GRAND JUNCTION — The Tea Party Express, the Tea Party Patriots, the 9.12 Patriots and dozens of related groups first drew attention during their angry, sign-waving protests over taxes and health care reform a year ago.
Since then, these conservative groups, or “pro-patriots” as they prefer to be called, have been busy in church halls and in coffee shops from Greeley to Bayfield.
Their plan: Use Tuesday’s caucuses to shake up the established party system that, so far, they have been railing at from the outside.
To that end, Tea Party coffees, “meet- ups,” forums and online chat rooms have been buzzing with caucus talk.
“Now is your chance to get involved in the political process. You can’t just sit around and watch Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. You need to get off your (butts) and go to the Republican caucuses, and you need to put the right people on the ballot,” an emotional Jim Buske of Ouray told a 9.12 meeting that drew about 50 people.
His exhortation has been echoed across dozens of conservative spinoff groups that have already shown new muscle in state politics, illustrated by the fact that Republican hopefuls — and even a few Democratic ones — are courting them.
The latest Rasmussen poll shows 18 percent of Colorado voters identify as Tea Party members, and 46 percent indicate they have positive views of the Tea Party movement.
“Anybody who is energized and bringing people into the political process, that’s great,” said Sean Duffy, spokesman for Republican gubernatorial hopeful Scott McInnis. Duffy said he has been scheduling numerous meetings with Tea Party groups across the state.
Dan Maes favored
In conservative Colorado straw polls, McInnis is not doing well: He is not conservative enough for these conservatives. And he has political experience. That is not a plus with this crowd.
They are favoring Republican Dan Maes, who has never held office, outside of class president in high school, and who was footnoted as an “also running” candidate when he entered the race. His campaign now has been raised to legitimacy by strong support from the Tea Party groups.
Maes said that a year ago, when he first heard about the Tea Party movement, he didn’t think it would be a force with staying power. That has changed. He said he has put 50,000 miles on his car driving to conservatives’ coffees and meet-ups.
“I believe that these people are going to storm the caucuses,” he said. “I think that will be the first indication of just how strong this movement is.”
Except for the election of Tea Party-backed Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the Tea Party hasn’t had much impact in high-profile elections. They represent a factionalized, hard-to-pin-down voter block.
The strongest groups in Colorado are the Western Slope Conservative Alliance, with about 2,500 members; the Denver-based Hear Us Now; and the Southern Colorado and the Northern Colorado Tea Parties, which have 1,200 to 1,500 active members each.
Their strength is not based in the fundraising that buoys the two major parties. There is talk of starting Tea Party and 9.12 Political Action Committees in Colorado, but, for now, funding comes from collection jars, online donations, T-shirt sales and event admissions.
Lu Busse, who is chairwoman of the 9.12 Project Colorado Coalition that takes in two dozen conservative and patriot groups, said lack of money plus the mostly leaderless nature of the groups make it hard to gauge their strength in Colorado.
Busse is a grandmother with a master’s degree in audiology, and she paints the movement as very middle-class. She said she wants to simplify government and rein in spending. She is not happy with either Republicans or Democrats. She said she sees members as independent spirits who will leave an empty space on a ballot rather than vote for someone who doesn’t fit the bill.
Democrats may be most Tea Partyers’ main nemesis, but the list of other things they are against is lengthy.
In meetings across the state, there are complaints about labor unions, Muslims, communism, socialism, President Barack Obama, government-run health care, liberal judges, the belief in global warming, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, gay rights, cap and trade, the census, the Environmental Protection Agency, bailouts and taxes in general.
Principles and heroes
The conservatives in the groups are for limited government, free speech, gun rights, the military, secure borders, patriotism, the energy industry and the teaching of a conservative curriculum in schools.
Their heroes include Joe the Plumber, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Sheriff Richard Mack, a former Arizona and Utah sheriff who preaches that local sheriffs are the only defense patriots have against a big government intent on taking all power. Groups are awaiting his Colorado speaking-tour stops later this month.
Their buzzwords include “co-opting,” which is what they don’t want the Republican Party to do by aligning with the Tea Partyers, then taking over their movement. “Nullification” is a strategy often talked about as a way states might opt out of federal laws.
“A lot of people say we are fearmongers and naysayers. We are not,” said Dr. Paul Schneider, a Vail podiatrist who organized a 9.12 group in the Vail, Eagle and Roaring Fork valleys.
In meetings that always begin with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, members of many of these groups tote along copies of the Constitution and can quote it article and section. And they often paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s “11th commandment”: “Don’t criticize fellow conservatives in public.”
But that doesn’t always hold true inside some groups that include pro-patriots with stark differences. The 9.12 members are more steeped in religion and more prone to conspiracy beliefs. The Americans for Prosperity focuses most strongly on fiscal responsibility in government. Add in the Minutemen, the Clear the Bench group, the Pro Second Amendment Committee, the Fair Tax Nation, Freedom Works and We the People Congress, and the beliefs begin to clash.
Separating from fringe
Some have tried to write them off as conspiracy-addled and uneducated, but conservative organizers say the far-right-wing fringe gets too much publicity. The movement is trying to push aside those waving Obama/Nazi signs and advocating armed resistance to the federal government.
“They are crazy. They have no place in our movement,” said Jeff Crank, a conservative radio talk-show host from Colorado Springs and state director of the Americans for Prosperity. “We can’t allow our movement to be hijacked by nuts.”
Crank, at 27, is something of an oddity in this movement. Polls show only 20 percent of Tea Party-types are younger than 30. At meetings across the state, gray hair predominates. So do women.
“What surprised me was how many people who hadn’t been heard before were just looking for somewhere to go to be heard,” said Lesley Hollywood, a stay-at-home mom who directs the Northern Colorado Tea Party and is signing up about 25 members a week.
Whatever is driving the movement, there is no doubt it has swelled and gained momentum across the state since the first shouting crowds appeared in parks and in front of courthouses a year ago with tea bags dangling from their hats.
They plan to be out in noisy, sign-waving force again in April for anti-tax demonstrations and for large rallies when the Tea Party Express bus wends its way through the state as part of a national tour.
But it may be in the quieter ways that hints of the depth and staying power of the movement are found.
In Aurora, a dollar-store manager is taking classes part time so he can earn a degree and run for public office as a Tea Party candidate. Tea Partyers in Loveland don period costumes and walk through parks reading the Constitution. In Bayfield, an accountant has started meetings for home-schooled children to study “The Five Thousand Year Leap,” a Glenn Beck-recommended book that stresses the right of citizens to abolish a tyrannical government.
Around the Western Slope, a middle-aged woman makes the rounds of meetings with her guitar, singing about a better time when families took Sunday drives and kids played hopscotch and won blue ribbons at county fairs — a time when “senators aren’t bought and honesty is tops.”
Scott Streit, a 9.12 Patriot in Montrose, said all Coloradans should be listening to such sentiments.
He and other organizers say that, come the caucus and the next election, the mainstream is going to be surprised
“You hear the sabers rattling, but you don’t see the armies marching yet,” Streit said. “You will.”
Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com
Tea Time
Quotes from members and supporters of conservative groups:
“I consider myself a Tea Partyer, but I guess I am not sure what the term means. I think it means someone who is dissatisfied with the direction of the country.”
Jeff Crank Colorado Springs
“I want so much for people to wake up and quit being so apathetic. This is our country, and I am a person who loves this country.”
Jeanette Koniecke Loveland
“I think Medicare and Social Security should be done away with. There is no reason why you can’t start cutting people off at 40 or 45 and build something else where people are more responsible for their care.”
Linda Gregory Grand Junction
“We’ve been handing out Constitutions for free. At the Fourth of July parade in Durango, we handed out 500 Constitutions, and we could have handed out 2,000.”
Wendy Cox Bayfield
“I look at us as an independent watchdog. We are fighting pretty fiercely to say that we are not a leg of the Republican Party.”
Stephen Collier Colorado Springs
“I think Glenn Beck is the Paul Revere of the 21st century.”
Dr. Michael Schneider Vail
“I have been a Republican, a Democrat and an independent, and I think I have finally joined the right party (the Tea Party).”
Kelly Standley Aurora
“I believe this is a very strong movement. And I believe the traditional media is underestimating it by leaps and bounds.”
Dan Maes Evergreen
“I really think the caucus is going to send a message to our overreaching government: ‘You better watch out.’ “
Richard Schoenradt Grand Junction
Related groups
Colorado has dozens of groups, each with its own slightly different focus, associated with the Tea Party movement. Among them:
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
Three core values are fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets.
TEA PARTY EXPRESS
Planning a national tour this spring to demonstrate against bailouts, government-run health care, deficit spending and government takeovers of sectors of the economy.
9.12 PATRIOTS
Followers of talk-show host Glenn Beck who believe the country should pull together as it did the day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The group’s nine principles and 12 values include a belief in God, the sacredness of marriage and the family, courage and personal responsibility.
AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY
Republican-based group committed to mobilizing citizens to fight for limited government, free markets and the return of the federal government to what the group sees as its constitutional limits.
HEAR US NOW
The Colorado-founded group helped organize the state’s first Tea Party demonstrations. The organization examines proposed legislation to help educate members.
ROAR AMERICA
The Colorado-based Revive Our American Republic says it aims to make elected officials hew to the Constitution. The group researches candidates and monitors proposed legislation.
