Report on Union County Republican Rally November 1, 2009

Appearing in the picture is Assemblyman and Republican Whip, Jon Bramnick, 21st Legislative District of New Jersey, holding a FairTax pocket card.

I attended a rally of the Union County Republicans tonight, November 21, 2009, at the Kenilworth NJ VFW hall. There were over 300 people there. As I have stated in the past, FairTax does not support the Republican Party, but this was an opportunity to engage active people. We encourage FairTaxers to be active in their own political parties, be they Democrat or Republican, but to also heed the distinction between political parties and the FairTax.

The big news of the night was negative. Former gubernatorial candidate, Steve Lonegan, opposes the FairTax. The reasons he gave me were: loopholes and evasion. When I told him that did not make sense and asked him to explain, he did not give answers that satisfied me. The room was noisy and crowded, and we did not have a chance to discuss the topic at length. The word to FairTax-ers, though, is stay away from Steve Lonegan. He is either ignorant about the FairTax, which I do not believe, or he favors the Flat Tax and throws up false arguments about the FairTax. Either way, Steve Lonegan is influential enough to be dangerous and should be shunned.

Moving on to brighter news, I passed out pocket cards to most of the people. Three left contact information, and two indicated they were "3's," meaning they support the FairTax. They can be counted in and put on e-mail lists. One took a bumper sticker.

I handed a pocket card to Lieutenant Governor Candidate Kim Guadagno, who promised to read up on the subject. State Senator Tom Kean Jr., who is very familiar with the FairTax, and has read the book took a card.

Finally, Star Ledger Columnist Paul Mulshine took a card and said he liked the idea. I took his e-mail and will contact him.

~Jim Bennett