$25 to attend the Atlanta Tea Party???

If you were watching Fox News Strategy Room this morning, you may have been met with quite a surprise when someone quoted an email that had been sent in complaining that the Atlanta Tax Day Tea Party was charging $25 to attend.

Twitter began buzzing about this almost immediately, and the phone started ringing shortly there after. Sherri Reese, our Georgia State Coordinator, called me to confirm this wasn’t the case, and also informed me that the communications director for the Georgia DontGo Movement Coalition was in contact with someone at fox News and a conclusion has been reached.

Apparently, someone went to the Atlanta Tax Day Tea Party website and noticed that the Georgia Chapter of Americans for Prosperity was listed as a co-sponsor for the local tea party. This individual then called the local AFP chapter to ask about “the event”.

Because AFP was planning a pre-existing event that had nothing to do with the Tea Party events, the staffer at AFP began explaining the details of the AFP event, not knowing that he/she was asking about the TEA PARTY event.

The AFP “Day at the Capitol” has a $25 per person charge (this includes a tour and a few other goodies), and this is what set the person off. He/she then started emailing media outlets, asserting that the Tax Day Tea Party organizers were charging $25 to attend.

So let’s make this clear (and it would help if those speaking on Fox News actually bothered to email someone before making such statements on the air), there is absolutely NO CHARGE for the Atlanta Tax Day Tea Party. The $25 “charge” referenced on the air at Fox was for a completely different and unrelated event.

Nuff said.

-Eric Odom