Tea Party's vision comes to fruition in Tarrant elections

By Bud Kennedy

bud@star-telegram.com

A blue norther was blowing that February day in 2009, back when almost nobody in Tarrant County had ever heard of a Tea Party.

Two clowns on unicycles with "No More Pork" signs circled past a "Texas Secede!" banner outside a west Fort Worth saloon.

From a makeshift stage, freshly ousted state Rep. Bill Zedler of Arlington urged the crowd to leave fringe parties and unite as Republicans.

"I think the Tea Party came in here and told us they were looking for well-known conservatives," Zedler said Tuesday night, on the heels of a victory that kept him in the Texas Legislature with four new Tarrant County allies.

"What you saw tonight was the culmination. The voters want officials who are conservative."

With no George W. Bush or Kay Bailey Hutchison or even a John McCain at the top of the ballot, Tea Party-backed candidates used a Midland millionaire's money to defeat traditional Republicans from Keller and Bedford and ousted another from Arlington.

Southlake venture capital executive Giovanni Capriglione, a Ron Paul supporter four years ago, defeated state Rep. Vicki Truitt of Keller with the help of Midland-financed Empower Texans and third-party attacks that even Bishop Kevin Vann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth called "indefensible."

Bedford and Euless will now be represented by former pest control technician Jonathan Stickland, who said at a Tea Party/ 912 Project meeting in March that he will oppose House Speaker Joe Straus, who is Jewish, "because as a Christian, I believe we must call evil evil."

(Updated June 2: Stickland tells me he did not know Straus is Jewish and was addressing an audience question. I take him at his word.)

Fort Worth lawyer and religious conservative Matt Krause upset Arlington state Rep. Barbara Nash. Another Tea Party candidate, Stephanie Klick of Fort Worth, will await a July 31 runoff against North Richland Hills Councilman Ken Sapp.

"The Tea Party has done a better job here of organizing and turning its voters out, and that's the story," said Jim Riddlesperger, a 30-year political science professor at Texas Christian University.

Unlike religious-conservative western and southern Tarrant County suburbs, Northeast Tarrant County usually prefers business Republicans: Bush, Hutchison, McCain.

But Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst didn't fill those boots or turn out voters.

"There was so little buzz about the Senate election here -- this was mainly about the House seats," Riddlesperger said.

"Combine the anti-incumbent sentiment with the Tea Party, and these are the results you get."

It just took three years to brew.

Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538

Twitter: @budkennedy

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