George Allen is eager to boast about Tea Party support in his comeback bid for the Senate in Virginia — even when he doesn’t actually have it, it seems.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that a press release from Allen’s campaign, touting multiple Tea Party movement endorsements, included some individuals or groups that are not actually supporting him.
For example, there was the case of Kerry Scott, head of the Alexandria Tea Party — who is actually supporting Allen’s opponent in the primary, Jamie Radtke:
She noted that Allen’s release also had the name of her tea party organization wrong.
“They aligned me with NOVA Tea Party, which doesn’t even exist,” she said. “To me, it was just very sloppy, and that made me a little suspicious.”
Three other names have been removed from the list of tea party endorsements on Allen’s website since its release Nov. 22.
Bill Riggs, a spokesman for Allen’s campaign, could not immediately say why the other names had been removed, but he suggested that it might have been because of privacy concerns and miscommunication. He said Scott was the only person he was aware of who claimed to have been included without consent.
