Passion Stirs Political Demonstrators on U.S. 19

Many passing drivers honked in support, others gestured crudely. Tony Caso seemed unfazed.

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

Caso, of Palm Harbor, waved for two hours alongside a dozen or so fellow demonstrators. He said he was compelled to do so to help get President Barack Obama out of office.

"We are in the fight of our lives for freedom," Caso said. "Look what this guy did to our country in four years. We need our country back."

Caso'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.

Caso explained that he wants to prevent the U.S. from turning into a Third World country. "[Obama] said he was going to cut the deficit in half. He doubled it in two years." 

Solitary Support

A lone Obama supporter stood across the street from Caso'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, 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 in Clearwater 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