Tea Party Over for Dockery

Call Paula Dockery a collateral casualty in the squabble for the name and control of Florida's Tea Party.

The state senator from Lakeland lags Attorney General Bill McCollum in her bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. And whether she's the victim of not-so-friendly fire or a self-inflicted wound, the Tea Party battle is not helping her candidacy.

On one side is longtime Dockery associate Doug Guetzloe. He and Orlando lawyer Frederic O'Neal last year registered the Tea Party as a Florida political party. On the other side are Tea Party activists who sued the pair.

Dockery, fashioning herself as a populist, credits Guetzloe with getting her into the race. But instead of gaining traction with the Tea Party movement, she's found herself caught in the crossfire -- and losing GOP support in the process.

Dockery press secretary Rosemary Goudreau said the senator "doesn't have a dog in the Tea Party fight."

"People just need to keep their eye on the ball," Goudreau said.

But Guetzloe's foes aren't letting up on him ... or Dockery.

"She's not a person we would support. She's just another tax-and-spend politician," said Everett Wilkinson, state coordinator for the South Florida Tea Party.

While Goudreau says Dockery has "called out excessive spending and corporate giveaways," noting the recent land deal for high-speed rail that benefited CSX, Wilkinson accuses the senator of "trying to hijack our movement."

"She can't get support from real conservatives in the GOP," he said.

As long as the Tea Party feud persists, there appears to be one Republican winner: Bill McCollum.