The true story of the Tea Party Movement's beginning . . . and it’s not what they told you on TV
The modern day authentic grassroots Tea Party Movement was founded in July 2007 in Indianapolis. Tea Party Originals were Libertarians, Republicans and even some Democrats. Ex-black panthers helped with early civil disobedience techniques.
The movement garnered widespread media coverage and orchestrated an historic mayoral election upset that made national headlines. The culmination and most valuable achievement was a permanent property tax cap and 10% state spending cut, that resulted in savings of more than $4 billion (as of 2018).
Less than two years later (and 3 hours up I-65), the movement was hijacked upon CNN Rick Santelli’s famous meltdown on the floor of the Chicago Commodities Exchange on February 19, 2009. The first astroturfed, hijacked tea party was a multi-city national event on Tax Day, April 15, 2009.
Over time the tea party movement got older, had grandbabies and became the MAGA movement that elected President Trump in the greatest election upset in history.
Melyssa Donaghy (now Hubbard) received the country’s first tea party prize from the Sam Adams Alliance in December 2007 and accepted the award in Chicago.
Melyssa Hubbard plans a second book to be called, “The InDiana Code”.
MEDIA REVIEWS "SPANKING CITY HALL"
“Hubbard’s journey from midwestern dominatrix to the organizer of one of the first Tea Party groups is as fascinating as it is perverse. After the local mayor tried to use her business as a salacious distraction from the city’s woes, Hubbard turned her whip on the politician’s indecent use of police power, locked him up inside his own vulnerabilities, and, like any good mistress, showed him who’s in charge when her movement spanked him at the ballot box. You won’t be able to put it down.”
-Bil Browning, award winning national journalist and publisher of the Bilerico Project.
“For those familiar with the coverage of Hubbard’s war with Indy Mayor Bart Peterson as documented in NUVO (see Paul Pogue’s work) and other journals, this is the complete — and completely graphic — backstory. For those unfamiliar with the Circle City’s turn of the century morality-play-turned-tax-revolt, it’s a cautionary tale for both politicians as they choose their bedfellows and media outlets that decide they’re more interested in ginning up outrage than providing substance. There’s another fascinating historical subtext, here, as well – the arc of the story as it unfolds over the dawn of the 21st century parallels the explosive growth of the online universe as both a tool and a minefield in the realm of sexual self-expression, discovery and obsession.”
-NUVO Newsweekly, Indy’s Alternative Voice
“Hubbard’s perversely fascinating account of how she took life and shook it by the lapels is inspiring. It’s a handbook of sociopolitical guerrilla tactics, and I couldn’t stop reading. Hubbard takes us on a sexually charged journey from vanilla beginnings to a modern tax revolt, ending with a cosmic jolt on the monument circle, with clarity and humor. A classic!”
–Dave Fulton, Emmy award winning documentary maker Naptown Rock Radio Wars & Videopolis TV
“Spanking City Hall” retells the unlikely story of a popular big city mayor’s effort to take the kink out of the city’s leading dominatrix in a classic, Hoosier hysterical moment, only to succeed in rousing a natural revolutionary to rally a diverse group of citizens angered by rising taxes to drive her chief detractor from political office . . . The author’s blunt and touching candor discussing how she overcame a difficult childhood is inspiring, and she spices things up nicely by sharing with us titillating details about people’s unspoken sexual fetishes.
-Gary Welsh, Attorney & Publisher of Advance Indiana
”The Queen of Crops and Wands builds an arresting alternative political universe and narrative that speaks a declarative truth in an era where such is mostly obscured and distorted.”
-Brian A. Howey, publisher of Howey Politics Indiana.