At the Tea Party speed-date event at the Greyhound Park Wednesday night, state Rep. Phil Hart emphasizes a point while opponents for his House Seat 2B seat listen. They are (from left): Fritz Wiedenhoff, Ed Morse, Hart, and Ron Vieselmeyer.

A Berry Picker reports: There seemed to be a pretty good crowd at the Greyhound Events Center when we got there at 5:20 or so.  Walked in & was immediately greeted by Luke Malek who was holding the door open for folks entering the venue.  There were lots of other people offering flyers and talking point cards of their candidates in the entryway.  The Recall booth was located just passed the bar (!) and next to the booth where people could register to vote. We were approached to sign the Recall petition several times and we declined, politely. More below.

Thoughts?

The forum began with Brent Regan explaining how the candidates would spend a minute introducing themselves and then would head to their respective areas to answer questions. There were a few no-show candidates including Bruce Noble. The organizers felt the need to rip on President Obama several times (I really thought this was supposed to be about local (i.e. county & state) issues, but I guess national office holders were fair game.) I guesstimate between 3-400 people.  But I'm pretty lousy with guessing
numbers so take that with a large grain of salt.   After the introductions, the largest crowd seemed to be gathered around the sheriff candidates. We saw several "Don't tread on me" decorated articles of clothing, including one woman with a tight black t-shirt and the logo and snake in rhinestones.  ha! 3 more county candidate forums are planned for later in April.