Tea Party leaders scold GOP for new registration rules

The head of a Tea Party coalition in Northwest Florida and the head of the Tea Party of Florida don’t often agree on much, but they both are miffed at Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida GOP.

When the Florida Legislature passed and Scott signed a law that bans candidates for public office from switching parties, they effectively iced out many Tea Party brethren and registered "independents" seeking to run next year in newly drawn districts, said Henry Kelley, the president of the Fort Walton Beach Tea Party and a potential candidate for a Republican House seat representing Crestview.

“I don’t like things that give the appearance of limiting people’s access to the ballot,’’ said Kelley, who is currently not registered with any party and therefore not subject to the ban. But if he had been registered with the Independent Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the Tea Party or any of the other alternative parties in Florida, he would be banned from running as a Republican or Democrat next year.

Under the law, any candidate who qualifies to run for office in 2012 in a partisan election by the June 8 deadline must have been registered with his or her party for last 365 days. Because qualifying ends June 8, 2012, the law closed the door on any candidate seeking office next year who hadn’t switched parties by the time the bill became law earlier this year.

“That violates my sense of equal protection under the law,’’ Kelley said, who added that it “gives the appearance of gaming the system.’’ More here.

Comments

[Abe Lincoln]

GOP should adopt the swastika as their new logo.

[whasup]

The tea partisans bring a needed corrective voice to our national binge-spending stupidity.

But mostly they are a bunch of cranks--useful to be sure--but not willing to actually form a responsible third party (as they should).

Of course, the reason they can't form a third party is that they ultimately can't really agree on where the spending cuts should occur.

[JGD1816]

Typical TEA Party foolishness!
The TEA Party has complete control of Florida's Legislative branch and Executive branch.
Instead of dressing up like Gen Washington and Ben Franklin and screaming to take America back to the "Gay 90's" ... these nitwits should have been watching what their idiot friends were doings to them.

[lmmd]

hahahaha - did in their own........

[Hnry]

The tea party is what is left when the Republican scap has been pulled off congressional politics.......

is it sore....it is useless....it prevents anything postive from happening....it is a dangerous infection......