Over 50 people stopped by our campaign office on February 16 to help open our new headquarters and kick off our grassroots effort.
The event was well-attended and we are happy to have had voters and volunteers from Martin, Charlotte, and Saint Lucie Counties in attendance. Three St. Lucie GOP Chairmen, two St. Lucie State Committeemen, three candidates for State House District 81, and School Board Member John Carvelli were among the community leaders in attendance.
Volunteers offered their services for a wide range of campaign activities – everything from stuffing and sealing envelopes to helping with our online efforts and outreach to various coalitions.
The campaign would like to give a special thank you to the Gotz family, especially our office manager Mary, without whom the success of the event would not have been possible.
February 16th, 2008
From the Palm Beach Post…
Calling illegal immigration a “major problem” in Florida, state Rep. Gayle Harrell today celebrated a series of bills that she and others said would make it tougher for employers to hire undocumented workers and push local law enforcement to help identify illegal immigration.
“We need to deal with the problem we are having in our community with illegals,” said Harrell, a Stuart Republican running for Congress this year.
“We’re now having a significant problem with our budget and we’re having to cut services to legal residents of the state,” she said. “And when we’re spending $1.8 billion on services to illegals in the state, we need to really look at what we can do to address the problem.”
Her bill (HB 821), the “Florida Safe Borders Act of 2008,” would, among other things, prohibit the state from supporting day labor centers, such as El Sol in Jupiter, that could be helping illegal immigrants find work.
She was joined in her press conference by several Palm Beach County residents, including 79-year-old Charlie Elliott of Jupiter. Elliott said he has protested outside El Sol. Carol Diane, a 60-year-old Boca Raton resident, also traveled to the Capitol on Tuesday to lobby for immigration reform. She said it was the first political issue to inspire her action.
“As a mother, it tugs at your heartstrings to see the plight of people from around the world who want to come to America,” Diane said. “But now our security is at risk and we’re being affected not just economically, but in terms of the criminal element as well. It’s a scary time.”
Both Diane and Elliott said they were loosely associated with groups known as Border Control Now and Floridians for Immigration Enforcement.
Full story here.
February 9th, 2008
