HELENA – Helena tea party activists angry over the way a former president was ousted from the Big Sky Tea Party over anti-gay rhetoric said they are forming their own group.
Tim Ravndal has been appointed executive director of the new Lewis & Clark’s Conservative Tea Party — less than two months after the Big Sky Tea Party stripped him of leadership roles over an anti-gay exchange on Facebook.
The move comes just a week before the general election.
Ravndal said in a news release issued late Monday that the new group “will never compromise the integrity of the group or its members” and urged conservatives to join the group “in the name of liberty.”
The new group’s website says there are 10 voting and nonvoting members. Ravndal did not return a call seeking comment.
Jim Walker, chairman of the Big Sky Tea Party, said his group is very excited about new leadership elected after Ravndal’s departure.
He said the group, which only recently started putting together a formal membership list in an effort to get an overall head count, continues to grow in size despite the controversy last month.
“I think we are going to see some great things in our future,” Walker said. “I think it is going to work out all right for us.”
Two former board members of Walker’s group, Bobbette Madonna and Tom Baird, are listed as leaders at the new group.
They were among those at the Big Sky Tea Party who felt the group should back Ravndal in the face of criticism. But he was instead fired for comments he made in an online Facebook discussion that appeared to joke about the 1998 Wyoming beating death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student.
Ravndal said he did not understand what an online friend was referring to during the discussion.
The situation opened the group to criticism that its leaders have intolerant, extremist views, especially given other online postings made recently by other Montana tea party activists.
Walker said that the whole episode was a distraction, but believes it has helped focus the group. The Big Sky Tea Party has recently launched an advertising campaign to encourage people to vote next week, he said.