NORWICH – The Chenango Tea Party hosted a ribbon cutting opening its campaign headquarters in the heart of downtown Norwich Thursday. The campaign center, located in a storefront at 5 South Broad St., will remain open until the presidential election. The office will be manned by members of the Tea Party from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

“We want to explain to people, in a nonpartisan way, the truth about the candidates, how they really stand on issues, not the hype,” said Chenango Tea Party founder and coordinator Charles Resseguie. “We want to inform people. We get our information from other tea party groups,” he said.

“We have lots of different sources, tea party groups, and lots of online sources,” added Gilda Ward.

“We’re even getting some of our sources from the liberal media,” said Resseguie. “Newsweek magazine just published a cover story titled ‘Hit the road, Barack.’ The New York Times and other liberal media are digging up things and coming out against tyranny,” he said.

“I heard about the stimulus and all the bills the were being passed and I said to myself, someone needs to do something about this, and then I realized I was that someone ... we’re taking our nation back, with God’s help,” said Resseguie.

The Chenango Tea Party’s first rally took place on April 12, 2009 in front of the county courthouse. “Around 120 to 200 like-minded people showed up for it (and since then) a lot of patriots from nearby have come to see how we run our rallies,” said Ward.

“Since our inception, we have been a help in starting other similar groups in the area and we’ve taken a leadership role in creating local tea party groups,” said Resseguie. “Our group as well as others are concerned about who will be elected, because the president is responsible for choosing judges for the supreme court. Without a conservative president to choose conservative judges, the country will not survive with liberal judges,” he said.