Tea Party Nation's policy of not endorsing candidates
Tea Party Nation has had a policy of not endorsing candidates. We feel that in most instances, the local tea party groups are in a far better position to judge the merits of individual candidates. As I have told groups before, "I believe we should not endorse candidates, candidates should endorse us!"
I have received a few emails from people saying that they thought we should endorse candidates. I want to know what you think! Should Tea Party Nation endorse candidates? Why or why not? What criteria, if any, should we use if we decide to make an endorsement?
Give us your thoughts, as Tea Party Nation is made up of all of it's members and this is an important decision for us!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Betz on -
In Michigan we had seven candidates running for governor on the GOP ticket. Two definitely did not have a chance. Three were regular GOP candidates. The candidate that won definitely does not have the Tea Party values. Why did he win? It was because the Tea Party groups did not get together to support the best of other three candidates. Thus, Michigan now has a liberal rhino that ran on the GOP ticket. He won with 27% of the vote. Shame on the Tea Parties for not getting behind the best of the "three conservatives".
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Permalink Reply by Ripama on -
Good point. First we'e got to get our act together if endorsing candidates is to have any credibility.
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Permalink Reply by Alicia Holt Williams on
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Agreed. In Arizona's CD 3, we have 10 GOP candidates for the primary. We know who the DID's are (Dems in Disguise), and we are absolutely opposed to Ben Quayle. However, we need to make that information public. We should have also endorsed the best three.
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Permalink Reply by Alicia Holt Williams on
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Our Arizona Tea Party group has endorsed Hayworth and Chris Salvino (CD 5) and publicized it. We had too many candidates in CD 3 to make an endorsement, but we rallied to stop Ben Quayle if possible. Sometimes it is easier to say who we will not support and provide information to the public about why.
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Permalink Reply by Christine M. Morrow on
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It would be helpful if the e-mail alerts had a listing of which State Tea Parties Candidates are being endorsed for all of us to see. I don't know that I am receiving New York State or specifically Long Island Tea Party e-mails. I would like to put CARL PALADINO on your radar. I intend to vote for this honorable man. He has the finances to run his own campaign, but needs a stronger campaign manager.
I agree that candidates should seek out the party of their choice for endorsements. There are so many of us that are not historically minded like you who know politics well and could better inform us of the valuable candidates by listing them.
Thank you for all the information you share.
Yours truly,
Christine M.
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Permalink Reply by Vern Shotwell on -
If you are a member of the TPN NY group, Christine, you should get emails of all wall posts, and all new discussions in the Group, here at TPN! Unless you specifically turned them off.
Comments to discussions will not come to you, however, unless you either toggle "Follow", or contribute a reply. Hope that helps.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Elfer on
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Do not forget about judges. they decide what is constitutional or not. This is where the battle for our personal rights and freedoms are won or lost. These judges mostly start off locally and you can get a idea of their hidden agenda from their rulings in the criminal courts. They let true criminals off with a slap on the hand, and vilify law abiding citizens. It is hard to find information on their rulings, unless you keep a close eye on them.
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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Gose on -
Questions and thoughts for consideration:
What would be the benefit to the movement and organization for endorsing candidates? Which ones would receive the endorsement and how would they be selected? Is it possible with current resources to vet and endorse individual candidates. Are we in a position at this point in time to influence election results due to the diverse geographic spread of our memebership?
Opportunities:
Assist candidates with endorsement and give name recognition to their association with the Tea Party Movement and TPN.
Drive new members to join TPN through a more national presence via Media Reports. Build numbers potentially.
Wider Media coverage and name recognition for TPN.
Risks:
Selection process and who ultimately makes that call. Risks alienating some members if their candidate of choice is not selected for the endorsement resulting in a decrease in the number of members.
Vetting consumes tremendous resources. Does the organization have the capacity to vet candidates?
Administration.. responding to inquiries from candidates and members will require significant manpower.
My 2 cents are that it would take a significant investment in infrastructure to do this right. I am not sure if the opportunities/benefits outweigh the risks. It depends on what the goal is.. what the ultimate objective is. Don't go down the path of endorsing candidates without all the tools in the toolbox.
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Permalink Reply by JOhn E Nelson on -
I agree, I wrote a similar article on this page yesterday,th the same points you have mentioned.
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Permalink Reply by Ripama on
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Furhthermore, any poll would be deemed unscientific and held to ridicule rendering any endorsement into a mockery.
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Permalink Reply by Norman Pankop on
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Bing,you're right about the polls. Most of them are slanted toward the pollster's personal beliefs. Questions that amount to:"Are you still beating your wife?" The questions need to be uniform and not biased to promote our beliefs. When this is the case,our polls have more credibility.
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Permalink Reply by Vern Shotwell on
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Agreed, Bing, it would be nice to do this! Clean, and easy!
Unfortunately, many non-incumbents have no history to form a basis on which to so rate.
The best liar may well come out with the best numerical rating. This is partly where I have a problem with I caucus.
Today's method is not better, however. Vote in the handsome guy, not the fat or bald guy.Forget the guy with the lisp!
We elected the best teleprompter reader last time, didn't we?
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