Dean Murray, First Elected Tea Party Activist, Joins N.Y. Legislature Monday – Los Angeles Times

The Tea Party crowd now has its first elected office holder.

He’s Dean Murray, a 45-year-old Long Island businessman, who won a lengthy recount in a special election for a New York State Assembly seat.

Murray, a Tea Party organizer from the protest movement’s very beginning last year, also ran on its anti-tax, anti-big government platform. He takes the official oath of office Monday.

While Tea Party supporters have played influential roles in other elections such as Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s upset win in Massachusetts, others are now running in GOP primaries elsewhere. Murray is believed to be the first to take office. He’ll have to run again in this fall’s regular election.

As advised by Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin, Murray picked a political party, the Republicans. He defeated Democrat Lauren Thoden by about 160 votes out of 8,000 in the 3rd Assembly District of eastern Long Island that has been represented by Democrats for the past 13 years.

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

Advertisement