Don't be scammed. Many "Tea Party" and "Patriot" groups are playing people.

I give a little money from time to time to causes and candidates I believe in and I am often "liking" causes on Facebook, so my name must have ended up on every right-wing fund raising list there is. Daily, I get numerous email appeals for money.  Some of them I have been tempted to contribute to, put as I have learned more about the different groups raising money, I have restricted my giving to the candidates campaign organization or a few nationally recognized organizations.

I once had an appeal to contribute to a cause to support a popular conservative candidate who was not even on the ballot that election.  I had an appeal to help reelect Senator Tim Scott but when I researched it, I found that Tim Scott had only token primary opposition and an unknown Democrat opponent with no chance of winning. Tim Scott did not need anyone spending money on his behalf. I have researched some of the groups sending me request and some of them pay their executive directors super big salaries, they pay a lot for fundraising, they pay consultants, and almost nothing is spend on behave of or opposing candidates.

Many of these groups with tea party sounding names are simply fleecing the faithful.  They are the political equivalent of the televangelist who have numerous mansions around the world and private jets and get on TV and beg the little old ladies to send them part of their social security check.


Before giving money to any group, please check them out. One good source is Opens Secrets.   This site will tell you how much money a group raised and how it spend it.

I am glad to see the word being spread about the scams on the right. Here is an article from Politico:

The rise of 'scam PACs'

Conservatives sound alarms about self-dealing fundraisers.

By Kenneth P. Vogel,1/26/15 -  .....A couple of days after receiving the anti-Bush email from the Conservative Action Fund, Erickson took to his Red State blog to lament the trend. “It is a terrible blight on the conservative movement and on the tea party in particular that the hucksters have come up to cash in,” he wrote.

 

“From the groups claiming to represent Ben Carson to the groups raising money for Allen West to now a group claiming to raise money to ‘Stop Jeb Bush,’ I think more and more older conservatives are getting scammed by con men living well off other people’s money. I doubt very much that much, if any, of the money is going to support these causes.” (link)

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