It was not a cheap shot, it was true information.
@ Not a Perry Supporter, Lets take your rebuking apart shall we?
1) I concur that the chairman, a friend of mine, has the “right” to endorse any candidate he chooses. The fact is however, that his endorsement carries weight given his position. I merely questioned his timing. I too have been asked by people in the press to relay which candidate I support. Our job in the Tea Party movement is not to become kingmakers of any politician. Therefore, I do not reveal my preference, and if you read the article above closely, you’ll notice I did not reveal my preference there either.
Every election, party officials attempt to steer public opinion towards a particular candidate in important elections. While this is not a direct endorsement of the party, it has a similar psychological feel to the public. They do this because, right or wrong, these endorsements DO influence voting preferences. My point in the article was that this P5 vote did not follow that pattern. Herman Cain was not the darling of the officials within the RPOF before the straw poll vote. Individuals are making their own decisions regardless of what the party officials prefer.
The Tea Party movement has been an important force in educating the public about all of the candidates. The East Side Tea Party alone has either hosted or cosponsored events featuring five of the presidential candidates. This does not include the Tea Party/CNN debate where we also were a cosponsor. Is that something you want to stay away from? Is the media reporting good enough for you or would you like ask your own questions? Tweaking a line from Fox News, We are moving from a model of they report and we comply to you engage then you decide. This is the environment the Tea Party provides and this was evident with the straw poll vote.
2) The delegate bags were initially filled on Tuesday. I was there. Apparently, you were too among with many Tea Party affiliated volunteers that you malign. As you mentioned, there was very little material in the bags from only a few candidates. If you picked up a bag on Wednesday morning you received a copy of the constitution from Ron Paul, an offer for a water bottle from Herman Can, and a button from Jon Huntsman. Those were the only candidate materials placed in the bags on Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon however, there was an additional effort to stuff the delegate bags with materials for Rick Perry. Since these materials were not available Tuesday, we can only assume that they arrived late. The paid RPOF staff directed additional volunteers, not specifically Perry volunteers, to hectically stuff this material on Wednesday afternoon. To my knowledge, Perry’s material was the only material added on Wednesday. I provided this information in the story above to show preferential treatment of this particular candidate over the others who provided their materials on time. If our Tea Party flyer was late would the RPOF demand it get added to the bag a day later?
3) If you attended the Presidency 5 event, you would have to be blind to not see the plethora of Rick Perry stickers adorning shirts, scooters, and other personal items. These stickers came from the delegate bags after they were re-stuffed. this does not include the large format mailers and the volunteer phone calls from Perry’s campaign. I will concur with you that providing this material is traditionally considered good political strategy. In political speak they call this “touching” the voter. Inviting 3500 people to attend a free breakfast and encouraging them to be walking billboards for your brand in a confined area is not a bad idea if you can afford it, especially if you want those people to remember your name when they vote that weekend. Many votes can be steered due the the perceived opinions others. Obviously these tactics did not steer enough votes this year.
4) So far we’ve covered endorsements, party preference, and brand recognition but the one thing that traditionally makes party officials, the public, and the media excited is money. The truth is that the person who can raise the most amount of money is considered electable and therefore steers more votes and more money in that direction. Rick Perry spent the most amount of money to steer votes for Presidency 5 than any other candidate. In fact, he undoubtedly spent more money than all the other candidates combined. Why did he do this? Again, it comes to strategy. Providing a breakfast for 3500 people and enough adhesive stickers to entirely resurface a fleet of automobiles shows that your campaign can support itself financially over the long campaign trail. However, the person with the highest donations does not necessarily reflect the person who is best for the job. Tea Parties have reminded America to keep doing their own homework. We want America to focus more on the quality of the candidate over the marketing strategy of the campaign.
5) In your response you wrote that my “tirade” has convinced you not to send money to a particular candidate. At the same time you say that you are an individual and no group speaks for you. Allowing a person or group to steer you to, or away from, a candidate indicates that you’re in fact not making decisions on the merits of the candidate in question. Instead, you’re still allowing the opinions of others to shape your opinion. Group think is NOT encouraged in the movement and you will find a large variety of opinions exist within any particular group. Again, you are right, I don’t speak for you, I don’t speak for the movement. I can only relate my beliefs and observations as do countless others in the movement..
The truth is, that there is no presumptive tea party candidate. As a movement we want to hear from everyone so that we as individuals can make that personal choice. We create engagement opportunities so that you, the citizen, can raise your own concerns directly to the candidate instead of having to interpret messages from crafted speeches or the filter of the media. Unless you yourself are engaged, informed, and asking your own questions then you have to rely on another source to filter and interpret content.
Finally, no elected official or candidate is asked to bow down before the Tea Party. As most who read this understand, even if someone did earn an endorsement of a particular Tea Party group or “leader”, that does not translate to a national, statewide or even county wide endorsement. Tea Party groups are as individual as… well… individuals! We do agree generally on a few basic principles. 1) Our Federal officials should keep their oaths of office to protect and defend the Constitution. 2) Charity comes from the home not from the theft of your neighbor’s property. 3) Individuals and small communities are better at running their own lives, families and businesses than bureaucrats thousands of miles away.
As a free individual you can agree or disagree you can join us or not. However, if you truly wanted to investigate what tea parties were all about you would find that the best place for an individual free thinker, interested in the betterment of this nation, willing to share and compare his or her ideas, is from within the tea party movement.
Trapper you missed the point. Any of the candidates could have had brochures placed into the bags. All they had to was ask.
First, Peter, I want to preface this by saying no matter what we call our ourselves, Republicans, Tea Partiers, Conservatives, etc. We should be all united in the cause of seeing Obama be a one term president! And sending reinforcements to the House and the Senate so we can start to undo the damage that has already been done by Obama. As such, at this point in the game I think we can all say now that we may have differences of opinions on who is best qualified to get the job done. That said, I would like to review your comments.
1. The only way public support by party officials would have any influence over me or many others would be if we lacked the ability to think for ourselves.. I assure you Mr. Lee, that I do not lack that ability, nor do many others i know. Media reporting, for the most part, is not good enough for me or for many others; that is why I do my own research. Based on my research and extensive reading, I then form my opinion on who to support, and then I work like a DOG for those candidates. As for your claim that that the Tea Party, per se, does not want to be a kingmaker, I disagree a great deal. They have an agenda or litmus test that candidates must pass, or they will be dissed by “tea Partiers”.
2. As for the delegate bags, since I was not there on Wednesday, I cannot comment. I can say that when my wife and I registered Thursday afternoon, we may be have been the only ones who’s bags did not contain any Perry material. We checked our bags and were surprised we didn’t see anything from Perry. Not that it would have mattered, as we went to Presidency 5 prepared to vote for the candidate that has the greatest amount knowledge of what it will take to undo what this administration has done. No candidate for President can speak directly to everybody; the purpose of the primary process is for candidates to garner support amongst the base AND raise money, which leads me to point 3..
3. I did attend Presidency 5 and noticed a plethora of Perry campaign material, along with material for Romney, Santorum, Paul, Cain and even some for Huntsman. As I said above the purpose of the primary process and even Presidency 5 was for the candidates to campaign for and win votes and campaign contributions. If Perry chose to host a free breakfast for 3500 of his closest friends, SO WHAT?? If I’d gotten up in time, I would have gone for the free food and all.. ALL the candidates, including GIngrich, Paul, Bachmann, etc. were free to do whatever they wanted. Quite frankly, I was disappointed that more didn’t offer free food!!
4.. We, the People can let the media know that we will chose our candidates. But again, each candidate is FREE to do whatever he or she wants, as long as no laws are broken. It is up to each of us to decide who we support and then work for that candidate.
5. Finally to your implication that I let others think for me. You could not be more wrong and frankly I am offended that you would even suggest such a thing. You have NO idea what work I have done previously for the Republicans nor do you know my personal history. I DO think for myself; I do not let anyone or any organization speak or think for me, and that includes OCREC and the East Side Tea Party!! I work my tail off for the candidates of my choice: precinct walks in 95 degree heat; 2 hours of phone calling every night after working a full time job during the day; Countless weekends spent campaigning, phone banking, hosting or attending fundraisers, so do not think for ONE moment that I do not think for myself! As for investigating the Tea Party movement I have. The cause is noble but in most instances they have a tendancy to support candidates that call for cutting taxes. The fail to take into account what the tax-cutting plan of that particular candidate is.
6. Who supports various candidates does mean a lot. If these supporters go around over zealously attempting to convince me to support their candidate it has a negative effect on me. I also dislike people that would deny others the chance to speak on behalf of other candidates. Which is what you are doing here. It speaks volumes about you. Free speech is good for you but others should have it denied to them.
In closing next time you see Mr.Oliver call 911. Do not attempt to remove the knife by yourself it tends to make the wound larger.
@ Not a Perry Supporter
You launched into angry insulting attacks, directed at me and the people in the Tea Party movement. Yet YOU are insulted by me by one statement in my response?
The first words you wrote were accusing me of a “Cheap shot” – Starting with an attack, Saul Alinsky would be proud of you.
You have likened my historical account of our chairman’s activity as a knife attack. History has no emotion. Although his endorsement was a public action as he offered it to the news. You may not like this fact but none the less it is a fact. I, by the way, never mentioned his name, you did.
YOU characterized the article as a “tirade”. It was not. I was expressing a POSITIVE opinion about the changes in politics thanks to the movement.
YOU stated that the article had convinced you “to not send Mr. Cain any money. In fact a donation has been made to another candidate…”. Essentially this implies that my opinion or your perception of the Tea Party movement support has caused you to form a negative opinion about a candidate. You also said “Who supports various candidates does mean a lot. If these supporters go around over zealously attempting to convince me to support their candidate it has a negative effect on me.” My first point in the article was exactly that. Endorsements from a group or a person can influence a vote (although I maintain that it should not). All of the endorsements prior to the FL straw poll were for Perry or Romney yet Herman Cain won. This fact does not imply that I endorse or disparage any of the candidates but it does indicate that something different is happening in the political arena.
The same case was made about the political collateral, and the money spent on phone calls, mailers and extravagant events. These have traditionally been ways to influence the vote. The Florida straw poll however seems to be evidence of the contrary. Something different is happening.
NEVER did I indicate that it was wrong to spend lavishly. Nor did I somehow imply that someones freedom of speech should be denied (I am not event sure where that came from). The FACT, not opinion, is that there indeed is something different happening in politics today. Something that defies these tried and true methods for getting elected. I submit that the difference is the awakening of America that I like to call the Tea Party Movement.
With all do respect you’re beginning to boar me. Your article showed nothing more than disrespect for any candidate that made an attempt to win the straw poll, and gather support from fellow republicans. So Perry had literature placed in Presidency 5 bags. So did Herman Cain and Congressman Ron Paul.
The headline of your article is complimentary of Cain. But the article says nothing more than I can’t stand anyone that anybody in a position of power may support. Nothing you said in the article supported Cain. I don’t know if you were attempting to knock down the alleged front runner at the time. It says little or nothing else. All it reads is: Perry did this and Perry did that.
You said nothing supportive of the candidate that you support. Speaker Gingrich. It says very little of Herman Cain. you assume we were going to get stuck Governor Perry. It shows that the the Tea Party movement lacks a specific direction. Just say anything that has to do with cutting spending. I don’t care how you do it. Promise me also not to raise my taxes.
It shows a lack of commitment on your part. If you would let all the candidates give it their best shot. Instead you choose to whine. How apropos that i saw your reply on the day that Governor Palin decides not to get into the race. I was looking for any story regarding her decision.
The fact is right now the Tea Party movement is doing little more than sticking their collective index finger into the wind to see which way the wind is blowing. We support Palin no Bachmann no Gingrich, no it’s Paul no it’s Cain.
@Not a Perry Supporter
At the risk of boring you, with all due respect …. although no respect was offered …. You obviously know who I am but you hide behind an alias. You have made this very personal. You apparently do not respect the work I have done for OCREC and its chairman. If you wish to take over my duties please step up and offer to provide a better product. I have other things I can attend to.
You obviously have no respect for, or are resentful of, the Tea Party movement which has been instrumental in creating the current House Republican majority. Meanwhile the formerly conservative GOP continues to loose members to Independent parties and NPA voters. GOP endorsements frequently go to individuals who do not adhere to the platform of the party as a strategy to pull liberal votes. If the platform is meaningless to the political party when they select a candidate than it is difficult for many to select that party because of those stated ideals. We conservatives who remain in the party, try to steer it back to its stated platform.
While most are Republican, Tea Parties also speak to people who do not feel at home in the Republican Party. The Tea Parties represent the “Big Tent” ideals of Reagan that the GOP was not able to maintain. This becomes a crucial segment in the General election.
What some in the GOP don’t like is that Tea Party groups don’t only want to help a GOP candidate get elected but we also insist on having a say in who gets nominated. We refuse to be couch potato patriots, only showing up once the field has been narrowed by reports of campaign donations and endorsements. If you want our votes in the general election, you have to deal with us participating vigorously in the primary.
You mentioned Gingrich, because of comments I made at an OCREC meeting. Although you missed the opening where I said I was playing “devils advocate.” No one at that point had mentioned him and I felt that his credentials should be brought to the table. There already were speakers for other candidates such as Bachmann, Cain, Santorum, Romney, and (I believe) Ron Paul. In a room full of staunch Republicans I felt that Newt had a message that would resonate.
Again, my function is to get the information out, not to steer opinions. Let information steer the opinions. Seriously, if what you say is true, that the tea party movement just sticks fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing then we would have all been pushing for Romney and Perry as the wind was definitely blowing that way. The straw poll results would have reflected that. Certainly I would not have even mentioned Newt Gingrich who has never been at the top of the polls. Your opinion needs a little reality check.
This is the primary season. We can agree that the GOP nominee will be better than the person currently in that office. We, as partners, have an obligation to sort out the good, AND the bad about every candidate without a cloud of party officials, media, and purchasing power pushing opinions in predetermined directions.
I would be happy to discuss the pros and cons of every candidate with you and listen to your opinions. To have this conversation however, we have to agree that we are not opponents at the end of the day.
While I love a good flame war, both of your positions are futile. Obama will win in 2012, no matter how you slice the cake. You can count on it.
Sam your so wrong, but thanks for playing.
Peter I back you all the way, I’m getting tired of Republicans elites too, who like the press, want to tell us who to support, I have my own mind and can use it.
I too have been asked who the Orlando TEA Inc, or the East Side Tea stands for ?, and I answer all of them, we want to see and hear them all speak, to vet them and make up our own minds.
I have liked Herman Cain from the start, because when you ask him what time it is, He tells you!
He doesn’t go into where his watch was made or how many years it took him to get it, I didn’t know if he even make it this far with no press coverage at all and didn’t know how he was going to do in the Straw Vote.
Have to say I was floored and happy at the same time, when I got the news of the vote, he beat the media and GOP’s choices combined scores.
But even though my choice is Herman Cain, I won’t beat people over the head about it, release it to the news if asked or try to turn the forum into a one candidate site like one group likes to try to do.
We still have to support them all and get the best information we can to our members, we still have a long way to go, we can say who we want to win, but like in the Daytona 500, it’s that last lap that picks the winner, the rest is up to each individual voter.
May God bless the USA with the people, to return us back to the great nation, we once were.
P.S. That’s answers the question why so many people had on Perry buttons going by the TEA Party booth at P5, that’s why I didn’t believe the vote till I seen it announced in two new feeds.
First off this you missed my point in the first reply. It is not a personal attack on you. The problem that I had had to do with attacking a candidate for attempting to garner support for their campaign. From what I saw of Presidency 5 was that a lot of organization ( well except the democratic party) could have had information placed into the bags. And the people putting P5 together would have accommodated them. So the Perry campaign was slow to get information to the committee.
Like I said earlier the quest for the Republican Nomination amounts to building a base of support. It means volunteers,money, strategy and commitment from the candidates and their supporters. Who ever they may be or title that they may hold. To deny a candidate access to promote their message is wrong. Mr. Oliver has always made it clear that when he supports a candidate the he is doing so on a personal basis.
I do have a concern regarding the tea party movement. Let me start off by saying that a support smaller government on all levels. Emphasis on all levels. All of the candidates that tea party movements national supported in 2010 called for cutting taxes. Which is good. Many of the candidates however lacked a plan to cut the taxes. Even worse they failed to offer ideas to eliminate government programs. They were content with shifting responsibility to other government levels. Picture local candidates pushing responsibility upward and national candidates pushing downward. Now think of a balloon. You squeeze on both ends and the middle gets bigger.
One thing that was very clear to me also is that the tea party movements have adopted an attitude that if candidate refuses an invitation to speak in front of them we will not support you. All of the presidential candidates delivered speeches on Friday at CPAC during the P5 weekend. Many delegates to P5 attended these. Yet a vast majority of the delegates that voted in the P5 straw poll were appalled and declined to vote for any candidate that did not speak on Saturday. Sadly most of these people showed obvious support for the tea party movement. I think the was a contributing factor in Christie and Palin not getting into the race.
While it is always good for candidates to press the flesh you can’t take your eyes of the gold ring. I understand the world does not revolve around nor should it. Likewise the world does not revolve around any one organization or group of organizations.