By Neil Haggerty
John Murphy of Fairfield volunteered with Republican organizations and campaigns in New York City, Chicago, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
But when Murphy moved to Fairfield in 2001, he did not become active in the local Republican Party. And what he describes as the tea party’s recent dominance in the county’s Republican Party has left him even more disengaged.
“The Republican Party was very well structured,” Murphy said. “The tea party took over and eliminated moderation.”
County and state elections are less than three weeks away, and members of the local tea party, a movement that started making waves in the county in 2009, are still making their voices heard.
“I don’t think the Constitution is a living document,” said Rich Kopp, a Republican who is running for county supervisor with tea party support, even though local elections are officially nonpartisan. “It’s based on free markets and less government.”
The Rockbridge Tea Party was started in 2009 by a group of people who wanted limited government.
The tea party movement’s members say the government hasn’t been following the Constitution with programs like the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance law popularly known as Obamacare.
Rockbridge Tea Party Chair Jeff Hughes said the group doesn’t coordinate with candidates in elections, and that it is more of a club. He said conservative politicians probably feel comfortable sharing their messages with the tea party.
But local political experts say that the tea party has been a loud voice in politics.
Retired Army Col. Robert James, a political science professor at Virginia Military Institute, said the tea party’s presence has been “very vocal” in the Republican Party.
James served as chair of the Rockbridge Area Republican Committee until March 2012.
His successor, Cher McCoy, used to be in charge of training, education and events for the Rockbridge Tea Party. James said many of McCoy’s tea party followers joined her on the Republican Committee.
McCoy said she stepped down from her position in the Rockbridge Tea Party when she was elected chair of the Republican Committee. She said she asked her followers to do the same. But McCoy still attends Rockbridge Tea Party meetings.
McCoy said the Republican committee supports Kopp and another candidate for supervisor, Chris Green, along with county school board candidate Laurie Strong. Strong and Green have also asked the local tea party for support.
According to Kopp, the county has $74 million in debt. But he said he does not want the government to interfere with the personal lives of residents by raising property taxes to pay the debt.
Rockbridge County Fiscal Services Director Steve Bolster could not confirm Kopp’s figure, but he said the county’s outstanding debt is probably more than $70 million if it includes long-term liabilities from the Rockbridge County Public Service Authority.
Kopp said the county should try to attract businesses that will contribute to tax revenue to help relieve that debt.
Green agrees, and he says the county shouldn’t be spending money on projects like the Maury River Middle School consolidation.
Local tea party activists are also working to influence state politics in the Republican Party.
Hughes, the Rockbridge Tea Party chair, endorsed State Sen. Mark Obenshain for Attorney General in a letter to the News-Gazette.
Supporters of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for governor have reached out to the tea party.
And incumbent Republican Ben Cline, who is running unopposed in the 24th District for the House of Delegates, has also taken up the tea party’s fight. He proposed a bill to undermine United Nations Agenda 21, an optional sustainability program that promotes land use planning. The program has been a target of tea partyers’ wrath.
Murphy, the Fairfield Republican, said he doesn’t believe in Obamacare, but he thinks that it met every constitutional test, having been passed by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
And he said he thinks the tea party is hurting the Republican Party by supporting candidates like Cuccinelli. He said Cuccinelli’s socially conservative values do not represent the dynamics of change in America.
“I know a lot of Republicans who just shake their heads,” Murphy said. “Our elected officials need to be able to compromise.”