Second Tea Party Convention Planned for Vegas in July

Fresh off a convention just a few weeks ago, Tea Party organizers on Wednesday announced another national convention, and this time they're going to invade Las Vegas from July 15-17 with their message of lower taxes and smaller government.

Organizers are making a point of the location, too -- taking a jab at recent comments President Obama made about Las Vegas.

"President Obama told Americans not to go to Las Vegas so that is exactly where Tea Party Nation will be holding our next event!" the group said in a statement.

At a forum in New Hampshire in early February the president referred critically to Sin City for the second time in his presidency.

"You don't blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you're trying to save for college," he said.

That comment earned the scorn of even Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who fired back that the president needs to "lay off Las Vegas," The two since then have made nice on the issue, and the president is making a stop in Nevada on Friday.

The choice for Vegas was an obvious one, Judson Phillips president of Tea Party Nation, told Fox News, partly because of Obama's comments, but also because Nevada is Reid's home turf, and the majority leader is facing sagging poll numbers and a tough re-election fight this November.

It also is a chance to reach out to people in the west who want to take part in the movement, Phillips added.

He said they received a lot of comments from supporters that previous events had been in other regions of the country that were too far for western-state citizens to attend.

From a business standpoin, Phillips said conferences are what Vegas is able to do well and they could get a good deal and also help bring business to the city, which they were eager to do.

There are a couple of ways this convention is expected to be different than the first one. "The one in Nashville was limited in scope, it was geared for leaders of Tea Party groups," Phillips said. "This one opens up much more … we are trying to set up some seminars and panel for people who want to be involved in local Tea Party groups… but don't necessarily want to be a leader of a group."

Another thing that makes this convention different is they are adding a "Tea Party Nation Conservative Film Festival." While organizers are still finalizing the film list, they did announce the first film to premiere will be talk show host Phil Valentine's "Inconsistent Truth," a film about global warming due out in July.

The movement named their first-ever Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tenn., that was headlined by former Republican vice presidential nominee and a Fox News contributor Sarah Palin.

No headliner or list of speakers has been announced yet, but organizers are expecting to release some names in the next few weeks.