This is in addition to alleged plants in Nevada and Florida and… elsewhere? If this is true, a) it’s despicable and b) shows the desperation of those on the left.

The 3rd Congressional District contest took a strange turn last week when an obscure, third-party candidate entered the fray.

Peter DeStefano, the independent Tea Party candidate this fall, didn’t announce himself as a candidate. Rather, his name surfaced for the first time as a viable candidate in an internal poll commissioned by Rep. John Adler and released to several blogs.

But no organized Tea Party group had ever heard of DeStefano…

And…

“Several members questioned (DeStefano’s) authenticity or his allegiance to the Tea Party,” Haney said the following day. “I asked him to stick around, said “I’d like to talk to you.’ Immediately after the meeting he disappeared.”

By Friday, Haney said the Burlington County Tea Party was ready to denounce DeStefano as a fraud candidate designed to split the conservative vote.

“I think the guy is a plant,” he said.

UPDATE: Exit question: what about when someone with actual cred uses the Tea Party name as Michelle Bachmann is doing with the formation of a congressional caucus? Eric Cantor says the tea party’s better off as a grassroots movement, not a House caucus:

Cantor praised Bachmann for providing “another avenue for people to have their voices heard” but said he thinks the tea party is better left outside Washington.

“I met with several of groups that operated under that moniker in Virginia; they’re not all uniform,” Cantor said in his third-floor Capitol office. “That’s part of the beauty of the tea party movement; it’s organic. And it’s certainly not Washington. So I think it’s better left with the people.”

Personally, I agree.