Every couple of years, someone steps up to challenge entrenched 11-term Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel, who represents part of Bronx (Riverdale, Norwood, Woodlawn), Westchester and Rockland counties, usually with underwhelming results.
This year, the first to step up to the plate is Anthony Mele (pictured), 51, a Rockland-based businessman and Army vet who solidly identifies himself as an organizer with the burgeoning and conservative tea party movement that was credited with putting Republican Scott Brown into the vacant Massachusetts senate seat held by the late liberal icon Ted Kennedy.
Unsurprisingly, he's made taxes (the TEA in Tea Party stands for Taxed Enough Already) the singular theme of his campaign.
"Its time to stop the tax madness down in Washington," Mele said in a statement announcing his candidacy. "We don't need government over-spending, over-taxing and over-reaching into our lives."
In this overwhelmingly Democratic district (so was Kennedy's), Mele is running on the Republican and Conservative ballot lines.
For more on Mele, check out his website.
