Tea Party Group Backs Brown, Pressures Third Party Candidate To Drop Out Of Mass. Senate Race (TPM)

[highplainsdem]

Hope they fail. This is the last thing we need now...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/mt-preview-fd7ea3933e3a43bc7741ba86481a8ad197f2efcf.php?084317?ref=mp

Tea Party Group Backs Brown, Pressures Third Party Candidate To Drop Out Of Mass. Senate Race

Brian Beutler | January 18, 2010, 1:10AM


The Massachusetts Tea Party is working behind the scenes to make sure Scott Brown doesn't lose votes to...a libertarian candidate, beloved by many in the Tea Party movement.

A mostly overlooked factor in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts is that there's a third party candidate in the race--libertarian Joe Kennedy (no relation to Ted)--who, though far behind in the polls, conservatives fear could be the Republicans' Ralph Nader on Tuesday. So in the past several days, tea party protesters, and others on the far right have organized a letter writing campaign to pressure Kennedy to drop out of the race and endorse GOP hopeful Scott Brown.

"The Massachusetts Tea Party movement is banding together to contact Joe Kennedy and ask him to step out of next Tuesday's Senate race," reads a Tea Party email obtained by TPMDC.

-snip-

This has alarmed Tea Party faithful, who want to keep the movement distinct from the Republican Party. But for the most part, it's generated a spate of emails--thousands in the past week--to Kennedy, asking him to drop out.

Some of those emails went beyond pressure. Yesterday, Kennedy's Facebook page noted, "Let it be known that people have been told to threaten me." (The note has since been removed.) But, according to the Kennedy camp, the overwhelming thrust has been unthreatening.

-snip-

[AllieB]

1. Lots of out-of-state Teabaggers at Brown events.

http://www.bluemassgroup.com/diary/18455/doh-brown-campaign-astroturfed-worcester-rally

Check out the license plates.