The 14 Wisconsin Democratic state senators who hightailed it to Illinois are almost as hard to find as mountaineering Taliban. Almost.
Turns out, some of them may be Harvard men (and women). Harvard, Ill., that is.
On a tip from Tea Party members around the state who had been coordinating “search parties” since Monday, a couple of Northern Illinois Tea Partiers went to the small town to see if the Wisconsin Democrats were hiding out there.
With a population of about 9,000, the accommodations in Harvard range from hotel 1 to hotel 2. More importantly, Harvard is just a quick six-minute dash from the Wisconsin state line — a feature that even Hotel Guide deems as worth noting.
“It’s a podunk little farming community,” Northern Illinois Tea Party Coordinator Jane Carrell, who was part of the semi-coordinated round-up by several county Tea Party groups, told The Daily Caller.
Arriving at the Heritage Hotel in Harvard, one member of the Northern Illinois Tea Party, who goes by “Doc,” said he saw several of the Wisconsin Democrats huddled around their laps in the lounge.
“They were there and when I asked them questions, they ran like rats,” Doc told TheDC.
When he approached them, Doc said hotel management threatened to call the cops.
“That’s when it really went to pieces,” said Doc, who also described police officers arriving on the scene shortly after.
“As they departed from the lobby, I asked them if they felt that they should be recalled and if this was the Republican party doing this would they start a recall immediately against them.”
When contacted by TheDC, a staff member at the Heritage hotel said the Democrats were “not at the hotel,” adding that they were “moving locations” within Illinois.
On Monday, an ABC news affiliate “caught up with some” of the Democrats, including Sen. Chris Larson, at a unnamed hotel in Northern Illinois. Doc said that by the time he was asked to leave, “there were TV cameras there.” Around 2pm Tuesday, the same ABC reporter posted pictures of police arriving at the Heritage Hotel.
“Oh yeah, we found’em,” Mary Alger of the Crystal Lake Tea Party — who showed up at the hotel with a sign that read, “The Illinois Tea Party finds the Wisconsin Flee Party — told TheDC.
While buying groceries, Alger said she got a tip that the Democrats were in Harvard, so she dropped off her purchase and “zipped to Harvard,” which is about a 15 minute drive.
“They’re on the run now. The police came and I couldn’t stay on the property because I wasn’t a registered guest,” said Alger. “They’re kind of like little rats in a maze.”
Alger said that after approaching the group with her sign and later being asked to leave by the hotel staff, a “young guy” from the supposed Democratic entourage began filming her and asking for identification. When she asked for his in return, she said, the young guy declined the invitation for show-and-tell.
“I think they thought they were so stealthy and then here comes this housewife, here she comes with her sign,” said Alger.” So they’re all on the run again.”
“We’re just citizens but with a great network. Here we found them in Harvard, Ill.,” she said. “This was a Tea Party sting!”
This article has been updated
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