It seems like just about every political figure and group has a super PAC these days. On Friday, Tea Party Patriots, one of the nation's most prominent Tea Party groups, jumped into the game, opening its doors to unlimited contributions.
Touting a willingness to take on "long-time career politicians" too scared to "rein in out-of-control government," Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin laid out the mission of the newly created Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.
“If we are going to change Washington and save America, the tea party movement must hold every politician who supports higher taxes and even higher spending accountable -- regardless of their political party," she said in a statement. "If that means we have to defeat some of these big-government politicians in primaries, so be it."
As The Hill reported last year, Tea Party Patriots has been planning to roll out a committee of some sort with the goal of wielding more influence in the 2014 elections.
The choice of a super PAC format could raise eyebrows however. On its website, the group proudly claims, "Tea Party Patriots is 100% grassroots, 100% of the time."
The announcement comes as GOP strategist Karl Rove continues to draw backlash for his recently rolled out Conservative Victory Project, an offshoot of his American Crossroads super PAC designed to combat a trend of far-right Republican Senate candidates who have won GOP primaries but proven too extreme to win general elections.
While Rove has claimed his intent is not to start a civil war with the Tea Party wing of the GOP, some conservatives already appear convinced that his group will work to prop up establishment Republicans and squeeze out promising candidates, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who first attracted attention of Tea Party activists when running for the Senate.
On Tuesday, former Tea Party Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) announced his own super PAC rebuttal to Rove's, declaring that his effort would "support freedom-loving conservative alternatives."
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