December 03, 2009 09:04 PM UTC

NoCo Tea Party Groups Lash Out at McInnis, Plan Anti-McInnis Rally

•  
• by: BobMoore

(Apparently they didn’t get the message that the GOP/McInnis platform is meant for them. – promoted by Colorado Pols)

POLS UPDATE #3: Be there or be square–Tea Party, uh, party against McInnis coming soon. Details after the jump.

POLS UPDATE #2: Michelle Malkin is most displeased.

POLS UPDATE: Here’s the clip, forwarded to us–chutzpah like only Fox News can deliver.

Original post follows.

—

Northern Colorado’s two largest Tea Party groups have laid into presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee Scott McInnis over what they see as his false claims of Tea Party support.

What really got the Tea Party folks riled up was McInnis appearance on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox News Wednesday. As McInnis was introduced, an on-screen graphic read, “”Tea Party Backed Candidate Leading in CO Governor’s Race.”

As anyone who’s spent more than a couple of minutes watching Colorado politics knows, the idea that McInnis has the backing of Tea Party activists is ludicrous. Cavuto comes across as pretty ignorant about Colorado politics, I thought.

Representatives of the Tea Party of Northern Colorado and the Loveland 9-12 Project were incensed at the suggestion that their movement was backing McInnis. Leaders of both groups blasted out e-mails to their membership following the Cavuto appearance.

“We are being played like pawns. And we can’t put up with it,” said Lesley Hollywood of the Tea Party of Northern Colorado.

Nancy Rumfelt of the Loveland 9-12 Project said, “We must demand that we want PRINCIPLE over PARTY (P.O.P.)!!!”

I’m only tied in to the Northern Colorado Tea Party groups, but I suspect this reaction is being replicated across the state today.

You can read more on this issue at my Coloradoan.com blog, including how Hollywood and other Tea Party activists feel about the “Platform for Prosperity.” Click here: http://bit.ly/5phj0O

(NOTE: In an earlier version of this diary I attributed the Tea Party of Northern Colorado quote to Ray Harvey, one of the organizers for the group. The e-mail was sent by Lesley Hollywood, another organizer. My apologies to both Lesley and Ray for the confusion.)