Major Announcement

[Gene Clem]

History

The Southwest Michigan Tea Party Patriots (SWMIPATS) was formed in Kalamazoo in April of 2009 after our first rally brought us together.  At that time several of us met as committees and then as 'committee of the whole' to agree upon our principles, mission and organization.  Almost no one had any experience in the political world.  As I was to learn over the next few months, this same thing was happening all across our state and the nation.

We grew to chapters in Berrien, Cass and Allegan counties.  As I was to discover over the next year, all politics is local and hence although almost every single Tea Party that sprung up had the exact same principles and mission (arrived at independently), the organizations were different.  We decided to organize as a non-profit, tax exempt, educational organization; others chose for-profit or political action committees, etc.  We were all neophytes, processed many conflicting opinions and made our choices.

The choice we made meant that we could not 'endorse' political candidates; we could recruit them, train people, educate people, but not endorse or campaign for candidates.  We decided that we would work within this restriction and encourage our members to work for the candidates of their choice.  Our voter guides would make it clear who the preferred candidates were.  All legal.

When the vast majority of you joined the organization, we had presented ourselves to you as just that, whether you noticed, cared or paid attention.  We want to make a change.  We want your input.  Here is why:

The Local Situation

It has become clear that the Tea Party is a powerful political brand and movement.  It has made political history in many elections since last winter.  Witness the results in New Jersey and Massachusetts among several.  However the old line, "Rockefeller", progressive GOP has also taken notice and is aligned against the Tea Party movement and views us as a threat due to our stance on insistence of protection of and adherence to the Constitution.

We (the Michigan Tea Party Alliance) have found and fought instances in Michigan where the GOP has started up a "Tea Party" as a front for Republican campaigns.  Also, they have a policy of always supporting the incumbent, whether their record shows that they honor and protect the constitution, or not.

In Southwest Michigan (the 6th congressional district) we have encouraged our members to run for office with the plan that Tea Party members would be encouraged and available to support them.  We have many that have stepped up and are running for office in the Republican primary.  However, even though they are running as Republicans, they not only do not get support from the GOP if they are challengers, but they get active resistance.  Clearly, the GOP does not want voters to have choice.  The Tea Party clearly does want the choice.

As people of integrity and strength, we Tea Party members cannot let this stand without challenge.  We cannot bring our strength to bear if our hands are tied.  We need to be able to support our members when they challenge the powers that have brought us to this sad state of affairs in our state and nation.  We must overturn all corruption that resists us, whether in the GOP, which many of our members also are members of, or ACORN, or any other organization that opposes us.  We will have the full strength of those in charge of the corrupt centers of power in the federal government against us.  We must insure that we are not easy targets for them.

Proposed Change

We need to be able to fight for our candidates, legally.  We need to organize so as to provide us the best platform from which to do battle.  I am recommending that we change our current  corporate designation and immediately move to engage the battle to protect our constitutional republic.  When we win our battles in August and November, we will look to the future again and my vision includes a watchdog Tea Party which would then move to a educational organization to watch and report on 'our' elected representatives.  At that time, our needs will change, but not our mission of taking back our nation and putting it back on course.  We will not let it drift again.

One last piece of information: it was our understanding our IRS application was in process, but upon further investigation it has come to our attention that it was not.  The application has never been processed so we can re-register as a different type of non-profit or as a for profit organization.

Please take time and respond to me with your comments at [e-mail].

Regards,
Gene Clem

[Pioneer Girl]

What would we do to support candidates beyond putting out the information on them as to what they support and what their past record is? If we need to change then we should. Do we have something to print out that gives all the candidates positions? What about school board elections and also the judges we vote on? If we are going to take back our country we must not neglect those important positions. Also, has anyone been getting messages from the group that is trying to get people to join and become precinct representative, chairmen etc.? Apparently much political power rests with the precinct people and more of us need to get involved in that. I would like to know more about what they do and who they are.

[James W. Smith]

I agree!

Dr Smith
St Joe

[Gwen Branch]

Gene,

I absolutely agree... the Tea Party should endorse candidates within the local primaries that will defend the Constitution and end the corruption in Washington. There is no need for a third party... we just need to elect the right candidates for the general election.

Thanks for all your hard work and continued dedication to our cause.

[Dr. Scott Davis]

So, do we need to apply as a 501c4 instead of a 501c3? I would think yes, but wonder what the legal minds say.
Dr. Scott

[Pioneer Girl]

I agree, we need to know who the candidates are.. what they say and what they do and keep an eye on them after they get elected. We need to learn how to work on the inside instead of just taking what the party gives us for a candidate. The republicans are most likely to be conservative and constitutional. So that is probably the most productive party to start with. I still don't know what precinct people do or how they get appointed but apparently that is where much of the decision making takes place. I hope our website can be a place where we can learn how to participate more effectively. Conservatives are busy people, we "have a life" and are less likely than libs to make a career or hobby out of political influence so we have a lot to learn.

Carol Strebel said:

I think you are on the right track . They are doing this very thing in parts of Texas. I have been privileged to have gone to Tea party rallys and watchdog meetings at different restaurants in different counties. We need to have people to sign up as watchdogs and listen to candidates and try to get voting history and job history etc. Please keep me informed. Carol S., Richland

[susan]

We should still remain NON-partican, we must becareful home much money is required by members, WE can never be a 3rd party, We should also consult with other Tea Parties,ie Tea Party Express encountered serious issues because of how they established themselves. We should consult with Freedomworks.com and others maybe Heritege Foundation, etc.

[FLENA RUBALCABA]

I'VE READ ALL OF THE REPLIES AND I'M IMPRESSED BY THE VOLUME OF INTEREST!

AS I SIT HERE TONITE IT SEEMS THAT IF WE BECOME A PAC, WE WILL HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY TO SUPPORT A RANGE OF CANDIDATES...NOT A SLATE....AND WE WILL STILL HAVE THE FREEDOM TO HAVE OUR MEMBERS BECOME DELEGATES IN A LOCAL POLITICAL PARTY AND AFFECT THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE WITHIN THEIR COUNTY.

IF THAT'S THE CASE, OUR COMMITMENT MUST BE FOR THE LONG HAUL, IF WE ARE PLANNING TO TAKE BACK THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF MICHIGAN, WE MUST START WITH OUR COUNTY AND THAT BEGINS WITH THE DELEGATES WHO ELECT THEIR COUNTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. ONCE THAT'S DONE, OUR WORK BEGINS IN FINDING CANDIDATES, BUTTON-HOLING ELECTED OFFICE HOLDERS TO BE INVOLVED, MAKING SURE THAT OUR LOCAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE HAS SOME INPUT IN APPOINTMENTS TO BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS AND THAT FUND-RAISING CONTINUES TO HELP ELECT CANDIDATES...AND THE CYCLE GOES ON.

WHAT WOULD BE THE OTHER OPTION? CAN WE CONTINUE AS A GROUP OF CONCERNED CITIZENS WHO WANT TO BROADEN OUR MEMBERSHIP, BRING IN CANDIDATES AND ADVOCATES OF ISSUES, LEARN ABOUT THEIR POSITIONS AND THEN AS INDIVIDUALS HELP THOSE WHOM WE COULD SUPPORT. DOES IT SOUND NAIVE TO THINK THAT WE COULD AFFECT THAT MUCH CHANGE?. IN FACT, THAT MAY HAVE BEEN HOW THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS STARTED OUT!

I KNOW I'M WARY OF BEING USED AGAIN!

HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE TO SOMEONE.

[William O. Cain]

I agree with the change proposed. We need to be able to publicly endorse our candidate of choice and voice our desire to return the Republican Party to its conservative roots by backing consititutional watch-dogs and replacing the big gov rinos.

Bill Cain

[Wendy Kay Griffioen]

Gene, where are we with this? Have we made any decisions as to what direction we are taking? We need to decide what actions we want to take moving forward with the Tea Party in order to decide what filing status to request, correct? What are Tea Party movements across the US doing? Do we have any precedent for direction where the Tea Party is concerned so that we remain cohesive? I have not seen that discussed here. Just curious. Thanks!