Dorian Gray
12th April 2010, 06:24 PM
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/politics/racial-slur-by-tea-party-leader-hits-home-647303.html?cxtype=ynews_rss
SPRINGBORO — Racist comments, including a slur about Hispanics, posted on the Twitter page of the Springboro Tea Party were particularly hurtful to Alana Turner.“Illegals everywhere today! So many spics makes me feel like a speck. Grrr. Wheres my gun!?” said the March 21 posting on the site managed by the group’s founder, Sonny Thomas.
Turner said the comments upset her because she and Thomas have a 6-year-old son who is part Hispanic.
“Basically, it’s like he’s saying he hates his son,” Turner said.
The Twitter posting triggered cancellations by several local and statewide candidates and elected officials scheduled to speak at a Springboro Tea Party rally scheduled for Saturday, April 17, at North Park. However, some officials say this doesn’t tarnish the Tea Party movement as a whole.
“I don’t think it says anything about the movement per se,” state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., said on the same day Tea Party officials from around the country formed a federation to counteract perceptions that the groups are racist, unsophisticated and disorganized. Jones was the first elected official to withdraw from the event.
Thomas, an uncontested candidate for a seat on the Warren County Republican Party’s central committee, declined to comment about the controversy.
Rob Scott, founder and president of the Dayton Tea Party, said the national movement is focused on reducing taxes and government, encouraging the free market and respecting the U.S. Constitution — not immigration and certainly not racism.
“Even if we took on immigration as an issue, what was posted was way out of line. It’s classless,” Scott said.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/ohiopolitics/entries/2010/04/09/more_speakers_pull_out_of_spri.html?cxtype=fb_mltS PRINGBORO — James Traficant, the former Ohio congressman, dropped out of a Springboro Tea Party rally scheduled for Saturday, April 17, at North Park, his manager said on Friday, April 9.
Traficant, one of the event’s headliners, planned to join the rally via a live feed from his Cleveland radio show, according to George Saadi, his manager and talent agent.
Traficant, whose 17 years in Congress were curtailed by a seven-year term in federal prison for corruption, decided to withdraw due to a posting on the Springboro Tea Party’s Twitter site, Saadi said.
Earlier this week, Chris Koch, a Republican candidate for Warren County commissioner, Linda Oda, a Republican candidate for Warren County Auditor, and Robert Owens, Constitution Party of Ohio candidate for Ohio Attorney General, joined State Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, a candidate for Ohio Secretary of State in withdrawing from the rally.
Like Jones, Koch, Oda and Owen said they decided to withdraw from the rally due to a posting on a Twitter site maintained by Sonny Thomas, founder of the Springboro group. The posting made derogatory and violent comments toward Hispanics.
“I have withdrawn as a speaker at the April 17th Tax Day Rally. Racially insensitive remarks cannot be tolerated,” Koch said in an email on Thursday, April 8.
In a press release, Owens said, “I fully support the Tea Party movement and the great patriots and leaders who want to restore our American system, but we must remember that there are legal and Constitutional ways to resolve national and state problems including illegal immigration. Regrettably, the organizer’s comment was totally out of bounds.”
When James Traficant is pulling out of your event, you pretty much screwed up.
SPRINGBORO — Racist comments, including a slur about Hispanics, posted on the Twitter page of the Springboro Tea Party were particularly hurtful to Alana Turner.“Illegals everywhere today! So many spics makes me feel like a speck. Grrr. Wheres my gun!?” said the March 21 posting on the site managed by the group’s founder, Sonny Thomas.
Turner said the comments upset her because she and Thomas have a 6-year-old son who is part Hispanic.
“Basically, it’s like he’s saying he hates his son,” Turner said.
The Twitter posting triggered cancellations by several local and statewide candidates and elected officials scheduled to speak at a Springboro Tea Party rally scheduled for Saturday, April 17, at North Park. However, some officials say this doesn’t tarnish the Tea Party movement as a whole.
“I don’t think it says anything about the movement per se,” state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., said on the same day Tea Party officials from around the country formed a federation to counteract perceptions that the groups are racist, unsophisticated and disorganized. Jones was the first elected official to withdraw from the event.
Thomas, an uncontested candidate for a seat on the Warren County Republican Party’s central committee, declined to comment about the controversy.
Rob Scott, founder and president of the Dayton Tea Party, said the national movement is focused on reducing taxes and government, encouraging the free market and respecting the U.S. Constitution — not immigration and certainly not racism.
“Even if we took on immigration as an issue, what was posted was way out of line. It’s classless,” Scott said.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/ohiopolitics/entries/2010/04/09/more_speakers_pull_out_of_spri.html?cxtype=fb_mltS PRINGBORO — James Traficant, the former Ohio congressman, dropped out of a Springboro Tea Party rally scheduled for Saturday, April 17, at North Park, his manager said on Friday, April 9.
Traficant, one of the event’s headliners, planned to join the rally via a live feed from his Cleveland radio show, according to George Saadi, his manager and talent agent.
Traficant, whose 17 years in Congress were curtailed by a seven-year term in federal prison for corruption, decided to withdraw due to a posting on the Springboro Tea Party’s Twitter site, Saadi said.
Earlier this week, Chris Koch, a Republican candidate for Warren County commissioner, Linda Oda, a Republican candidate for Warren County Auditor, and Robert Owens, Constitution Party of Ohio candidate for Ohio Attorney General, joined State Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, a candidate for Ohio Secretary of State in withdrawing from the rally.
Like Jones, Koch, Oda and Owen said they decided to withdraw from the rally due to a posting on a Twitter site maintained by Sonny Thomas, founder of the Springboro group. The posting made derogatory and violent comments toward Hispanics.
“I have withdrawn as a speaker at the April 17th Tax Day Rally. Racially insensitive remarks cannot be tolerated,” Koch said in an email on Thursday, April 8.
In a press release, Owens said, “I fully support the Tea Party movement and the great patriots and leaders who want to restore our American system, but we must remember that there are legal and Constitutional ways to resolve national and state problems including illegal immigration. Regrettably, the organizer’s comment was totally out of bounds.”
When James Traficant is pulling out of your event, you pretty much screwed up.