How will Tea Party flavor state GOP?

Here's the safest description of the tea party movement in South Carolina: It's a work in progress.

A recent, uneasy effort to forge an extremely loose link between a coalition of Upstate conservative groups and the state Republican Party makes that clear. Regardless, it's safe to say the movement may well influence the outcome of legislative and congressional elections in this state, particularly in the GOP primary.

Last week, in a column in The Wall Street Journal, the S.C. tea party movement got the attention of Karl Rove, former presidential adviser to George Bush. Rove said, in effect, that an effort to create a "Tea Party Republicans" group to coordinate activities with Upstate tea party groups fell apart and he's glad. Rove advised tea party groups across the nation to "keep their distance from any single party and instead influence both parties on debt, spending and an over-reaching federal government."

But rather than "falling apart," Patrick Haddon, chairman of the Greenville GOP, says the relationship between his party and the Upstate Coalition of Conservative Organizations "went in a different direction."

There will be no alignment that could include, for example, a joint vetting of primary candidates. But there will be, he said, some working together "where our goals and motives are the same." The four areas of involvement outlined in a GOP press release include increasing precinct involvement, improving communication with all coalition groups, creating a liaison with the groups and working to make the GOP more conservative.

Chris Lawton, the newly elected chairman of the Upstate Coalition and a Greenville Republican, emphasizes that the coalition plans to remain totally separate and its relationship with the county party is "in a probationary period." The coalition, he says, wants to "conservatize" the Republican Party. There is, he says, "a huge disconnect between the Republican Party and legislators who claim to be Republicans. They get elected but they don't follow the Republican platform. They need to be targeted and exposed for what they are."

Lawton says the Upstate Conservative Coalition includes 20 organizations, including a number of county tea party groups, that represent about 10,000 voters. Membership ranges from the Furman Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow, to his own Campaign for Liberty group (an outgrowth of the Ron Paul for president campaign) to the Americans for a Constitutional Government.

So, will the tea party groups simply get more involved and informed about grass roots politics generally or will they concentrate their efforts on the GOP, including an attempted take-over of the party, which now dominates state politics? Lawton is among those who discount the latter prospect. Instead, he says he would expect the Upstate coalition to take a position on the candidates after the primary filing deadline, something the party leadership isn't in a position to do.

One of the tea party movement's most vocal advocates is Berkeley-Charleston Republican Sen. Larry Grooms, who viewed first hand, when running for governor, its energizing effect. Grooms contends these groups "don't need to be co-opted by the Republican Party." It is healthy, he says, to have an independent organization to "really check what's happening within the Republican Party. Most of the people involved essentially agree with the Republican creed. Their gripe is that elected Republicans introduce legislation and take positions that are just the opposite of what is contained in the platform."

Grooms sees a substantial difference between the tea party groups and the Christian Coalition of several decades ago that had an effect on the GOP by being very well organized in terms of making inroads in the party organization. Comparatively, he said, the tea party groups aren't trying to take over the GOP in this state. "They just want to know what's going on and to get their message out."

The first concrete evidence of their party involvement could be demonstrated by increased attendance at upcoming precinct reorganization meetings. Haddon makes it clear that the attendance of Upstate coalition members at his county's precinct sessions will be more than welcome.

"If they want to change the party, we want to give them that opportunity," he said. He also discounts Rove's warning against the party's formal association with the tea party movement particularly in view of its fringe element attraction. "The majority of these people love their country and the Constitution. Because they get passionate they are labeled as extremists," Haddon says.

As for the future of the Upstate coalition's involvement in the party, State GOP Chairman Karen Floyd says it "will be as much or as little as they choose it to be." Because it is an organic movement, no one knows, she notes, how it will play across the state.

The movement's influence in the Republican primary in general and the key statewide and congressional races in particular, should begin to tell the tale.

Barbara S. Williams, editor emeritus of The Post and Courier, may be reached at bwilliams@postandcourier.com.