Tea
Party Tries to Sway GOP Platform
·
By Janie Lorber
·
Roll Call Staff
·
June 13, 2012, Midnight
Evan Vucci/Associated
Press
Republican National Committeeman James Bopp Jr. has
reached out to tea party affiliate FreedomWorks to
help it lobby for ideas to be included in the party’s national platform.
James Bopp Jr., a prominent conservative
lawyer and high-ranking Republican national committeeman, is helping tea
partyers influence the official GOP 2012 platform.
Bopp, a former vice chairman of the RNC, is
among those tasked with writing the platform and is using his expertise to
advise FreedomWorks, a well-financed conservative
advocacy organization that has taken on the tea party mantle.
The relationship is yet another example of
how tea party activists have become increasingly intertwined with the
Republican establishment they once criticized.
Bopp lost his RNC seat Friday, the result
of apparent backlash for working to oust six-term GOP Sen. Dick Lugar in Indiana’s
primary last month. Still, Bopp’s term doesn’t end until the day after the
party’s convention, on Sept. 1, giving him one more chance to sway the GOP line
from within.
His six years on the committee have been
marked by efforts to swing the party agenda further to the right. In 2009, he proposed a
10-point Republican purity test that would grant financial support only to
candidates who support eight of 10 core principles, including opposing same-sex
marriage, amnesty for illegal immigrants and federal funding of abortion.
The constitutional lawyer has also helped
press some of the most influential campaign finance cases in recent years,
including Citizens United v. Federal
Election Commission, a 2010 decision that allows FreedomWorks’
new super PAC to collect unlimited sums from corporations.
So it is perhaps no surprise he showed up
at FreedomWorks’ policy and political boot camp
Sunday to give some 125 activists insight on how to shape the party’s platform,
which will be officially blessed at the Republican convention in Tampa.
“We’re doing everything we can do to get
everybody on board with the RNC and our candidate,” Bopp said.
A spokeswoman for the RNC said Bopp is not
an official liaison to FreedomWorks or any other tea
party group. But Bopp said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus gave him permission to advise the group, which is
led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas).
“I think this just reinforces that the RNC
is looking for a way to reach out to the tea party,” said Russ Walker, vice
president of political and grass-roots campaigns at FreedomWorks.
“The tea party has become the Republican Party. We are at the ranks of a lot of
these central committees, and I think this is the natural progression of
restoring small government principles in the Republican Party.”
FreedomWorks plans to crowdsource ideas for its platform online and in a series
of town hall meetings this summer, much
like the group did with its “Tea Party Debt Commission,” a foil to the
Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, and its 2010 “Contract From
America,” which called for a reduction in taxes, a balanced budget and reduced
federal spending.
In the weeks before the convention, the
group will lobby RNC members to include its ideas. The committee will release
the first draft of the official platform one week before the convention,
opening it up to amendments from subcommittees before final approval. Outside
groups can offer their own proposals at any point in that process, but with
thousands of interests vying for attention, only those with connections are
likely to get a second look.
FreedomWorks pledges to fight
elements in the platform draft that don’t jibe with tea party interests. The
group will not comment on social issues.
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