Paul supporters getting extra doses of the tea party thanks to shared e-mail list

Read nearly any article about tea party candidates and the same familiar names pop up — Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Christine O’Donnell and Michelle Bachmann.

The credentials of these candidates as messengers of the tea party is largely unquestioned. Outside of Bachmann, who chairs a newly-formed tea party caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, the four other candidates defeated established opponents in Republican primaries.

But outside of lumped together as tea party candidates, there is seemingly little to no connection between the five candidates. Sure, most of them are running for U.S. Senate, but there’s been little coordination and hardly any mentions of each other between the candidates.

That is, until recently. According to online records from e-mail blasts from Miller, Angle and Bachmann, supporters of Paul who have signed up for his campaign e-mail blasts were signed up for other three candidates as well without any notice from the Paul campaign.

The records show that Paul’s campaign automatically enrolled it’s supporter list into e-mail blasts for Miller, Angle and Bachmann all on the same night, around the same time, on Oct. 14 after midnight eastern.

The e-mails from the other tea party candidates have come in sporadically, with O’Donnell’s appearing on on Oct. 7. Angle’s appeared on Oct. 15, after she debated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Miller and Bachmann followed shortly after.

And the goal of all four e-mails was simple: help us fund-raise and fight back against our opponent.

Requests for comment from Paul spokesman Gary Howard and campaign manager Jesse Benton went unanswered.

- Kenny Colston