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Tea parties emerge as revenue stream
By: Kenneth P. Vogel
November 27, 2009 05:30 PM EST

Tapping into the deep reservoir of anger on the right at President Barack Obama and Congress has turned out to be a financial boon to a diverse collection of tea party-affiliated political groups and candidates soliciting donations and raising money from the sale of T-shirts, books and paraphernalia.

The tea party brand has proved to be a potent source of revenue for new for-profit companies funding — among other things — an upcoming convention keynoted by Sarah Palin, for established national non-profit groups soliciting small donations and for political action committees and long-shot candidates raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to overcome sometimes long electoral odds.

And it’s spawned a host of competing initiatives to capitalize on the willingness of conservative activists to put their money where their politics are, even during tough economic times.

A combination of newly engaged small donors and already engaged ones redirecting their contributions are the main source of the money, according to movement organizers in Washington and across the country, who predict that if tea party donors unite behind a group or cluster of groups, they could emerge as a force as well-financed as the liberal juggernaut MoveOn.org.

But the fundraising efforts have also prompted grumbling about the monetization of a local grass-roots movement and raised concerns about whether the money is being used to advance the cause of the activists who burst onto the national scene last summer with marches and town hall protests around the country.

The debate over fundraising reflects the tensions of a movement whose internal stresses have raised concerns on the right about its ability to become a factor in the 2010 elections. Already, there are charges and countercharges that the money that has been raised has not been used effectively to advance the small-government, limited taxation ideals at the heart of the tea party movement.

“There are a lot of questions about money and where all the money has gone,” said Erick Erickson, editor of the influential conservative blog RedState.com, which has emerged as both chronicler of — and guide for — the tea party movement.

Conservative bloggers and activists have at times accused some tea party organizers of poor budgeting, wasting money on flashy initiatives like cross-country bus tours that critics say don’t do much to advance the cause, or — worse — using cash raised from activists to pad their groups’ coffers or their own wallets.

“The biggest problem I have is that there are a bunch of hacks out there,” said Erickson, who has been traveling the country advising conservative groups and big donors on strategies for feeding and channeling the grass-roots energy behind the tea party movement. He said “multimillion-dollar donors” have largely refrained from supporting many of the tea party-affiliated groups because they’re waiting for signs of which will be able to effectively advance the movement.

In the meantime, though, small-dollar donations from the movement’s grass-roots activists have emerged as a significant funding stream that could be key for the tea party to advance from merely staging protests to shaping elections, according to Eric Odom, an early tea party organizer who has founded a handful of tea party-related groups.

“If you take the million people who turned out on April 15 [at Tax Day Tea Parties around the country], and you can get even half of those to contribute $100, that’s pretty significant and that’s what we’re working on,” said Odom, who helped organize the April rallies.

This month, Odom unveiled a new political action committee called Liberty First PAC to raise money from tea party activists to fund congressional challengers embodying the movement’s principles. Though the PAC has only raised $15,000, he says it’s received pledges for $100,000. “Our next $400,000 is within reach, and after that, it should take care of itself,” he predicted.

Odom conceded, though, that a for-profit company he co-owns called American Liberty Alliance burned through the $30,000 it raised — from donors and by selling Web ads — to fund a monthlong candidate-backing cross-country bus tour before it could pay a couple of the people who helped pull it off, though he says the payments weren’t guaranteed................................>>>>.................>>>>............http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29943.html

This just reaffirms that there is a large portion of the electorate that is unhappy with both major parties and the direction they are going in.  If this movement continues to pick up speed, they just may be the most influential group when endorsing/supporting future candidates.  As they pick up momentum they are not just gaining supporters, but they are also gaining monetarily. These groups just may render the minor parties irrelevant in the future elections.