LI tea partyers rally around Altschuler

After Rep. Tim Bishop squeaked out a win last November, Suffolk County tea party members did some soul-searching and asked: Did we lose the election for Republican Randy Altschuler?

Frank Seabrook, a retired police officer who runs the tea party website Liberty Report from a kitchen table in his Wading River home, answered yes.

"We defeated ourselves," he said, by not voting when a few hundred votes could have beat the Southampton Democrat.

"There was big regret there was so much political infighting at the time," Seabrook said. "A lot of us politically matured over the last couple of years."

As they look forward to next year, local tea party leaders said they emerged from the 2010 election less idealistic and more practical, willing to work with local established political parties and to back candidates who aren't ideologically pure.

Last week, those tea party activists -- who last year attacked Altschuler for his one-time Green Party membership -- endorsed the St. James businessman in a news release.

"We started about two years ago and it was a maturing process," said one of them, Bob Meyer, head of the Suffolk County 9/12 Project, which seeks to push the GOP to the right of the political spectrum.

"There comes a point of knowing ideologically what you believe and the reality of politics," he said. "The bottom line is there is no perfect candidate."

Meyer said that Altschuler has, in meetings with tea party groups, told activists he shares their principles. "He's not an unknown anymore," Meyer said.

Yet Altschuler has declined to publicly endorse tea party-backed measures, such as the House GOP budget plan to fundamentally change Medicare.

"Randy has been fairly consistent on entitlements, saying they need to be reformed," said his spokesman, Chris Russell. He said Altschuler won't commit to a plan because he wants to work on "bipartisan reform."

Another sign the local tea party movement is adapting to political reality is Seabrook's registration of a political action committee from Suffolk County, the New York Liberty PAC, to influence state elections.

Meyer said that last year, tea party groups split support among three candidates in a GOP primary and had a hard time uniting behind the winner, Altschuler.

Altschuler is seeking to avert a repeat of that split by trying to "solidify the entire spectrum of the Republican Party," Russell said. Records show Altschuler has given $28,400 to local Republican and Conservative parties and $3,200 to candidates. Both parties have endorsed him.

Altschuler still faces a primary challenge by lawyer George Demos, who drew some tea party support but lost in last year's primary.

"We have tremendous support from tea party activists across Suffolk County who do not want someone who supported an increase in the debt ceiling and outsourced thousands of jobs to India," Demos said. Democrats see the Republican alliance with the tea party as a potential line of attack. They cite an Aug. 12 Gallup Poll in which voters by a 2-to-1 margin said a tea party endorsement would make them less likely to vote for a candidate.

Josh Schwerin of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Bishop backs "balanced policies" while his challengers compete "for the support of extreme tea party activists."

Meyer pointed to the GOP upset in the House special election in Queens on Sept. 13, in which Republican Bob Turner defeated Democrat David Weprin. Sounding like a longtime politician, Meyer said, "The only poll that matters is Election Day."