Hypocrisy and the Bayshore Tea Party, Perfect Together

Phil Russo, facebook photo

By Phil Russo

Back in February 2009 I had the honor of being one of 10-15 people in the country that was on the conference calls that planned the first round of tea party protests.  There were only 50 cities and in Orlando, where I was organizing our rally, we only had about 100 people.  From the beginning we developed a set of core values for the tea party that many groups ended up adopting.  It was actually Justin from Cincinnati that came up with “fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets”.  Many tea party web sites you visit will have those core values listed.  I don’t know if the bayshore group uses the core values or not but it doesn’t matter if they do or not because those values become the core of the movement.  How the bayshore group could so ignore these core values in their selection of endorsements astounds me.

The fact that they have decided to run against Declan O’Scanlon shows that they have different reasons for picking their endorsements.  Our group in Orlando, and most tea party groups I know, encourage people to learn about all the candidates and talk to them. Ask them questions. Then decide.  We avoided telling people who to vote for because that is the very thing that the establishment we hate so much does.  Full disclosure:  I worked for Declan for about 2 years in his legislative office.  But I am not writing this article because I worked for Declan.  In fact, it is quite the contrary.  I worked for Declan because he is the kind of legislator about whom I would write such an article. 

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Bayshore Tea Party Backed Sheriff Candidate Worked For A Red Light Camera Company

O’Scanlon calls on Bayshore Tea Party and their slate to withdraw support for Peters

Dan Peters

Three time Monmouth County Sheriff Candidate Dan Peters worked as an Account Executive for RedFlex, the ‘traffic safety’ company that has been implicated in an ongoing federal criminal investigation into a $2 million bribery scheme in Chicago.

Peters’ LinkedIn profile included the job on his resume from 2010-2011 yesterday afternoon.  Today, the job has was removed from his LinkedIn profile.  MoreMonmouthMusings called Peters twice yesterday and once this morning to ask him about his resume and education.  He did not return the calls.

Peters admitted to working for the company on Saturday May 4 while speaking before a group of activists from Campaign for Liberty, according to Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon.  O’Scanlon, the New Jersey champion of the fight against red light cameras, was an invited speaker for the group’s meeting.  Peters and the LD 13 Tea Party backed candidates also spoke at the event which was held in Hightstown.

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Meet the Tea Party Candidates

Evidently, the Bayshore Tea Party Group leadership and their candidates don’t like the coverage MoreMonmouthMusings is giving their primary campaign.  Don’t take my word for it.  Listen to Barbara Gonzalez introducing sheriff candidate Dan Peters in the first video below.

Leigh-Ann Bellew stopped taking my phone calls a couple of weeks ago.  She told someone to pass along the message that I should deal with Dwayne Horner.  Now Horner is not returning my calls.  Freeholder candidate Ed Pekarsky asked that I post Tom Fitzsimmons’ email and if he could respond here.  I told him he could.  He hasn’t sent me his response.  It’s OK with me that he isn’t responding, but hey, Gonzalez wrote that I censored Tea Party posts, which I didn’t, and then her candidate doesn’t send it a post he that requested.

When I met Dan Peters in early April, he said he would sit for an interview.  I’m writing a story about him for publication later today or tomorrow.  Peters hasn’t returned three calls since yesterday.

It’s a lot easier to write “Bellew (or Horner, Peters, Pekarsky, etc) didn’t return a phone call,” than it is to write up their comments, but I’d really rather give them an opportunity to tell their side of the story.

In that spirit, here they are, telling their own stories on video:

Dan Peters, Sheriff Candidate

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Marist/NBC Poll Is Bad News For New Jersey Tea Parties

We The People of New Jersey do not support the Tea Party or Second Amendment movements, according to an Marist/NBC poll released this morning.

72% of the 1080 self identified New Jersey registered voters who responded to the poll said “No” when asked if they considered themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement.  19% said “Yes” and 9% were unsure.

The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3 % and only questioned 22% of the amount of people that Leigh-Ann Bellew’s campaign surveyed, just in the 13th legislative district, two weeks ago.

Bellew’s campaign said that 83% or their respondents favor Tea Party candidates in the 13th.  Campaign manager Dwayne Harris would not get into the specifics of the poll, like the margin of error or how many phone calls they had to make to reach 5000 people.

67% of registered voters think New Jersey needs stricter gun laws, per the Marist/NBC poll.  25% think New Jersey’s current gun laws should not be changed.  6% said New Jersey’s gun laws should be less strict.   Harris wouldn’t say if the Bellew campaign polled the gun question.

27% of New Jersey voters consider themselves liberal. 32% consider themselves conservative and 40% consider themselves moderate, according to the Marist/NBC poll.

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Bellew Needs To Come Clean On Her Credentials

State Senate primary candidate Leigh-Ann Bellew owes her supporters, and the voters of the 13th Legislative District, the truth about her resume.  Any candidate’s educational and employment history is an important consideration for voters to take into account when choosing their nominees and elected officials.  Bellew is asking Republican voters to fire an long term and distinguished incumbent in Senator Joe Kyrillos, and to hire her instead.   In order for her candidacy to be taken seriously, she needs to be transparent about her education, career and character.

Bellew has gone into hiding since the questions about her resume and education have become public.  When the questions about her legal education arose in early April, Bellew told MMM that she graduated from law school in Texas but never took the bar exam.  She said she went to work in customer service for American Express rather than pursue a career as a lawyer, and then exited the work force to raise her children.

However, since PolitickerNJ questioned the veracity of her resume, Bellew has stopped returning MMM’s repeated phone calls.  Her campaign manager, Dwayne Horner, has not been able to provide answers.

Bellew, her running mates and campaign volunteers have been distorting Kyrillos’s record. Kyrillos is a moderate, but he is not a tax and borrow liberal as the Bayshore Tea Party Group backed ticket is claiming.  Kryillos does not support partial birth abortion and death panels, as the duplicitous literature the BTPG backed campaign has been distributing claims.

If a candidate or campaign is going to take liberties with the truth about their opponent’s record, they at the very least should have the decency to be transparent about something as basic about their own education and career.

Leigh-Ann Bellew can put an end to all of this nonsense over her past by simply proving she has the degrees she has claimed she has.  She should do that immediately.  If Bellew has embellished her past, she should come clean about that and explain herself.

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Bayshore Tea Party Attacks MMM Over LD 13 Coverage

Bayshore Tea Party co-founder Barbara Gonzalez sent an email to her members this morning accusing MoreMonmouthMusings of basing its coverage of the LD 13 primary based upon who advertises on this site.  Gonzalez posted an identical message on two Tea Party facebook groups and then blocked from MMM publisher Art Gallagher from the conversation after he responded.

Click for full view

What Gonzalez falled to mention, is that MMM offered her candidates, through Gonzalez personally and through Leigh-Ann Bellew, the same advertising rates offered to the Monmouth County GOP candidates who advertise here.  Bellew said she wanted advertise here, but has yet to do so.   MMM welcomes all advertisers of legal products, services or campaigns.

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Bayshore Tea Party Offering Free Tax Returns To Campaign Volunteers

The Bayshore Tea Party group is recruiting volunteers to canvass for their candidates in the LD 13 and Monmouth County primary races by offering free personal 2013 tax returns.

In an email with the BTPG logo and a Bellew for Senate paid for disclosure, potential canvassing recruits are offered a tax services if they canvass for the candidates for 10 hours between now and the primary on June 4.  The offer is limited to 5 returns and expires on April 15, 2014.

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Mystery Robo Call In LD 13

Someone commissioned ‘phone ID’ calls in LD 13 that went out yesterday asking Republican primary voters if they planned to vote for Republican Senator Joe Kyrillos, Tea Party challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew or if they are unsure.

Listen to the recording here.

It was left as a voice mail at an MMM reader’s home.  The caller ID said the call came from 602-357-5922, a Phoenix, AZ landline listed to Danny Crosby.

None of the competing campaigns or candidates will cop to paying for the call. There was no ‘paid for’ disclosure.

‘Phone ID’ calls are not polls, per se.  The data collected is used for get out the vote (GOTV) planning.

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Fitzsimmons responds to Pekarsky’s “real republican” manifesto

Ed Pekarsky

Matawan Councilman Tom Fitzsimmons responded yesterday to Bayshore Tea Party backed freeholder candidate Ed Pekarsky’s  email to the Monmouth Young Republicans email list.

Both Fitzsimmons and Pekarsky have expressed a desire for MMM to publish Fitz’s response.  We’re happy to oblige.  Pekarsky and BTPG leaders expressed a desire that we use another of Pekarsky’s photos.  We’re happy to oblige that request as well.

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Freeholder Challenger Claims “real republican” Mantle

Amateur nutjob Ed Pekarsky. facebook photo

Bayshore Tea Party backed freeholder candidate Ed Pekarsy responded to an email invitation to a Monmouth County Young Republicans social event with a rant disparaging the Monmouth GOP.

While I am glad to see that Monmouth county YR’s are continuing on our traditions and prescribing to our republican principals, I did want to inform your group that over the past several years, what I knew as Republicans have changed. In many ways, old guard establishment republicanism now means larger government spending and more legislating against our freedoms while an arrogant elitism have captured the party that WE all dislike and we all have come to associate with the left in this country.

The email distribution list includes numerous Monmouth County Republican elected officials, Municipal Chairs, a state GOP staffer, a State GOP Committeeman, county employees, and former elected and party officials.  Note to YR Chair Jessica Reyes…bcc is your friend.

Pekarsky went on to tell his audience that they are alienating “our own republican brothers and sisters.”

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