WASHINGTON — About 50 leaders of the grassroots Tea Party movement will meet in Washington today with Republican Party chairman Michael Steele and other top party operatives to discuss campaign strategies and conservative principles.
The afternoon meeting on Capitol Hill will mark the first time a broad coalition of Tea Party organizers — who have railed against both the Democratic and the Republican establishments — will sit down with GOP leaders. Top Republican leaders have been openly courting Tea Party organizers, looking to marshal grassroots energy heading into November’s midterm elections.
Karin Hoffman, founder of DC Works for Us, a Florida Tea Party group, said she initiated the meeting, but she dismissed any suggestion that Tea Party groups would merge with the Republican Party. The Washington Post
