Tennessee farmer carries subsidies, GOP leaders as baggage as he seeks Tea Party support

The Republican candidate in northwest Tennessee's 8th Congressional District is Stephen Fincher, a gospel-singing cotton farmer from Frog Jump. He would almost be the perfect Tea Party candidate, except he gets about $200,000 in farm subsidies per year, reports Amy Gardner of The Washington Post. Fincher has wooed Tea Party followers, but also has won the support of Republican party leaders, which makes the Tea Party folks distrust him. Some support an independent candidate, Donn James, and that could keep Republicans from taking the seat of retiring Democratic Rep. John Tanner.

"Jim Tomasik, a leader of the Mid-South Tea Party in Cordova, Tenn., is heading perhaps the most organized effort to portray Fincher as a welfare-farmer who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from other subsidy-receiving farmers," Gardner writes, quoting him: "If Republicans are going to complain about subsidizing General Motors, that's a drop in the bucket to farm subsidies. But they're backing candidates who are taking large amounts of money from the federal government. That's hypocritical." (Map: NationalAtlas.gov)

"Fincher said that without that money, his farm would have shut down years ago," Gardner reports. "He also said the subsidies come with conditions, such as when he was required to spend thousands of dollars building an earthen terrace to control erosion. And without the money, he said, American farmers couldn't compete with countries that subsidize fuel and fertilizer more generously than the United States." Fincher said, "People are quick to say with their mouth full, 'Well, the American farmer is on the dole,' " Fincher said. "But a loaf of bread is two bucks when it could be 10 bucks. I know what it is with the government in my business. We would be all for not having government in our business, but we need a fair system."

The race is an example of the choices facing Tea Party activists and Republicans, Gardner writes."In many cases, they will have to decide between purity and pragmatism, between ideals and organization. And their choices will provide clues to the long-term fate of the movement. Will mainstream Republicans, with their bigger budgets and more polished candidates, harness the tea party's energy at the expense of home-grown activism? And for whom would that be a victory -- the Republicans, the tea party or both?" (Read more)