Tea Partiers to Form PAC

Members of the Tea Party movement announced plans to form a political action committee while gathered for their inaugural convention in Nashville, saying they will raise money and provide other forms of support for conservative candidates. The group aims to raise $10 million this year, and will also work on providing political consulting and campaign management to candidates. Mark Skoda, leader of the Tea Party group in Memphis, says candidates will be chosen on "first principles," and says if they "embrace those ideas not as a litmus test but as a sense of where we are as a movement,” the group will help them. Their first planned battle is against Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln, and they will announce other Congressional races they plan to participate in later this month.