Posted on 06/23/2010 9:42:34 AM PDT by freespirited
Christopher Crawford is a 22-year-old from Orlando whose only reported assets are a 1991 Acura worth $2,000 and an IKEA couch. But as of last week, he's a Tea Party candidate for a Florida Senate seat 400 miles away.
Stephen Taylor, 23, is a part-time Tallahassee bank teller who filed to run on the Tea Party ticket for a House District 11 seat 80 miles away in Suwannee County. "I said 'Do you know what's involved in these things?" recalls his father ... "He doesn't know anything about Suwannee County."
Tea Party organizers announced last Friday they had fielded 20 candidates in state races to punish incumbent Republicans who had voted in favor of Central Florida's commuter-rail project, or were "big spenders."
But by Monday, organizers were complaining of GOP retaliation. And Tea Party advocate and political consultant Doug Guetzloe was removed from the Orlando radio station where he's bought time for a five-day-a-week talk show.
Many candidates are young, don't appear to have many assets or full-time jobs and materialized for the first time in the final hours before the end of qualifying last Friday. At least seven of the 20 appear to live outside the district they are running for.
Darin Dunmire, 35, is a pilot who works in India and owns a home in Kentucky. But he lists his legal residence as the same Orlando address as his mother, Peggy Dunmire, who is running for the U.S. House as a Tea Party candidate.
Jon Foley, 24, is O'Neal's son, who said he and Crawford talked about running for office when they enrolled at the University of Central Florida. Foley is listed as Crawford's campaign treasurer.
But they don't appear to have plans to contact voters. "Contact voters? I don't even know what that means," Foley said Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Hey Aaron, please define the Tea Party. I bet you can’t.
Is this to make the Tea Party look bad? I am not sure what to make of it. But after Alvin Greene in SC, I guess anything is possible.
This all sounds like the ticket in Connecticut. The GOP here will take in anyone for any reason.
It’s full of drunk frat boys and criminally charged buffoons.
RINOs, each and everyone of em. Most of these guys were ass-kicked when they ran for as a dem (Typical party slogan? No more Bush.)
“Have a feeling there is a lot more to this story.”
No kidding. :)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2539285/posts
There is no such thing as “The Tea Party”. Tea Partiers in a particular locale getting together to support one candidate over another, perhaps. But there is no “The Tea Party”.
a 1991 Acura is worth $2,000 ???
It seems to me that so-called “Tea Party candidates” SHOULD look “odd” and “unconventional” and even “kooky”. If the Tea Party movement stands for removing as many of the career political hacks now in office and replacing them with people who believe in the Constitution and individual liberty then those candidates will almost certainly not fit the template for the “successful” career politician. If what is wanted is more of the same mendacious preening and hypocrisy that so typifies those in office today then certainly one should vote for the “mainstream” candidate who will spout whatever is expedient to get elected and then loot the public treasury for everything not nailed down. If, on the other hand, what is wanted is a free man or woman of principle then vote for the “oddball” because it is only “oddballs” who refuse to toe the party line or spout meaningless nonsense to avoid offending the media slime that are likely to work to roll back the oppressive mess that is today’s government.
So you have this going on in FL not just in state races, as this article says, but also in Congressional races.
What a coincidence.
Well..., it’s pretty hard to get worked up about a guy with no assets and a lack of (supposed) understanding, when it comes to what those with assets and (supposed) understanding have done.
Point well taken but it’s another thing entirely to look unserious.
“Many candidates are young, don’t appear to have many assets or full-time jobs and materialized for the first time in the final hours before the end of qualifying last Friday. At least seven of the 20 appear to live outside the district they are running for. “
So they are more qualified than Obama?
picking a choosing a candidate... would require some form of leadership, which the tea party proudly hates.
We could throw a dart at pages from the white pages and have better people runt he country than the current crop of yahoos in there right now.
“Is this to make the Tea Party look bad? I am not sure what to make of it. But after Alvin Greene in SC, I guess anything is possible. “
From the article sounds like some DUmmies in the mix...
What are the minimum ages for holding seats at the state level?
Does the 22 year old with the Ikea couch think that government should significantly get the heck out of our lives and greatly reign in it’s spending?
If yes, then he is a better cnadidate than most of what we have in there now.
My suspicions are up on these last-minute, no-name candidates with no background or assets running as “Tea Party” candidates.
I don’t want a career politician, but I don’t want a poor, no-experience slacker either (and possible Dem plant).
That’s how we got Obama the “Moderate Candidate.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.