Scott Sipprelle Dodges Questions About Constitution, Healthcare, Stimulus, Abortions, Gay Marriages

Yesterday, US-1 (Princeton's Business and Entertainment Newspaper) published an article by Richard K. Rein about his discussion with NJ-12 Republican hopeful Scott Sipprelle. Rein starts with a short bio of Sipprelle, going through his family's past unsuccessful runs for office, his career as a Wall Street insider, finally getting to a few questions about Sipprelle's stand on the current issues:

I had a short list of questions: Where did he stand on the Supreme Court’s free speech ruling, don’t ask, don’t tell, healthcare reform, the stimulus plan, and Roe v. Wade.

Simple questions for a conservative, right? Only that...

Unlike the professional political correspondents [...] I was easily dodged by Sipprelle. “I intend to promote a mainstream agenda for economic recovery,” he responded. “Regardless of the issues that you view as important, a country that is bankrupt can do nothing.”

Very true. Actually, keeping the country out of bankruptcy should be a basic requirement of any public servant. There was no further word on this "mainstream agenda". But back to the conservative issues:

I tried again to turn the conversation to the incendiary, litmus test issues of the Republican far right. Sipprelle did another sidestep: “I don’t think stringent litmus tests are good for our party or for our country. I say that you should evaluate a candidate holistically — there’s no reason why you have to agree with someone on every position in order to vote for them.”

So, the positions that Rein asked about referred to: free speech (and upholding the Constitution), gay marriage, national heathcare, stimulus and.. well.. life and death. For the 2nd time, Sipprelle refused to answer to any of these. Rein continues:

In fact, if you are used to the Tea Party crowd and town hall hecklers that are often the face of Republicans on the national news shows, you might be surprised to find some close to home who don’t fit the mold.

This is probably the most interesting statement. Mainly because as very recent history showed, the Republican party is returning to its Conservative grassroots represented by the tea party people. People that don't fit the mold - like Dede Scozzafava - are weeded out. A recent Rasmussen report showed that a tea party candidate would poll higher than an establishment Republican. And the identification of the tea party crowd with just hecklers reminds us of Democrati Rep. Baron Hill calling these townhall protesters "political terrorists". Oh well, Sipprelle was one of the contributors to Hill's campaign.

It's also notable to mention that Scott Sipprelle has repeatedly refused to meet with representatives of tea party groups and conservative grassroots organizations. But who knows, maybe we'll eventually get a chance to find out what his positions on the issues are.