For 21 days leading up to Wisconsin’s June 5 recall vote, Tea Party Patriots — in conjunction with other local and national Tea Party groups — will spearhead efforts in Wisconsin to help those like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch who are facing recalls, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.
National and local tea party groups will coordinate efforts to help Wisconsin voters make a final push to stand up against the forces on the left and union power brokers who have besieged the state with perpetual recalls and disruptive tactics in an effort to thwart the will of a democratic majority that voted in favor of fiscal reforms.
Jenny Beth Martin, who heads Tea Party Patriots, told Breitbart News that Tea Party Patriots, with the help of local Tea Party groups, will set up command centers on Wednesday so people can volunteer and go door-to-door. They will also set up virtual call centers, so people from all around the country can make phone calls into Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin is pivotal, and it is ground zero for our political landscape,” Martin told Breitbart News. “The left is trying to use the recall to … disrupt the representative democracy that makes our country great … and we can’t let that happen in Wisconsin and the rest of the country.”
She said there will be an infrastructure in place so people from around the country can spend anywhere from 8 hours to 21 days on the ground in Wisconsin to help Tea Party groups in Wisconsin who reached out for help because they are exhausted from two years of non-stop campaigning, which they have been forced to do because of the left’s relentless tactics to thwart the will of the people.
“People in Wisconsin have reached out to us, and said, ‘we sure could use some help, we just need some backup, anything you can do to let us know we are not fighting this alone,” Martin said. “And we listened to them.”
When the Tea Party movement powered Republicans to historical gains in the 2010 midterm elections, those on the left rightfully saw the movement as a threat. This is the main reason why the “Occupy” movements sprang up across the country after the midterm elections.
But before the Occupy movements, there was Wisconsin.
Martin remembers being in Wisconsin in January and February of 2011, as the left and the unions began their protests against Walker.
“I watched as the unions and the left organized, and they went in and occupied the capitol in Madison,” Martin said. “By August, [the left] were doing Occupy Wall Street and [Occupy events] all over the country.”
Martin said Wisconsin is being strategically used by the left as a testing ground.
“They are taking lessons they learn in Wisconsin and applying them everywhere in the country,” Martin said. “They are experimenting in Wisconsin to see what works and what doesn’t.”
And this is why even though Walker garnered nearly as many votes in last week’s primary as all the votes cast for Democrats and holds a five-point leadagainst his opponent in the recall, Tea Party groups see the June 5 recall vote as critical.
First, the media has been looking for an event to use signal the end of the Tea Party movement, and a Walker loss in the recall would be that seminal moment the media would use to tell the world the Tea Party movement is irrelevant.
Martin said “the media has been saying tea party is dead and ineffective” because “we scared the establishment and the ruling class in 2009 and 2010.”
“It works to the media and the ruling class’s advantage to say we are dead and dying,” Martin said, before nothing that the Tea Party movement has proven to be more effective in recent months, pointing to Richard Mourdock’s defeat of incumbent, establishment Indiana Senator Richard Lugar in the primary.
“If we don’t win in Wisconsin, the media will twist it [as the beginning of the end of the Tea Party], and we can’t allow that to happen,” Martin said.
Second, the Wisconsin recall election will be a harbinger for November’s national election that may be well decided how enthusiastically voters on one side turn out in key swing counties. Organization will matter immensely.
According to a Marquette University Poll, which had the recall race within the margin of error, the recall election in Wisconsin mirrors the national polarization of politics, as nearly 30 percent of those polled said they no longer spoke to someone they had previously known because of issues dealing with the recall.
“This is also about maintaining momentum for the next 5 months going into the general election,” Martin said. “We have to set the tone.”
Lastly, the Wisconsin recall election will be something monitored by potential future reformers. If Walker and Kleefisch lose, those willing to enter the political arena to help restore fiscal sanity to a nation that is currently $16 trillion in debt may be less inclined to do so.
Martin said those on the left first tried to thwart the will of the people in Wisconsin by protesting and yelling. When that was not enough, they lived inside the state capitol. Then they used endless recall elections.
The left did this to wear down the Tea Party movement that propelled fiscal reformers like Walker into office. They knew if they could thwart and stymie reform efforts in Wisconsin, similar efforts would be less likely to occur in other states and nationally.
And citizens in Wisconsin have been fighting against the left non-stop for over two years, and that is why 98 percent of the coordinators with Tea Party Patriots voted to go all-in in Wisconsin again.
“We got their back, and we are not leaving them hanging,” Martin said.
Photo: Ed Picchi (posted at Boots & Sabers)