From the Orlando Sentinel: Pamela Dahl and her fellow tea-party members in this megaretirement community are determined to evaluate GOP candidates for U.S. Senate – Gov. Charlie Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio – in person.
But it was Rubio, and not Crist, who became the focus of attention about tea-party support during a televised debate last week between the candidates. Rubio, who leads Crist by a wide margin in opinion polls, has been labeled in media outlets as the potential first tea-party senator.
The Tri-County Tea Party, which is made up of tea-party members from Lake, Sumter and Marion counties, was propelled into the spotlight during the Fox News Sunday candidate faceoff. Dahl and other area tea-party activists flooded Fox News with calls and e-mails urging the cable-news channel to press Rubio as to why he hasn’t appeared before tea parties across the state.
“We’ve been trying to call him [Rubio] to be vetted, but he did not respond to any of our calls. That was the problem we were having,” said Villages resident Dahl, president of the Tri-Country Tea Party. “Because we had not heard from him, we sent out e-mails to Fox.” Continue reading here.
