FL: Tea Party Candidates Under Attack from a Republican Establishment Itself Plagued by Financial Scandal

Last week, Click Orlando WKMG Local 6 filed a lengthy report on the state Republican establishment's response to the Florida Tea Party's candidate for Congress in CD-8:

Republicans in Central Florida are worried that even a weak showing from the third party Florida Tea Party candidate in the 8th Congressional District could split the conservative vote enough to help re-elect liberal, outspoken Democrat Alan Grayson.

Naturally, if Republicans are so concerned about "splitting the vote," they can pressure their candidate to withdraw from the race for the good of the district, the state and the people of the United States. No word yet on whether they will put the greater good above the principle of the lesser evil.

Tax policy features prominently in the platform of the Florida Tea Party. The article goes on to detail the tax problems of individuals within the party's leadership, a point one TPID reader has emphasized on more than one occasion. From the article:

As for the Florida Tea Party -- which complains that Americans are compelled to pay taxes “at the end of a barrel of a gun” -- party chairman O’Neal and communications director Egoroff have tax issues of their own, according to official records on file with the Orange County comptroller’s office.

O’Neal has had IRS liens filed against him totaling $155,826 for what the IRS claims are unpaid taxes, interest and penalties . . . As for Egoroff . . . the IRS in March filed a lien claiming he owed $49,576 in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties covering three years, from 2004 to 2006.

In a significant omission, the report fails to mention ongoing IRS and federal criminal investigations into the financial practices of the Florida Republican Party. From the St. Petersburg Times, earlier this month:

The Republican Party of Florida gave American Express cards to party staffers and certain elite legislative leaders to spend donors' money with little oversight. The practice ended in 2009, but release of statements detailing extravagant and freewheeling spending has led to ongoing IRS and federal criminal investigations.