This weekend’s Florida Tea Party Convention failed to draw many of the GOP candidates invited to participate: Out of the eight GOP presidential candidates, only Rick Santorum showed up to speak.

Convention organizers invited a slew of speakers to talk about tea party-favored topics, such as Agenda 21 and the supposed “radicalization of Islam” in the U.S., and had scheduled a discussion among GOP presidential candidates. However, only one candidate showed up.

According to the Huffington Post:

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich all called in and were patched into the venue’s speakers. Portraits of the candidates who called in were splashed on a large screen while they answered questions.

During his question-and-answer session, Santorum made light of his opponents’ absence.

“Since I’m the only one that’s going to be here, I’ll fill up the glass of water so no one else has to take it,” he said in reference to a glass and pitcher laid out only for him. The line elicited laughter and applause from the audience. “You’re welcome,” a happy Santorum said in response.

In a swipe at candidates Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, who neither telephoned in nor appeared in person, cardboard cutouts of the two men were placed on stage and asked questions by the town hall’s moderator.

Ron Paul and Rick Perry did not address the convention in person, over the phone, or in cardboard form.

There was also a low turnout among GOP U.S. Senate candidates, who earlier in the year all made it to a conservative town hall hosted by the Florida Family Policy Council and others.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports that Deon Long, Mike McCalister, Ron McNeil, Craig Miller and Marielena Stuart all showed up to speak at the convention. Adam Hasner, Connie Mack and George LeMieux were no-shows.

Other big Florida conservative names were also absent from the convention. Both Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., declined invitations to the event.

Among the right-wing speakers invited to address the crowd were former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, anti-Islam blogger Pam Geller and G. Edward Griffin. Griffin is an anti-Federal Reserve, anti-United Nations and anti-communist conspiracy theorist who describes himself as a “life member” of the John Birch Society — a historically infamous anti-communist group. Geller is best known for her blog Atlas Shrugs, which has been described by The New York Times as a “site that attacks Islam with a rhetoric venomous enough that PayPal at one point branded it a hate site.”

The attendance of Geller, and other anti-Islam activists, caught the attention of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL), which said the event would “feature a presentation by anti-Islam extremist Pamela Geller and another Islamophobe.” Bill Warner, CAIR said in a statement, was another featured “anti-Islam activist.” This eventually resulted in a feud between members of CAIR and tea party organizers.

Some are saying the retreat of big names was due the inclusion of speakers such as Geller. On her blog this weekend, Geller claimed that such claims were an example of the media “taking their talking points and their cues from the Muslim Brotherhood, pimping their anti-American hate and spinning it into ‘news reportage.’”

Geller did, though, criticize the GOP candidates who did not show up to the event.

She wrote:

I told the convention, “You dance with the one what brung ya,” and that applies to a lot of the politicians who were absent yesterday: the Tea Party elected them, and if they had any sense of honor, any sense of gratitude to the ones who elected them, they should have been there. Those politicians have the Tea Party to thank for their offices.

The convention was sponsored by Freedom Works, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Craig Miller’s U.S. Senate Campaign and the Oath Keepers.

The three men spoke Saturday evening at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s 11th annual fall banquet in Des Moines. About 1,000 people turned out for the event at a cost of $55 a plate, and all major Republican presidential candidates spoke except for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Steve Scheffler

Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, described the event as “the beginning of the end of the socialist agenda that permeates Washington, D.C.” He is also a Republican National Committeeman.

“We are going to be soldiers marching into battle, and the great crowd tonight is indicative that we are alive and well and on the march,” he said.

And Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, said this is a “fight between freedom and government’s insatiable appetite to grow.”

“I’m here because I’m concerned about the future of this country,” he said. “I believe that we’re in a battle for freedom.”

Ralph Reed (photo by Dave Davidson, TEApublican.com)

Ralph Reed, chairman of the national Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the group plans to distribute 40 million voting guides in evangelical and pro-family churches over the next year. There are also plans to compile a voter profile containing 27 million names, with each person being contacted seven to 12 times.

“Friends, we’re going to turn out the largest, most enthusiastic and the most dynamic pro-life, pro-family vote in the history of this country, and when we do America is going to be restored to greatness,” Reed said.

He said 55 to 60 percent of Republican caucusgoers in Iowa are evangelical Christians, and about 44 percent of all Republican primary voters identify as evangelical as well. The “pundits and pollsters continue to be confounded” by that, he said.

“We know sometimes we bring forward issues that others might prefer not to talk about, but we are compelled to do so,” Reed said. “Like the fact that every human being is made in the image of all-mighty God and that every life is sacred from conception to natural death and is worthy of our love and protection.”

According to a statement released by her campaign, Bachmann “will discuss the importance of holding true to the conservative principles from which our country was founded including limited government, free markets, strong national defense, and protection of the sanctity of life, marriage and family.”

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is the brainchild of former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed. Similar to the Christian Coalition, the group has set up affiliates in states like Minnesota, Iowa and Florida.

The groups focus on opposing LGBT rights and lobbying for laws that restrict access to abortion as the Coalition did in the 1990s, but FFC has also added a fiscal element to its agenda and has been active at attracting tea party activists.

In Florida, the FFC took over the former Christian Coalition chapter.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for our members, invited guests and Floridians to meet and greet our elected officials and presidential candidates,” Reed said in a statement announcing the event.

Reed also produced a video invitation for the event:

The rally coincides with the Florida Presidency 5 event also being held in Orlando on Thursday. The event will feature a presidential debate broadcast on Fox News.

Also attending the rally before the debate are Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman of Utah, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

MFFC is part of Reed’s national Faith and Freedom Coalition. He describes his group, which backs state and local affiliates around the country, as evolving, a “21st Century version of the Christian Coalition on steroids, married with MoveOn.org, with a sprinkling of the NRA.”

“This is not your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed told US News and World Report in 2009. “It’s got to be more brown, more black, more female, and younger. It’s critical that we open the door wide and let them know if they share our values and believe in the principles of faith and marriage and family, they’re welcome.”

The group will host a policy briefing in October on the Minnesota anti-gay marriage ballot measure, featuring former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer and the chief author of the ballot measure, Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove.

Since its inception, the group has quickly staffed itself with Republican and conservative leaders. It’s also started organizing Christian conservatives and making friends with tea party groups in the state.

FFC hosted a roundtable of 30 conservative activists in April 2010 that included Michele Bachmann and Sen. Limmer.

A few months later, in August 2010, the group’s registration was accepted by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office.

Some of the staff of MFFC have a great deal of political experience, others very little.

Terrie Myers is a classically trained artist. She helped organize pastors and tea partiers in 2010 to get out the vote and attended an October 2010 meeting of the Southwest Metro Tea Party to give a presentation. Myers was a small donor to Emmer ($50) and a slightly larger donor to Bachmann ($500). She’s an organizer for the group.

Carol Schulstad, MFFC’s president, introduced Bachmann at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in June in Washington, D.C.

“She has been fearless to stop President Obama’s left-wing lies that are destroying America, and she remains fearless in her critics as her critics in the left-wing media attempt to assassinate her character,” she said. “Now, besides fearless, I must make a mention that as she is defending our faith and our freedom and her constituents and the cause for the conservatives of America, she is also serving her husband, her five children and her 23 foster children.”

She added, “And who would have ever thought that she would have carried the issue of traditional marriage to the level that she has today.”

Schulstad was a candidate running against Rep. Betty McCollum in 1998 under the Minnesota Taxpayer Party. Schulstad garnered 2 percent of the vote.

But perhaps the most active of the MFFC officers is Gary Borgendale, the group’s vice president and a longtime proponent of an anti-gay marriage amendment in Minnesota. Borgendale was Local Ministry Director for KKMS, a conservative Christian radio station. Before that, Borgendale was the executive director and lobbyist for Minnesota for Marriage, a group that pushed for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2012.

Borgendale was an alternate delegate for John McCain at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. He says he backed McCain because of his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Before his support for McCain, Borgendale was the chair of Minnesotans for Huckabee and conducted outreach to home-schooling families. He’s also listed as a precinct chair with the Senate District 51 Republicans.

In 2005, Borgendale organized the “Minnesota Pastors’ Summit,” an event that made headlines recently for its connection to Michele Bachmann. Her husband, Marcus Bachmann, gave a presentation called “The Truth About the Homosexual Agenda.”

The theme of the 2005 summit was “Equipping Churches to Engage Culture,” and also included controversial author David Barton and Colby May of American Center for Law and Justice, a legal outfit created by Pat Robertson.

“As pastors, you are on the forefront of this cultural conflict. Activist judges, political leaders and secular media are trying to dictate faith’s role in society. However, we can reverse that trend through a unified commitment to biblical principles in our communities,”Borgendale said. “Same-sex marriage, civil or otherwise, does not extend the right to marriage to other individuals, it fundamentally redefines marriage for everyone.”

Beyond marriage, Borgendale has been outspoken against the LGBT community. In a July 2007 interview (MP3) with KKMS (where he would later become an employee), he said, “The homosexual agenda issue is not going away by any means.” He added, “There’s an effort to put this in the public school settings even down to kindergarten. The agenda being pushed whether it be the business community the public schools or even the church.”

He said that same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and pedophilia.

“It is a slippery slope because polygamy is now very high on the radar screen. You have what is this show ‘Big Love,’ there was this polygamy rally,” he said. “There’s also moves about lowering the age of consent, there’s different pedophile organizations that are moving forward on that same regard — NAMBLA — it is there so that slippery slope is really coming forth.”

He said that he also opposes any relationship recognition for same-sex couples including civil unions and domestic partnership benefits.

“Civil unions and domestic partnerships starts creating a legal status,” he said. “We want to stay away from anything that creates a legal status. The opposition has tried very hard to create that beachhead by creating the establishment of some relationship that is (sic) recognized.”

He said, instead, that same-sex couples could have access to “a list of 8 to 10 items” such as survivor benefits so long as it was open to everyone including “life-long friends or siblings.”

He was a speaker at several stops on theNational Organization for Marriage’s Summer for Marriage tour in 2010.

“For my family and my children, I had to get involved,” he told a small crowd in St. Cloud. “One person can make a difference. If God is calling you, be involved. Answer the call.”

Also in the MFFC is John Henderson, who joined the group after a long career in business management.

He told MPR in June that the marriage amendment was intended to protect the Christian definition of marriage.

“It’s for the protection of marriage in the Judeo-Christian tradition of one man and one woman,” Henderson said. “And there is, quite frankly, the possibility of this law being overturned by judges.”

Henderson explained MFFC’s mission in Minnesota. “Build chapters throughout the state. Recruit members and make certain that the conservative, social-minded individuals fully understand the issues at hand,” he said.

“Our goal is to influence public policy and enact legislation that strengthens families, promotes time-honored values, protects the dignity of life and marriage, lowers the tax burden on small business and families, and requires government to tighten its belt and live within its means.”

According to the group’s release on the event, which will be held at a Bloomington hotel Oct. 7:

The Marriage Amendment will be addressed by chief author, Senator Warren Limmer. Additionally, Minnesota Congressional Representatives, Bachmann, Cravaack, Kline and Paulsen will be awarded the prestigious ‘Friend of the Family’ award for their voting record in 2010 – 2011 legislative session. The Strategy & Briefing session will kickoff the GOP’s 2011 Midwest Leadership Conference at the Doubletree Hotel, Bloomington, MN.

The group notes that Republican legislators Bachmann, Cravaack, Kline and Paulsen have not confirmed their attendance at the event.

The Minnesota Faith and Freedom Coalition is part of a network of state-based 501(c)4 groups founded by Reed in 2009 to re-energize the religious right. Reed was the head of the Christian Coalition in the 1990s and was a leading figure in the Jack Abramoff scandal. According to emails released in the Abramoff case, Reed secretly accepted funds from Abramoff to oppose Indian gaming in the South.

“We need to be hipper, more technology savvy,” Reed said when he launched the coalition in 2009. “This is where the culture is going and we need to be there if we’re going to compete.”

Reed is hoping to get the group operating in all 50 states. He will also be a featured speaker at the Minnesota event.

RealClearPolitics surveyed the group on a particular statement the Republican governor recently made in Aspen, Colo:

“Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me. That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business.”

Smith told RCP that his email box has been filling up with supporters’ mixed responses to Perry’s comments. Overall, Smith said Perry’s comments likely will not be viewed favorably by many conservative voters, particularly evangelical Christian voters.

From RealClearPolitics:

“It’s the way he said it,” Smith said, noting that Perry said he was “fine” with New York’s new law. He explained that if by “fine” he means he’s happy about it, that won’t sit well with evangelical voters, but if he’s approaching it as a constitutional lawyer would, it may not be so bad.

At the same time, Smith said he’s concerned that Perry’s comments suggest he could be “slippery” on other issues. “And he may be perceived as stumbling out of the gate because of a poor choice of words,” he said, indicating that such a stumble could hurt Perry in the early voting states of Iowa and South Carolina, where he would need to do well.

As The American Independent recently reported, Palmetto holds a certain amount of influence with conservative voters in what is an influential primary state. The group recently launched a “Family 2012″ campaign to find out where 2012 presidential candidates stand on policy issues important to the organization.

RCP also published responses from Bob Vander Plaats of Iowa’s Family Leader, as well as American Values’ Gary Bauer and Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Ralph Reed.

Bauer called Perry’s comments “inartful and disappointing”; Reed told RCP that the real judgment of Perry will come with his stance on a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage. Vander Plaats was the least critical of the four, explaining that Perry has to understand the difference between same-sex marriage as a federal or state issue:

“Many of us advocated for states’ rights and were big 10th Amendment people, but when it comes to things like whether its slavery, and abortion, or marriage, we’re not saying, ‘Well it’s OK to have slavery in Alabama but not Iowa.’ … Some things are right and some things are wrong, and especially when it comes to marriage, it’s a foundation block and a building block for society.”

Scheduled to attend are Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition director and the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, talk radio host Bud Hedinger and 2012 presidential hopeful Herman Cain — who was recently in the news for saying he would not allow Muslims to serve in his administration and for calling Planned Parenthood “Planned Genocide.”

Also scheduled to attend is Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Rubio told reporters in late January that he really did not see the need for a formal tea party caucus and dismissed it as “a little club.”

Hat tip: Andy Kopsa.

However, national Faith & Freedom Coalition President Ralph Reed said he doesn’t believe their stances on same-sex marriage will be a key issue for the Iowa Caucuses in 2012.

Reed did promote on stage the fact that social conservatives lead a successful effort to oust three Iowas Supreme Court justices because of their unanimous ruling on same-sex marriage, overturning a state version of DOMA. Since the election, the Iowa legislature has been grappling with Republican proposals to put marriage rights to a vote and to reorganize the state’s high court.

“I frankly think without particularizing it to the retention vote that every viable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination supports the Defense Of Marriage Act, supports the traditional definition of marriage as being one man-one woman. So I’m confident their views will resonate here,” Reed told the Iowa Independent.

But Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, admitted he believed voters will not be looking for the most “pro-pro-marriage” Republican.

“I think you have to make a distinction between rhetorically prominent issues and issues that poll as among the most important issues,” Reed said. “If all the candidates are pro-marriage, it’s not going to be a deciding factor within the field.”

Most of the speakers mentioned the fight over marriage rights and criticized Obama for instructing his administration not to defend the federal law referred to as DOMA.

U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) reminded the crowd he would push to take away funds from the Attorney General’s office because of it.

“I say that’s a violation of their oath of office,” King said.

Reed also took a swipe at one possible 2012 contender, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who was not there.

“Some have suggested we call a truce on the social and moral issues,” Reed said on stage, before referring to Ronald Reagan’s presidency. “I’d like to have a leader who can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Reed said as long as Obama was “appointing extremists” to the courts, refusing to defend DOMA and not halting funding for abortion providers in entirety, social conservatives would refuse to call a truce.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich alluded to the possibility of issuing an executive order early in the presidency to turn around on progressive issues.

Every prospective GOP 2012 hopeful in attendance addressed the crowd of roughly 1,500, including Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty and Buddy Roemer. And each repeatedly referenced the country’s founding fathers and the mention of God in the both federal and state founding documents. They all also made some mention of power not deriving from government, but rather from God or a creator.

A few of them tried to link social issues and fiscal issues as equals, such as when Gingrich said it a was a “moral issue” to balance the budget.

King, who is not running but spoke ahead of the prospective candidates, said: “If we get the culture right, the economy will be right eventually.”

Although Reed said later same-sex marriage rights will not be a deciding role for the Republican caucuses, he did warn the GOP on stage to not stray from the social conservative stance on marriage.

“My message to the national Republican party tonight is real simple,” Reed said. “If you turn your backs on the pro-family, pro-life constituents, and the values they stand for, you will be consigned to permanent minority status.”

The event was held at Point of Grace church in Waukee, the same church led by a pastor who openly campaigned for the ousting of the three state Supreme Court justices in Iowa and launched two websites hoping to convince other pastors to do the same.

Sources close to Ralph Reed tell The Brody File that the former Executive Director of the Christian Coalition is “seriously” considering running for Congress in Georgia.  According to one well-placed source, Reed has talked to key grassroots leaders and local elected officials in Gwinnett county and other parts of the district, but has not made a decision yet.

As Brody points out, Reed dived back into political activism last year with the Faith and Freedom Coalition — an organization I haven’t yet seen making a huge impact.

Reed said this presidential election is shaping up to be like the one in 1968, except with Republicans losing in the country’s electoral realignment.

“I think if you had ten more [better] trading days,” Reed predicted, then the race might tighten to the “low single digits.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 936 points Monday.

But, meantime, the race is slipping away from the GOP.

It was also a big mistake, Reed added, for McCain to have rushed to Washington in September and “take ownership” of the push for the bailout of the financial system.

Reed was speaking on a panel with Democratic strategist Harold Ickes and journalist Todd Purdum at the TimeWarner summit in New York on Monday. (I’m also speaking at the conference.)

Ickes also criticized the Republican presidential campaign, noting the “irony” of a race that was once hyped as a referendum on Sen. Barack Obama  has turned into an examination of McCain. “He has sold his soul to [Lee] Atwater,” said Ickes, referring to the father of modern smear tactics.

McCain’s attacks have left voters asking three questions about the Arizona senator, said Ickes: Who is he?  What does he believe in? and Is he competent?

Both strategists agreed that the Internet was the most important factor upending this year’s campaign. Reed marveled at Obama’s fund-raising prowess online, while Ickes waxed about how striking it was to see a hyperactive news cycle, in contrast to what he thought was fast when he worked in the White House in the 1990s.