Tea Partiers Swap Nasty E-Mails in Nev. Senate Race

LAS VEGAS (June 7) -- A long-brewing feud between tea party factions over Tuesday's Nevada Republican primary election has boiled over into bitter e-mail exchanges in which activists are lambasting one another as "turncoats" and "representative of a liberal mentality."

The dispute pits representatives of the Tea Party Express, the national group that has endorsed Sharron Angle to be Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid's fall opponent, against Nevada activists who resent outside groups trying to influence an election in which several of the leading candidates have laid claim to tea party bona fides.

The Tea Party Express endorsement in mid-April moved Angle in the polls from a distant third at 5 percent to front-runner with 32 percent, as of the latest Las Vegas Review-Journal poll, taken last week. That poll showed her competitors, Danny Tarkanian and Sue Lowden, virtually tied but behind her by a large margin.

The Tea Party Express, via its Our Country Pac, also infused hundreds of thousands of dollars into Angle's coffers and ran a two-hour fundraiser infomercial in prime time on the state's most popular AM radio station on Thursday.

By Monday, Tarkanian supporter Barbee Kinnison of Las Vegas had had enough. She circulated via e-mail a copy of a blog post written by Judson Phillips, the chairman of the Tea Party Nation, a national rival to the Tea Party Express, with the headline: "Not ALL Tea Partiers Support Sharron Angle." In it, Phillips pointedly noted the Tea Party Express' insistence that Angle was the sole true conservative in the race: "We can no longer stand aside and let misinformation about the Nevada race go uncontested."

Within an hour of Kinnison passing along Phillips' commentary, Tea Party Express activists shoved back. In an e-mail Kinnison provided to AOL News, Tea Party Express founder Joe Wierzbicki wrote to mock her.

"Wow -- yet more Tark nastiness," the e-mail read. "Is it in the water, Barbee? Does [Tarkanian campaign manager] Brian Seitchik give out forced pills to make you all bitter, sarcastic, snide, back-biting people? Nasty, nasty, nasty!!!"

Wierzbicki also sent a note, copied to Kinnison, to Tea Party Express grassroots director Amy Kremer complaining, "Barbee was sending out more nasty e-mails today with more name-calling."

In the e-mails, Tea Party Express activists repeatedly refer to Kinnison as being embittered by the group's endorsement of Angle and call for Tarkanian to get out of the race.

"Obviously Barbee has egg on her face, and I am sure the audience will enjoy hearing about it on the panel you two are supposed to serve on together -- how she tried to manipulate tea party activists to get behind the candidate with the least tea party support and then smeared Sharron Angle's supporters in turn," Wierzbicki said. "My advice, Amy, is to be careful. ... These people get nasty when they lose!!!"

Still, the venom does appear to be flowing both ways. Kremer suggested in an e-mail to Georgia-based tea party activist William Temple that Kinnison had slammed Tea Party Express leaders and members in manners that "are ineffective and representative of a liberal mentality. This is definitely not something that I would expect from a fellow conservative."

And in a May 21 e-mail to Wierzbicki, Kinnison called Tea Party Express leaders "turncoats to the tea party movement and everyone in the U.S. is going to know about you before we are done with you."

Tea Party Express leaders insist that Angle is the best candidate and point to data from the Review-Journal poll indicating that 68 percent of Nevada tea party activists support the former assemblywoman.

"We feel that Sharron Angle is the true conservative, and I could show you e-mails where Barbee Kinnison wants to be my best friend and then when we don't endorse Tarkanian, she flips on us," Kremer told AOL News tonight. "It's ridiculous. The e-mails that the Tea Party Nation sent out and Barbee's e-mail aren't going to change anything in the race. ... The bottom line is, we have a right to be involved in this race and I'm sorry that Barbee is upset that we didn't choose her candidate."

Yet Kinnison is not the only Nevada tea party leader frustrated that the Tea Party Express endorsed Angle. Debbie Landis of Reno told AOL News last month she is unhappy with the national group's meddling.

And Phillips, whose blog post set off today's e-mail frenzy, said he worries the rancor will make it difficult for conservatives to reunite after the election.

"I am concerned because we need to be focused on electing conservatives to replace people like Harry Reid, and what concerns me [is] if everyone is so negative and so intense going into the primary," he said. "We know in 48 hours there's going to be one winner, and I'm really worried that the negative tone that is currently flying around is going to make that unity impossible. It's an extraordinarily legitimate concern."