GOP Learns to Fear the Tea in Michigan

In Michigan, the 'establishment' GOP is facing a power struggle with the 'tea party' groups, and from what I've seen and read, the 'tea party' groups are winning. From Newster:

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser talks enthusiastically about welcoming tea party supporters into the GOP, but he wasn't planning to give them his seat at the state convention.

Michigan tea party supporters flocked to Republican party meetings across the state this month and won several hundred delegate seats for the Saturday state convention, including Weiser's. Now, the activists are positioned for an attempt to push the Michigan GOP further to the right and put hard-core conservatives on November's general election ballot.

The tea party's bid to capitalize on its delegate coup, which caught veteran Republican activists by surprise, is an important test for a national movement seeking concrete political impact.

Tea party supporters also have won GOP delegate seats or other party roles in Maine, Idaho, Illinois and several other states in recent months. But their potential impact could be the greatest in Michigan because the convention chooses the Republican nominees for secretary of state, attorney general, education boards and the Michigan Supreme Court.

Efforts to press other tea party causes, such as draconian cuts in government, could also produce a collision with moderate Republicans who have held sway despite growing conservative strength in the state. GOP leaders are worried that a rebuff of tea party followers could sap their support for GOP candidates in the closely fought general election campaign.

Although there is no precise count of the delegates affiliated with Michigan's approximately 50 active tea party groups, they could amount to a fifth or more of the nearly 2,100 party activists who will vote at the East Lansing meeting.

Tea party leaders plan to hold their own pre-convention caucus meeting Friday night. They say they can leverage their strength by coordinating efforts, as they did in seizing the delegate slots.

Weiser still will preside at the convention. But the major GOP donor and former ambassador to Slovakia must go as an alternate after he was defeated at the party meeting in Washtenaw County. He said he's still excited by the tea party push. "These are the people who are going to go out and work for this ticket after the convention," he said.

The tea partiers won the positions by running their members in precinct elections, which normally attract few candidates, and then turning out in force at many county GOP meetings to support the winners for state convention slots.

For those of you interested, the the Michigan Tea Party Alliance has organized a pre-convention meeting of tea party and Project 9/12 delegates for 7 p.m. Friday at the Capitol City Baptist Church in Holt, the group announced this morning. Delegates must present valid GOP State Convention credentials for admission, even though they won't be getting credentials until Saturday (not sure how that's gonna work). According to their release: "The Michigan Tea Party Alliance will discuss voting as a block to insure 'our' favorite candidate has a good chance in Saturday's vote." Fear the Tea!