The following may be a very good sign that Tea Parties all over the country have left themselves wide open to financial scrutiny. And if this tawdry little tale is any indication, we really would do well to keep digging into both their financing and where they're from, relative to where their "fund-raising activities" are taking place.
An astute Democratic activist here in east-central Florida single-handedly took on the Volusia Tea Party Patriots, and came away with a notch in the Win column. How? Simply by questioning their tax status.
You gotta love this--even if it strikes some of us as "small potatoes in The Great Scheme of Things", we should still thank this activist. He basically stuck a knife in this "Vetting Forum" and exposed this group in the local press for the joke that they are...
OOOPS!!!!
Area tea party cancels election forums
By MARK HARPER, Daytona Beach News-Journal
DELTONA -- A local tea-party group that sent questionnaires to 40 candidates for West Volusia and countywide offices is backing off after learning its members may have violated Florida law.
...
The group decided it would vet candidates for (cities of) Deltona (and) DeBary and Volusia County offices before the Aug. 24 primary. .... The forums were designed to give candidates a chance to explain their answers to 40 yes-or-no questions, such as:
· "Given that the salaries of the Volusia County employees for the most part far exceed the norm for the area, would you be willing to recommend a 25 percent cut in all administrative salaries & reduce any duplicate positions held?"
· "Are you willing to encourage and apply methods to remove Volusia County from participating in anything to do with sustainable development?"
· "Would you bow down to pressure from the Federal government to usurp your authority as a local government?"
...
Those questions struck Jean Jenner -- a former local Democratic Party leader and political activist -- as "loaded" and designed to favor certain candidates. He inquired about the Volusia Tea Party Patriots' claim it was a nonprofit organization. And then there was the matter of the group's request that candidates each contribute $10 toward the cost of renting space for the meetings....
Well, well, well! Mr. Jenner is a hero, IMO. Not only did he discover that the leader of this "group", a Diane Kepus, isn't even registered to vote in Volusia County, but he had her scrambling like mad to cover her ass when she learned that:
asking candidates for money to participate in a forum could be considered a third-degree felony.
Yeah, OOOPS is right!
"We're not an LLC. We're not a PAC. We're not a 501(c)(3)," she said. "We're nothing but a social group talking back and forth."
Oh, bullshit, Mrs. Kepus. "Little social groups" don't put up slick websites. And they damn sure don't fall all over themselves to to whine that someone is full of "venom" when all they did was ask you if you were in compliance with The Law--something your "Party" is always on about.
She said she doesn't understand Jenner's "venom," and vetting of candidates is not "worth the hassle."
Ah, yes--the truth is a bitch, isn't it? SO much easier to just go back to ginning up your base by lying through your teeth and fomenting fear and unrest.
My only beef overall is that the News-Journal, as usual, doesn't follow up--indeed, the story itself seems to be incomplete. The Volusia Tea Party Patriots are still active--it's just that their idea to "vet" candidates was a joke, rightfully exposed, and it will no longer take place as originally intended. The "Vetting Questions" page is totally blank on their website.
Hey, I don't know about you guys, but I feel like even if it's a small victory, it's still a victory. We've got to keep working to expose these people for the frauds that they are...