TEA PARTY UPDATE: Cincinnati Tea Party founder Mike Wilson emails:

I saw the link you posted on the estate tax. This was a top priority for the Ohio Liberty Council – the statewide network of tea party groups in Ohio. The reason this got done was an initial effort to gather 83,000 signatures towards a citizen initiated statute. Once we neared the threshold of compelling the General Assembly to act, they took it up on their own. It did, however, take considerable grassroots pressure to keep the repeal provision as the budget went through the 23-10 Republican Senate.

Next on the agenda is turning in more than 500k signatures to put a Healthcare Freedom Amendment to the Ohio Constitution on the ballot this November. We are driving the semi-truck to the Secretary of State tomorrow.

Ohio’s tea party groups haven’t been as newsworthy lately, but that’s because we’ve moved beyond rallies and really focused heavily on impacting state politics.

That’s happening in a lot of places.