Rubio and Scott duck Florida's first tea party convention. Activist: "It's ... a slap in the face."

Gov. Rick Scott rode a wave of tea party support to office last year. But the mood among conservative activists Friday on the first day of Florida’s first ever tea party convention was less congenial towards the governor, with many feeling snubbed by Scott and other top Republicans.

Convention organizers said Scott agreed last January to be the event’s keynote speaker Friday but his office canceled at the last minute. Scott’s official schedule listed a “Let’s Get to Work Day” at the Port of Miami until 4 p.m. Friday but no events in the evening or on Saturday.

“The tea party helped get him into office,” noted event organizer Bill Eads with the Tri County Tea Party in Central Florida. “I hope he’s not forgot the people who got him where he is.”

Organizer Pam Dahl said Sen. Marco Rubio’s staff also committed to the event and canceled.

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Rubio sent a video message apologizing for not attending in person and thanking the group “for your continued activism.”

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“It’s somewhat of a slap in the face,” said Sally Baptiste, a 54-year-old tea party activist from Orlando. “Especially with the Rubios and Scotts who were kind of the first tea party candidates and this is the state of Florida tea party convention.”

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Marco Rubio asked for and received the endorsement and votes of Florida Tea Party members when he was a U. S. Senate candidate, which propelled him to victory, but now he is refusing to join the U. S. Senate Tea Party Caucus. Such behavior by Rubio only undermines the Tea Party members' goal of taking their country back. If Rubio continues to distance himself from the people that made his victory possible, while currying favor with some of the very people who are determined to undermine the goals of the Tea Party movement, the Tea Party should disavow their support of Rubio, even though it will be "a day late and a dollar short."

Last month, the newly formed Senate Tea Party Caucus held its first meeting, but conspicuously absent were some high-profile senators who got elected last year with the strong backing of the tea party, including Marco Rubio (R-FL). Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) founded the caucus soon after arriving in Washington, but Rubio has long questioned the need for a formal caucus, saying he (preferred) the movement be left to grass roots activists, not Washington politicians. But in a radio interview Friday, Rubio leveled even harsher words at the caucus, dismissing it as a “little club" run by politicians that could cause the real movement “to lose its energy”:

HOST: When Michele Bachmann began to create this Tea Party Caucus, I got this really bad taste in my mouth. … You and I see eye-to-eye on this, right? It’s a grassroots movement, right? <...>

RUBIO: Now, specifically about the Tea Party Caucus, the concern that I’ve expressed, is that what I think gives the tea party its strength and its legitimacy in the American political process is that it’s a grassroots movement of everyday Americans. … My fear has always been that if you start creating these little clubs or organizations in Washington run by politicians, the movement starts to lose its energy. Basically, the media will jump on that and start paying attention to that instead of the grass roots movement which is really what has given the tea party its voice. … I don’t want us to anything that kind of changes its grassroots nature.

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