Jenny Beth Martin Makes More the $450,000 Annually as National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots!

I read this story last night on my iPhone, but I'm just gobsmacked at the salary Jenny Beth Martin's taking in. The anti-establishment basis of the tea party is one of its enduring strengths that take it beyond partisanship toward good government. But five years on, this story blows up the notion that the tea party is an outside insurgent force against entrenched political interests. And sadly, it says a lot about Jenny Beth Martin. She cashed in.

See, "Tea party PACs reap money for midterms, but spend little on candidates":

The problem of Tea Party candidates being starved of donations by groups scamming their donors is real & serious http://t.co/NTxDJ7FUkx

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) April 27, 2014

MT @PeterHambyCNN: Jenny Beth Martin pays herself $450K/year, but Tea Party Patriots spent just $185K on candidates http://t.co/4QeQx0289L

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) April 27, 2014

Martin, the super PAC’s chairwoman, oversees all its expenditures, according to Broughton, meaning she sets her own $15,000 monthly fee for strategic consulting — payments that have totaled $120,000 since July.

She also draws a salary as president of the Tea Party Patriots’ nonprofit arm — getting more than $272,000 in the 2012 fiscal year, according to the group’s most recent tax filing.

Her twin salaries put her on track to make more than $450,000 this year, a dramatic change in lifestyle for the tea party activist, who had filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and then cleaned homes for a period of time to bring in extra money.

Martin, through Broughton, declined to comment. But Broughton said Martin’s fees could not “objectively be considered unreasonable.”

“She works the equivalent of two full-time jobs,” Broughton said. “When I say she probably works 90 to 100 hours a week, that’s not an exaggeration.”

Nope. She's making too much money running an organization purportedly established to shrink government and restore liberty. So of course Ms. Martin declined to comment. Her salary figures are obscene.

Still more at that top link.

And it's not just Tea Party Patriots. See last year's piece at BuzzFeed, "Sources: Cash-Strapped FreedomWorks In State Of Financial Disarray."