Tea Party activists are looking beyond rallies and taking the next step in influencing the political process by offering a free how-to class on lobbying on Jan. 9 at Chinn Park Library.
"There are a lot of folks that feel we should be moving on beyond rallies and protests," said Yale Schiffman, with the Prince William County Tea Party Patriots group. "Most people don't know what to do when dealing with legislators and we felt that having a professional come in and explain the do's and don'ts of lobbying and how to get the most out of the limited time you have with your legislators would be helpful."
Krystal Slivinski, vice president for government affairs for Tertium Quids -- a free market issue advocacy group headquartered in Gainesville -- will head the two-hour seminar, beginning at 11 a.m. The course is free; write pwcteaparty@aol.com to register.
Overall, the Tea Party movement in the county has grown.
"If one judges [membership] by the number of people on our e-mail list, I can say that in April of 2009, when we first started, we had 200 people we were contacting," Schiffman said. "Now, we have well over 800 people."
The local Tea Party group has also formally joined forces with other similar groups statewide. Roughly 30 Tea Party coalitions around Virginia have come together under one umbrella, the Virginia Tea Party Patriot Federation, led by Jamie Radtke, chair of the Richmond Tea Party.
"The federation represents well over 20,000 people," said Schiffman, whose wife, Nancy, was just selected as secretary for the state group. "The idea is to coordinate the activities of all the tea parties around the state. We did our first webcast last night. And we'll be doing webcasts once or twice a month just to let people know what's going on."
The address for the state group is virginiateaparty patriots.com.
Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.
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