Ensuring Liberty PAC: Creating a Tea Party Caucus

If you followed the news out of Nashville, you probably heard that some Tea Party folks are creating a Political Action Committee that will win 15 to 20 key Congressional races in 2010 and, perhaps, in years beyond. What you didn’t hear at the press conference was that several grassroots tea party organizers are so strongly in favor of this move that we have agreed to serve Ensuring Liberty PAC through its organizing parent, the Ensuring Liberty 501.c(4). Our local tea parties will continue unchanged.

Who Comprises the ELPAC

Very simply, ELPAC is led by six people from some of the most effective local Tea Party organizations in America:

• Mark Skoda of The Memphis Tea Party
• Steve McQueen of The Quincy Tea Party
• State Sen. John Loudon (MO-Ret.) of St. Louis Tea Party
• Rose Corona, a California farmer and Patriot
• Brad Ehmen of The Quincy Tea Party
• Bill Hennessy of St. Louis Tea Party

While you might not recognize all of these names, I do. These are the people who have been in the fox holes with us since day one. They are bold and resilient fighters for freedom. They are the men and women we turn to for counsel, support, advice, strength, and help across the Mid-West and across the the nation. We share mutual faith in each other. The men and women on this list have skills to win elections with grassroots activism. They embody what happened in NY-23 and Massachusetts.

Why the PAC’s Work is Crucial

When we launched our local tea parties last spring, none of us had any idea we were creating the political stir it did. We did not know there would be more events. We did not know we’d slow down the socialist tsunami that was descending on America. Some might have hoped for such an outcome, but none of us was so arrogant as to expect it.

The Ensuring Liberty PAC is one critical piece of the puzzle that will cause a massive change in the makeup of the U.S. Congress in 2010.

How the ELPAC Will Help Change Congress

Traditionally large donors contribute large sums to large PACs operated by the two major parties. Those organizations (like the National Republican Congressional Committee) hire K Street consultants to help favored candidates win their elections. When K Streeters and the GOP brass win your election for you, you better do as they say.

The ELPAC will perform services for candidates similar to those previously performed by NRCC and the like. We will identify candidates who arose from the Tea Party movement and who espouse our values on fiscal responsibility, limited government, national security, and low taxes. If a candidate strays from our values during the election, we will exit that race and let everyone know why. This PAC is modeled after the successful approaches of the Quincy and St Louis Tea Parties, as well as others.

Candidates whom we help win can and should feel an obligation to remain true to our values throughout their term in Congress. If they do not, we will target their careers for political destruction as surely as we target certain incumbents now. For the first time in my memory, we will have members of Congress beholden to . . . the people they represent.

Who the ELPAC Will Support

Back in February 2009, we thought, as did many of you, that we might need a new party in America–one comprised of the great many people who were fed up with business as usual. As time wore on, two factors disabused us of that notion:

1. The urgency of direct action required that most of our energies in 2009 go into stopping the White House and Congressional leadership from flipping the USA into a socialist empire. Remember, Obama expected to takeover healthcare, impose the Cap and Trade multi-trillion dollar tax scheme, and eliminate the secret ballot for workers before Congress recessed in August. We put all of our energy and time into stopping those atrocities. Frankly, I believe that the urgency of our actions in 2009 were a blessing when combined with the second point.

2. A third party would have created a permanent ruling majority of statist and progressives. As I studied the matter and spoke to people smarter than I am, I realized that the 3rd party move could only help those who want socialism. Just creating a 3rd party would consume most of the center-right’s energy, time, and money for at least 2 years. And after that, at best, the 3rd party would pick up a few seats in Congress while splitting the center-right vote in hundreds of other states and districts giving Democrats a massive majority in both houses. Sorry, people, but that’s not standing on principle: it’s standing on our brains.

ELPAC will mostly support conservative candidates running as Republicans who have a reasonable chance to win with our help. For candidates like Doug Hoffman, we will provide the third element he lacked: a serious, well-coordinated ground game. In these races, we believe ELPAC will be THE difference. In this election, we believe all of us will be part of the margin of freedom’s victory.

How ELPAC Measure Success

Some of us have heard that we must not support candidates affiliated with a party. That’s great. But it’s a recipe for disaster. Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts felt so good because politics is a game measured by wins and losses, just like any other game. We keep score in this world. And political success means WINNING ELECTIONS.

We will measure ELPAC’s success when some conservative–most likely a Republican–accepts the gavel from Nancy Pelosi’s trembling hand in January 2011. If that does not happen, we fear that the forces of socialism and tyranny will use their power to silence all dissent in America. That’s not fear-mongering; that’s history.

How the ELPAC Evolved

ELPAC is the natural and necessary next step in the Tea Party’s progression. The Boston Tea Party led to stronger colonial legislatures that led to a strong Continental Congress that drafted the Declaration of Independence. The rag-tag Minutemen led to state militias that led to well-trained professional Army under George Washington, and that Army defeated the British.

The “Nationwide Chicago Tea Party Protest” of February 27, 2009, led to a multitude of Tea Party coalitions that led to formal Tea Party groups. Some of those groups have formed PACs, non-profits, and even LLCs. ELPAC is one of these. ELPAC is a professional army seeking to wage political war against a corrupt and corrupting leftist government. By God’s grace, we will prevail.

How Tea Partiers Can Help

The millions who rode to the sound of the drums in 2009 will continue doing exactly what they started last year: attend the rallies, call the radio stations, write the newspapers, march in the parades, make your signs, tell your neighbors, knock on doors, send out emails, fill the town halls, register conservative voters, canvass for the right politicians, sing the praises of liberty and low taxes, pursue happiness and good government, fight for your right to live free . . . or die.

In 2009, we asked for very little in the way of donations. We told our patriots that the time would come for them to invest their dollars in political campaigns. That time is just around the corner. ELPAC will use their donations to win critical races, replacing the current Congress with one responsive to the Tea Party’s agenda. It’s as simple as that.

Finally, we ask Tea Partiers to pray. ELPAC is not the only Tea Party PAC trying to take back Congress from the statists and progressives. Together with these other PACs -and with you–we will win. But we need the prayers, the strength, and the devotion of everyone who has attended a Tea Party or 9-12 event. Six folks, however dedicated, cannot win this war without undying help from millions of others. The Tea Partiers have stood by this country and this cause for a year. We ask for their prayers that ELPAC and its cousins fulfill our missions to save America from the hellfire of socialism and tyranny.