Taking Over a Political Operation is No Tea Party

(Chuck Muth) – Swadeep Nigam, now former Treasurer of the Clark County Republican Party (CCRP), confirmed for us yesterday what had been predicted and widely suspected since Tea Party activists took effective control of the CCRP during last June’s elections.

“Existing donors have started canceling their donations to the CCRP,” Swadeep writes, “and also there are no new commitments from any of the fundraising breakfast attendees due to the direction in which the new CCRP group is going.

In addition, Swadeep continued, “Officers who resigned (at last Thursday’s executive board meeting) were getting no support from the tea partiers. Chairman Richard Scotti and I put a 2010 budget together along with a detailed political plan to confront D’s but got no support. TPs did not even have the courtesy to provide an alternative plan.

“On every issue TPs had their own agenda whether it was about hiring an Executive Director or even putting a Christmas Party together. Simple etiquettes were missing, as some of the CCRP officers did not even respond to the Chairman Richard Scotti’s or my emails concerning important decisions and policy issues.”

I continue to support the limited-government goals and objectives espoused by the Tea Party movement, but running a political machine is a whole lot different from showing up at a rally and waving signs for an hour or two every couple of months. It’s hard, non-glamorous grunt work.

I keep hearing that the Tea Party movement is organized and has its “stuff” together and will be able to turn the Clark County GOP into a more effective political machine for conservative candidates than it’s been in recent memory. But so far they kinda just look like the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

Maybe if they’d just stop standing in a circle and firing?

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