NJ Tea Party picks Halfacre

by: Rosi Efthim

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 02:55:17 PM EST

This should come as a surprise to exactly nobody, as Halfacre made a splash this summer staging a teaparty people's protest outside the building where Holt hosted a health care town hall this summer in Middletown.

Holt already had two GOP challengers. Oceanport real estate investor Dave Corsi just jumped into the race yesterday. And venture capitalist Scott Sipprelle, who comes from Holt's stronghold of Princeton, got in last month. But Halfacre moved early to ride the teaparty's noisy, sadly ignorant misguided but vibrant populism. And he's gotten mileage out of portraying Holt as engineering his events to keep angry constituents from expressing themselves, which is exactly the kind of thing that would appeal to them, and rile them up. Halfacre's anti-reform protest outside Holt's health care event was called "Open to All Townhall" and he claimed anybody not agreeing already with Holt was shut out of the the congressman's official event. Teaparty people are anti-incumbent, too. From their website (which doesn't mention Corsi):

Asked why Halfacre took the endorsement over GOP primary opponent Scott Sipprelle, Weingarten said the biggest factor was Sipprelle's June 2009 donations to five Congressional Democrats who voted for legislation that the conservative organization opposes.

Halfacre only has $71K at last filing, but that could change fast if enough Jersey people clamor to nationize Halfacre at the first National Tea Party convention going on right now in Nashville. (I'm taking bets ...).