Republicans Invite Tea Party Activity

Four Tea Party members stood quietly on the sidelines of last night’s meeting of the Republican Town Committee; not the 20 people that Sheldon Katz had said to expect. Katz, the coordinator of Norwalk’s Tea Party, said their intentions had been “misunderstood” when reported yesterday in The Hour.

“Throughout the day, we have had several phone calls and lots of e-mails,” said Katz, referring to communications with leaders of Norwalk’s Republican Town Committee. “We are looking for a good relationship.”

Katz contacted The Daily Norwalk on Friday afternoon and apologized for suggesting The Hour had misunderstood statements made by Willis, the head of the Tea Party Patriots 4th Congressional district campaign. In his e-mail to The Daily Norwalk, Katz said he believed Willis had made the comment but attributed the remark to Willis’ “emotions getting in the way of (his) true feelings.”

While Tea Party member Robert Willis had been quoted in The Hour as saying Republicans could expect to be voted out of office if the Tea Party message was ignored, the discussion last night was more moderate.

“We are here to let them know we are keeping an eye on everything,” said Bob MacGuffie of Fairfield. MacGuffie said he was looking to support the candidate who will uphold the Constitution. “I don’t mind a two party system but not a one and a half party system. I don’t want “Republicrats.”

When opening the meeting, Republican committee chairman Art Scialabba welcomed the Tea Party members along with everyone else. He invited them to attend future meetings and become active in the local party.

“We share many common goals,” said Scialabba, afterwards. “We want to elect Republicans, reduce taxes and reduce the size of government. We hope they get their people involved.”

Democrat Amanda Brown attended the Republican meeting, she said, to learn more about the Tea Party movement. She was “a bit disappointed” that there was no public dialogue between the two groups. The former Norwalk Common Council member and Democratic district leader said she wanted to find out how the Tea Party ideals resonated with the local Republicans. Afterwards, she met with Katz.

“There is a sense of discontent nationally that has also bubbled up regionally,” she said. “There is anger being vented and we have not found an effective

avenue for communication. We have to find ways for issues to be addressed and comfortably resolved.”

Click here to follow Daily Voice Norwalk and receive free news updates.