Dockery link draws ire of tea partiers

State Sen. Paula Dockery, insurgent Republican candidate for governor, is being dragged into a fracas over the Florida Tea Party that illustrates the national questions about what the movement is and its sometimes tense relations with the Republican Party.

The imbroglio involves an actual Florida political party, formed by backers of Dockery, of Lakeland, called the Tea Party.

Some movement activists say it's a bogus attempt to hijack the movement for political gain, and are suing to retain the right to the name Tea Party. Some blame Dockery.

Nationally, many tea partiers say they don't think their movement should form an organized party. Rather, they say, it should be a wave of individuals and informal groups, choosing candidates from existing parties.

However, while it remains structureless, the movement remains vulnerable to being co-opted.

Candidates can call themselves "Tea Party" candidates and political parties can adopt that name, regardless of whether it's justified, noted Karin Hoffman, founder of a large tea party group in South Florida.

The situation reflects the anarchic character of the movement.

"It's formless, it's amorphous, it's like herding cats," said Michael Caputo, a Miami-based Republican political operative working with tea partiers who filed the lawsuit.

At the same time, however, the tea partiers are asserting their independence of the Republican Party, and some hint they could organize their own party if Republicans don't adequately represent their views.

Marco Rubio, the Florida GOP Senate candidate who has become a national champion of the movement, has said in stump speeches that the Republican Party "is the natural home of this movement, but it's not the inevitable home."

Rubio denies that means he would consider switching parties, and although he courts tea party groups, he resists being identified as a "tea party" candidate.

Dockery denies any ties to the Florida Tea Party, maintaining she's a committed Republican. That hasn't satisfied the tea partiers who are suing.

"Until she distances herself from the third party, we're going to continue hammering on her," Caputo said.

Where it all began

The Florida fracas began last year when Orlando lawyer Frederic O'Neal registered the Tea Party as one of more than 30 "minor parties" in the state.

O'Neal is a long-time associate of Doug Guetzloe, an Orlando Republican political operative who acknowledges he has a controversial reputation and who backs Dockery in the Republican primary for governor against front-runner Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Dockery has long been active in mainstream GOP politics in Lakeland along with her husband, C.C. "Doc" Dockery. This year, she's running as a populist maverick, saying the party has become too dominated by corporate and special interests.

She broadened her political reputation beyond Lakeland by leading opposition to the state's deal with CSX railway to form the SunRail commuter rail system, championed by GOP leaders.

Her ties to Guetzloe put her in the tea partiers' sights.

"Is Dockery behind the fake Tea Party?" was the headline on a Caputo news release about the lawsuit, alleging Guetzloe works for the campaign.

Dockery denies that, but says she's happy to have his support and acknowledges it helped get her candidacy off the ground.

At her candidacy announcement in Lakeland in November, Guetzloe was in the audience, as was Nick Egoroff, an ally of Guetzloe and organizer of the Orange County campaign of dissident Republican Ron Paul in 2008.

She credited them with starting the "draft Dockery" movement and added, "You got me into this."

Guetzloe and Egoroff were both kicked off the Orange County Republican executive committee by former state party Chairman Jim Greer last year, accused of improperly using the party's name and undermining party candidates.

Guetzloe maintains that disciplinary action was an attempt by Greer, recently removed as chairman, to "purge" the party of critics.

O'Neal says he came by the Tea Party name for his party legitimately, as an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already," which he and Guetzloe have long considered as a slogan for a new party.

"I've been involved with the anti-tax movement for decades," he said.

In Florida, political parties have a legal right to control their names, like copyrights.

In January, Barry Willoughby, founder of a Naples Tea Party group, posted what O'Neal said was a vituperative blog entry about him, decrying the new party.

O'Neal responded with an e-mail to Willoughby reminding him of the law. "I suggest you take a look at whether your Naples Tea Party needs to get a new name," he said.

Willoughby said that's an affront to Revolutionary War history, and his group hasn't changed its name.

"The tea party movement is part of our history," he said. "How any one person could say they hold the rights to the spirit of the tea party?"

O'Neal's e-mail has been widely circulated among tea partiers, who claim many politicians are seeking to hijack the momentum of their movement.

Hoffman, of the large South Florida tea party group, said movement activists are suspicious of a Tea Party formed as an official party in Nevada.

In Florida, Broward County congressional candidate Karen Harrington attended the recent national convention of tea partiers in Nashville and sought their support.

But Hoffman said Harrington has little history in the movement, while her opponent in the GOP primary, Robert Paul Lowry, is well known among tea partiers.

We aren't the GOP

Although they're likely to support Republican candidates, tea partiers are sensitive about being identified as Republicans.

At a convention of national political conservatives last weekend, radio and TV show host Glenn Beck, one of the ideological founders of the movement, blasted national Republicans almost as much as Democrats for addiction to government spending.

"The first step to getting redemption is you've got to admit that you've got a problem," he said. "I have not heard people in the Republican party yet admit that they have a problem."

Hoffman recently organized a meeting of some 50 tea partiers with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. "We wanted to let him know we're autonomous," she said.

At their request, she said, Steele agreed to remove a tea bag symbol from the RNC Web site - "a courteous gesture," she said.

Forming a third party, Hoffman said, "would hurt the conservative cause by dividing the vote."

"If the Republicans are bold and stand firm, there won't be a need for a third party."

She left open the obvious question: What if they don't?