New Tea Party Group Forms in Redmond

It's only about a year and a half away from the 2012 presidential election, but new Tea Party activists in the Redmond area say they want conservative-minded Eastside residents to keep their focus on the issues that will come into play in this year's local elections.

Eight people attended the inaugural meeting of the Tea Party of Kirkland, Redmond and Woodinville at the Redmond Regional Library on Monday evening. The group plans to meet once a month and continue recruiting members as it decides what issues and topics to rally around.

Redmond resident Thomas Bennett, who is co-coordinating the local group with fellow resident Rose Brittain, said he decided to start the new Tea Party group because of his concern with local issues, including the cost of Sound Transit's new light rail system and Redmond's .

“I just want to get involved in local issues," Bennett said. "I think a lot of people miss out on voting on local issues.”

At the national level, Bennett, who is pursuing a degree in criminal justice at Bellevue College, said he wants the government to work on lowering the federal deficit and being more fiscally responsible. The future of his 1½-year-old granddaughter has made him more passionate about fiscal issues, Bennett said.

"That's why I've gotten involved with the Tea Party and why I'm trying to make a difference," he said.

Although attendance was low at Monday's meeting, Woody Hertzog, the state's Tea Party organizer, said the local chapter could pick up members as time goes on.

Back in August, only about six people showed up for the first meeting of the Sammamish-Issaquah-North Bend Tea Party, Hertzog said. Now, he says, that chapter has the most members out of any Tea Party group in the Seattle metro area.

"So you never know really what to expect," Hertzog said.

Wayne, a Redmond resident who declined to give his last name, said he found out about Monday's meeting through the library's room reservation list and decided to sit in on the Tea Party gathering out of curiosity, "not an affinity for their politics."

"I'm curious as to what their answers are to questions," he said.

The meeting's discussion included topics such as the national health care bill, immigration and education. Scott Harlan, the Redmond resident who is to put the city's camera enforcement program on the ballot, was the evening's guest speaker.

Harlan told those in attendance that he was compelled to become involved in local politics by the camera program, which he regards as an overstep by the city's government.

"I kept waiting for somebody to raise their hand and say, 'Let's not do this,' and nobody raised their hand," Harlan said.

The new group is one of about 35 Tea Party organizations across the state, including a Seattle-based group that just launched last week. As local elections approach later this year, Hertzog said the various groups plan to sponsor candidates who embody the Tea Party's principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and a limited constitutional government.

Eastside Tea Party groups will be sponsoring a tax day rally in Factoria on Friday evening. Another rally in Olympia will be held earlier that afternoon.