Saying that incumbent Congressman Gene Taylor is a “closet liberal” and voted twice for Speaker of the House Nancy Polosi, 4th Congressional Republican candidate for Congress Joe Tegerdine kicked off his campaign this week on 15 whistle stops around the district, one of them in Picayune on Monday afternoon.

Although he crowd was sparse at the train depot, Tegerdine, a Petal businessman, forged ahead anyway.

He said that his crowds were good in the afternoon but not as good in the mornings when people work.

He said he is a Republican conservative and stands for returning to the basics of constitutional government. “We have spent way too much and are digging our hole deeper,” he said. “I am also standing up for family and my religious values. We need to return to the basics.”

His stop here lasted about 30 minutes.

After leaving Picayune, he headed for the Gulf Coast, Taylor’s stronghold.

He charged that Taylor’s campaign budget of $2 million was 85 percent donated from special interests outside the state. “We have to ask, who is Mr. Taylor paying attention to, to those donors or to his constituents,” he said.

Tegerdine said he will rely on small donations from “regular citizens.” However, he admitted that he faces raising a huge war chest in order to face Taylor, who is very strong.

“We need $500,000 to mount a credible campaign, but we are shooting for $750,000. We also need to garner at least 75,000 votes to win the election,” he said.

“This is my first run. I am not a career politician,” he said.

“I believe people are fed up with Congress and what they are doing. Nothing they have passed recently or are planning to pass really passes constitutional muster,” he said.

“Taylor is pretending to be a conservative, but his votes shows he is not. The big thing is that he has voted twice for Nancy Polosi for Speaker of the House,” he said.

“I think when you align yourself with someone who is so opposed to what you claim to believe, then I cannot believe that those are your true beliefs,” he charged.

“Also, Taylor will say that he does not support the way health care legislation is funded, but he will not say that he does not favor nationalized health care,” he said.

“I think we deserve some straight talk from Gene Taylor and I don’t think he is giving it to us,” he added.

The next Congressional election takes placer November 2010.