Welcome to the First Coast Tea Party
Dear Members: You Should Know About This
As many of you know, the First Coast Tea Party belongs to a Florida Statewide Tea Party Leaders Google Group. We have been together for nearly two years now. The group is a secured, confidential group and we discuss issues, thoughts and frustrations among tea party friends. We do this to coordinate efforts in the state of Florida and bounce off ideas.
Today I was called by the press about an email that was written by me to this private email group. The email was a part of a large discussion about the Tea Party and the 2012 election and focused on what happened here locally and how that could be applied to our future work. My email called out the GOP Lawyers who advised the Mike Hogan campaign to let it go and concede. To put it lightly, I felt they should have advised them to continue the battle and push hard to make sure … as Alvin Brown said “Count Every Vote.” I mentioned a 2 hour phone conversation I had with Jerry Holland the day after the concession where I was asking questions to understand what happened and why the concession was so quick. Jerry Holland was forthright and answered my questions with sincerity and professionalism. My email indicated how upset I was that the GOP Lawyers did not encourage a fight because I knew the “political machine” would have fought hard and would have kept this process going a lot longer.
To get to the point, either the “political machine” or a mole in our group (doubtful) stole that private email string and sent it to the media.
To say the tea party leaders were shocked and disappointed is an understatement. To say my trust level has been shattered is another understatement.
Abel Harding called me to get a statement about the email. It is circulating all over the media and of course they are running with it. This is juicy news.
I spoke to Abel this evening and told him that was a private email that was stolen and the tea party leaders in Florida were very upset about that. I stand behind the message of the email and believe the Political Machine did beat us and the GOP lawyers should have fought harder for a win. We found out the GOP does not understand who Alinsky is and Alinsky IS the Political Machine. No one organization or person is to blame for the loss of this race and ALL of us are to blame for the loss of this race.
The media loves this story and the GOP is not feeling good right now nor are we. That message was between friends as we tried to understand who the GOP is and how to fight the Political Machine so we can win in 2012.
These are all hard lessons for us. All of us who worked together to win the mayoral race were stunned with the outcome. The Political Machine beat us and that is the fact.
What we must do is figure out how to beat the Political Machine in 2012 – by either coming together with a plan; setting up our own political party; OR hunkering down and wishing it would all go away. At this point, I think we would all agree we must come together to figure thiout. The GOP is weak about the Political Machine and so are we. The Machine has massive amounts of funding and a grassroots system that surpasses all of us. Without funding, a system and boots on the ground, we are going to be fighting an uphill battle that we will not win.
The country loses, the GOP loses, the tea party loses and the people lose.
The end of this story is this:
- We are getting under someone’s skin so they want to infiltrate our emails and our websites.
- The GOP and Tea Party must figure out how they work together – if they do.
- The Political Machine is alive and well in Florida and will not be going away until December 2012.
Abel Harding will have his story about this sad state of affairs tomorrow. There is also another story brewing that the local GOP leader and the Tea Party are in a pointing fingers match with each other and the tea party is being blamed for Mike Hogan’s loss. That is an outright lie and no one in the GOP leadership or the Tea Party has said anything of the sort. We are not blaming each other nor are we blaming the Hogan camp. The blame lies within everyone who had anything to do with this PLUS the 300,000 peope who stayed home and did not vote.
We have gained one more notch in our political belt! We are new to this political game and finding how dark and difficult it is. These notches are hard to take but they are worth it all.
On another note:
- Please be aware that the Political Machine is trolling our website trying to have conversations with bloggers. We are watching these conversations closely and will remove these people from our website when we see hanky-panky.
- The day after the election a member received a phone call from someone asking about the bumper sticker she has “Take Back America.” She told them where to get it (our office) and they asked her if she was a tea party member. She said yes. A few minutes later the same person called backed believing he was calling someone else. She confronted him and he stammered with her until he hung up. It appears the Political Machine is working from a list and trying to identify tea party members. If you get a call, beware of that tactic. As for me, I’m proud to be a Tea Party Member and will gladly say “Yes” when they call.
No one said this would be easy and no one said the press would like us. No one said our friends would not rat us out. No one said we would win every race. But someone did say, “Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” That man was Benjamin Franklin and he understood that fighting for liberty would require a lot from each of us. There are days I wonder if I have it in me to keep it up. Then I cry my tears, wipe them away and say “Hell No – I’m not going away. I owe it to my grandchildren and to those who fought and gave their lives for my freedom."
I am willing to risk everything I have and will continue to do that no matter what the press writes or what the infiltrators do to me. The months ahead will require strong, principled people to stand up to the Political Machine, stare it down and say: “Machines don’t win, people do!”
Are you game for this? Will you go with us? Will we let the press or the Political Machine marginalize us or the GOP so Obama and his political class can win in 2012?
I planned to take the last couple of days off and that has been impossible. I will be taking next week off to recharge the batteries and prepare for the next battle. I may write a blog or two while I am away but I do not plan to entertain the media or anyone else about the mayor’s race. It is finished and there is no need to cry over spilled milk. Instead, it is time to clean it up and figure out a way to eliminate the spills in the future!
And a final note: “Be careful what you put in a private email. It may end up as a headline one day.”
Views: 133
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Comment by Alan Starcher on May 22, 2011 at 9:49am
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Comment by jean alexander "i would like to know more about the voting process."
Jean, I agree. I can attest to the process described by Patricia about turning in an absentee ballot if you show up at the polls -- been there, done that. It does seem to be a legitimate process. But I have other questions as well.
According to the article on the front page of Sunday's T-U Metro section -- Billie had a "two-hour phone call Friday morning" with Jerry Holland. At the end of the article he says he is willing to answer any questions voters may have about the process.
Perhaps Billie could share with us the salient points of the conversation. Or -- how about inviting Mr. Holland to a meeting so that he can address the group directly? More people, more questions to ask. And we can make a record of it to share with others not present at the meeting. Consider it part of our research that we must complete in order to organize for the next election. I'd be happy to call his office and ask for such a meeting if the group would agree. (About time I got off of my butt and DID something besides just voting.)
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Patricia, you are right and wrong. To abandon or censure our ability to express our thoughts freely in the web site would play into the hands of our enemies, who want to silence us. That course would be a horrible mistake. On the other hand, sensitive and tactical information of planning activities and operations would be more wisely conducted in a different medium, preferably a face to face meeting. Once a plan is reached, the web site can be a great medium to spread the information to the membership at large. By that point, the opposition would find out any way. We cannot live in a bubble, and we don't want to. We want to let them know that we are here, alive, well, and ready to fight.
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Comment by Patricia M. McBride on May 22, 2011 at 9:24am
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Peggy, I certainly have a great deal of concern about posting anything on the web site now about any future plans. I do think the web site is great, but I don't think it an contain any real information.............am I wrong? I don't think so.
If we have the TU, democrats and all sorts of folks coming here to find out what we are doing so they can counter it, we need to find another venue for laying out a plan of some sort and implementing it, I think.
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Comment by Peggy Hall on May 22, 2011 at 9:18am
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Billie, this is what I meant when I said we need a new way to communicate. This HAD to come. They will do anything to sack us. Chicago thug tactics have never been in Jax (that I know of), and here they are. Now what to do about? Count me in.
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Oops JR, you are right. Sorry! I did a lot of phone banking for 2010 as well and would agree that this lists were pretty bad. I am trying to remember who provided them, but they were I believe RPOF and not the local republican party. The state office I believe also provided the phones which I did like. I also got 3 or 4 people that were notable and was glad we were calling for some of those folks who had a problem or 2 that no one had addressed and allowed the local republican party to help them.
The thing with even getting a list that isn't up to snuff is that if you get it early enough, you can update it for yourself and make it a really good workable list. I went out for one of the candidates and because of all these rules about not removing people from the voting lists, there were some houses where they had 3 or 4 people listed that no longer lived there (and it was right across the board for political parties which makes it hard to decide what to say when you knock on the door, but most of them were nice and understood it was the record keeping but the rules they have to live by). But unless you get the lists, even if they aren't stellar to start with, you can't do the leg work it takes to make them good lists that are accurate and reflect those folks in your precinct. They can't change the list at the source, but it does give anyone who works the district something that is an absolute help organizing once they have cleaned it up and cleared out all the people that are no longer in the precinct. That is the process that should be underway right now!
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Comment by J.R. on May 21, 2011 at 11:56pm
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JL, that is a great story about the patriotic Marine. It's easy to see why you would want to hear such a message over and over. I would have preferred calling at night and talking with people, because a personal touch really helps to connect with someone and have them really listen and participate in the conversation. You never know, unless you call, when your words just might be the very ones that will be the inspiration or motivation they need to seriously consider the candidates and get out and vote. Having read so much of what you write, I'm certain you did an outstanding job with your calls. Kudos to you and your husband.
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Comment by JL Gawlik on May 21, 2011 at 11:42pm
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Here is the blog when FCTP meet Congressional members in D.C.:
http://firstcoastteaparty.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tea-time-in-dc-ta...
Senator Marco Rubio – Met with him for a few minutes as he was rushing out the door. He was smiling and confident. He said: “This place is more screwed up than I could have imagined. Keep up the good work with the Tea Party, we need you guys.”
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JR, my husband and i did it in 2004 and we got a lot of really nice people, i only had a few who were not so nice, one had a recording that he was a Marine, and damn proud of it, i wish i could remember it word for word but it was so patriotic, and that he did not support Democrats period, it was such a great recording, i kept dialing the number so others could hear it then finally after the six call, the Marine's wife answered! I apologized and then she put HIM on the phone, i apologized to him and i told him thank you so much for his service and we really LOVe his recording, he was really so nice about it and told us to keep up the good work that we do not need commies in the WH he preferred to meet them on the battlefield. His whole family was laughing in the background. I really had fun that year. We started at 6pm and worked for a couple of hours, i got to talk to some really great people. I will never forget that call. There were many other really nice people also. We were calling just to tell people to get out and vote period.
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Patricia, that was JL who just wrote that about Marco Rubio, but I remember reading about that, too and he did say that things there in Congress were worse than he could ever have imagined.
When I volunteered to work for the Republican Party in the 2010 election cycle, what they wanted me to do was make phone calls... like ROBO-calls. I did it for 1 day and those voter lists weren't up to date, either. A lot of phone numbers were no longer in service, plus I made hundreds of calls and only got to talk with a few live people. And two of them had changed parties. Of course, during the day a lot of people are away at work.
So, if they don't provide voter lists that are up to date and, even worse, not provided at all, how do they expect the volunteers to organize and work their precincts effectively? Better to just get the lists directly from the Supervisor of Elections... and get updated lists every few months for new registrations.
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JR, I remember Rubio saying that too. He was really surprised that it could actually be worse than the thought cause he knew it was pretty bad. I also agree that it was good the elections didn't get moved. We need a good bit of time to focus on them given the mess the city/county is in and will be for some time apparently. I had high hope Hogan could begin straightening it out and he had some good ideas.
The republican and democratic parties have committee people, but the party has to come up with precinct lists for you to organize your precinct, and in the time I have been one, that has not happened as yet. If you can get the republican party to move on it, I would have organized my precinct and helped anyone else that wanted help. The problem is you do need the lists so you know who you are talking to, whether they vote regularly, what party they belong to etc. You can correct your list for new people etc, and then, you enlist the help of others in the precinct to take care of 2 or 3 streets in their area or even just their own street and make the calls and get their folks to go to the polls or let you know if someone needs a ride etc. It has to be very up close and personal as it should be. That takes quite a few people, but it is doable.
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First Coast Tea Party
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Ponte Vedra, FL 32082
904-392-7475
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