Source: Ballot Access News

Although Florida has lenient ballot access laws for parties to become ballot-qualified, the state rules for party documents are severe. Florida election officials have fined the Treasurer of the ballot-qualified Florida Tea Party $1,000 because the Treasurer should have filed his report on January 10, 2012, and instead he filed it on January 11, 2012. Recently the Secretary of State notified him that because the fine has not yet been paid, he will be sued. Read more »

Source: Ballot Access News

Filing for the Florida primary closed on June 8. The ballot-qualified Tea Party, which had eighteen candidates on the ballot in 2010 for federal and state office, has no candidates for partisan office this year.

In this year’s U.S. House races, there are 27 races. Republicans have a candidate in 24 races; Democrats also have a candidate in 24 races. The only minor party candidate for a Read more »

Source: Ballot Access News

The Florida Secretary of State has many regulations that require qualified minor parties to conduct certain activities. Here is a link to that regulation, 1S-2.050, which is titled, “Cancellation of Political Party Filings.”

One of the regulations requires parties to have had at least $500 “aggregate reported financial activity” during a calendar year. The Florida Secretary of State’s office has Read more »

Source: Independent Political Report

Austin Cassidy at Uncovered Politics:

The Florida Tea Party, an officially recognized political party in the state of Florida, was disbanded earlier this month by former party chair Peg Dunmire.

In 2010, the TEA Party gave many state Republicans cause for concern when they filed more than two dozen candidates for office. Most were inactive Read more »

Source: Nader.org

The Boston Tea Party in December 1773 threw the East India Company’s tea overboard. The Republican Tea Party in August 2011 threw America overboard.

Only in Congress, with its rules for minority rule, can a minority of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives impose its havoc on the American people there, then on the Senate Read more »

Source: Independent Political Report

DJ Mikolay, a founder of the New Jersey Reform Party, looks at a Minnesota maverick in this appreciation:

..almost all Tea Party activists are united in the demands for a smaller federal government, lower taxes, Congressional term limits, and a balanced budget. Indeed, these Read more »

Source: Libertarian Party (LP.org)

WASHINGTON – On January 17, 2011, the Libertarian Party (LP) asked the 90,000 readers of its weekly email message to take a poll asking, “When will we know that Republicans successfully fooled the Tea Partiers?”

59% of respondents chose the option, “When they raise the debt limit without real spending cuts.” Read more »

Source: Libertarian Party (LP.org)

“Many people give Libertarians, along with Congressman Ron Paul, credit for starting the Tea Party movement. I believe the first modern Tea Party was in Austin, Texas on December 16, 2007. I was there.”

That’s in the opening of a recent fundraising letter the Libertarian Party sent to our donors. Read more »

Source: Ballot Access News

New York State held a special U.S. House election on May 24, 2011, to fill the vacant 26th district seat. The official results by party: Democratic 42.77%; Republican 32.15%; Tea Party 9.03%; Conservative 8.18%; Working Families 4.67%; Independence 2.14%; Green 1.06%.

In November 2010, the results in this same seat had been: Republican 58.99%; Democratic 26.39%; Conservative 9.41%; Independence 5.21%. Read more »

Source: Ballot Access News

On May 24, New York voters filled the vacant U.S. House seat, 26th district. So far the results are 48% for the Democratic nominee, 42% for the Republican nominee, and 10% to the two other candidates in the race, a Green Party nominee and independent Jack Davis, who was running under the Tea Party label. Read more »