Hampton Roads Tea Party Endorses 2nd District Candidate (VA)

HRTP Press Release | 05/26/10 | Karen Miner Hurd

[pgkdan]

Karen Miner Hurd sent a message to the members of Hampton Roads Tea Party.

-------------------- Subject: HRTP Board Endorsement in VA-2 GOP Primary

Hi Everyone!

For many reasons, the HRTP Board of Directors decided that we needed to make a statement in the VA-2 GOP Primary. Be aware that rumors are flying- even to outright lies about the tea party. If you have a question- just let us know. We'll be happy to answer them.

Below are Karen's remarks at a press conference that we held this morning-

---Begin remarks---

The Hampton Roads Tea Party was created to fight back an over reaching , corrupt, and obese government – at all levels. The Tea Party movement, including the Hampton Roads Tea Party holds both the Republicans and the Democrats accountable for the current state of the Nation. The political elites are not listening to the people who pay their salaries. In 2010 we have an opportunity to send people who WILL listen and who know that they are obligated to the people- the voters- not to a political machine.

Initially, we had no intention of making any endorsement in the 2nd district congressional primary. However, we started getting calls and emails from our members asking? “who should we support?”, especially as they became aware of the frontrunner Scott Rigell’s donation to Obama and his past support for a sales tax increase and other issues which are deal breakers for many of our members.

As the Board of Directors of the Hampton Roads Tea Party, we felt an obligation and a responsibility to take a stand in a very crowded candidate field. By endorsing a candidate, we don’t presume to speak FOR our members, but rather TO our members. We know that each person’s vote is precious. We know that the “tea party vote” when focused on one candidate, has been shown to change elections and knock out even the most deeply entrenched candidates. We feel very strongly that “Republican political machine” in Hampton Roads needs to be defeated.

Throughout this primary season, we’ve been evaluating the candidates. As part of our process we reviewed each candidate’s donation history to campaigns, community activism and conducted an extensive interview. We watched the candidates at debates, and conducted a forum on April 1. After long deliberation and carefully evaluating each candidate in the second district many of whom are indeed conservatives, The HRTP Board of Directors is announcing our endorsement of Ben Loyola in the GOP Primary on June 8.

Ben has been supportive of the tea party movement almost since the beginning when he spoke at our Defend and Declare Tea Party in June 2009. He has signed the Tea Party Contract from America- a 10 point platform from the grassroots tea party to Congress. In our final interview lasting over 3 hours, the HRTP board grilled Ben on issues surrounding the Constitution, Limited Government and economics. We asked him about defense spending and defense cuts, congressional procedure, national security, tax reform, immigration reform, free market principals and the role of government. Ben is the only candidate advocating abolishing the IRS. Ben has an excellent depth of understanding of policy, is conversant with complex budgets, and is deeply committed to the Constitution. He is the most vocal advocate of across the board tax cuts and an immediate federal hiring freeze. We also feel that Ben’s personal experience as an immigrant and his professional expertise in border security brings a strong voice in this critical issue facing Americans today.

Clearly, each member of the tea party is able to choose for themselves. We encourage our members to take a hard look at Ben Loyola. We encourage you to get involved in his campaign. So far, this primary election is being dominated by money and the GOP establishment machine. We no longer want politics as usual- “may the man/woman with the most money win”. The Tea Party movement is seeking principled liberty oriented leadership. We feel that Ben Loyola is the candidate most able to defeat Glenn Nye and take tea party core values into Congress.

Thank you

--END of REMARKS--

Robert Dean of the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance also gave his personal endorsement of Ben Loyola.

Doug Hutchinson has withdrawn from the race and threw his support behind Ben Loyola

To learn more about Ben Loyola, visit his site http://www.facebook.com/l/69c66;benloyola.comand his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ben-Loyola-For-Congress/263984801927?ref=ts

P.S. to Dan L- Loyola has read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" and is 100% behind auditing/ending the FED.

In Liberty- (even when it means not going along w/ the GOP Favorite)

Karen

[pgkdan]

I was expecting the nod to go to Scott Taylor but Loyola's a good choice. He won a Presidential Appointment to the Naval Academy and was Captain in the US Navy. He's a solid conservative and I'll be proud to give him my vote.

[pgkdan]

For those of you in the 2nd who are not familiar with Ben his website is listed above...please give a look.

To those of you supporting other candidates I strongly urge you to consider Ben Loyola. I was a Scott Taylor supporter and still like the guy but I recognize the fact that this endorsement gives Ben Loyola a leg up and we conservatives need to throw our support behind one candidate. Let’s not allow Scott Rigell to win this just because conservatives couldn’t/wouldn’t settle on one candidate.

[P8riot]

Pretty impressive.

Ben Loyola

[pgkdan]

I agree. I was torn between him and Taylor but came down on Taylor’s side when I saw him supporting the protest at NOB when the Navy Seals were being brought there for trial.

[SlowBoat407]

I am in VA-2, and I’ve met Loyola a couple of times. He’s down to earth, sincere, and definitely not a “politician”. He’s had my support all along.

His biggest problem is Scott Rigell - he has big bucks to throw into the campaign and a lot of name recognition, but I think that his star is going to fade as his flaws are exposed.

[pgkdan]

His biggest problem is Scott Rigell - he has big bucks to throw into the campaign and a lot of name recognition, but I think that his star is going to fade as his flaws are exposed.

---

I think so too. There are a couple of thousand active tea party members in Hampton Roads...in an off year primary that can be enough to pull off a victory. Rigell’s support for obama, Warner, Louise Lucas and a sales tax increase cancel out any claims to being a conservative. Now all Ben has to do is get that word out.

[SlowBoat407]

Now all Ben has to do is get that word out.

He just went a long way toward doing that today, Dan. I'm going to help wherever I can.

[pgkdan]

I’m with ya!