The Strib reports in Demmer takes a bye on House Tea Party (Updated):
. . .a day after fellow Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann rolled out her U.S. House Tea Party Caucus on Capitol Hill, the question naturally arose as to whether Demmer, if elected, would become a member.
It’s a question that has put a lot of House Republicans on the spot this week. Demmer, it appears, is no more eager to join up than U.S. Reps John Kline and Erik Paulsen, Bachmann’s two Minnesota Republican colleagues who so far have declined to attach their names to the newly formed caucus. “I have great respect for the Tea Party movement,” said Demmer, noting that he doesn’t just join any caucus that comes along. “Whether I’d join that caucus, I can’t say.”
This is a curious new wrinkle on the face of Demmer’s campaign, for he actively sought the company of Teabaggers (I use the word quite properly, according to the Oxford English Dictionary) in the run-up to the endorsement.
Now he “doesn’t just join any caucus that comes along.” In Quist, Demmer court the Tea Party vote in Mankato, the Minnesota Independent reported back in February:
At a candidate meet-and-greet Thursday night in Mankato, Republican candidates vying to run against Rep. Tim Walz openly courted the Tea Party vote and distanced themselves from “typical” Republicans. Allen Quist and Randy Demmer attended an event at the WOW! Zone Family Entertainment Center.
“I’m not a typical Republican,” Allen Quist told KEYC. “I’m very independent, I’m very grass roots. I’m real citizen-oriented. I don’t know where the leadership is with regard to Tea Party folks, I just know they’re my friends, they’re my neighbors. I have the utmost respect for the Tea Party Patriots.”
Randy Demmer said, “What’s really exciting about the Tea Party movement is its not driven by any political doctrine. It’s driven by grassroots people saying – wait a second – where are we going?”
Now Demmer is being coy. Perhaps those Tea Party members who are tired of politics as usual will join Tea Party speaker Steve Wilson on the IP ticket or go with the No Party man Lars Johnson.
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