WestChesterBuzz.com

Bowdeya Tweh reports:

More than 250 people chanted, marched and voiced their frustration with the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday in response to concerns the agency provided unfair scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status in recent years.

Before noon, attendees — many carrying signs decrying the IRS practices — began to gather at Fountain Square in preparation for the couple-block walk to the John Weld Peck Federal Building. The building houses IRS workers in Cincinnati, which has been at the center of the controversy.

By 12:15 p.m., people outside building led calls including “USA not KGB,” and “Hey, hey, ho ho, the IRS has got to go.”

Ted Stevenot, of Cincinnati, president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, a coalition of local tea party group members, said the protest was about protecting citizens’ rights.

“A government when it gets too big gets unwieldy and sometimes it kind of takes on a life of its own,” Stevenot said.

The rally occurred about the same time a hearing in Washington was wrapping up involving former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman was grilled by lawmakers about his knowledge about the targeting.

Cincinnati Tea Party President Ann Becker said the local rally was one of about 50 locations around the United States Tuesday as a show of force against the agency’s practices. Becker, of West Chester, said she and other local Tea Party members got the idea to host an event after a text message exchange last week.

Becker said the rally also helped galvanize support among Tea Party activists and she has received numerous messages of support and requests asking how they can provide assistance.

“It has given people energy that there’s a place to go with this, that we’re here to help faciliate that energy,” Becker said. “It’s a good thing the Tea Party is here for them.”

At the federal building, representatives including Becker and Stevenot walked inside and delivered a “letter” to security to present to IRS officials asking for a halt to targeting groups. Becker said she isn’t sure if the letter will be delivered, but said the protest met expectations.

However, not everyone was impressed at the protest and rally. Many onlookers, including David Meredith of Cincinnati, questioned the motives of the Tea Party members and said they deserved the additional scrutiny.

Posted in: Government, News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Ann Becker, Ann Becker Cincinnati Tea Party, Ann Becker West Chester Tea Party, Cincinnati Tea Party, IRS Tea Party, IRS Tea Party scandal, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, West Chester Tea Party

Rep. Pat Tiberi talks to a group of Ohio tea party leaders at Friday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on IRS targeting of conservative groups. Photo by Deirdre Shesgreen.

Deirdre Shesgreen reports:

Outgoing IRS Commissioner Steve Miller defended himself and the federal tax agency under intense grilling from House lawmakers Friday, saying the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups was not politically motivated but rather “foolish mistakes” made by “people trying to be efficient.”

Miller told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that he did not mislead Congress, even though he and other top IRS officials failed to tell lawmakers that IRS workers in Cincinnati had flagged tax-exempt applications from tea party and similar organizations for special scrutiny.

“I did not mislead Congress, nor the American people,” said Miller, who resigned under pressure from the White House earlier this week. “I answered the questions as they were asked.”

The line of questioning in the cavernous House hearing room quickly divided along partisan lines. Republicans tried to wrap the White House up in the scandal and suggested it was the “tip of the iceberg,” while Democrats tried to insulate the president and cast it as a limited incident caused by a handful of rogue IRS workers.

Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said the IRS targeting appeared to be part of a “culture of cover-ups and political intimidation in this administration,” with the truth “hidden . . . just long enough to make it through an election.”

The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Sander Levin, of Mich., said the IRS had “completely failed” the public, but warned against turning the scandal into a political football. “If this hearing becomes essentially a bootstrap to continue the campaign of 2012 and to prepare for 2014, we will be making a very, very serious mistake.” he said.

During the highly charged session, which lasted nearly four hours, no new evidence emerged showing that top IRS officials were involved with developing or implementing the inappropriate criteria used to single out groups with “tea party,” ‘’patriot,” or “9/12” in their names.

J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which probed the IRS’ actions, said that policy was developed by a team of IRS specialists in the IRS’ Cincinnati office, which reviews applications for tax-exempt status from groups around the country. (more…)

Posted in: Government, News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Cincinnati Tea Party, IRS Tea Party, IRS Tea Party scandal, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, West Chester Tea Party

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

A Butler County tea party organization is at the center of the battle involving alleged harassment by the Internal Revenue Service.

Officials from the Liberty Township Tea Party (LTTP) said they are joining the class action lawsuit against the IRS for allegedly red flagging them and making them answer a long list of questions regarding their 2010 application to be considered a charitable organization.

Tea party officials said they received another another similar set of questions this year. The organization’s website says it was established in 2009 and obtained its tax exempt status last year.

A press release emailed to The Enquirer and to WestChesterBuzz Wednesday said the organization will be represented by the American Center for Law and Justice. Board members Susan McLaughlin, Tim Savaglio and Katy Kern are traveling to Washington, D.C. Friday to participate in hearings about the IRS scandal.

“LTTP board members believe our national government used tax agency bureaucrats to investigate people and groups because of their political beliefs and gave that private information to opposing groups,” the release said.

Kern put it this way: “The IRS is just trying to be a big old backyard bully.”

Kern’s husband Dave Kern is a Liberty Township trustee and executive chairman of the Butler County Republican Party.

Documents obtained by The Enquirer and WestChesterBuzz indicate that the IRS in Cincinnati sent a letter to the tea party group on March 1, 2011. The letter asked 35 questions, asked for documentation in several areas, and gave the organization 21 days to respond.

One of the questions asked board members to “provide details regarding your relationship with Justin Bink-Thomas,” a Cincinnati tea party activist.

Liberty Township Tea Party officials called the questions “intrusive.”

“Why would the IRS ask you something about your neighbor, that’s just too big brother,” Kern said.

She said the organization also received a second set of similar questions from the IRS in 2013.

Posted in: Government, News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Cincinnati Tea Party, IRS Tea Party, IRS Tea Party scandal, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, West Chester Tea Party

Gregory Korte (USA Today) reports:

The Internal Revenue Service official responsible for tax-exempt organizations was briefed in 2011 that her unit was targeting Tea Party groups for additional scrutiny, according to a draft timeline of events compiled by the agency’s inspector general.

That chronology cast doubt on a statement to reporters Friday by IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner that she only learned of the enhanced reviews through news reports last year, and that only low-level employees were involved in the decision. The scandal broke Friday when Lerner apologized for how the agency handled Tea Party-related groups’ tax-exempt applications. Her apology was first reported by the Associated Press.

• STORY: Tea Party firestorm could stall other probes

The apology came in advance of the expected release of the critical report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which has been investigating the IRS’s treatment of Tea Party groups at the request of Congress. That report is expected this week, but excerpts obtained by USA TODAY provide a timeline investigators compiled through emails and interviews with IRS officials.

The timeline shows that on June 29, 2011, Lerner received a briefing on how IRS officials in Cincinnati were dealing with applications for tax-exempt status for Tea Party groups. The briefing paper showed that the IRS was subjecting certain groups to further investigation based on politically loaded terms in the tax-exempt application file. Groups were singled out for enhanced scrutiny if:

• The words “tea party,” “patriots,” or “9/12 project” appeared anywhere in the group name or case file;
• The group’s stated issues included government spending, government debt or taxes;
• The organization had a goal of educating of the public via advocacy or lobbying to “make America a better place to live;”
• Any statements in the case file critical of how the country is being run.

Under those criteria, 100 groups had their applications sent to a dedicated team of specialists for further investigation — adding months to the approval process, according to the report. (more…)

Posted in: Government, News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Cincinnati Tea Party, IRS Tea Party, IRS Tea Party scandal, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, West Chester Tea Party

The Liberty Township Tea Party will host its annual pot luck social at Niederman’s Family Farm from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. July 8.

The event is being held to celebrate the third year of the Liberty Township Tea Party.

Games and bounce houses for children start at 4:30 p.m. Dinner is at 6:30 p.m. Cincinnati Reds mascot “Rosie Red” will also be at the event.

A concert by the Liberty Singers will open and close the event.

Guests are expected to bring their own beverages and a dish to share. According to the release, names A-G should bring a main dish, names H-O should bring a salad or fruit and names P-Z should bring desserts.

For information about the Liberty Township Tea Party, visit www.libertytownshipteaparty.org.

Niederman’s Family Farm is located at 5110 LeSourdsville-West Chester Road.

Posted in: Events, News, Political events, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Liberty Township Tea Party, Liberty Township Tea Party pot luck social, Niederman Farm, Niederman's Family Farm, pot luck, Tea Party

Sue Kiesewetter reports

Butler County’s Tea Party groups will gather tonight in Liberty Township to work on two joint projects.

The meeting, hosted by the Liberty Township Tea Party, begins at 7 p.m., at the Niederman Family Farm, 5110 LeSourdsville-West Chester Road.

The groups will work together on the Voter Integrity project and an upcoming educational literature distribution.

Ken Korn, of the Liberty Township Tea Party, will also present his Two Minutes with our Forefathers. It is an ongoing series that examines the constitution, what it is, how it was written and why it is important.

Following the work part of the meeting, those present will share pizza and drinks. The meeting is open to the public.

For more information, call 513-755-0591.

Posted in: News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Cincinnati Tea Party, Ken Korn, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, Tea Party meeting, West Chester Tea Party

Sue Kiesewetter reports

Butler County’s Tea Party groups will gather Monday, June 4 in Liberty Township to work on two joint projects.

The meeting, hosted by the Liberty Township Tea Party, begins at 7 p.m., at the Niederman Family Farm, 5110 LeSourdsville-West Chester Road.

The groups will work together on the Voter Integrity project and an upcoming educational literature distribution.

Ken Korn, of the Liberty Township Tea Party, will also present his Two Minutes with our Forefathers. It is an ongoing series that examines the constitution, what it is, how it was written and why it is important.

Following the work part of the meeting, those present will share pizza and drinks. The meeting is open to the public.

For more information, call 513-755-0591.

Posted in: News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Cincinnati Tea Party, Ken Korn, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, Tea Party meeting, West Chester Tea Party

Laura A. Bischoff reports

State Treasurer Josh Mandel is eager to take on Democrat Sherrod Brown in the race for U.S. Senate but first Mandel must beat four other Republicans to formally grab the GOP nomination.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel was endorsed by the Tea Party Express the same morning, Feb. 20, 2012, he spoke at Voice of America Park’s Ronald Reagan Lodge in West Chester. Photo provided.

The five candidates in the Republican primary are an eclectic group: a state treasurer, a retired auto worker, an orthopedic surgeon, a medical researcher and a retiree who gives tours and manages a taxi business on Put-in-Bay in the summer.

None of the five are fans of the federal Affordable Care Act and all of them recognize the need to find ways to bring jobs to Ohioans in the wobbly economy. And each one of them say voters should give them a chance because of their particular experience.

It would take a major upset for any of the four lesser known candidates to knock off Mandel in the primary. Mandel and Brown have been raising the equivalent of $1 million a month for their expected showdown in the general election, which is expected to be one of the most expensive and most watched Senate campaigns in the country.

A poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that Brown leads Mandel 48 percent to 35 percent and 47 percent of voters approve of Brown’s job performance. Seventy-one percent of registered voters report that they don’t know enough about Mandel to have an opinion of him.

‘History tells us there will be a race to define Josh Mandel. The question is who has the most money and is most effective doing it,’said Peter Brown, the poll’s assistant director. ‘Brown’s numbers are good; they’re not great.’ (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Cincinnati Tea Party, David Dodt, Donna Glisman, Eric LaMont Gregory, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Josh Mandel Tea Party, Liberty Township Tea Party, Michael Pryce, Tea Party, Tea Party Express, West Chester Tea Party

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel – the front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination – spoke to local Tea Party activists at Voice of America Park’s Ronald Reagan Lodge in West Chester Monday. That same morning Mandel received an endorsement from the Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest tea party political action committee.

“It is the focus of the Tea Party Express to take conservative control of the U.S. Senate, and we are proud to announce our endorsement of Treasurer Josh Mandel in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race,” stated Amy Kremer, chair of the Tea Party Express. “Josh is the perfect candidate to replace Sherrod Brown, Washington’s most liberal senator according to National Journal.”

Mandel is the organization’s fourth Senate endorsement this election cycle, according to a release from the Tea Party Express. Other endorsements include Attorney General Jon Bruning in Nebraska, Treasurer Richard Mourdock in Indiana, and former Solicitor General Ted Cruz in Texas.

In a recent story published in The Cincinnati Enquirer, political reporter Howard Wilkinson showed that the Tea Party in Ohio could focus more on electing Mandel and not on which Republican presidential candidate it backs in the primary.

“I think our people are all over the map,’’ said Mike Wilson of Springdale, who, three years ago, founded the Cincinnati Tea Party and is running this year for the Ohio House.

“We haven’t been tremendously impactful in the primaries so far, and it is hard to imagine that we will be in Ohio,’’ said Wilson. “Tea party people aren’t getting around one candidate.”

It could be that the tea party activists who wielded such influence two years ago could turn their attention this year to Ohio’s U.S. Senate race instead of the presidential contest.

Wilson and other tea party activists in the area say that if the Republicans nominate a candidate who doesn’t excite them – Mitt Romney, for example, who is seen as a moderate by many of them – they could end up spending more energy trying to elect Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel – the front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination – over Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“I think you will see tea party folks gravitate toward Mandel,’’ said Chris Littleton, a co-founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party and the Ohio Liberty Council, an umbrella group for tea party organizations. “That is a race that could get people excited. And then they vote for Romney or whoever along the way.”

A Mandel vs. Brown race, Wilson said, “might get people excited. Josh has a lot of support among tea party people. He’s got them more excited than any of the presidential candidates at this point.”

Posted in: Election, Government, News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Amy Kremer, Amy Kremer Tea Party, Cincinnati Tea Party, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Josh Mandel Tea Party, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, Tea Party Express, West Chester Tea Party

Matt Mayer of the Heritage Foundation will be the featured speaker at Tuesday’s West Chester Tea Party meeting held at 5430 West Chester Road. The meeting begins at 7 p.m., while registration and networking will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Mayer will be speaking on his upcoming book “Taxpayers Don’t Stand a Chance: How Battleground Ohio Loses No Matter Who wins.” According to a release from the West Chester Tea Party, the book focuses on Ohio’s rich history, systemically weak economy since 1990, broken political system and the reforms needed to make Ohio great again.

Mayer visited the local Tea Party last February when he was president of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. During that meeting, Mayer discussed the debt crisis at the local and state level.

For more information about the West Chester Tea Party, visit its website www.westchesterteaparty.org.

Posted in: Events, News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Buckeye Institute, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Cincinnati Tea Party, Matt Mayer, Tea Party, West Chester Tea Party