BELLMAWR, NJ – He’s been kicked down, locked out and locked up over the past two years for defying New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s draconian and ineffective COVID-19 pandemic lockdown orders. Now, Ian Smith, the defiant owner of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey is running for Congress to unseat progressive, radical Democrat Andy Kim.
Even better, Smith is doing it alone. He won’t be seeking an endorsement from the county Republican organizations and won’t get the Republican line from the establishment RINO organizations. He’s going to challenge the system head-on in a primary challenge against former punk rocker Bob Healey Jr.
In his campaign kick-off, Smith acknowledged a mistake he made when was 20 years old, a drunk driving crash that lead to the death of 19-year-old Kevin Ade in Galloway in 2007. He’s hoping that mistake 15 years ago doesn’t cost him the election. If he wins the GOP nomination in June, it’s a topic sure to be pounded home by radical socialist Andy Kim in the general election.
“When I was 20 years old, I woke up after a night of drinking in my college apartment got in my car and moments later was the sole cause of a tragic accident that took the life of a young man named Kevin,” Smith said. “My actions broke the hearts of a family and an entire community of people and that is something that those people may never recover fully from. There are many who are still hurt upset and saddened by this grave mistake and I cannot blame them for feeling that way the guilt that I carry from this accident is something I take with me everywhere I go.”
Smith served five and a half years in prison for his mistake.
In 2020, during the draconian Phil Murphy lockdown of New Jersey, Smith, the owner of the Atilis Gym in Bellmawr defied the governor’s orders. As a result, he was fined, arrested, his business was boarded shut by the local health department and he was later convicted of violating the Murphy executive orders, but he stood by his principles through the entire pandemic, even though it meant financial and social hardships for him and his family.
Now, Smith wants to head to Congress to finish what former President Trump started. He said he wants to push to continue building the border wall, stop the flow of illegal aliens with criminal records over the border and stop the flow of illegal drugs and human trafficking over the southern border.
Smith also pledged to fight against government COVID-19 mandates, anti-business legislation and to protect freedom of speech in America.
“I’m running for Congress to rule the end to end of the rule by governing, a rule-by-mandate style of governing,” Smith said. “Mandates are wrong at the state level and they are wrong at the federal level…fortunately the supreme court has blocked one of Joe Biden’s mandates for companies over a hundred employees, however, there are still many people who are facing termination for their job for wanting to make their own health choices and we must not forget those who are still standing for their own freedoms. I will fight mandates at the federal level as a congressman.”
Healey’s campaign took no time to pounce on Smith’s 2017 reckless manslaughter conviction.
“Republicans have a historic opportunity to stop Joe Biden’s and Nancy Pelosi’s radical agenda and win back control of the House this November, but that won’t happen if we nominate unfit and unelectable candidates like Ian Smith,” Theresa Velardi, campaign manager for Healey said.
Healey, a former punk rocker brings his own baggage to the campaign table. When he was younger, he was the lead singer of a punk rock band called the Ghouls who put out some pretty violent and offensive lyrics that have raised more than a few eyebrows in the highbrow establishment Republican circles.
The band a horror-core, death-inspired late punk band lived in a house they referred to as “Mein Haus“.
“I was a lead singer, and I wrote those songs and I understand if people might find it offensive,” Healey said in an interview with the New Jersey Globe. “I was an angry guy back then. I started the band when I was sixteen.”
So, New Jersey, your choice in 2022 for Congress in Congressional District 3 will be between a punk rocker turned yacht magnate, a radical leftist liberal and a defiant gym owner who is trying to move on from his past. In essence, all three men running are trying to move on from their former selves.
