Lapeer County Tea Party Patriots actively engage our 2012 candidates

[William Gavette]

With the Presidential primary election this past Tuesday, our group has been visibly involved with getting to know our candidates and issues for the all important 2012 election. On Friday, February 17th, several from our group went to see Sen. Rick Santorum. Bob Murphy and myself met with Mr. Santorum privately in a group of about 20. It was very informative. 

Our groups was also one of the cosponsors of a forum with Gov. Mitt Romney on Feb 23rd. This is something that Gov. Romney has not done before, and a first for us here in Michigan. It was informative, and we were able to pose some pretty tough questions to the Governor. We had around 20 from our group go down and take part in this event. Over 50 from the media were there covering the forum and it was a class act all the way. 

Last Saturday, Americans For Prosperity had an forum in Troy. Again, we had a dozen or so of our members who were talking with candidates, asking questions, and getting informed. For those at the event, this was the final public event that Andrew Breitbart spoke at. His message of working together with other conservatives to defeat our common  foe was very timely and to the point. We have posted this video on our homepage at www.lapeerteaparty.org for viewing.

We were also contacted by the BBC to discuss our view on the candidates and the auto bailouts. We met with the North American Editor of the BBC, Mark Mardell. We met with him in Brighton and there were leaders from 5 groups participating in the discussion. It was a fair interview and we were treated with respect and it was accuratly reported.

While we all are trying to make the best decisions we can and are engaged in working to inform folks of just what all of our candidates are all about, we need to stop and reflect on where we have been. 4 years ago, could we have ever imagined that candidates for our nations highest office would take the time to engage us and have a conversation? Tha fact is that the politicians know that we are here and we are not going away. We always try to engage in a polite and civil conversation, but with firm expectations from our elected officials. Though we have a titanic amount of work to do, we can take some pride and comfort that we conservatives who are in this movement that so many are trying to destroy and smear, are truly making a difference. Below are some of the clips from the events of the last 2 weeks.  

If you haven't had the opportunity to join with us at some of these events, I would urge you to make the next one you can. You will find that meeting new friends and getting to know the people who are involved in the Tea Party movement in Michigan makes all the hard work worth it. We look forward to seeing you soon.  

Bill Gavette - Lapeer County Tea Party Patriots

 

Link to Romney Forum

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/02/24/147339527/romney-reaches-out-to-skeptical-tea-partiers-in-michigan - National Public Radio Interview with Lapeer member Tom Petiprin

BBC Tea Party discussion from Brighton 2-26

Andrew Breitbarts final words from the Troy Prosperity forum