Temecula Tea Party organizer divvies up political pie

There’s a lot of speculation over what impact the Tea Party movement may have on next month’s general election. There’s increased scrutiny of some candidates endorsed by the movement - and questions over where the Party gets some of its funding.

Frequently missing from the debate are the self-financed activists and organizers flying below the radar; Tea Partiers shaking up politics in their own backyards.

Grassroots activism is as American as apple pie – and there’s a Tea Party leader in the Temecula Valley who embodies that.

Shellie Milne is a veteran political outsider. In college, she even flirted with the biggest Tea Party bugaboo of all: socialism.

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“I had a little group I started called Youth Embracing Socialism, yes!” says Milne. “I was really motivated by the punk rock movement of the late '70s and I just didn’t like people telling me what to do. We just wanted to move to England!”

Milne made it to England, smitten by the burgeoning punk and ska scenes of the era. But socialism and punk rock gradually gave way to the anarchy of motherhood.

Milne and her husband are raising six children in a secluded rural community near Murrieta. This morning, Milne is baking pies for her weekly Tea Party meeting while 3-year-old son Atticus chases a pack of rescued stray cats around the house in his underwear.

"OK. You need to have your clothes on. Yeah, that’s Captain Underpants,” Milne says. “Did you shut your door? I don’t need every cat in the world in here.”

Milne is Mormon, born again politically in the battle over Proposition 8, California’s anti-gay marriage ballot measure narrowly approved by voters two years ago. She attended her first Tea Party a year later.

“But I prefer the weekly meetings.”

Milne isn’t a fan of the rallies, but she’s good at rallying the troops with a bullhorn – like at an anti-illegal immigration rally in Temecula earlier this year where she called on people to get more involved with Tea Party causes.

“You can sit all day long and e-mail everybody your little conspiracy theories. That ain’t gonna get it done! So get up off your butts,” barked Milne. “Get out on the street, go to your neighbors and say, ‘Hey, what’s bugging you about this country?!'”

With apple pies browning in the oven, more than a dozen members of the Mid-Empire Patriots settle into Milne’s living room. Most of the crowd is middles aged, or older. But there are several members in their early 30s.

Milne and other organizers are keen to recruit more young members to the cause. Son Atticus settles into the middle of the crowd with a pile of toy trucks and a ginger colored kitten.

For more than three hours, punctuated by sober debate and off-color humor, the group cuts through a thicket of thorny election issues. From local races, to statewide candidates.

“We have running for lieutenant governor, Abel Maldonado,” Milne says, and she bends over and feigns vomiting. The Republican lieutenant governor appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger become a conservative boogieman after siding with Democrats on last year’s state budget compromise that included tax and fee hikes.

“Then we have [San Francisco Mayor] Gavin Newsom,” says Milne, “Which is an even bigger hurl. So I’m down to like, 98 pounds now!” Newsom is running against Maldonado for the lieutenant governor's seat.

Mid-Empire Patriots member Mike Mudd says meetings like this, which Milne hosts every week, should be a model for Tea Party activists across the nation.

“I wanna share this with all the other Tea Parties,” says Mudd. “This is what you need to start doing over in San Bernardino, over in San Diego. We have to get organized.”

Mudd says Milne gives each member an assignment. Some report on city council meetings. Others organize phone banks, or take on other responsibilities. The point is to hold everyone accountable for some aspect of the group’s activism.

“Then it becomes the transformation of, ‘Oh, we’re pissed off and we’re holding signs’ to ‘We’re getting traction and we’re getting momentum,'” says Mudd.

And they are gaining momentum. Earlier this year, Milne and other Tea Partiers pressured several Inland cities to adopt anti-illegal immigration ordinances.

But the appeal of the movement comes with its challenges. Milne is vigilante of Tea Partiers she calls “whack-a-doodles," those who traffic in far-flung conspiracy theories or get pre-occupied with social issues like opposition to gay rights or construction of new Islamic mosques.

Earlier this year Milne and her group publicly condemned a group of rival Tea Partiers for staging a protest outside a Temecula mosque during afternoon services. Milne believes the Tea Party should stick primarily to issues like fiscal responsibility and illegal immigration.

Now sights are set on the upcoming election. The Mid-Empire Patriots generally oppose Democrats of all persuasions. But they reserve special venom for Republicans they see as too “progressive” – like gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. The message is clear; even in a staunchly conservative region like Southwest Riverside County, Republicans leaders shouldn’t get too comfortable.

“We’ve kinda put everybody on their back foot,” says 31-year old firefighter Troy Velin. That includes Republicans who’ve overstayed their welcome on city councils and school boards.

“You start off with what you can control,” says Velin. “And if we can put people into positions of elected power that truly do represent you, then it’s gonna go all the way to the top.”

Many Tea Party activists wish Shellie Milne would run for office. But she believes that would only weaken the influence she already wields. Plus, being a public official would probably get on her nerves.

“Because you have to represent the will of the people and I just don’t want everyone whining and moaning at me,” says Milne. “I like holding people accountable. I’m more effective doing what I’m doing.”

The Tea Party wasn’t conceived to be a third party anyway. But Shellie Milne and her supporters do plan to shake up the political equilibrium of both major parties – one meeting and one apple pie at a time.