Republican Leaders Serve Notice on TEA Party

Florida Republican Party Chairman John Thrasher says he is concerned that some of the TEA Party candidates who filed for state legislative races are "not Tea Party people."

"There's a certain disingenuousness when 20 people file at the last minute. Some, we're told, may not even live in their districts," said Thrasher, a state senator from Jacksonville.

State Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, cast similar doubts on the origins and impetus of the year-old TEA Party, which has been sued by other state Tea organizations for co-opting the name.

"The Tea Party is a healthy and helpful movement, but Democrats are trying to hijack the party," Weatherford said.

Speaking at the Republican Party's quarterly meeting in Tampa on Saturday, Weatherford raised the specter of "fraudulent activity" by TEA.

"We're going to look into it. We're going to talk to the real Tea Party people, and that doesn't mean Doug Guetzloe," Thrasher said.

Guetzloe, an unpaid consultant for the TEA Party, and Frederic O'Neal, co-founder and chairman of the organization, lashed back at the RPOF.

"Doesn't John Thrasher have something better to do with his time these days than to complain about us?" O'Neal stated in an e-mail.