Republicans celebrate St. Patrick's Day with own breakfast

Call it Southie, or something like that, but who says Democrats are the only ones to have fun on St. Patrick's Day?

"How many people we got here, a couple hundred, white Republicans and we have one Latino guy from Columbia, so we are doing pretty good, we are expanding our roles here, we are very diverse," joked Republican State Senator Bob Hedlund, who was emceeing the state party's St. Paddy's Day Breakfast in Scituate.

This year is the fourth year in a row for what you might call  the alternative breakfast, never mind that bloated roast in South Boston.

"We Republicans are also celebrating St. Paddy's Day, and this is the Irish Rivera, here in Scituate, so why not," laughed organizer Janet Fogarty Kelly.  Why not is right.  So we will need some jokes.  Let's start with Gabriel Gomez, the former  Navy Seal of Columbian heritage who is hoping to become a U.S. Senator.  "Now I think we need to get super tough on border security...but let me tell you why, " said Gomez, "because I am already here," he joked.

Michael Sullivan, who has always been here, is a funny man too.   He got into the race late, had to get those signatures to be on the ballot in a real hurry.  "In fact Holly Robichaud sent me a bill for $300,000, and I said what's this for, she said $10 a vote, that's the going rate, that's what the other guys are paying," said Republican Candidate for U. S. Senate, Michael Sullivan, a former U. S. Attorney.

"A lot of people in this room helped get me on the ballot so I am indebted and grateful for that effort, and I mean this is really the energy of the party, it is really the base," said Sullivan.

Gomez is confident this WAS the breakfast.  "You know you gotta ask Democrats why they didn't invite us, I think it is because maybe they thought we were gonna go there and show them up," said Gomez.  "I am happy to come by and say a few words, see a lot of old friends and make new ones," Sullivan said.

One candidate for that John Kerry Senate seat, didn't make the trip this year, state rep. and former judge Dan Winslow, who decided to crash the South Boston Breakfast instead.