Election Inspires Clearwater Man's Roadside Romney Demonstration

Many passing drivers honked in support, while others gestured crudely. Ken Dewese seemed unfazed.

Just days before the Nov. 6 General Election, Dewese held a homemade campaign sign, an American flag attached, in support of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as drivers stuck in Tuesday's U.S. 19 rush hour traffic slowly passed. 

The wind was so fierce at one demonstration that his other American flag broke off, he said, pointing to the splintered end of a wooden rod still taped to the back of his Romney-Ryan sign.

Dewese, a more than 30-year Clearwater resident, waved for two hours alongside a dozen or so fellow demonstrators. He said he is inspired to demonstrate on the corner. 

"You make your donations, but you can't just sit around," Dewese said.

Dewese's fellow activists claimed to be from a non-partisan Meetup group called the North Pinellas 9/12 Project (some demonstrators held signs in support of Democrat Carl Zimmerman). The group is a local chapter of a national, volunteer, Glenn Beck-inspired movement whose mission is uniting and educating people and communities on principals in the U.S. Constitution. The group has more than 1,000 members.

Dewese explained that he fears a lot of young people don't really understand the Constitution. "We didn't pay attention for a long time," he said. 

"The county, city, and the country — we've got to put the right people in the right positions," he said.

Solitary Support

A lone President Barack Obama supporter stood across the street from Dewese's demonstration at the corner of Curlew Road and U.S. 19 with a homemade sign.

Michael James, 32, said he saw the group of Romney-Ryan supporters when he walked out of the Circle K and approached them.

He was so incensed after his interaction with the Romney-Ryan supporters that he went home and made his own "Obama" sign using a permanent marker and the lid of a blue storage container.

"How dare they tell me to get a job," said James, a five-year Palm Harbor resident said. "I work two jobs."

He is a cook at The Original Hooters and also distributes fliers at rate of 10 cents a copy, he said.

The 9/12 demonstrators said that James, who has visible tattoos on his neck and arms, was harassing them, so they told him to go to the corner across the street.

James avoided answering when asked what he initially said to the North Pinellas demonstrators. 

"Good for him," one North Pinellas Project 9/12 demonstrator said when they saw him with his sign from across the street.

Want to Go?

The North Pinellas 9/12 Project plans to demonstrate twice more before the General Election on Nov. 6. They expect a 100 or more demonstrators.

• When: Friday, Nov. 2 and Monday, Nov. 5 from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
• Where: North side of the Courtney Campbell Causeway