Tea party group tied to GOP consulting firm

I’ve always posited that the Tea Party movement is not an authentic grass roots movement, so it’s no surprise that one of the groups closely linked to the Tea Party movement directed roughly two thirds of its spending during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm that created the PAC in the first place:

Our Country Deserves Better (OCDB) spent around $1.33 million from July through November, according to FEC filings examined by TPMmuckraker. Of that sum, a total of $870,489 went to Sacramento-based GOP political consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates, or people associated with it.

OCDB, which built the Tea Party Express, is essentially a Russo, Marsh creation, as we’ve detailed. The PAC’s site was registered in July 2008 by Sal Russo, the firm’s founder. That site also lists Russo as the PAC’s “chief strategist.” Tea Party Express fundraising emails, sent by OCDB and obtained by TPMmuckraker, come from another Russo, Marsh employee, Joe Wierzbicki.

Grassroots? No, more like astroturfing.