{"id":521125,"date":"2010-04-08T21:12:39","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T01:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/?p=16084"},"modified":"2010-04-08T21:12:39","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T01:12:39","slug":"tea-party-express-targets-stupak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/521125","title":{"rendered":"Tea Party Express Targets Stupak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bessemer, Mich. \u2013 The Tea Party Express bus caravan barreled into the Wolverine State late Thursday with a single purpose in mind: to unseat Rep. Bart Stupak for his \u201cbetrayal\u201d in voting for President Obama\u2019s health care legislation.<\/p>\n

The tea party group, which is in the middle of a 42-city cross-country bus tour, has launched an aggressive ad campaign targeting Stupak \u2013 with the group\u2019s political action committee, Our Country Deserves Better, pledging $250,000 in radio and T.V. ads aimed at ousting him from office.<\/p>\n

Stupak, a pro-life Democrat representing Michigan\u2019s 1st congressional district, was roundly criticized by the tea party movement and other conservative groups when he voted in favor of Obama\u2019s health care legislation last month.\u00a0 Stupak and other Democrats ultimately backed the overhaul after objecting to abortion language in the bill.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., became the Tea Party Express\u2019 primary target when the grassroots group launched its bus tour two weeks ago from Reid\u2019s hometown of Searchlight.\u00a0 Organizers say Stupak ranks a close second on their list of incumbent lawmakers whom they\u2019d like to see leave office.<\/p>\n

“Congressman Bart Stupak, you betrayed our Constitution,\u201d reads the announcer in the group\u2019s 30-second television ad.\u00a0 \u201cYou sold us out on the health-care vote. And now it’s time for you to pay the political price. Join the Tea Party Express as we send Bart Stupak packing for early retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to see the ad.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tea Party Express, which claims it does not campaign on \u201csocial issues,\u201d said its opposition to Stupak is based more on his “failure to uphold principle” than on policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he was going to stand on his principles and then he caved in,\u201d said Sal Russo, chief strategist of the Tea Party Express. \u201cThis isn\u2019t so much about abortion than it is about breaking faith with what he promised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stupak voted for the health care legislation after Obama pledged to sign an executive order upholding the ban on federal funding of abortions. Obama signed the order March 24, but some conservative groups, like the Tea Party Express, say they are skeptical of its effectiveness.<\/p>\n

The bus caravan rolled into Bessemer for a rally late Thursday, greeting a crowd of 350 activists gathered outside a Veterans of Foreign War post \u2013 one holding a sign reading \u201cLet’s Stick it to Stupak.”<\/p>\n

About 20 Stupak supporters, meanwhile, staged a counter protest across the street from the rally, carrying signs like “Bart, You Betcha” and “Progressives for Stupak” and chanting “We love Bart!”<\/p>\n

“He’s been a good representative for us and he’s stood by his constituents,” Dan Obradovich of Wakefield, Mich., a Stupak supporter, told FoxNews.com. “If the Republicans don’t like moderate Democrats than where are they? Where is their alternative plan for health care?”<\/p>\n

The Tea Party Express is expected to hold 11 rallies in Michigan over the next few days \u2013 more than any other state in its cross-country tour — and concludes in Washington, D.C., on April 15, Tax Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bessemer, Mich. \u2013 The Tea Party Express bus caravan barreled into the Wolverine State late Thursday with a single purpose in mind: to unseat Rep. Bart Stupak for his \u201cbetrayal\u201d in voting for President Obama\u2019s health care legislation. The tea party group, which is in the middle of a 42-city cross-country bus tour, has launched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}