On Monday evening, several hundred people protested outside a Huntsville fundraiser for Congressman Parker Griffith that featured House Minority Leader John Boehner. Many of the protesters were members of the Huntsville Tea Party.

I released a campaign statement to them that day, and it’s worth posting here. Parker Griffith’s party switch last December was instigated by the GOP Establishment in Washington. News reports say Representative Boehner’s visit came after local Republican officials pointedly asked the national GOP Establishment to stay out of the race.

It was yet another case of the GOP Establishment doing what it saw fit, while expecting the rest of us to fall in line as ordered.

I’m all for party loyalty. But I prefer to do my own thinking and to make up my own mind.  And I’m sure you do, too.

Here’s what I said to the Tea Party activists:

(Montgomery, AL   March 8, 2010)  Statement from State Treasurer and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kay Ivey to Huntsville Tea Party activists.

"Parker Griffith realized last December what the rest of us had long known: Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are co-captaining the congressional Titanic straight into an electoral iceberg at full speed ahead. So instead of waiting to go down with the ship at the polls this November, Griffith jumped overboard. Now he’s doing his best to try to convince us that his heart was never with the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Gang, and he’s flying in GOP VIP headliner John Boehner from Washington, DC to vouch for him.

“Congressman Boehner should have saved his frequent flier miles and stayed in DC, because the people of North Alabama aren’t buying it.  Sincerity is subject to proof, and Parker Griffith has yet to prove that he is truly motivated by the best interests of the people of the Fifth Congressional District, and not his personal political career. 

“Just as I publicly said last December when he changed parties, if the Republican voters in the 5^th District scrutinize Griffith’s record, measure him against the field of real, conservative Republicans and still see fit to elect him as the Republican nominee for Congress, then I’ll respect their decision and welcome him to our fold in his own right. Yet now, nearly ninety days after Parker Griffith pole-vaulted across the aisle, he and Washington’s GOP Establishment are still working hard to convince us that his switch was heartfelt, and not a reaction to the white hot heat coming from angry voters.

“Congressman Boehner and his Beltway colleagues would be well-advised to let 5th District residents decide their own nominee, not Washington. They should have learned their lesson most recently from NY-23 and Dede Scazzafaza; and more importantly, in the last cycle when they enabled a Democrat to win our own 2^nd District, previously held by Republican Terry Everett.”