Hoping to make an impact in the city’s political races this year, the Warwick Tea Party has begun interviewing candidates for office – a process they say will lead to a slate of formal endorsements.

At a meeting on Monday evening, and at a meeting two weeks prior, Warwick Tea Partiers sat eating spare ribs and chicken wings at The Islander, located on West Shore Road, and asked candidates questions.

The questions were often prefaced by long narratives, which always gave the candidate clear insights as to what the questioner wanted to get for an answer.

Robert Cushman, former school committee chairman and Ward 1 city councilman, gave his own set of remarks at the meeting’s outset. Cushman asked the audience to be courteous and polite when posing questions to the candidates.

“Let’s be respectful to [candidates] even if we disagree with them. It’s not easy to get up here and talk in front of people,” said Cushman.

Cushman pointed out that the Warwick Teachers Union and other organized labor organizations conduct similar sets of interview during every election cycle. It remains an open question however as to who will make the endorsements and how they will be decided. At this point, the group doesn’t have any bylaws that address governing structure and membership.

Asked yesterday about these organizational issues, Cushman argued that the rules to obtain membership of political parties are at best vague. Political parties, he said, market themselves as all things to all people. Yet they don’t come under the same scrutiny as the fledgling Tea Party.

“You can say the same thing about political parties. People say I’m a bad Democrat. But what are the criteria they use to judge that? There are none. I’m a registered Democrat and that’s what counts,” said Cushman when asked on Tuesday.

The political parties, however, have governing rules, executive boards, and mechanisms to resolve disagreements – such as who should or shouldn’t be endorsed.

And it remains an open question as to what the weight of an endorsement from the Warwick Tea Party actually means. It’s still unclear whether or not the 20 or so members who show up for the meetings are interested in doing what can be considered the hard labor that is campaigning – going door to door trying to convince sometimes cranky voters to support a particular candidate.

Sensing this could become an issue, Cushman called on the volunteers to get more active, by doing more than merely showing up for a meeting on a twice-weekly basis and complaining.

Warwick Tea Party leader Kathy Ragno said that the group is planning a “major fundraiser in September to help our local candidates.” The group also plans to conduct several more literature drops in the near future – an attempt to educate voters and sway them in favor of their endorsed candidates, she said.

And a local businesses man, later revealed to be John Williams who owns a marina in Warwick and is a frequent critic of the taxes in the city, has stepped forward and offered to fund a class to educate people on how to appeal their tax assessments.

Of the 22 people in attendance at Monday night’s meeting, there was a special guest – Tea Party Founder Colleen Conley.

Conley found herself in a tense exchange with incumbent Democrat Ward 3 Councilwoman Helen Taylor over the issue of health care for public officials at the outset of Taylor’s questioning.

Taylor said that she does, in fact, receive health care from the city, and defended the benefit, arguing that a position on the City Council is every bit full-time.

“Anyone who has another full-time job cannot do this job properly because the council is a full-time job,” said Taylor.

Taylor went on to say she had received five phone calls yesterday in the hours leading up to the Tea Party meeting.

Conley countered by saying that in her position as leader of the Rhode Island State Tea Party, she receives a voluminous amount of calls, and receives no compensation for it. Therefore, she argued, it’s not unreasonable for the City Council to not receive health benefits from taxpayers.

“You should run for office then so you can get some recognition. You’re not really doing anything for the people,” said Taylor.

Conley responded by saying, “We’ll see in November.”

Taylor then smoothed things over by pointing out that she didn’t mean her remarks as criticism, but was pointing out that the state needs people who are committed to public service like Conley to actually run for public office.

She then took a significant step toward winning over the room.

“I tell you when Bob [Cushman] was on the council, he was the best person we ever had. He had more ideas than anyone…that’s why they got rid of him,” said Taylor.

Taylor then suggested that the city move toward privatizing the Warwick Sewer Authority – a suggestion that brought much delight to those in attendance.

She was asked if she received union endorsements.

“Not particularly no. I’m the bad girl on the council. I don’t get lots of endorsements. I’m endorsed by my ward committee, but that’s it.”

The issue of union dominance in Rhode Island politics weighs heavily on the minds of Tea Partiers.

Arman Lusi, a Republican running to oust William Walaska (D-Warwick), appearing before the Warwick Tea Party two weeks ago, came off as moderate before the Tea Partiers, with respect to how the state should handle unions.

“The problem with the unions is that they’ve been too successful for their own good,” said Lusi.

“But the best way to reform things is by working with them.”

That statement drew collective groans from the audience.