Citing partisan politics and votes against limiting the government’s control over health care, the Sussex County Tea Party has launched a petition drive to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), a massive undertaking that would require the signatures of 1,306,224 registered voters to get on the ballot.

New Jersey is one of eighteen states that allow voters to recall statewide elected officials. Elected officials can face recall elections if organizers follow specific legal guidelines and collect the signatures of one quarter of all registered voters.  As of last month, New Jersey has 5,224,896 registered voters.

The Tea Party, a grass-roots group that supports “fiscal responsibility, individual liberty and limited government,” says they filed a notice of intention with Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells on September 25.  On November 25, the recall committee filed a civil complaint in Superior Court against Wells, alleging that she failed to comply with their notice. 

“Senator Menendez has sided with rigidly partisan politicians in his repeated votes for cloture on a variety of key bills, stifling public debate in the Senate and denying New Jersey citizens transparency,” the recall committee said in a statement released today.  “For example, the Senator voted down an amendment that would have prevented Medicare from being raided for new entitlements and another that would have limited the government's control over the health care of American families.  During this difficult financial period when Americans are cutting their own budgets and trying to save every penny, Senator Menendez voted down proposals to remove from spending bills a number of extravagant, excessive multi-million dollar projects that offered little or no short-term economic benefits.”

The Sussex Tea Party is run by RoseAnn Salanitri and Tim Adriance.  Their lawyer is Dan Silberstein.