Tea partyers take issue with Allen's endorsements

While surfing the Web last week, Kerry Scott was surprised to learn that she had endorsed U.S. Senate candidate George Allen.

After receiving a quizzical email from a friend, Scott found her name attached to a release from Allen's campaign titled: "Virginia Tea Party Patriots Endorse George Allen for U.S. Senate." The list includes more than 100 individuals from across the state, and in most cases, their respective organizations.

But while Scott is indeed affiliated with the movement, heading the Alexandria Tea Party, she never lent her support to Allen, a former Virginia governor seeking to reclaim the Senate seat he lost to Jim Webb in 2006.

"I don't know where that list was generated or who put it together," she said, noting that she immediately called Allen's campaign and had her name removed from the list on Allen's website.

In fact, Scott was already spoken for - by one of Allen's rivals for the GOP nomination. For months, Scott has been on an endorsement list for Jamie Radtke, a Chesterfield County tea party activist.

"I really, really want a fresh face in D.C., and I really want a citizen legislator who's going to say no to all the spending and growth of government," Scott said.

She noted that Allen's release also had the name of her tea party organization wrong.

"They aligned me with NOVA Tea Party, which doesn't even exist," she said. "To me, it was just very sloppy, and that made me a little suspicious."

Three other names have been removed from the list of tea party endorsements on Allen's website since its release Nov. 22.

Bill Riggs, a spokesman for Allen's campaign, could not immediately say why the other names had been removed, but he suggested that it might have been because of privacy concerns and miscommunication. He said Scott was the only person he was aware of who claimed to have been included without consent.

"I don't know how her name got included. That shouldn't have happened," Riggs said. "It was a mistake that we corrected immediately."

But others have also taken exception with the list.

The Roanoke Tea Party posted a scathing blog post on the endorsements, noting that the original list included someone listed as a member of its group named Jim Fields.

"That was a bit of a surprise," a post on the group's page says, explaining that Jim Fields isn't a member of the organization, just a "friendly and gregarious man who loves to hand out U.S. flags at public events."

That complaint, too, is reflected on Allen's website, which has changed Fields' affiliation from "Roanoke Tea Party" to "Tea Party Activist."

The blog also criticizes the Allen campaign's choice of the term "Virginia Tea Party Patriots" in the release, noting that the state's tea party federation is named the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation.

"So the Allen people have craftily stolen the moniker from this group to give the appearance of wider support which they do not enjoy," the blog post says, demanding an apology from "the perpetrators of this fraud against all tea party groups."

The Northern Virginia Tea Party has also called for an apology from Allen, saying that the endorsement announcement was "misleading at best, dishonest at worst" and calling it a "deplorable campaign tactic."

Riggs said the campaign never suggested that any tea party organizations had endorsed Allen, only individual members.

“We’ve announced over 1,500 supporters in recent weeks and we continue to be encouraged and thankful for the vast support we’re receiving throughout the Commonwealth from grassroots activists, tea party activists, elected officials and community leaders,” he said.

Allen, who served in the Senate from 2001 to 2007, has cast himself as a Washington reformer and "the original tea partyer." He faces four challengers for the GOP nod.

Polls show Allen as the front-runner by a wide margin, and he was the only Republican to qualify for a debate next Wednesday with Democratic candidate and former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

whester@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6976