Erdel a tea party Democrat

George Erdel might be unique in Tennessee politics. He's a tea party Democrat.

The tea party is one of the most extraordinary movements in the modern political arena. It doesn't claim to be organized. It claims to be conservative. While it claims many of the same ideals found in basic Republican principles, the tea party folks are among the first to criticize the Republican Party for losing its way. The tea party has, along the way, just happened to ignite interest in American history.

But in all the meet-ups, rallies, Web posts and marches, it has been difficult to find a tea party Democrat until Erdel, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 6th District congressional seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon.

Just when you think Erdel might brag about being the only tea party Democrat, he makes sure you know there are lots of them.

"I travel all 15 counties in the district, and when I get in these rural areas, I tell everybody up front I'm in the Democratic Party, I'm conservative and a tea party activist. And they say, 'It's so good to know there's one coming back.' They will say the party left them years ago," Erdel said.

"Party officials hate me in the county and the state, because I'm a conservative. When Gordon announced his retirement they asked five or six people to run and everyone said they were not interested. They said we need a pro-life, pro-gun conservative candidate to keep the seat. I'm pro-life. I'm pro-gun. I'm pro-conservative on every issue, not just two cherry-picked issues. I'm fiscally conservative. I'm socially conservative. People who run the party say that's not what they want. They want Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid types. That's who put Pelosi and Reid in there, those kind of Democrats."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have their names mentioned more often in the 6th District campaign than some of the candidates running. Sometimes you'd swear Pelosi and Reid are actually in the race. The speaker and the leader may rest assured they are known, and they are certainly better known than Erdel, who has limited funds, limited exposure and limited chances of replacing Gordon.

But Erdel knows what he's going to do when he opens his office as a member of Congress.

"The first thing I'm going to do is put a sign on the door that says, 'Lobbyists and liberals keep out. You will find no deals here,'" he said.

Erdel is in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary against Brett Carter, Ben Leming, Devora Butler and Henry Clay Barry.

Erdel says the Democratic Party was a conservative party in the 1960s.

"But then the party leadership started taking up with every crackpot disenfranchised group," he said. "Now all those crackpot groups are running the party. You've got the environmental wackos, you've got the homosexuals, you've got the illegal aliens. They're courting all of them.

"When you get out from the high density areas in counties, there are people out there who are not pro-abortion, not pro-homosexual, people who are not for letting them come in with amnesty on illegals."

Erdel, a retired federal worker, says there are many like-minded Democrats in the district.

"They're people just like me. They go to church. They're good conscientious Christian people," Erdel said. He said he was surprised at how many Democrats he found at a 9/12 march in Washington he attended last year.

If it seems odd that people would still claim to be Democrats while disliking Democrats in high levels, Erdel says he has found explanations for that from what people in the district tell him.

"We have local Democrats, state Democrats, municipal Democrats to vote for. They say if we have a senator or a congressman who is too liberal, they leave the box blank," Erdel said. "You'd be amazed how many people are telling me they leave boxes blank because the Democratic Party failed to put somebody in there to represent them."

Fair warning. Erdel can use some salty language about politics. In fact, he was sitting on the steps near the altar in a Baptist church in Rutherford County this week when he used some of that language, which actually seemed to put more conviction behind the words.

When asked about his lack of money to run a competitive campaign, Erdel said most of the money he spends comes from his own pocket.

"When I win the primary, I'm going to go to the state Democratic Party and tell them I want some money to help. I'll say 'If you want to keep this seat, help me keep it.' When I go to the state party, they are coolly cordial. To be honest, I feel about as welcome as a turd in a punch bowl."

He calls it the way he sees it on Washington.

"We have seen examples of political whores in Congress this last year. We saw them selling their votes," Erdel said, referring to deals like the ones that got the health care bill passed.

"All these political whores are working for the political pimp in the White House and working for political pimps at the head of the House and Senate, Nancy and Harry."

Erdel has been one of the most outspoken voices about the establishment of a mosque in Murfreesboro, which has drawn attention from two other congressional candidates. Leming voiced his support for Rutherford County officials who approved the plan, saying there should be tolerance on the issue. Republican Lou Ann Zelenik has publicly opposed the "Islamic training center," saying it is not part of a religious movement but a political movement.

Erdel organized a meeting Thursday night for people to hear from Dr. Bill Warner, who spoke to about 200 people on Sharia law in Islam.

As stories about the mosque have appeared in the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, Erdel has participated in the comments section at the end of the stories online. But on at least two occasions, his comments now say, "George Erdel's comment has been removed for violating the terms of service."

When asked this week what he had said that would cause his input to be pulled from the site, Erdel said he was unaware any of his comments had been removed.

The race for Congress, of course, covers a much broader array of issues than a mosque in Murfreesboro. Erdel says people in the district are concerned about jobs, deficit spending in Washington and the health care reform law, which Erdel says is "socialized medicine." He said he would work to repeal the new health care law. He says he would serve no more than three terms.

"Six years from now, I would be back to retirement," he said.