Thomas Kean Jr. held a campaign fundraiser on Friday at Hawk Point Golf Club in Washington Township, and Tracey Tully of said she was turned away when she tried to get in. She waited in the parking lot for an interview before local police officers confronted her after someone inside the event called and said she was trespassing.
Mike Johnson attended the fundraiser to support Kean’s re-election efforts in New Jersey's 7th congressional district. After speaking with Tully in the parking lot as he left, Johnson said, “You know, if it were me, I would have done it a little sooner,” and added, “What he was dealing with affects many millions of Americans, so I think people understand that.”
Hawk Point Golf Club on Friday
Tully said she was told the event was “private” and could not get inside, even though reporter Liz Elkind and a local Pennsylvania-based TV reporter were present. She said she was trying to speak with Kean when the police response began outside the golf club.
New Jersey state troopers were stationed outside the event as Johnson’s security detail. Sgt. Dallas Overko of the Washington Township Police Department said he responded to the call of a trespasser and later said he “didn’t know it was just a nice little reporter waiting for an interview.”
Tom Kean and press access
Kean posted on X that he has “the most local press engagements of any NJ Member of Congress,” then accused his opponent, Democrat Rebecca Bennett, of hiding behind a campaign script. Rob Menendez later responded with a video of Kean refusing to answer questions from a local New Jersey reporter on Capitol Hill.
Kean has not publicly addressed the police being called on Tully, and his office has declined other requests for interviews. The episode leaves the basic question in plain view: who inside the fundraiser made the call that brought police to the parking lot.
