Everett Wilkinson: 'I am Chairman of the Florida Tea Party'

The battle over the "Florida Tea Party" -- or Florida TEA Party, if you prefer -- is escalating by the day.

Following Wednesday's proceedings in federal district court in West Palm Beach, where tea groups sparred over who has the rights to the name, Everett Wilkinson declared to Sunshine State News:

"I am the chairman of the Florida Tea Party."

Wilkinson also identified himself that way when he accompanied Bill McCollum in Tallahassee on Friday, when the attorney general filed papers to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

But there's a problem.

Frederic O'Neal has been "chairman of the Florida Tea Party" since he registered the party with the state of Florida's Division of Elections on Aug. 14, 2009.

In prior interviews with the media, Wilkinson has referred to himself as "state director of the South Florida Tea Party." But now the Palm Beach Gardens resident says he's actually been chairman of the Florida Tea Party since March 2009, when his group launched the Web site FloridaTeaParty.com.

Wilkinson incorporated "Florida Tea Party LLC" on Jan. 10 of this year -- roughly two weeks after he and 32 other tea activists and organizations filed suit against O'Neal's TEA Party over use of that name.

Wilkinson declined to say who is funding the legal fight. He called O'Neal's TEA operation "an effort by the liberal left to undermine the conservative movement in Florida."

The dispute is now in the hands of U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra. Unless O'Neal is successful in having the lawsuit tossed, trial is set for December. See the story on Wednesday's court hearing here.