Democratic donors cancel Atlanta tea party

Simon Property Group, Inc., a real estate company whose chairman is a major Democrat donor, has canceled the Atlanta Tea Party scheduled for July 4. Simon owns the Gwinnett Place Mall where the event had been scheduled since March, and last week the mall manager informed organizers that Simon did not want political events on their property.

“Our Atlanta Tea Party team tried for the next day and a half to find an alternative location large enough for the event, and with the proper layout for our vendors, children’s activities, and fireworks show, but we could not find anything suitable that would have been available on July 4th,” said event co-chair Debbie Dooley in a June 20 statement.

The American Thinker blog has more on Simon Property Group and their Democrat funding:

1. Gwinnett Place Mall shut down the Atlanta Tea Party.
2. Simon Property Group owns Gwinnett Place Mall.
3. Melvin Simon (a Forbes 400 billionaire) is Co-chairman of Simon Property Group, Inc.
4. Melvin Simon has provided large political contributions to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Franken, John Edwards, the DNC and many other Democrats and Democrat organizations.
5. Melvin Simon was a major contributor to Barack Obama inaugural committee and has given at least $1 million to the William J. Clinton foundation.
6. Melvin’s wife, Bren, personally donated almost $100,000 to various political candidates, was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, and contributed to President Obama’s inaugural committee.

With the April 15 Tax Day Tea Party drawing around 20,000 attendees, it should hardly have been a secret to Simon and the Gwinnett Mall that the July event would be political. It seems to me that the nature and timing of the cancellation was simply a way for opponents to cancel the event altogether.

The Atlanta Tea Party has joined forces with the Cobb Tea Party for a metro-wide event on July 3.