Who’s a real tea partier? GOP claims trickery as questions loom over NJ House hopeful

Who’s a ‘tea partier’? Question looms in NJ, US

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. — Peter DeStefano is running as an independent candidate for Congress in New Jersey whose loyalty will appear under his name on the ballot: New Jersey Tea Party.

That doesn’t sit easily with - well, the New Jersey Tea Party, whose leaders are DeStefano’s most strident critics. DeStefano, they say, is not a tea partier, but a saboteur dispatched by Democrats to destroy the Republican candidate.

“He is a charlatan,” said Bill Haney, president of the West Jersey Tea Party.

But defining what makes a “tea party” candidate is tricky business across the country, as an angry and disparate movement gains increasing clout in American politics.

The tea party’s common principles are that government should have a limited role and taxes should be lower. Some believe traditional conservative stances on social issues like abortion and gay marriage are core to the beliefs; others say they’re not concerned with those issues. Loosely organized and with such different identities, tea party groups have found themselves supporting backing rival primary candidates in such states as Indiana and New Jersey.

Accusations of electoral hijinks are winding through tea party groups across the country and even into the nation’s courts.

A judge in Oakland County, Michigan, was appointed this month to investigate alleged fraud in nominating some candidates to run on “The Tea Party” ballot. Republicans and tea party activists say the party was a trick to divert votes from them. A county Democratic party employee notarized the petitions of the tea party candidates, at least one of whom said he didn’t know he was being nominated.

In New Jersey, there are close to 60 groups listed on one tea party directory - and none is the New Jersey Tea Party. In the state’s 3rd congressional district, represented by freshman Democrat John Adler, the confusion could influence the outcome. The arce is so close that a third-party candidate siphoning off votes from one of the leaders.

DeStefano, who owns a framing shop in Mount Holly, was a Republican until he blamed the Bush Administration for the foreclosure on his home two years ago. He switched to the Democrats, then became an independent, then ran for Congress because the candidates, he said, are mostly alike. Both Adler and Republican Jon Runyan, DeStefano said, are beholden to their parties and support abortion rights.

DeStefano said his platform includes helping small businesses add jobs and cutting federal spending.

Don Adams, president of the political action committee of the Independence Hall Tea Party, which is supporting Runyan, said DeStefano doesn’t turn up on any of the group’s mailing lists and there’s no record of him attending any of the group’s events.

DeStefano bristled at questions about his motives.

“I think it’s time we get past this crap,” said DeStefano.