Meeting the Candidates in the 6th and 12th Districts

The Jersey Shore Tea Party Patriots had another candidates night in Ocean Twp today, and it was a full house. The first ones to speak were the candidates from the 12th Congressional District, currently represented by Rush Holt.

Scott Sipprelle went first, and he repeated his Wall Street success story, but for the first time I saw him angry. He usually comes out as a nice laid back person, but tonight he was nervous and antsy. But let me say, kudos to him, I'm surprised he came. After all, his supporters have been calling tea partiers on forums and blogs as "tea baggers", a syntagm that usually Democrats who despise conservatives use. Also, Scott said he's running a 50 employee business. His supporters have been berating Mike Halfacre for being just the mayor of a 6,000 people town, saying that it's not enough to qualify for a Congress position.



Mike Halfacre came next, and he started by saying Wall Street and Washington got us into all this trouble, which is both true, and a jab at his primary opponent. He brought up the fact that Rush Holt was just ranked as the most liberal member of the House, to the left of Nancy Pelosi. Answering similar questions about healthcare reform that Scott had been asked, Mike reminded people that he was giving the same answers as early as October last year. He also declared that he would fight for abolishing the Department of Energy.



David Corsi was last and he looked very amateurish. He has good knowledge of real estate and financials, but he is the outlier in this race.



After a short break, we switched to the "less mature" 6th District race (as the MC called it). There wasn't much activity until now in Frank Pallone's district, as most people are afraid of the 4 millions his campaign has in the bank.

We were first introduced to Fabrizio Bivona. He is a fireman and a 9/11 first responder, but he was also a bit amateurish. However he showed a lot of passion and really connected with the audience (unlike Corsi). He was "on a roll", like a kid having fun, and his main strength seems to be national security and 2nd Amendment rights.



Then came Anna Little, the popular Mayor of Highlands, who just announced a few days ago that she's running. Speaking of the 2nd Amendment, Anna responded to a questioner by saying she wouldn't be opposed to someone buying a tank, since the Government is not Constitutionally allowed to decide that. She had a passionate speech about representing the little guy in Congress and being our representative there and about the limited power of Government. She mentioned her past, when she was at odds with the Republican machine, and said she would run in the primary even off the party line.



Finally we heard from Shannon Wright, one of the first candidates to announce her run, who didn't have much time allowed since it was getting very late. She presented her campaign's main points: educational freedom, no Government involvement in healthcare and lower taxes. Shannon said that only by putting money in the pockets of the grassroots voters can we spur economic development.



While in the 12th, it's obvious that the conservative candidate to represent the tea parties is Mike Halfacre, it's still too early to decide about the 6th, where both Anna Little and Shannon Wright have good credentials, but nobody knows yet about their ability to run a campaign, especially since they'll have to face the money and organizational support of Diane Gooch.