There seems to be quite the conundrum going around locally here in Branson about the Branson Tea Party; and that building that’s on Highway 248 known as the Tea Party Headquarters. You can’t miss it; it’s the one with all the neocon campaign posters in the windows.
As Eric Farris has pointed out on our Facebook wall, the two entities are completely separate. This blog post from Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom does a nice job of explaining how and actually providing the proof! What?!
The Tea Party Patriot HQ was started by Tera Sukman, who shared the stage with Eric Farris in the April Tea Party rally, when she split since then and started up the Tea Party Patriot HQ. Have you noticed the decidedly mainstream Republican candidate’s flyers plastered on the windows? Did you notice the Israeli 6-pointed star on the right of their website banner? Bear in mind that we are not anti-semitic. but why the star? It may provoke some of those crazy conspiracy theorists… Anyway, Bungalow Bill also made reference to them quoting Abraham Lincoln and George W. Bush on their website. Both of them had good ideas; but are not worthy of comparison to the Founding Fathers, according to him. It’s also a for-profit business. Here’s the TPHQ fictitious name registration:
The Branson Tea Party Coalition (linked to on the right of our site) however, is a non-profit organization. Here’s their registration:
To quote Eric’s next-to-last post on the Facebook wall thread we linked to earlier…
The Branson Tea Party Coalition (BTPC) is the Tri-Lake area’s only non-profit tea party organization and has hosted all four (4) of the area tea party rallies beginning back on April 15, 2009 and then on November 17, 2009, April 17, 2010 and again October 23, 2010. The Branson Tea Party Coalition is a Missouri non-profit, 501(c)(4) pending, community based tea party organization which does not endorse candidates and stays independent of all political parties. The BTPC has never allowed a politician or a candidate for local office onto the stage at any of its rallies.
The building downtown is operated by a for profit business called Boomer Sooner, LLC doing business as “Tea Party Patriot HQ”. It identifies its business purposes with its filings with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office to include the sale of merchandise and political consulting. The HQ business provides space in its downtown business location for the county GOP and has endorsed GOP candidates. Its website identifies an individual who is employed by the business as a “Political Consultant”. The Branson Tea Party Coalition, as a non-profit community-based tea party organization, is not affiliated with the “HQ” business.
The Branson Tea Party Coalition has a single agenda: to educate and motivate our fellow citizens on the core values of fiscal responsibility, consitutionally-limited government and free market principles. The BTPC works hard to stay independent of all political parties and stand true on its pledge to promote principles not politicians. The BTPC does not support specific politicians or political parties nor does it wish or attempt to make a profit under the umbrella of the tea party movement banner.
Richard, if you are interested in getting involved or learning more about the grassroots efforts of the Branson Tea Party Coalition, then please visit http://www.bransonteaparty.com/
We’ll let you make up your own minds on that one.
Both of these organizations are an embarrassment to our city.
A note to the For-Profit “Tea Party Patriot HQ” in downtown Branson (as owned by Tera Sukman): the Tea Party movement is a grassroots movement; it’s not a business.