Rating:

5.0 (1 vote)

LOUISVILLE. (AP) - Kentucky, known worldwide for its fine
bourbons, is about to make a name for itself in tea and coffee.

Parties, that is.

Just a week after the Republican U.S. Senate primary victory of
tea party darling Rand Paul of Bowling Green, the coffee party, an
online phenomenon that began last year as an alternative to the tea
party, has announced Louisville will be the site of its first
national convention.

"It's really crazy," said coffee party founder Annabel Park, a
Maryland-based documentary filmaker who started the grassroots
movement as a Facebook page in January 2009. "We didn't even
really think about it until the results came in and then suddenly,
everyone's looking at Kentucky. ... We want to make the most of
it."

Park said the group chose Louisville before the primary after
also considering other Midwest cities such as St. Louis and
Chicago. The coffee party made the announcement Monday on its
website and Facebook page.

The convention will give the party a chance to move from a
loose, Internet-linked collection of chapters and events in all 50
states that are held in coffeehouses to a more deliberate movement,
Park said.

"We don't want to abandon the government and declare war on
it," Park said. "We want to fix it."

Its members are made up of Democrats, Republicans and
Independents, said Brian Endicott, who heads the party's Kentucky
chapter.

Coffee party supporters want greater accountability and
transparency in the political process, Park said, adding they want
"creative thinking about solutions to real problems" instead of a
strictly two-position political system.

Paul, an eye surgeon running for office for the first time and
son of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, stirred up controversy with his
comments on the 1964 Civil Rights Act just one day into the general
election campaign. And if he keeps that up, the coffee party might
see more and more voters showing up at local chapters' coffeehouse
events nationwide, said Brian Endicott, who heads the party's
Kentucky chapter.

"We've had quite a few people respond to us after what I would
call his civil rights debacle," said Endicott, 30, a Lexington
graphic designer.

Coffee party convention organizers said they expect up to 2,000
people for the Sept. 24 to 26 "Wake Up and Stand Up, America!"
event just six weeks before the November general election.

While there are dozens of items on the party's agenda, the
highlight of the convention would be a hoped-for, but yet
unplanned, debate between Paul and his Democratic opponent,
Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.

"That would be amazing," said Park, who added the possible
debate is in its very early planning stages.

Park said the coffee party doesn't yet have an "official"
count of members, but as of Tuesday had about 213,000 Facebook
friends and 60,000 profiles on its website. She said when she posts
something new on the website, "we get roughly a million views."

Park said the idea for the party came to her one night in late
January, 2009, when, while working on her documentary "9500
Liberty," she began thinking about the divisiveness of the tea
party.

Her award-winning documentary chronicles a battle over
immigration policy that took place in Prince William County, Va.

While the tea party's big-name endorser is former Republican
vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the coffee party doesn't
yet have a "star," Park said.

The party has not endorsed any candidates so far, she said, but
will discuss at the convention whether it wants to take that step.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)