Will Brian Miller take his marbles and go home?

by David Safier

As Az Blue Meanie already wrote, Brian Miller is out as Pima County GOP chair, on the losing side of a 181-43 vote. My back-of-the-built-in-calculator tally (no need to use the back of an envelope any more, is there?) is that Miller only got 19% of the vote, while he needed 33%-plus-one to defeat the necessary two-thirds majority. His support among PCs, in other words, was pretty slim.

Once again, we've found the do-or-die Tea Partiers to be a small minority, for all the noise they make. But Miller's candidate, Jesse Kelly, gave Giffords a real run for her money. And the T.P. faithful are reasonably young and very passionate, which lends them strength beyond their numbers.

So, in the face of the resounding defeat, will Miller and his followers move away from the establishment Republican Party, or will do they keep playing in a party which went to such lengths to say, "We don't like your kind, or your brand of politics"? Time will tell.

NOTE WORTH NOTING: When I get an informed comment from the other side of the aisle which tries to correct my impression of things, like this one from Pima GOP PC, I'm more than willing to move it up front. [And yes, PGP, that was my car].

David, Hate to bust your bubble, but the Tea Partiers overwhelmingly voted to remove Miller. What support he had came from two camps, the Ron Paul Libertarian wing of the party, and the "we don't like the way the executive committee handled this" folks; not the Tea Party. As a matter of fact, several Tea Party members (Tea Party Patriots and Tucson Tea Party) rose and spoke at the microphone to ask the PCs to remove Miller. I saw you at the meeting, as a matter of fact I parked next to what was probably your car with the Blog for Arizona sticker on it.

A "WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD I GIVE THIS GOP COMMENTER FRONT PAGE BILLING?" NOTE: I like to think it's part of the BfA credo to be honest and accurate — opinionated, absolutely, but honest and accurate with the facts. It's very possible — probable in this case — that my post misrepresented the Tea Party position on the Miller ouster. Pima GOP PC's comment gives what's very probably an accurate insider's perspective on what happened, and readers deserve accurate information, no matter the source.

However — you knew there had to be a "however," right? — I would have had a better chance at getting this right if I hadn't been barred from the proceedings. I didn't have the opportunity to hear the Tea Party members advocate removing Miller because I wasn't allowed in. See how useful it is to honor the open meetings law?