Lee Zeldin was an early supporter of the Tea Party, with involvement dating back to the first tea rallies on April 15, 2009
State Senate candidate Lee Zeldin may be regretting his invite earlier this year to controversial South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint to be the guest of honor at his big fundraiser. DeMint, of course, has gotten a lot of negative attention this week for calling for gays and sexually active single women to be barred from the classroom. This repeated a similar demand from DeMint a half-decade ago.
DeMint also has a record as one of the most anti-immigrant members of the United States Senate. He pressed the procedural buttons in 2007 that led to the crash and burn of the compromise immigration reform bill proposed by President Bush and Senators Kennedy and McCain.
DeMint got headlines recently by comparing immigrants coming to America to the BP oil spill.
DeMint took a stand against immigrants again this summer when he led an effort to bar the Justice Department from challenging Arizona’s show me your papers law, SB-1070.
Jim DeMint has become the Tea Party leader in the U.S. Senate
Zeldin was an early supporter of the Tea Party, speaking at their first Long Island rally in April, 2009.
DeMint is considered the godfather of the Tea Parties and is a rival of Sarah Palin’s for the faction’s leadership. He has attempted to expand his influence by fundraising for out-of-South Carolina Tea Partyers. He is expected to run for President in 2012 if the Tea Party candidates triumph in November.
Zeldin is in a tight race with incumbent State Senator Brian Foley and he may want to reconsider alienating Latinos, immigrants, members of the LGBT community, and women.
T-shirts promoting DeMint's 2012 Presidential candidacy are already being offered for sale
[...] machine in Putnam County and at whether Brian Foley will lose his Long Island State Senate seat to a tea party candidate with ties to Steve [...]