Tea party plans fall Richmond convention

The Virginia Tea Party has announced plans to hold its first Virginia convention, while former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has unveiled a national Democratic Party strategy to tie the tea-party movement to the national Republican Party.

The state convention will take place Oct. 8-9 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in downtown Richmond.

Confirmed speakers include Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli; former Gov. and U.S. Sen. George Allen; Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who sought the 2008 GOP presidential nomination; and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

Cuccinelli, who is scheduled to appear on a panel on federalism, said the convention is evidence that the tea-party movement is not losing steam in Virginia.

"What it tells me is that it has some staying power," Cuccinelli said in a phone interview. He said the convention is another step in the maturation of a political movement.

"It's still settling out what is the right approach, and it won't be a standard approach with the tea party -- that's the beauty of it," he said.

"The point is to change the course of Virginia and American politics, and part of what the movement is engaged in -- especially the new people to politics -- is a very intense learning process and a vetting process. And the convention is part of it."

Jamie Radtke, chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation, said: "It is important that Virginia's elected leaders understand the concern so many of us have about the enormous expansion of federal power and the exploding national debt."

Chuck Hansen, a spokesman for the Richmond Tea Party, said all of Virginia's congressional candidates have been invited to participate in a forum in which they will be questioned by tea-party members.

The convention will hold a presidential straw poll on Saturday, Oct. 9, said Hansen, who added that between 3,000 and 5,000 people are expected to attend.

Seminars on the U.S. Constitution, public policy and grass-roots organizing will be held. A dance, called a "Freedom Lover's Extravaganza," will be held Friday night, Oct. 8.

"They've got a right to assemble, and it's within their rights, so I'm not going to begrudge them," said Del. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond.

"I'm probably not going to agree with anything they say at their convention, and they're not going to be inviting me to speak," she added. "But I'm sure the city welcomes their money."

Added state Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico: "They have a right to speak their piece, and I have a right to disagree with what they say, and I just hope they conduct themselves in a manner befitting Americans."

In Washington, Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, unveiled a 10-point "Republican Tea Party Contract on America" and suggested that the Republican Party has been "increasingly influenced by the tea party."

The tea-party-influenced ideas will "take us back to the same policies that ran this country into the ditch over the last decade," he said.

Some GOP leaders in the House of Representatives have organized a Tea Party Caucus, but other leaders are keeping their distance from a group that sometimes promotes ideas outside the conservative mainstream. No Democrat has joined the new caucus.

Republicans won control of the House in 1994 after promoting a Contract With America. Many of the ideas never were passed.

Kaine said Republicans, bolstered by the tea-party activists, want to repeal President Barack Obama's health-care and financial-reform laws. He said they would try to privatize Social Security and abolish the Departments of Education and Energy.

Katie Wright, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, responded: "Clearly Democrats have failed to understand that the mounting frustration heading to the polls this fall is a direct result of the arrogant agenda that brought us bailouts, takeovers and a skyrocketing deficit.

"Not wanting a repeat of last summer's town-hall meetings, the Democrats' strategy for this summer appears to be attacking voters as opposed to listening to them," she said.

While Democrats think they can make hay by associating the Republican Party with the tea party, a recent Virginia Commonwealth University poll showed that six of 10 likely Virginia voters had no opinion about the movement.

The poll showed 19 percent had a favorable opinion of the tea-party movement, and 21 percent had an unfavorable opinion.

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 twhitley@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writer Jim Nolan contributed to this report.