Illinois tea party at a crossroads - Protest movement has vocal supporters, but lacks structure, unified strategy

Illinois tea party at a crossroads - Protest movement has vocal supporters, but lacks structure, unified strategy
By Oscar Avila
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
10:42 p.m. CDT, April 4, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-tea-party-0405--20100404,0,6462668,full.story


One year ago at a downtown Chicago tea party rally, a confrontation between a television reporter and activists crystallized the emotions surrounding the movement that so loudly opposed health care reform as an unwelcome expansion of government.

In a video widely circulated online, many at the rally felt a CNN reporter was arrogantly dismissing what they consider valid fears of runaway spending and taxes when she focused on the most inflammatory signs. Some of those signs said President Barack Obama's policies are socialism and one alleged that he is a fascist.

But when protester Kathy Barkulis, of Deer Park, asked the reporter if she was "playing stupid," it confirmed the image among others that the tea party movement is indeed inflaming the public debate with angry rhetoric.

Barkulis herself illustrates the tea party's evolution since that rally, the first political event she had ever attended.

Now a frequent blogger who has traveled as far as Washington for an event, she will address a tea party rally in Chicago next week, following larger rallies by the national Tea Party Express in Springfield on Monday and Rockford on Tuesday.

"I feel empowered that more of us are getting together and standing our ground. If they weren't afraid of us, they would just ignore us like they did at the beginning," she said. "We may win, we may not win, but you can't say we didn't try."

Dismissed by some as fringe but striking a chord with those frustrated by the growth of government, the tea party in Illinois finds itself at a crossroads over its future now that the health care reforms are law.

Some in the movement say they need to move beyond protests and create a more formal structure. Others say the movement's spontaneous character remains its greatest strength, even though they concede that their loose network opens the door to fringe elements, including a few who believe the Sept. 11 attacks were planned by the U.S. government.

Their anger remains palpable, as evidenced by the national group's rally in late March in Nevada, headlined by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

At least 50 groups are part of the tea party movement statewide, with the largest single turnout coming at a rally in New Lenox in September that drew several thousand, said Denise Cattoni, state coordinator for Illinois Tea Party.

A typical protest will draw a few dozen vocal participants, including last month's rally at the Schaumburg office of U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean intended to persuade the Democrat to oppose the health care bill. While most merely waved U.S. flags, some directed their ire at Obama.

"You're a president, not a dictator. Go back to Kenya," read one of the signs.

After last month's vote on health care, some detect newfound energy in the movement, which traces its name to the famous Boston Tea Party that protested British taxation. The word tea, they say, is an acronym for Taxed Enough Already.

The Northern Illinois Patriots, a group that operates under the tea party umbrella, drew a record crowd of about 150 participants Thursday night to a sweltering American Legion hall in Gurnee.

After a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, the meeting became subdued and turned into a practically academic dialogue on topics such as the tax code and a proposal to conduct a "forensic audit" of state spending. Obama's name rarely came up.

Although polls show most members are conservative, several tea party activists in Illinois say their "revolution" is intended to remove elected officials from either party who are fiscally irresponsible.

"I think there would have been a tea party if John McCain had won the election," said Steve Stevlic, who heads Tea Party Patriots Chicago.

Perhaps the most targeted local Republican has been U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the GOP senate nominee who tea partiers consider a phony conservative because of his June vote for "cap-and-trade" legislation that would increase the government's role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Several tea party groups endorsed Patrick Hughes in the February Senate primary. After Hughes ended up with 19 percent of the vote, state GOP Chairman Pat Brady drew the ire of tea partiers when he dismissed the anti-Kirk movement as "fringe."

In Illinois, tea party members are divided over how to view Kirk's general-election fight against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias.

Maria Rodriguez, the village president of Long Grove and a tea party sympathizer, urged Gurnee participants to be pragmatic in the general elections, even when they do not agree with a candidate 100 percent. They should vote for whoever is "not liberal Democrat," she said.

But David Hale, the coordinator of the Rockford Tea Party, said he could not vote for Kirk.

"At some point, we need to make choices on principle," he said. "Just because you have an ‘R' behind your name doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to vote for you lock, stock and barrel."

Asked about the rejection by some conservatives, Kirk spokesman Eric Elk released a statement saying that the candidate's goal is to build a coalition of Republicans, independents and even like-minded Democrats.

Political analysts and operatives say it is too early to gauge the tea party's electoral impact in Illinois.

Adam Andrzejewski, who ran for governor in the GOP primary, said the tea party was a "significant and driving force" in his surprise showing. After languishing in single digits in opinion polls, he won 14.5 percent of the vote.

Andrzejewski, who is to address the Rockford rally, said tea party members are significant because of their passion, noting that they were key volunteers in helping the campaign hand-address about 90,000 letters.

John O'Hara, vice president at the Illinois Policy Institute, a free-market think tank, said he hopes the tea party will shed its image as an anti-Obama movement as it focuses more on local elections and tax issues. He thinks the next logical step is slating candidates locally.

Tea party members complain that the media disproportionately focuses on tangential causes such as the "birthers" who say Obama is not a U.S. citizen, instead of broader campaigns such as fiscal restraint. The heated exchange at the Chicago rally was sparked after the CNN reporter interviewed a protester wearing a sign showing Obama dressed up like Hitler.

David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said state tea party groups must temper their rhetoric in a moderate state like Illinois if they want to tap into discontent over the Democratic Party.

"Free speech is also the right to dumb speech. I think the American electorate agrees with them on a lot of issues, but if the tea party is just feeding into the stereotypes, it's going to turn off moderate voters," Yepsen said. "They complain about the media overblowing it, but it's incumbent that they get their people in line and harness their energy. If they can, they can make a real impact."

Hale, of Rockford, said he does not want to stifle the movement's individual nature but would challenge participants who call Obama a "Nazi" or use any racial slurs. Hale himself, however, says the president "is a pure socialist and on the verge of communism."

"The tea party is raw," he said, "and I hope it stays raw."

oavila@tribune.com