“We want to change the way our country is governed to reflect the values of the American people,” said Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, a network of Tea Party, 912 and other groups across the state.
Ohio Liberty Coalition officials said 1,200 tickets were sold for last weekend’s “We the People Convention” in Columbus.
The second annual event aimed to teach attendees in how to be engaged citizens including how to volunteer as a poll worker and request and examine public records.
A separate track of sessions to train future candidates covered public speaking, marketing and budgeting.
Two hot issues — voter fraud and repealing the Affordable Care Act — set the tone for the two-day convention.
“If we can develop people who have the same beliefs and vote their beliefs we have a better chance of changing the country,” said Don Birdsall, president of the Dayton Tea Party. “We want to give people the knowledge and courage to vote their values.”
Zawistowski said the convention was open to folks leaning to the right and left, but Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said his members would feel unwelcome in sessions titled “The Progressive Agenda’s Assault on Liberty” and “Lessons from the Senate Bill 5 Debacle.”
Redfern said the Tea Party is a fringe group that doesn’t represent the views of most Ohioans.
“You can’t win in Ohio if you’re going to subscribe to this far-right, oftentimes-kooky ideology,” Redfern said.
National issues, local focus
Ohio Tea Party supporters were not crushed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision last week to uphold President Obama’s health care overhaul – they were emboldened.
The Ohio Liberty Coalition drafted Issue 3, the 2011 ballot initiative rejecting government influence in a person’s health care decisions. Until Thursday’s court decision, they thought their votes for the successful “health care freedom” amendment kept them safe from what they considered government intrusion in private decisions.
Thursday’s defeat has become fuel beneath a movement declared dead by pundits on the left and right.
Repealing “Obamacare” can only happen, Ohio convention-goers were told, by electing Republican candidate Mitt Romney and conservative members of Congress.
Ohio liberty group members want Obama out of the White House, but another priority is to elect Treasurer Josh Mandel to the U.S. Senate. He is running against U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Mandel delivered the convention’s keynote speech and received an endorsement from several Ohio Tea Party groups and the convention’s lead sponsor, FreedomWorks, which is headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
FreedomWorks boasts a network of 1.7 million members in Tea Party organizations across the country. Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks’ director of federal and state campaigns, said the organization acts mostly as a resource center but also directly supports campaigns such as Mandel’s.
Steinhauser said FreedomWorks is focusing on battleground states with senate seats up for grabs and will return to Ohio several times before November. One goal is to regain control of the Senate which is controlled by Democrats, 53-47. The Mandel-Brown race is high on the list of targets for conservatives.
Other national conservative organizations and think tanks sponsored portions and right-wing rock stars such as activist filmmaker James O’Keefe, former Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., famous for shouting “You lie!” during an Obama speech to a joint session of Congress.
Zawistowski said national sponsorships do not make the groups’ efforts less authentic.
“They have to convince us what to do — we’re independent,” Zawistowski said. “They can’t tell us what to do.”
Most Tea Party-affiliated “liberty groups” focus on local issues and races where they have a louder voice.
“The person you elect to the school board is going to be your county commissioner in two years, your state representative in five years, your congressman in 10 to 12 years – those races are important,” Zawistowski said.
In 2011, Dayton Tea Party Founder Rob Scott was one example of Tea Party members being elected to public office when he won a race for the Kettering City Council. This November, several candidates involved with various Tea Party groups are running for county offices and the Ohio General Assembly.
Party rift
Ohio Tea Party leaders are quick to point out they are not members of the GOP but chose to align with Republicans instead of Democrats because they share more values.
Zawistowski said he spends more time arguing with Republicans than Democrats.
“When they were in charge they did the same thing,” Zawistowski said. “The challenge we’re having is for them to understand what they’re trying to do is not good enough.”
Elected officials were few and far between at last week’s convention. Republican U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan of Urbana and Bill Johnson of Marietta and Joe Wilson of South Carolina spoke in addition to Mandel.
Redfern said the lack of elected officials present shows how little credibility the Ohio Republican Party gives to the groups. Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett said the party’s central committee and office staff includes Tea Party members and several of them attended the convention. He praised the Tea Party movement’s desire to research and find waste and duplication of programs.
“Any time you do that, you’re always voiding someone’s favorite program but at the same time I think they’re trying to drag government into the 21st century to get them more efficient, more accountable, more transparent,” Bennett said.
University of Dayton political scientist Dan Birdsong said the Tea Party has not challenged the GOP in general elections, a signal they won’t become a third party in the near future.
“They’re essentially the conservative wing of the Republican Party and that’s where they’re going to find a home and push their agenda from,” Birdsong said.
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