Response from Marc Harris?

We have received the following response to our earlier post about 42nd Congressional candidate Lee McGroarty not being allowed to speak at a Tea Party event yesterday. We don't know for sure that this is in fact from Marc Harris. It was sent via email and was forwarded twice. The emails listed are from leadership in groups associated with Harris, so we have a strong belief that this is in fact from Harris.

I thought it was funny that Harris said, "Funny, you don't see Miller attacking McGroarty." I guess Harris hasn't been following the race long enough. The Lee McGroarty for Congress web site that Miller put up comes to mind.

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Thanks for this post, Miller team....This is only going to add more fuel to the suspicion now being raised that McGroarty has made a back-room deal with Miller to stay in the race in order to split the vote, and ensure Miller's re-election. (Do people do such things in politics???)

Otherwise, why would Miller's supporters here give a darn about this obscure incident, and slant it so far from the facts?

The FACTS are that: a) I was not the "host" of this event, it was put on by a local coordinator, and I have no authority to determine who speaks, b) I was NOT the one who denied McGroarty's request to speak, it was the local coordinator, c) it was on private property, and the owner participated in setting the agenda and speakers and, again, I have no authority to tell a private property owner what can go on on his property, d) I have NOT endorsed Liberatore: I support the Tea Party leaders and members; accordingly, I will act in a manner consistent with the results of numerous emails, phone calls, caucuses, and straw polls among local Tea Parties which show greater support for Liberatore.

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The statement attributed to me in the Liberatore mailer was in response to the unfair negative mudslinging against Miller's opponents. The TEA Party objective is to throw RINO incumbents OUT! As a Tea Party leader, I will defend ANYONE who holds to the TEA Party values, and who are attacked by sell-out RINOs like Miller in their efforts to cling to their self-serving pork trough.

(Funny, you don't see Miller attacking McGroarty. Hmmmmm....)

One can only wonder why McGroarty, who is polling lower among the Tea Parties, doesn't stand up and selflessly serve the clear and unambiguous objective of the Tea Parties to unseat Miller by dropping out of the race, and telling his supporters to support Liberatore, the frontrunner against Miller. The discussions and straw polls have shown McGroarty polling anywhere from 2 to 4 times lower than Liberatore. None put him ahead of Liberatore, which McGroarty and Miller are both aware of. I found it completely unbelievable that Lee McGroarty told me yesterday that he has no knowledge of any polls or results at all. To say two days before an election that a candidate running for Congress is oblivious to any sense of his or her standing in a race is either incompetent or dishonest. At the very LEAST, all candidates do their own polling--or at least should--placing phone calls to hundreds of likely voters.

One final point to ponder: Lee insisted that I, as the Orange County Tea Party coordinator, certainly "had the influence" to make the local coordinators let him speak, and my refusal to step in and do so was therefore "proof" in his view that I was endorsing Liberatore. If he truly believes I am that close to the Tea Parties, and have that much "influence" with them, why doesn't he also believe my assertions that he is not the choice of the majority of Tea Party members?

I urge Lee, for the benefit of what we in the Tea Parties are trying to do politically, to do the right thing and step aside. We have far too many self-serving members in Congress already who are ignoring "We The People". While we all feel it is admirable that Lee stood up to enter the race on behalf of our values, "We The People" have made our preferences clear (if by no other measure than the lack of financial support for Lee), and there are no indications to the contrary.

Marc Harris
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