Emboldened by Florida Coup, Tea Party Leaders 'Turning Their Guns' to GOP Establishment in Other States

Tuesday, the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party resigned under pressure from tea party types for his support of Gov. Charlie Crist over the tea party-approved Marco Rubio in their GOP primary for the US Senate.  Earlier this year, Rubio was polling at 4% against Crist, and most everyone assumed the race was a done deal.  Yet Rubio has been relentless in criticizing Crist for straying from the narrow Republican path, and the two are now in a dead heat. 

On his way out the door, the former Chairman accused the tea partiers of trying to "burn the house down and try to destroy the Republican Party."  But the Washington Times reports that tea partiers are undeterred, and are warning Republican leaders in other states.

A founder of the "tea party" movement said Wednesday he had a warning for Republican state leaders: Back conservative candidates or else other states will suffer the same backlash that toppled Florida's Republican Party chairman this week.

"We are turning our guns on anyone who doesn't support constitutional conservative candidates," said Dale Robertson, who operates TeaParty.org out of Houston and helped start the movement nearly two years ago.

He declined to say which states are next on the tea party's hit list. He said party leaders in those states would be warned privately, but the movement's wrath "will be very clear publicly" if they don't listen.

"If they continue to do things like they did in Florida, it's not going to be good for them," Mr. Robertson said. "If they don't get that, and their party chairmen don't get that, they are going to be ostracized."

Another activist group, Tea Party Patriots, made a more subtle threat, aimed at both Republicans and Democrats.

The movement is "going to continue to hold the elected officials and party leaders accountable," said Jenny Beth Martin, the group's Georgia-based national coordinator. "People in America are very tired of the irresponsible taxing and spending that has happened in Washington. They want a return to fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets."

Mrs. Martin said both parties would pay at the polls if they ignored the tea party movement.

To date, the MOGOP has been relatively successful in squelching discontent in its base, but there are clear similarities in the Florida and Missouri primaries.  Both state parties lined up their resources behind an establishment candidate, despite real questions about their records and conservative credentials -- and both establishments assumed a little-known state legislator had no shot against their well-financed choice.

It remains to be seen if the tea party organizations in Missouri have the interest or ability to support a challenger they believe in, or if they'll be content to just have rallies and talk about races in other parts of the country. But it would be pretty incredible if the "tea party movement" existed as a political force in other parts of the country, and not here in Missouri. 

h/t AMERICAblog