California political consultants cash in on tea party
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Thursday is tax day, which means only one thing in the world of politics -- rallies, and lots of them. In Sacramento, the Tea Party Patriots Tax Rally Day will descend upon the Capitol at noon.
Meanwhile, Politico reports a group of California consultants are cashing in on the ‘tea party’ movement.
‘Aided by campaign-style advance work and event planning, slick ads cut by Russo Marsh, impressive crowds and a savvy media operation, the political action committee run by [Joe] Wierzbicki, ... Sal Russo and a handful of other Republican operatives has also emerged as among the prolific fundraising vehicles under the tea party banner,’ writes Ken Vogel.
Russo’s firm has received $1.9 million in payments from the TeaPartyExpress.org PAC, but Vogel writes, ‘But the Tea Party Express’s high profile has angered tea party leaders who are suspicious of its big payments to Russo Marsh, view the bus tours as distractions from meaningful grass-roots organizing headed into the 2010 midterm elections and say the Republican ties of both the firm and PAC are wrong for a movement that has prided itself on independence from the political establishment and has fiercely rejected what it sees as GOP efforts to co-opt it.
You can read the Politico story here.
-- Anthony York