Jenny Beth Martin, head of the Tea Party Patriots, said that the RNC had “failed to promote our principles, and lost because of it” in 2012. “We don’t need to wait on the RNC to promote our winning principles at places like CPAC, and across the country,” she said in a statement to The Hill.
Jenny Beth Martin, head of the Tea Party Patriots
Tea Party groups lashed out Monday against the Republican National Committee’s proposals for sweeping strategic changes to the GOP, charging they don’t address the root problem facing the party and could even undermine the grassroots-backed candidates that have been so successful in past elections.
The RNC issued its “Growth and Opportunity Project” report on Monday, a look at the issues that plagued the party in 2012 and how they can be remedied in time for future elections.
Suggestions in the report ranged from reaching out to untapped minority groups to shortening the presidential primary process.
But grassroots groups see many of the proposals as missing the point.
“There’s not a whole heck of a lot that’s exciting me [in the report],” said Brent Bozell, chairman of the Tea Party group ForAmerica. “They are obsessed with identifying problems and solutions from the top-down instead of from the bottom-up.”
Bozell said the report essentially codifies the suggestions of the GOP consultant class, a group he railed against during a well-received speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend.
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