John Locke Foundation experts traveled to 20 different Tea Parties from Waynesville to Wilmington Thursday. President John Hood (Winston-Salem, as covered in the Journal), Executive Vice President Kory Swanson (Currituck, Elizabeth City), Vice President for Outreach Becki Gray (Asheville, Morganton, Waynesville), Vice President for Research Roy Cordato (Goldsboro), Director of Research and Local Government Studies Michael Sanera (Raleigh), Carolina Journal Managing Editor Rick Henderson (Morehead City, New Bern), Associate Director of Research Jon Sanders (Rockingham, Southern Pines), Director of Health and Fiscal Policy Studies Joseph Coletti (Hickory, Shelby, Statesville), Director of Education Studies Terry Stoops (Fayetteville, Wilmington), Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies Daren Bakst (Charlotte), Meck Deck blogger Jeff Taylor (Charlotte), and N.C. History Project Director Troy Kickler (Selma) all took part in Tea Party programs during the day. Stoops heads to Whiteville for another Tea Party this evening, while Cordato is slated to take part in Tea Party festivities Saturday in Onslow County. Tea Party bloggers promoting the April 15 events often noted John Locke Foundation participation, as in the case of events in Asheville, Elizabeth City, New Bern, and Southern Pines. Mainstream media outlets such as the Fayetteville Observer and Morganton News Herald also mentioned JLF Tea Party participation in preview stories. Both the Lincoln Tribune and N.C. Senate Republicans promoted CJ Associate Editor David Bass‘ article previewing the statewide festivities. Radio hosts also called on JLF experts to help put the Tea Parties in context. Taylor discussed the topic with WBT’s morning news program Tuesday. Hood joined WPTF’s Bill LuMaye Tuesday to discuss the parties and other hot state and national political news. Hood also discussed Tea Parties Thursday morning on WLTT and WZTK. LuMaye welcomed several Locke speakers to his WPTF program on tax day. The host lined up Coletti, Gray, Henderson, Hood, and Taylor to offer their assessments of events throughout the state. In addition to this coverage, JLF Vice President for Communications Jon Ham attracted national attention when Instapundit picked up his Right Angles blog post about a flagpole ban at the State Capitol Tea Party. Bass cited Ham’s work on The American Spectator blog. The national traffic boosted Right Angles’ daily page views from its average of 5,300 to a one-day total of nearly 55,000. Bakst also addressed the flagpole controversy in a letter (pdf link) to the state officials responsible for the ban. The state rescinded the ban Thursday morning. In addition to her Tea Party speeches, Gray is scheduled today to deliver a legislative and federal stimulus update to the Chapel Hill Republican Women. Speaking of other speaking engagements, Kickler discussed “Restoring States’ Rights” last weekend during the Lincoln-Reagan Day celebration in Currituck County, a fact mentioned briefly in the Elizabeth City Daily Advance.
