/——-/ Wikipedia???? You mean the online encyclopedia where anyone can publish any political slant they want? Why not our website? It doesn’t fit your narrative?
The 'Tea Party' came out of 'Citizens For A Sound Economy', Freedomworks and 'American For Prosperity', and Ron Paul's failed Presidential run. It's another astro-turfing gimmick. Not that I disagree with everything they opposed, they were one of the few right wing PR groups that opposed TARP for instance, but they weren't 'organic' to anything but Koch affiliates opening up a subsidiary to keep those voters disenchanted with the GOP establishment on the reservation.
Tea Party movement - Wikipedia
The Kochs assigned AFP to develop them and make them 'viable' for The Team.
Americans for Prosperity - Wikipedia
Funding
While AFP does not disclose its funding sources, some supporters have acknowledged their contributions and investigative journalism has documented others. AFP has been funded by the Kochs and others.[9][14][21][48][77]
At AFP's 2009 Defending the Dream summit, David Koch said he and his brother Charles provided the initial funding for AFP.[78][79][80] In initial funding, David Koch was the top contributor to the founding of the AFP Foundation at $850,000.[81][82] Several American companies also provided initial funding of the AFP Foundation, including $275,000 from State Farm Insurance and lesser amounts from 1-800 Contacts, medical products firm Johnson & Johnson, and carpet and flooring manufacturer Shaw Industries.[81][82]
Later grants from the Koch family foundations include $1 million in 2008 to AFP from the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation[14] and $3 million between 2005 and 2007 to the AFP Foundation from the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation,[83] controlled by Charles Koch.[14] Other grants from Koch-related funding sources include $32.3 million in 2012 and $1.5 million in 2013 from Freedom Partners[84][85][86] and $4.2 million through 2011 to the AFP Foundation from the Center to Protect Patient Rights.[87]
Between 2003 and 2012, the AFP Foundation received $4.17 million from the John William Pope Foundation, chaired by AFP director Pope, the largest identifiable donor to the AFP Foundation.[45][88][89] In 2011, the AFP Foundation received $3 million from the foundation of the family of billionaire Richard DeVos, the founder of Amway, making the DeVos family the second largest identifiable donor to the AFP Foundation.[45][90] In 2010, AFP received half a million dollars from the Bradley Foundation.[88][91] AFP received smaller grants in 2012 from tobacco company Reynolds American and in 2010 and 2012 from the American Petroleum Institute.[92][93][94][95][96] The donor-advised fund Donors Trust granted $11 million to AFP between 2002 and 2010 and $7 million to the AFP Foundation in 2010.[97][98]
Tea Party and 2010 midterm election
Sarah Palin at the Americans for Prosperity-run Wisconsin 2011 Tax Day Tea Party Rally on April 16, 2011.
AFP helped transform the nascent Tea Party movement into a political force.[81][82]
AFP supported the Tea Party movement by obtaining permits and supplying speakers for rallies.[99] AFP helped organize and publicize a "Porkulus"-themed protest on the state capitol steps in Denver, Colorado on February 17, 2009, in conjunction with Obama signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[100]:31[101] Within hours of CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli's remarks on February 19, 2009, that criticized the Act and called for a "Chicago tea party," AFP registered and launched the website "TaxDayTeaParty.com," calling for protests against Obama.[100]:32 AFP had a lead role in organizing Taxpayer Tea Party rallies in Sacramento, Austin, and Madison in April 2009.[16][102] AFP was one of the leading organizers of the September 2009 Taxpayer March on Washington, also known as the "9/12 Tea Party," according to The Guardian.[7] On April 16, 2011, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker at an AFP annual tax day tea party rally at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin.[80][103]
In the 2010 midterm elections, AFP played a major role in achieving a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. AFP supported tea party groups, purchased political advertisements,[59] and sponsored a nationwide bus tour themed "November is Coming" to recruit organizers and canvassers.[104] AFP helped Tea Party groups organize voter registration drives.[12] An AFP website offered "Tea party Talking Points." The organization provided Tea Party activists with education on policy, training in methods, and lists of politicians to target.[10] In October 2010, AFP sponsored a workshop on the political use of the internet at a Tea Party convention in Virginia.[77] AFP said it spent $40 million on rallies, phone banks, and canvassing during the 2010 election cycle. Of the six freshman Republican members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2010, five benefited from AFP advertisements and grassroots activity.[13]
David Weigel wrote in Slate that AFP "in the Tea Party era evolved into one of the most powerful conservative organizations in electoral politics."[105] AFP and the Tea Party share many of the same principles.[106] In 2010, AFP was one of the most influential organizations in the Tea Party movement, and the largest in terms of membership and spending.[107][108] According to Bloomberg News, with AFP the Koch brothers "harnessed the Tea Party's energy in service of their own policy goals, including deregulation and lower taxes....As the Tea Party movement grew in the aftermath of Obama's election, the Kochs positioned Americans for Prosperity as the Tea Party's staunchest ally".[109]
About Tea Party | Tea Party
The Tea Party Movement, born from obscurity, without funding, without planning, is a spontaneous force shaking the very glass foundation of the oligarchy which rules in our name but without our blessing.
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