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Fair and balanced: Virginia Tea Party Patriots puts out a voter guide
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The new logo for the Virginia Tea Party Patriots, a federation of independent patriot groups.
What do key Republican and Democrat candidates really stand for in Virginia? Are you finding it hard to tell the difference between fact and campaign rhetoric in the 2009 races? Join the club.
The Virginia Tea Party Patriots (VTPP) has a new two-page voter guide to provide some assistance. It’s an objective reference point on important subjects to this loosely-knit federation of 23 tea party groups around Virginia: big government, property rights, and adherence to the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions.
“The guide is a simple side-by side list of the voting records, statements, and endorsements of the candidates, and it tells you where they stand on these subjects,” said Jamie Radtke of Moseley, Va. Radtke coordinates the efforts of the all-volunteer VTPP.
The issues covered include transportation, tax bills, private property rights, 2nd amendment rights, and key endorsements. The candidates are Bob McDonnell, Creigh Deeds, Bill Bolling, Jody Wagner, Ken Cuccinelli, and Steve Shannon.
Radtke added that the guide cuts through all the campaign rhetoric to inform and educate by simply giving the facts. “Campaign promises are great, but past voting records and statements are better indicators of how people will vote in the future.”
But like kids in a playground, some critics are bound to say “voter-guide, schmoter-guide.” And while voter guides may be a dime a dozen, there aren’t many places voters can look to get straight facts from a tea party patriot’s perspective.
Many say voter guides tend to favor a particular candidate. Not this one.
“You’ll see weaknesses with each candidate in this guide,” said Bonnie Betts of Stafford County, Va. “We got details from the campaign offices of each candidate, and we scoured Web sites to get the correct information so we could be as unbiased as possible.”
Party affiliations aren’t even listed. Betts, who helped put the guide together with Radtke and others, said that a lot of people in her patriot group are fed up with campaign promises from politicians that don’t match up to how they end up voting.
The VTPP has already distributed the guide to its members and is leaving it up to each group to determine how best to get the guide in the hands of voters.
Radtke said that this guide was the first successfully completed joint effort by the VTPP, which only began working together in September.
“It’s truly amazing what a bunch of volunteers has been able to pull off in less than two months,” Radtke continued. “Some have never even done this kind of thing before. It’s truly a grassroots organization.”
Some may find it hard to believe there doesn’t appear to be a big national organization behind the movement. No one singular popular figurehead. Not even a sugar-daddy influencing members what to say and do.
“Each tea party group does what it wants in its own area, and we join together on some of the larger common issues to pull our weight,” Radtke said. “It’s how a federation should work. This voter guide was a relatively small effort, but it was important and there are bigger things to come in the future as we work together.”
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