TRENTON — The state’s nascent tea party movement has a feeling it has some juice these days. Last week, Rand Paul’s lopsided victory in the U.S. Senate primary in Kentucky brought sudden respect for the power of the conservative group — despite the controversy that engulfed the candidate over his subsequent remarks regarding the Civil Rights Act. This week,...
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A protestor holds up an American flag and a Revolutinary War "Don't Tread On Me" flag during a Tea Party rally in front of the Statehouse, in this April photo.
TRENTON — The state’s nascent tea party movement has a feeling it has some juice these days.
Last week, Rand Paul’s lopsided victory in the U.S. Senate primary in Kentucky brought sudden respect for the power of the conservative group — despite the controversy that engulfed the candidate over his subsequent remarks regarding the Civil Rights Act.
This week, the movement spearheads an oral argument before the state Supreme Court over whether it may file a recall petition against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).
RoseAnn Salinitri, the leader of the Sussex County tea party and the main force behind the effort to recall Menendez, said the primary results in Kentucky and Arkansas, as well as in Pennsylvania, energized tea party activists both in New Jersey and nationally.
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Momentum is clearly working for people in the movement, said Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science at Montclair State University. Even before Paul’s victory last week, Harrison noted, the far-right movement was able to force Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to abandon his fight for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination and run as an independent. And in Utah, the GOP convention denied veteran conservative Bob Bennett renomination to reclaim his Senate seat.
"As victories become successive, it becomes easier to raise money and attract media attention," Harrison said. "You can point to the impact that these tea party candidates are having, not just in shaping the agenda, but in shaping the elections themselves."
Still, as Paul showed in the aftermath of his landslide victory for the Republican Senate nomination over establishment candidate Trey Grayson, a movement far from the center is no sure road to victory.
After his controversial remarks suggesting businesses be allowed to deny service to minorities without fear of federal interference — he scrambled to declare Friday that he wouldn’t seek to repeal the Civil Rights Act, or the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race.
Paul saw Republicans in some areas edging away amid a firestorm of criticism. Meanwhile, the first opinion poll since the election has shown him with a wide lead over his Democratic rival, Jack Conway.
The tea party in New Jersey, as in much of the country, remains an amorphous movement without a single leader. Its biggest splash here has been the Menendez recall effort. The groups targeted the Democrat, claiming he votes for too much government spending.
While the federal Constitution does not make a provision for the recall of a senator, New Jersey’s constitution does allow for public officials to be recalled. The argument that will go before the state’s highest court tomorrow is whether New Jersey’s secretary of state was permitted to reject the recall filing on the grounds of federal pre-emption.
The first test of the group’s political power in New Jersey, though, will not be until June, when several candidates affiliated with the tea party movement are challenging either longtime Republican incumbents or establishment-backed GOP candidates.
It’s hard to get a good count, because there’s not one tea party entity, and not all who support the movement use its name in their slogans. In the 2nd congressional district, for example, Linda Biamonte, challenging incumbent Republican Frank LoBiondo, has as her slogan, "Putting Represent Back in Representative." But she is supported by the movement and has held tea party fundraisers.
In the 4th congressional district that spreads across Burlington, Ocean, Mercer and Monmouth, Alan Bateman is seeking the GOP nomination as a tea party Republican against Rep. Chris Smith. He ran in 2008 against Democratic Rep. Rush Holt in the 12th District.
In the 5th District, Rep. Scott Garrett is unchallenged for the Republican nomination. Garrett, widely acknowledged as the most conservative congressman from New Jersey, is popular with many in the movement.
In the 11th District, Richard Luzzi, who’s running against incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen in the primary, is president of the Morristown Tea Party Inc., which might be the biggest tea party group in the state.
Luzzi said Rand’s victory in Arkansas was a big boost for his campaign.
"I think it should be a wake-up call to all politicians ... that people are not happy with either political party," he said.
Jeffrey Weingarten, another tea party activist, thinks Highlands Mayor Anna Little will upset millionaire newspaper publisher Diane Gooch in the 6th congressional district. Gooch has the Republican organization behind her. But Little, the underdog, has built up a base of tea party supporters.
"She has tapped into the tea party energy," Weingarten said. "You can say she’s a tea party darling."
Harrison, though, said there is a distinction between what happened in Kentucky and Utah, and what might happen in New Jersey.
"We elected a very conservative governor, but we’ve trended to be one of the more liberal Democratic states in the nation," she remarked. "It may seem like the culture may be moving to the right, but it may not be as far to the right as the tea party candidates."
Still, there remains a pretty strong anti-incumbent sentiment, and that is a key message of the tea party movement.
"It is a protest movement, so it dovetails with that sentiment out there. People are by and large dissatisfied," Harrison said.
By Matt Friedman and Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger
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