D'Annunzio losing tea party support

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North Carolina congressional candidate Tim D’Annunzio is losing support from a crucial constituency that powered his first-place finish in the Republican primary earlier this month: the tea party.

D’Annunzio, who didn’t win enough support to avert a runoff election, is now competing in a second round of primary voting against former broadcaster Harold Johnson. After a damaging Charlotte Observer story about D’Annunzio’s past run-ins with the law and alleged drug history, six tea party leaders in the 8th Congressional District are switching their support to D’Annunzio’s opponent.

Lori Stadtler, a former communications chairwoman for the We the People of Cabarrus County tea party group, called Johnson “a man of integrity whose word I can trust. Without character and integrity a man’s words are meaningless.”

Mecklenburg County Tea Party leader Craig Nannini said in his endorsement: “The tea party movement began as a grass-roots movement to restore fiscal responsibility, accountability and trustworthiness in our leaders.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37873.html