Tea Partiers at Cedar Rapids Event Excited About Movement, But Undecided on Presidential Candidates

By Hannah Hess
IowaPolitics.com
 
CEDAR RAPIDS — The double-decker Tea Party Express buses rolled up to the park here as part of the group's " Reclaiming America Tour ," attempting to mobilize a crowd still unsure of which candidate best fits its vision for 2012.
 
“I’m looking at a lot of them, and I think there’s a lot of great one’s out there. So, we’ll come up with the best one when we get done here,” said Mike Alt of Marion, who stood near the back of the 175-person crowd in Green Park.
 
Like many who turned out in the near 100-degree heat for the two-hour rally, Alt clapped for the boisterous attacks against President Barack Obama and nodded to the beat of a folksy tune proclaiming “We’re reclaiming America with the power of our vote.”
 
Alt said he has listened to speeches from Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but no one candidate in the crowded GOP group best represents his tea party beliefs. He said the country must cut the deficit so his five children and four grandchildren are free of the debt burden.
 
He glanced around at the seven booths hawking anti-Obama merchandise, “I love Tea” buttons and “We the people” T-shirts, as he took in the environment of the political rally.
 
“It’s festive and uplifting. It gives us, you know, it’s a reason to celebrate for sure, what they stand for — the tea party,” Alt said.
 
Local people make the decisions
 
For Tim Pugh, a small business owner from Cedar Rapids who credits himself with founding the Cedar Rapids Tea Party, the event energized but didn't organize.
 
“The Cedar Rapids Tea Party kind of falls in its own little circle. We do look at the national tea parties,” Pugh said, pointing towards the stage. “We do kind of look at what they have to say, what their positions are, but all in all, it is the local people in Cedar Rapids making all of the decisions for the Cedar Rapids tea party.”
 
Good thing, too. When a woman opened up the rally Thursday, she accidentally greeted people in "Rapid City," even though she was in Cedar Rapids.
 
No presidential candidates spoke at Thursday's rally. When IowaPolitics.com asked Pugh which candidate he felt the energy swelling for in 2012, he declined to comment. He said the event would encourage people to be engaged in the process.
 
Only one candidate appeared to be attempting to organize among the tents and lawn chairs at the Tea Party Express event.
 
Phil Valenziano, the state field director for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, sported a royal blue Romney T-shirt and a clipboard. He weaved through the crowd, registering those who showed interest in Romney's campaign.

State Republican chairman shows support

The Tea Party Express rally in Cedar Rapids was the third of four stops scheduled in Iowa. It came on the sixth day of the Tea Party Express' 17-day national tour leading up to a Sept. 12 debate it's co-sponsoring with CNN in Tampa, Fla.
 
Organizers scheduled more stops in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, than any other state in the nation.
 
While those in the tea party movement have denied that members are largely Republicans, Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn spoke at Thursday's rally as a show of support for the movement. He said the movement has helped the party gained momentum.
 
“I think we all have one goal in mind right now, and that’s to make sure that President Obama’s a one-term president. So I’m here talking with many of our activists,” Strawn said. “We see a lot of crossover between the tea party activists and local county central committee members.”
 
Strawn lingered on the edge of the park before the event began, enjoying the shade of the Strong America Now tent and shaking hands. Strong America Now is a conservative organization devoted to reducing government waste that asks candidates to sign a pledge supporting their plan to cut the deficit.
 
Palin fans in the crowd
 
For Alice Glick, of Fairfax, the tea party movement represents fiscal responsibility, limited government, and supporting the military, not a specific candidate. Glick, 45, takes care of her 27-year-old son, an Army National Guard veteran who sustained a traumatic brain injury during his tour of duty in Iraq.
 
Glick used the time in the park to shop for merchandise. She bought bumper stickers predicting Obama would be a one-term president, though she said she's not yet sure who should replace him.
 
She supported former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in the Ames Straw Poll, although she said he may not be the most representative of tea party interests. She said her loyalties would likely change if former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin enters the race.
 
“Sarah Palin is the strongest person,” Glick said. “If she runs she’s not afraid to stand up for what she believes in and stay it to anyone around. She’s the strongest — if she only does it.”
 
Brandon Echols, of Anamosa, snatched a thick stack of pamphlets from the Strong America Now booth. The pamphlets show a diapered baby chained to a iron ball and bear the message: “Every child born today is shackled with $30,000 of our national debt.”
 
Echols, a political organizer who operates a libertarian organization called Republic Now, said Thursday’s event offered a great chance to energize his base. He planned to circulate the pamphlets throughout eastern Iowa.
 
He considers himself an ‘original’ supporter of the tea party, after attending the Ames Straw Poll in 2007 to vote for Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Echols came to Ames again this August in support of Paul.
 
“He’s the only candidate with a history of limited government, of voting in favor of the taxpayer, and never giving any place to large corporations,” Echols said. “Whereas, a lot of the Republicans tend to give a lot of leeway to the bigger corporations.”
 
Echols lauded the tea party for its decentralized message, and said he’s proud to represent a movement that will put the country on the right path, adding that right doesn’t have to mean conservative.
 
“I’m not a conservative or a liberal. I consider myself a libertarian, and I’ll make an alliance with anyone who will support a better America,” he said.
 
Three vendors worked a stand selling baseball caps and T-shirts with the word “Nobama” and the swirl campaign icon that appeared on much of the president’s campaign merchandise from 2008.
 
Sales have been slow in Iowa for Rob Long, the man who founded the teapartysticker.org, the site behind the booth. He plans to follow the Tea Party Express along its path to continue hawking his merchandise to his target audience, hoping to turn a profit for his start-up company.
 
“We hope to take our company into the black by the end of the tour — by Tampa Bay,” Long said. “Are we on track for that? That’s a little questionable. We were hoping to be a little bit further along than we are right now.”
 
Long isn’t loyal to the Tea Party Express, but to the movement as a whole. He said he might skip the Michigan and Ohio stops schedule on Saturday and head to Indianola, where Sarah Palin appears with the Tea Party of America. Organizers estimate the crowd will be 10,000 and Long said a big crowd could mean big sales.