Minnesota RLC Endorses Tom Emmer for Governor

Yesterday the Republican Liberty Caucus of Minnesota, a state affiliate of the Republican Liberty Caucus, announced endorsements for 12 candidates who will restore fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, and reduced size to state government.  The Minnesota primary occurred last month.

“Our state government is living well beyond its means, and Minnesotans are feeling the consequences of the DFL-led legislature’s inability to set the state’s spending priorities given the realities of current revenues,” said state RLC Chairman David FitzSimmons.

The caucus endorsed Rep. Tom Emmer (pictured) for Governor, Pat Anderson for State Auditor, Rep. Dan Severson for Secretary of State, and Lee Byberg for the Seventh Congressional District.

Incumbents endorsed by the Caucus include Rep. Ron Shimanski, House District 18B and Sen. Chris Gerlach, Senate District 37.

Challengers endorsed by the Caucus include Dave Kruse, House District 23B; Doug Wardlow, House District 38B; Dale Helm, House District 51B; Mark Fotsch, House District 54A; Andrea Kieffer, House District 56B and Krysia Weidell, Senate District 67.

“The strength of this slate is a testament to those who remember and respect the principles that founded our country since they are running to preserve our freedoms here in The North Star State,” concluded Chairman FitzSimmons.

A full listing of the Minnesota RLC’s endorsements is available here.

New Hampshire RLC Endorses 142 Candidates

With just two weeks until the New Hampshire primary, the state chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus has endorsed 45 additional candidates for office. The group of 45 joins the 97 other candidates endorsed by the New Hampshire RLC previously.

The candidates were selected after reviewing candidate surveys from www.rlcnh.org/survey, which were used to judge the candidate’s positions on the issues.

“Once elected, these 142 candidates will be leaders who bring restorative change to New Hampshire with their common sense agenda,” said Andrew Hemingway, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire. “No longer will growing government and the taxes and spending that come with it govern the state. These leaders will restore the principles of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility and free enterprise to New Hampshire.”

RLCNH is promoting Common Sense for New Hampshire, an effort to elect legislators who will promote policies favorable to economic opportunity, health care savings, and parental/community empowerment. The New Hampshire RLC is also targeting seven “Republicans in Name Only” (RINOs) this fall.

A listing of the newly endorsed New Hampshire candidates is here and a listing of previously endorsed RLCNH candidates is here.

A Republican Liberty Caucus-endorsed candidate for Congress in Washington state finished ahead of his Democrat incumbent opponent in a five-way primary last Tuesday.

John Koster, the Republican nominee for Congress in District 2 and a Snohomish County Commissioner, edged Democrat incumbent Rick Larsen in the total number of votes received in the primary, according to Politico.

According to the secretary of state’s Web site late Friday, Koster received 73,899 votes, or 42.2 percent, in the Aug. 17 primary to Larsen’s 73,623 votes, or 42 percent. About 175,200 votes were cast. Three other candidates were eliminated and Koster will now face Larsen head on this November.

Larsen is a five-term incumbent and was not on the National Democratic Congressional Committee’s list of vulnerable incumbents until now.

Go John Koster!

RLC Chairman Dave Nalle will be a guest on the Gary Nolan radio show on the morning of Saturday the 28th with guest host Mike Ferguson. He’ll be on at 9:40am (central). We’ll be talking about the RLC and the Liberty Movement. If you don’t get the show where you are there’s a webcast of it. You can tune in and listen from the link to the right.

Dave

In the past year Wisconsin has gone from having no RLC affiliate at all to having an active chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus.

In the past eight months the RLCWI has chartered its affiliate, reached out at the state GOP Convention, introduced itself to party leaders/activists, protested the Wisconsin GOP’s pre-primary endorsements, and endorsed a liberty slate of candidates. Their progress is documented at http://wi.rlc.org/.

The endorsed candidates for State Assembly, who will face primary opposition on September 14, include:

∙ Andre Jacque for State Representative, District 2 (Green Bay)
∙ Jim Steineke for State Representative, District 5 (Appleton)
∙ Brad Sponholz for State Representative, District 7 (Milwaukee)
∙ Chris Kapenga (pictured) for State Representative, District 33 (Waukesha)
∙ Evan Wynn for State Representative, District 43 (Whitewater)
∙ Both Jeremy Thiesfeldt and Timothy Lakin for State Representative, District 52 (Fond du Lac)
∙ Chuck Schmidt for State Representative, District 57 (Appleton)
∙ Scott Krug for State Representative, District 72 (Wisconsin Rapids)
∙ Roger Rivard for State Representative, District 75 (Superior)
∙ Dave Redick for State Representative, District 77 (Madison)

“This is a great slate of candidates. We hope they make it through their primaries so we can reshape the Wisconsin Assembly with a liberty slate,” said Wisconsin RLC Chairman Michael S. Murphy. Learn more about the candidates at http://wi.rlc.org/endorsements/.

Congratulations to the Wisconsin RLC!

If you live in Alabama or Arizona, we hope you’ll attend the following meetings.  New members are always welcome.

Alabama RLC Meetup

Who: Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus
When: Tuesday, August 31 at 7:00PM
Where: Southern Pain Specialists — in the “One Nineteen Health & Wellness Center”, on the Second Floor, Suite 204. 7191 Cahaba Valley Rd, Birmingham, AL 35242-6042. Map and directions: http://www.southernpain.com/Map.asp.

Pima County RLC Meetup

Who: Pima County Republican Liberty Caucus
What and When: The Pima County Republican Liberty Caucus will hold its August regular monthly meeting on Thursday, August 26th, beginning at 6:30pm. The meeting will be informal and will last 1 – 1 1/2 hours. We will discuss the primary election results as well as how to move the RLC agenda forward in Arizona.
Where: Canyon’s Crown Restaurant & Pub, 6958 E. Tanque Verde Rd., Tucson, AZ.
Facebook RSVP.

After hosting its Republican Secretary of State debate last week, the Michigan chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus has endorsed Anne Norlander for Secretary of State.

Norlander is the County Clerk and Register of Deeds for Calhoun County, Michigan. She has solid fundraising numbers although a poll from July indicates she is not at the front of the pack for likely Republican voters. Still, only a few percentage points separated her from her leading opponents.

Republican Liberty Caucus members hope to make up the difference to help Norlander get to the head of the pack before the election.

“I think Norlander won the support of our Board because of her understanding and willingness to manage fair elections and she seems to best articulate a limited government message in her debate answers,” said Michigan RLC Chairman Mike Hewitt.

Delegates to the Michigan GOP Convention will select the nominee on August 28.

IRAQ BY THE NUMBERS, from Stars and Stripes:
U.S. troops killed: 4,414
U.S. troops wounded in action: 31,897
Number of U.S. troop amputees: 1,135
Iraqi civilian deaths: 113,166
War’s operating cost: $747.6 billion
Per American: $2,435; Per Iraqi: $25,828
Estimate of the total cost of the war: $3 trillion
Cost of maintaining 50,000 troops from now to end of 2011: $12.75 billion
Cost of medical care and disability compensation for Iraq war veterans over their lifetimes: $500 billion.
_____________________________________________________

Commentary: Seven and a half years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the last U.S. combat brigade has departed. It took longer than the duration of World War II to get to this point.

Still, as many as 50,000 U.S. troops will stay behind to help train and support the Iraqi military.

This fact is not widely reported in the media despite that the last combat brigade exit has been reported.

Voters deserve to know the truth: the U.S. continues to finance — through taxpayer dollars (e.g., money we do not have) — the rebuilding of foreign nations while our own country faces problems with government spending, debt, and increasing financial obligations.

The solution is to stop rebuilding foreign countries and start rebuilding our own country.

It can be done, but it takes politicians with backbones and courage of their convictions.

That’s where our Republican Liberty Caucus-endorsed candidates come in.

Please support them today.

Activists Robert Hornak, Daniel Peterson, and Raquel Okyay organized a New York City meeting of the Republican Liberty Caucus Tuesday night in Manhattan. The turnout was excellent, with around 45 activists in attendance — many of whom became members of the RLC for the first time.

Notable guests included New York City Council member (and RLC member) Dan Halloran, Co-Chair of the Kings County GOP David Storobin, former Libertarian Party leader Gary Greenberg, Ron Paul NYC Meetup organizer Bill Buran, Assembly candidate William Gouldman, former Peekskill City Council member Bill Schmidt, New York RLC Officers/Board members, and several other organizers of local GOP groups.

The goal of the event was to charter a New York City chapter of the RLC. A New York state chapter already exists. Guests were asked to join the RLC and were treated to free food and great company.

Thanks to the organizers of the event for making it a success. Below are some photos from the event.

New York RLC Chairman/City Councilman Dan Halloran.

David Storobin, Alice Lemos, and Harry Lewis.

Daniel Peterson, Raquel Okyay, and Robert Hornak.

According to Brian Irving at his blog LibertyPoint, “’Legislators will legislate anything and everything in the name of safety’, Gary Johnson told a meeting of the N.C. Republican Liberty Caucus Tuesday night. The New Mexico Republican has considerable experience dealing with this penchant. He vetoed more than 750 bills and issued thousand of line-item vetoes in his two terms. Few of his vetoes were overturned.”

Members of the Republican Liberty Caucus, Students for Liberty, and Young Americans for Liberty gathered in Raleigh to hear Governor Johnson’s message of limited government and individual liberty — which he championed while serving two terms as Governor of a Democrat state.

Read more about what the Governor had to say at LibertyPoint.

RLC Organizer Nick Williford with Gov. Johnson.

Attendees mingling with the Governor.

Last night the Michigan chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus hosted a Republican Secretary of State Debate at the Oakland County Commissioners Auditorium in Pontiac.

The candidates included were:
* State Senator Cameron Brown
* Oakland County Clerk & Register of Deeds Ruth Johnson
* State Senator Michelle McManus
* Calhoun County Clerk & Register of Deeds Anne Norlander
* State Representative Paul Scott

View the debate at http://blip.tv/file/4020645.

Thus far the Republican Liberty Caucus has not endorsed any candidate in the race.

Congratulations to the Michigan RLC affiliate for introducing these candidates to voters in a format that allowed them to hear their answers to the tough problems facing the state.