Medicare

Florida Tea Party Leader: GOP Medicare Plan A 'Public Policy Nightmare'

Brian Beutler | June 20, 2011, 11:29AM

Tea Party protesters on Capitol Hill

South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson thinks the GOP budget -- and in particular its call to phase out Medicare and replace it with a marketplace for private insurance -- is a total disaster. He's saying that Republicans, including members in his sphere of influence like Rep. Allen West (R-FL), should back away from it.

In an email to fellow Tea Partiers last week, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, Wilkinson called the GOP plan a "public policy nightmare" that could trigger "huge Democratic wins in 2012," and prompt Republicans to blame the Tea Party for their losses.

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FL-08

Alan Grayson To TPM: That Poll Is Bogus, I'm Totally Winning

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 1, 2010, 10:41AM

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)

Progressive firebrand Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) told me last night that rumors of his political demise have been greatly exaggerated.

"We're winning," Grayson told me during a long phone call.

For the past week, bad news has been mounting for Grayson, first in the form of a lawsuit that re-raised rumors that he's behind a mysterious "Tea Party" in Florida -- which real movement tea partiers say is a hoax designed to split the GOP vote. Second -- and potentially worse for the first-term Grayson -- was the release of a public poll earlier this week that showed Grayson trailing Republican nominee Daniel Webster by seven points.

Grayson categorically dismissed the poll, which was published in the right-leaning Sunshine State News and was conducted by a firm owned by Republican pollster Susquehanna.

"This is a consistently biased pollster that comes up with polling that is not believable," he said. Grayson pointed to the internal poll he released last month showing him ahead of Republican nominee Webster by 13 points.

"I don't know how anybody could possibly believe we've dropped 20 points," he said.

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Florida Tea Party

Down The Rabbit Hole: Is The 'Florida Tea Party' Tied To Democrat Alan Grayson?

Christina Bellantoni | June 25, 2010, 11:55AM

Florida Tea Party official Doug Guetzloe, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and tea cups.

The pieces of the Florida Tea Party puzzle are all a bit strange, and none fit together quite right. Republicans and activists say voters are being duped by former Democrats, an anti-tax radio host and college students who took an odd alliance and made it into an official third party -- the Florida Tea Party -- to put "TEA" on the ballot for the first time this fall. State Democrats were amused by the whole thing until several links between the Florida Tea Party group and Rep. Alan Grayson surfaced, complicating everything.

TPM has tracked down all the players, from a 23-year-old who caught tea fever to a talk radio station owner who canned two Tea Party members, and one thing is clear. When it comes to tea in Florida, everyone seems to be pointing a finger at everyone else.

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Florida Tea Party

Tea Partiers Plan To Combat 'Phony' Tea Party Candidates By Spelling Out T-E-A

Christina Bellantoni | June 22, 2010, 1:25PM

Tea party protester

Tea party activists in Florida who insist they are the real thing are about to mount a public education campaign to rebrand a group of candidates as fakers who won't adhere to principles of the movement.

Tea partier Tim McClellan, a political strategist based in Pompano Beach who is suing the Florida Tea Party, has a plan to prevent those Tea Party candidates from winning, and it involves spelling. He believes the 20 official Tea Party candidates we wrote about yesterday are phonies with ties to the Democratic party and an intent to confuse voters.

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Florida Tea Party

Florida Fakers? GOP Cries Foul Over 20 Tea Party Candidates

Christina Bellantoni | June 21, 2010, 2:35PM

Tea Party protest in Florida

Fearing that even marginal voter preferences for tea party candidates could spell doom in November, Republicans now claim that the dozen or more Florida Tea Party candidates running for statehouse seats are part of some Sunshine State shenanigans.

In the meantime, however, the tea partiers want the U.S. attorney to investigate claims that tea party candidates are being intimidated and threatened. The Democrats, meanwhile, swear they have nothing to do with the Tea Party candidates, even though at least 3 of them were once registered to vote as members of the Democratic Party.

It's an old-fashioned whodunit, fueled, in part, by the mysterious candidacy of Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene in South Carolina and the Tea Party of Nevada candidate who tea party activists there say is a faker.

Let's break it down.

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