Despite repeated online intimidation tactics and promises of protests by the Skylands Tea Party and members of the Sussex County GOP, the Sussex County Democratic Committee will still hold their Private Cocktail Party fundraiser with Special Guest Phil Murphy this evening.

The Republican elected officials that represent the county, the Skylands Tea Party and the Sussex GOP have made their hatred of Governor Murphy and the Sussex Dems well known throughout the summer and fall with threats, harassment and lies. Earlier this week when the fundraiser for the Sussex County Democratic Committee was publicized more widely, Assemblyman Parker Space used his rebuttal time during a Candidate’s Night to falsely claim the fundraiser was hosted by Democratic Assembly Candidates, Deana Lykins and Dan Smith. He even went as far as to ask his wife and audience member, Jill Space, for the location so that he may announce it to the crowd, in what was an obvious and unsuccessful attempt to hurt his opponents by associating them with the Governor.

As a direct result, the President of the Skylands Tea Party took to social media to fan the flames of hatred towards the Governor and the Sussex Dems in order to organize a protest at their private fundraiser. Crude remarks online led to two actual threats against Governor Murphy.

The president of the Skylands Tea Party, and employee of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, posted a photo of himself holding a “Phil Murphy Sucks” sign inside a gun store surrounded by guns with the caption, “We have plenty of these”. The other was via a comment on a post about protesting the Dem’s event that said, “Come at me Governor Beaver! I’ll throw my high capacity magazines at you!”, to which Skylands Tea Party president responded, “I have the location……let’s go”.

Sussex County Democratic Committee Chairwoman responded, “They are just bullies, that are emboldened by what they consider a ‘win’ last week when the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders both refused to remove Jerry Scanlan from the Board of Trustees and to even deem the images and words Mr. Scanlan shared as hate speech. They are all only hurting the reputation of the school, not the county’s Democratic party.”

The rumors that the Sussex Dems are hiding the location and repeatedly changing the location of the fundraiser out of fear of protestors is unequivocally false.

“If the SCDC changed the location of any event or meeting they had because of the threat of the County’s rightwing extremists we would never meet,” continued SCDC Chair Katie Rotondi. “I believe that the escalation to threats to the Governor is a manifestation of their fears as we are clearly gaining ground in the county. Regardless, they should be taken very seriously.”

The Sussex County Democratic Committee and fundraiser attendees are excited for the opportunity to welcome Governor Murphy to Sussex County, speak to him about the needs of Sussex County and have a great afternoon enjoying one another’s company.