Bayshore Tea Party Group Grills Roemer

Former Lousiana Governor Buddy Roemer dances with a question from a Bayshore Tea Party Group member.

A presidential candidate visiting New Jersey at this point in an election cycle is usually looking for money, like Mitt Romney will be doing in Parsippanny on Monday.

Why former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer requested to meet the Bayshore Tea Party Group yesterday remains a mystery.   If he wanted money, he never asked for it.  He touted the fact that he won’t accept donations over $100, and that his average donation is $55, but he never asked.  He boasted that he’s raised “a third of a million dollars.”

Asked why he was spending a Saturday in December in New Jersey rather than Iowa or New Hamsphire, Roemer responded, “I’m not in Iowa because it costs $2 million to compete there and I don’t have $2 million.  I am in New Hampshire.  A lot of people are going to be surprised by my showing in New Hampshire.”

Roemer’s conservative yet populist message would seem to be a perfect fit for the Tea Party crowd.  But Roemer clearly wasn’t prepared to be questioned by the group of 20 Tea Party members who are obviously as well informed as they are passionate.  He got himself in trouble with the group while embracing the Occupy Wall Street slogan of 1% vs 99%  while decrying the influence of money in the presidential campaign.  A debate ensued which devolved into bickering over whether or not corporations are people.  A Tea Partier arguing that corporations are shareholders, employees and customers.  Roemer arguing that a corporation has never been drafted into the military.  

No one born after 1957 has been drafted into the military either.

Roemer eventually backed off the 1% vs. 99% slogan, apologizing for “using the language of the day” to make a point.

Roemer said he was competing for the GOP nomination, while acknowledging that he has been in touch with Americans Elect 2012 about a third party candidacy.  That didn’t sit well with his audience either, who were concerned about a third party candidate helping President Obama get reelected and about Americans Elect’s funding from special interests.   Roemer acknowledged that he hadn’t vetted Americans Elect prior to allowing his name to be attached to the group.

The former governor and congressman was particularly critical of Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, decrying the special interests funding their campaigns.  He said Huntsman’s father is using legal loopholes to funnel $20 million to his son’s campaign.  Roemer really doesn’t like Gingrich, with whom he served in Congress.

“There is no president amongst the current GOP front runners,” Roemer declared.  There wasn’t a president at the Bayshore Tea Party Group office either.

At that’s too bad.  There is a great deal about Roemer’s core message that is attractive.

He favors a flat tax; 17% of all income for all, individuals and corporations, over the first $50,000 earned.  When asked about the fair tax, a national sales tax, Roemer said he could go that way too.

Roemer said he’s a fair trader, not a free trader.  He would use tariffs and economic sanctions to bring balance to our relationships with China and Saudi Arabia.  Tariffs on all oil importers, except Mexico and Canada, as well as the end of subsidies for unproven energy technologies, would be the keys to creating energy independence in a Roemer administration.

On foreign policy, Roemer said American should not be the world’s policeman.  That he would emphasize economic sanctions to advance our interests, but would keep a strong military in the background.  He was absolute that he would not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.

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Tea Parties To Impact Freeholder Race

The Monmouth County area Tea Parties are coming together to in order to make their presence felt in the upcoming county committee election to replace Assemblyman-elect Rob Clifton on the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders.

The Bayshore Tea Party Group, the Jersey Shore Tea Party Patriots and the East Jersey Tea Party will hold a joint meeting to endorse a Freeholder candidate on January 10th, 2012, 7PM at the West Park Recreation Center in Oakhusrt, Ocean Township.   The Monmouth and Colts Neck Tea Parties have also been invited to participate.

Bob Gordon, co-founder of the Bayshore Tea Party Group, says that between the groups there are 25 county committee members eligible to vote on January 14th when the county committee convenes to elect Clifton’s successor.  They are potentially a significant voting block.

The Tea Parties extended invitations this afternoon to each of the declared candidates to speak at the January 10th meeting.   Following the candidates presentations and a Q and A, a secret ballot will be taken.  The winner of the groups’ endorsement will be announced upon the tabulation of the ballots.

Howell Mayor Bob Walsh and Manalapan Deputy Mayor Ryan Green have accepted.  Holmdel Deputy Mayor Serena DiMaso is juggling a scheduling conflict.  Atlantic Highlands Councilman Peter Doyle has yet to respond, according to Barbara Gonzalez, the another co-founder of BTPG.

Gonzalez said she checked the calendars on the Monmouth County GOP Website and the Monmouth County Affiliated Republican Club’s site before scheduling the event, in order to avoid a conflict.

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1 in a million

The 1,000,000th page load on MMM occurred at 3:19:59 PM.

Fittingly, the 1,000,000th hit was from a regular reader, a Comcast subsciber with a Philadelphia IP address and hundreds of recorded visits.  The hit was on the Milestone post.

There was confetti, balloons and fireworks at MMM world headquarters.

The lucky reader wins a lifetime subscription to MMM and an opportunity to meet presidential candidate Buddy Roemer on Saturday afternoon at the Bayshore Tea Party Group’s office in Middletown.

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Presidential Candidate To Visit Bayshore Tea Party

Former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, a contender for the Americans Elect 2012 presidential nomination, will be visiting the offices of the Bayshore Tea Party Group this Saturday December 10th at 12:30 PM.

Roemer served in Congress from 1981 through 1988 as a conservative Democrat who often supported President Reagan’s agenda.  He served as the governor of Louisiana from 1988-1992 as both a Democrat and a Republican.

A Harvard MBA, Roemer bills himself as the only candidate with executive, legislative and private sector experience.

BTPG co-founder Barbara Gonzalez said Roemer’s visit does not imply the group’s support of his candidacy.  “We received a phone call from Roemer’s office stating that he would like to make our group his first stop while touring New Jersey, we polled our members and there is sufficient interest in meeting him.  We’ve also heard interest from people outside of our group expressed.”

The Bayshore Tea Party Group’s office is at 275 Highway 35, Red Bank (Middletown Twp), NJ  07701

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Cain Staying In The Race

Herman Cain told supporters in Ohio that he is not dropping out of the 2012 GOP presidential nominating race, according to the New York Times:

“The American people are going to raise some Cain in 2012!”

Over a roar of approval from the crowd, he added: “They want you to believe that we can’t do this. They want you to believe that with enough character assassination on me, I will drop out!”

Bayshore Tea Party Group leader Barbara Gonzalez said, “YAY!  I don’t believe Cain did what he’s being accused of, but even if he did, that’s between him and his wife!  We need to save the frickin’ country!”

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Herman Cain Reassessing His Presidential Bid

Bayshore Tea Party Group Standing By Their Man

GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain is reassessing his candidacy in the wake of allegations of a 13 year extra-marital affair, according to a story broken by National Review Online. NRO reports that they had a writer on Cain’s five minute conference call with his senior staff wherein he discussed his campaign’s latest setback.

Cain has denied the affair, as he has denied allegations of sexual harassment while he was the CEO of the National Restaurant Association.

Cain attempted shore up his weak foreign policy credentials by issuing his denials in German, “nine, nine, nine.”

Locally, Bayshore Tea Party Group leader Barbara Gonzalez told Politickernj that her group continues to support Cain, “Until they can prove something, we continue to support him….it’s a smear campaign….no one is buying it.”

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Christie Will Endorse Romney This Afternoon

Multiple media sources are reporting that Governor Chris Christie will endorse Mitt Romney for President during a press conference in New Hampshire at 3PM this afternoon.

Romney’s website is already hailing the endorsement.

Locally, news of Christie’s endorsement has had a negative reaction from Bayshore Tea Party Group founder Barbara Gonzalez who sent an “urgent” email to the group’s members and other Tea Party group leaders asking that they “take a leap of faith” and endorse Herman Cain for President.

“THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ANTICIPATED WHEN HERMAN CAIN STARTED TO RISE IN THE POLLS”, wrote Gonzalez,

First, Christie was dragged out to run for President, and when that didn’t work, he is off to endorse Romney.

Are we really going to sit here and let them do this? Do you see what is happening here?

I know some of you don’t agree with me, but I am not going to sit back and let them dictate to me who is going to be the next President.”

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If Christie’s the new darling of the far right, where does that leave Steve Lonegan?

Should we care?

That’s the question that Bergen Record Columnist Charles Stile asks this morning at NorthJersey.com.

Stile is wondering how Lonegan is reacting to American For Prosperity benefactor David Koch’s declaration that Governor Christie is “my kind of guy” at the super secret corporate donors meeting in Colorado last June.  That was the meeting where Christie told the tale of how he saved Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver’s position by lining up Assembly Republicans to vote for her had the Democrats staged a coup to prevent the pension and benefits reform bill from being posted.

Strangely, Lonegan who is never shy with the press, rebuffed Stile’s inquiry four times in two weeks. 

Stile probably hasn’t noticed that Lonegan’s rare pontifications about Christie have been positive since April of this year.  That is when Christie prevailed upon Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips to get Lonegan to tone his rhetoric down, as reported at the time by the now defunct TheStateNJ.com.

Lonegan’s focus has been on co-opting and controlling New Jersey’s Tea Party movement and attempting to destroy Tea Parties he can’t control, if The Bulldog Pundit, Gene Hoyas’ body of work over this summer is accurate.

Hoyas has been white knighting for the Bay Shore Tea Party Group which has suffered ad hominem attacks from conservative websites that Hoyas says are Lonegan mouthpieces.  Hoyas’ smoking gun that Lonegan, and Senator Mike Doherty, are behind the attacks is that they haven’t publically called for the conservatives sites to stop picking on the BTPG.

All of this nonsense, from Stile’s piece this morning, to Hoyas and other purists fighting all summer, to Lonegan trying to control Tea Parties, if he is, are gifts to the Democrats who are on track to keep control of the legislature in Trenton.

Stile could have written about the current and ongoing rifts within the Democratic party, rather than suggesting to his readers that Christie is more “far right” than Lonegan.  Instead he attempted to tweak Lonegan into reigniting a battle that he surrendered months ago.  We should expect that from Stiles as a center-left opinion leader.

But Hoyas and other conservatives fighting with each other, as well as the ongoing ideological Inquisition of RINO hunters is nothing more than a circular firing squad.  

Now that they have wasted the summer, it is time for all the ideological purists to stop fighting over which angel does a better dance on the head of a pin and get to work electing candidates who are right and center-right.

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Bayshore Tea Party Group To Back Rich For Freeholder, Robinson For Assembly

 (RED BANK, July 1) –  With statewide elections in six months, the Bayshore Tea Party Group (BTPG) is actively evaluating candidates for county and state level office. BTPG will continue to evaluate candidates, and at this time announces its support for the following candidates:

• Gary Rich, Republican, for Freeholder in Monmouth County
• Shane Robinson, Republican, for Assembly in District 19

“The people spoke loud and clear last November,” said Barbara Gonzalez, founder of BTPG. “And we continue the effort in New Jersey to elect representatives who share with us the values that made this nation the greatest in the world.”

“There is no question that New Jersey’s tax structure is broken, our unemployment rate-now 9.4%–is absurdly high, our state economy is hurting, and New Jersey government at all levels is too big and too intrusive,” added Robert Gordon, BTPG President. “New Jersey people are suffering. We are dedicated to electing people who will stop the down-spiral, and put New Jersey back to work and back to prosperity.”  

Gonzalez added, “Gary Rich and Shane Robinson share our constitutional, limited-government values. They clearly can help fix the problems we are facing. BTPG is happy to help them get to Freehold and Trenton, to help bring back the liberty and prosperity our residents deserve.”

The Bayshore Tea Party Group is part of the nationwide, grassroots Tea Party movement. Our mission is simple: (1) Limited Government; (2) Fiscal Responsibility, and (3) Free Markets. Find out more at our web site: www.bayshoreteaparty.org . Follow us on Twitter: @Bayshore_TParty.

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AFP Presidential Summit On Spending And Job Creation

The Americans for Prosperity Foundation will broadcast a Presidential Summit on spending and job creation tonight from New Hampshire at 8PM.   Mitt Romney, Michele Bachman, Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum will be participating.

The event will be streamed at AmericansforProsperity.org and broadcast on C-SPAN.

The Bayshore Tea Party Group will be pariticpating in the event locally from their office at 275 Route 35 North, Red Bank and will have a straw poll.   If planning to attend the BTPG, plan to arrive between 7 and 7:30.

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