Founded in 1991, the Republican Liberty Caucus works to advance the principles of limited government, free markets and individual liberty within the Republican Party.

May 15, 2013 (Arlington, VA) – The Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia announced its endorsement of Ken Cuccinelli for Governor, and Mark Obenshain for Attorney General, ahead of the Republican Party of Virginia state convention on May 17th and 18th. Cuccinelli, the sitting Attorney General, is unopposed for the gubernatorial nomination at the convention. Obenshain, a member of the Senate of Virginia from Harrisonburg, is seeking the nomination at the convention, with voting by delegates to come on Saturday the 18th.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has demonstrated ample commitment to limited government, liberty and federalism during his term in office, becoming perhaps the leading champion in the nation for federalism and opposition to federal overreach, in areas from health care to gun rights to education. The board of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia is proud to wholeheartedly endorse Ken Cuccinelli for Governor.

RLC-Virginia Chairman Robert Kenyon said “We’re very glad to have the most pro-liberty gubernatorial candidate in Virginia that we’ve had for generations. The board of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia is proud to endorse Ken Cuccinelli for Governor.”

Senator Mark Obenshain has been one of the leading lights of the Senate of Virginia since he was first elected in 2003. He has led the Privileges and Elections Committee, working to ensure the integrity of Virginia’s electoral process. He’s also led the fight in protecting the Second Amendment rights of Virginians, and working to pass legislation like the Virginia Healthcare Freedom Act, which helped make Virginia’s first-in-the-nation court challenge to Obamacare possible. Virginia has a chance to elect an Attorney General who will carry on the incumbent’s fight against federal overreach, and for the Old Dominion and her citizens.

Kenyon added, “While both men pursuing the Republican nomination for Attorney General at the convention this weekend are fine candidates who would both make outstanding Attorneys General, we support Mark Obenshain. He clearly understands what the stakes are in the fight for liberty, not just in Richmond, but against Washington and the ever-growing leviathan that is the federal government. Mark has the enthusiastic endorsement of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia.”

AUSTIN, TX (5/12/13) – Florida IT consultant Matt Nye of Melbourne, FL was elected National Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC). He will serve through 2015.

The RLC is the nation’s oldest grassroots organization of the Liberty Republican wing of the GOP. State chapters from Alaska to Florida and from California to Maine gathered at the biennial national convention in Austin, Texas to elect new national officers, participate in activist training workshops and to hear major Liberty Republican speakers like Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX).

“Our nation’s founding principles of individual rights, personal liberty and free markets are under assault as never before,” said Nye. “The RLC has a long track record of advocating for these ideas from within the Republican Party, and I look forward to working with the new board to capitalize on the popularity of the liberty message to grow our ranks and get pro-liberty candidates elected.”

Nye is a relative newcomer to politics, but has made his presence felt at all levels. In 2009 he organized the Brevard Tea Parties, the largest of which drew almost 4,000 people to the Space Coast Stadium on the July 4th holiday. In 2011 he was elected Chair of the RLC of Florida. Nye assumes the National Chair position after serving for the last two years as National Treasurer. He takes over from Dale Nalle of Texas who was National Chair from 1999-2013.

Also elected at the convention were Vice Chair Ed Lopez of Connecticut, Secretary Laura Ebke of Nebraska and Treasurer Norann Dillon of Minnesota. The four elected officers are automatic members of the RLC National Board which coordinates with the state chapters for the all-volunteer organization. Elected as at-large National Board members were Matt Dubin and Sandi Belzer, both of Washington State, and Levi Lippincott of Nebraska.

Portland, Maine was selected as the site for the 2015 RLC National Convention.

One of our most effective tools for winning over new members has always been our Statement of Principles. Once most liberty-inclined Republicans get a chance to read it they find that it resonates strongly with their beliefs and they realize that the Republican Liberty Caucus is a good place for them to invest their efforts.

To make the Statement of Principles more accessible we have now released it in the form of a tri-fold brochure.  The text just barely fit, so it’s a bit bare-bones on the inside, but it does have the entire content of the statement in an attractive portable format perfect for handing out at events to those who want to find out what the RLC is all about.

You can download the new brochure in PDF format and print it yourself, or order it at near cost in high-quality printed form from our store or right here:

All prices include shipping and handling.

In today’s special election in South Carolina, Republican Liberty Caucus endorsee Mark Sanford won an impressive victory by 7 points over Democratic contender Elizabeth Colbert-Bush. The RLC offers its wholehearted congratulations to Representative Sanford and looks forward to the launch of a second career as distinguished as his first.

In this election the people of South Carolina faced a clear choice between a candidate of substance with a proven track record who ran on a pro-business, small government platform and a vanity candidate running on the same tired promises of big government largesse on the backs of the taxpayers. They made the right choice.

With Mark Sanford back in the House of Representatives we should be able to count on one more vote for responsible government and another voice willing to speak out against the ongoing pattern of government usurpation of the rights of individuals and the sovereignty of the states.

Mark Sanford once said, “Too many people, because they were white and poor, black and rich, or just plain busy with something other than politics, have felt they had no voice in our government.” Now he will once again be that voice for the people in Washington.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 4, 2013
MEDIA CONTACT:  RLC Chair Dave Nalle 512-656-8011, chairman@rlc.org

REPUBLICAN LIBERTY CAUCUS STANDS WITH GAY REPUBLICANS IN TEXAS

AUSTIN, TX – The Republican Liberty Caucus joins grassroots Republicans across the state in expressing concern and dismay over the negative example being set by the Harris County Republican Party in their recent rejection of Christopher Busby as an applicant for Precinct Chair. At a time when the party nationwide is working to clean a tarnished image and embrace inclusiveness, for the second largest county party in the nation to reject a qualified applicant solely because he is openly gay sends exactly the wrong message to the constituencies the party needs to reach.

As a young Republican with several years of campaign experience working for candidates like Sarah Davis, Fernando Herrera, John Faulk, Jack O’Connor, Jack Christie, and Mitt Romney, active involvement in several party organizations and service as a state party convention delegate, Chris Busby ought to be exactly the kind of person the party is looking for.  Precinct Chairs are the forward edge of the party, meeting and recruiting new voters and representing candidates in their neighborhoods.   Busby lives in an urban neighborhood with a youthful, politically independent population, exactly the kind of voters the GOP has lost touch with and whom he can relate to.

With his skills and experience and with more than half of their Precinct Chairmanships vacant, the Harris County Republican Party ought to have been out actively recruiting people like Chris Busby.  Instead, when he sought them out to offer his help, he was put off and misdirected and his paperwork was lost.  Then when he was finally granted an interview with the Vacancy Committee he was faced with an interrogation worthy of the Spanish Inquisition, focused on his honest admission that he was gay.

In the course of questioning about a variety of issues relating to his sexuality the topics escalated from the inappropriate to the offensive when one of the committee members asked if he believed that pedophilia should be legalized, an outrageous and ignorant question validating all the worst stereotypes about bigotry which the party is trying to live down.  As Harris County Precinct 333 Chair Greg Aydt put it, “Daring to ask a candidate for precinct chair whether or not he supports pedophilia simply because he is gay and active in a gay Republican organization is not merely indecent, but is so far beyond the pale as to boggle the mind.”  Ultimately Busby was rejected as a Precinct Chair by a 5 to 4 vote of the committee

Local party leaders were shocked when they heard of the circumstances under which Busby’s application was rejected. Felicia Cravens, founder of the Houston Tea Party observed that “These are not the actions of a party that wants to win.  These are the actions of a party interested in protecting leadership positions, even if facing continuing losses.  These are the actions of a party that is wholly ill equipped to win elections.”  Harris County Judge Ed Emmett stated  “Some of the most conservative people I have ever known have been gay…No one has to sacrifice personal beliefs in order to support fellow conservatives, even those with whom another Republican disagrees on lifestyle.”

Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas Chairman Jeff Larson was actually a member of the committee and was one of the four who voted in support of Busby.  He observed:

“I found Chris Busby to be one of the most qualified individuals that we had the pleasure of interviewing during my time on the Harris County Vacancy Committee.  Many of the questions my fellow committee members put to him were bizarre and totally inappropriate to the task of determining whether he was a qualified applicant.  The decision to not recommend Chris for appointment was so disappointing that I question whether some of the committee members were more interested in building the Republican Party or in conducting witch hunts.”

This failure by the Houston Republican Party to support a young, gay Republican in his desire to do nothing more than to help the party expand its membership and reach new people, takes on particular significance in the context of a planned visit to Houston by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus later this month.  Priebus has issued an outreach plan calling for more inclusion, but so far his outreach has mostly been to consultants and the mugwumps of the party establishment.  This situation and others like it raise the question of whether there is any substance to Priebus’ promises or if he will continue to turn a blind eye to situations like this as the party lurches towards irrelevancy.

Texas is being targeted for political takeover by Democratic Party activists in a campaign called Battleground Texas, funded with millions of dollars from outside the state.  Incidents like this one play right into their hands and validate their narrative that the Republican Party is out of date and out of touch and dominated by religious extremists who do not represent the mainstream of the nation.

—-

Supporters will be raising this issue at the Harris County Republican Party’s quarterly meeting which is this Monday, May 6th at 7pm. They meet at the Morris Cultural Arts Center at Houston Baptist University.  For information on attending this meeting as press, contact Jeff Larson at eljefe3126@netscape.net.

Chis Busby will be speaking about this issue to Republican leaders from all over the country at the national convention of the Republican Liberty Caucus in Austin on Saturday May 11th at the Midtown Holiday Inn.  For press info on this event, please contact chairman@rlc.org or see the website at http://www.austinforliberty.org

The Republican Liberty Caucus is a grassroots membership organization with chapters in almost every state which promotes the traditional Republican Party valies of limited government and individual liberty.

For more information see our website at http://www.rlc.org

The internet tax mandate bill is scheduled for a final vote in the Senate at 5:30pm TODAY.  The time to act is now. Please read Rand Paul’s article opposing the bill.

Send an email to your Senators now with the tool below and ALSO take a few minutes to call both of them and urge them to vote against the bill.  All the info you need to convince them is in the links in this article.  Do this today even if you have previously emailed them.  With the vote tomorrow we need to remind them.

Big corporations don’t like competition and they’ll use government to kill it when they can.  This is easy to do when it means more revenue for government and less competition for the big corporations.  This has come together in a disastrous bill in the senate  called the Marketplace Fairness Act.  With this bill big box retailers are poised to kill internet businesses the way they killed small local retailers, all with a big payoff to state and local governments.

Right now, sales over the internet are usually only taxed when the buyer and seller are physically located in the same state.  This bill from Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) would lift the usual federal protections on interstate commerce and authorize state governments to tax sales which cross state lines, and put the burden of collecting that tax on the online business making the sales, regardless of where it is located.  This addresses a claim from huge retailers that they are at a competitive disadvantage because they have retail outlets in every state and therefore charge tax on all of their sales in person or online.

How online businesses operate is basically the same as mailorder businesses have for over a hundred years, but now that there are more of them with a little more access to consumers suddenly the big chain stores think they are unfair.

Store chains with physical locations have their own advantages.  They can attract casual buyers and allow them to examine their products with access which is impossible online.  Plus their size and the bulk in which they buy products wholesale give them an edge through economy of scale which allows them to sell products through their stores at lower prices.  They can  undercut online retailers because they do not have to pay shipping to deliver each product.

Most online businesses are entrepreneurial micro businesses which operate in very specialized areas and have to do everything they can to cut overhead.  They are one of the strongest and most dynamic areas of growth in our troubled economy.   They have also become a second chance for many of the unemployed, who have taken their savings and invested them in internet businesses and found a new way to earn a living and become a new middle class.  This proposed tax policy will take all of that away and bankrupt them, leaving them without even unemployment to fall back on.

Raising the effective price  of goods sold by online retailers may drive them out of business.  But the more serious threat is the incredible paperwork burden which compliance with this law will place on these vulnerable businesses.  Online businesses will have to charge taxes to satisfy the rules of 50 states and hundreds of thousands of other smaller taxing jurisdictions.  There is no way they can track all those taxes, charge them accurately and deliver the money to all of the taxing authorities without a huge cost in man hours or money.  When you have thousands of employees, hiring a department of tax accountants is a manageable expense.  When you’re one guy working out of his garage with a couple of part time employees it’s instant bankruptcy.

This bill would stifle the freedom which the internet has given to consumers and small businesses and sacrifice the welfare of hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs for the benefit of some of our largest and most powerful corporations.  This is not just a way to raise revenue for spendthrift states and make commerce more “fair” – it is a death sentence for most online businesses.

The bill is backed by the powerful lobbying machines of companies like Best Buy, Target, WalMart, PetSmart, Lowe’s and PetCo as well as by state and local governments eager to get their hands on a few more consumer dollars.  It is largely opposed by consumer advocacy groups who see that it is monopolistic and realize that competition makes the marketplace stronger and prices lower for everyone.

The giant retailers have already forced most local businesses which try to compete with them out of business and now they want to do the same thing to online businesses.  This is the road to monopoly and it is a terrible idea for our economy and for consumers.  We need competition and we need the dynamic influence of online businesses and the pressure they put on other businesses to provide better service and keep prices down.

Congress cannot be allowed to continue to make war on the middle class and on small businesses.  They do not understand how the economy works and their policies lead to unemployment and growing economic inequality.  The Marketplace Fairness Act makes the marketplace less free and competition less fair.  It’s another bailout for big corporations which will cost jobs and drive productive middle class people into poverty.

Please use the form below to send emails to both your senators and also call them on the phone and leave a message with staff. Do this again today even if you called or emailed before. This is our last chance to get their attention. It’s your voice against the lobbyists of the big corporations. You can find their phone numbers on our Contact Congress page.

Despite having been decisively rejected by the people and  Congress, the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is back in the House of Representatives, once again up for a vote with supporters hoping that the people are no longer paying attention.

Now is the time to take action to let them know you don’t want the government and big businesses accessing and sharing your email and personal data without any kind of warrant or due process of law.

CISPA (HR624)  would massively reduce the privacy and security of your online communications and personal data. It would give government agencies and many private companies access to your personal communications and financial information and would allow government security agencies like the National Security Agency unprecedented power to access your data including medical records, private emails and financial information – all without a warrant, oversight by any court or due process of law.  It is supported by government security agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and also by big online data companies like Google and Facebook which want to use your data for marketing with fewer restrictions.

This access to your records would require no misbehavior on your part, not even an accusation of terrorism or criminal activity and it would take place without your knowledge or permission or any opportunity to protect your information or your privacy interests. That information could then be passed on to private companies or other agencies or used against you with no real rules or restrictions on who could access it or what hands it would end up in.

The Republican Liberty Caucus joins with other concerned groups like the Liberty Coalition and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU in opposition to CISPA in any form or under any name. We stopped CISPA, SOPA and PIPA last Congress and now we have to fight that battle again.

We urge you to email your representative in Congress and tell them to oppose CISPA and keep government agencies out of our private online data and communications and to stand up and overturn CISPA if it is introduced by executive order.  You need to take information now.  The vote is scheduled for Thursday April 18th.

You can start with an email to your representatives using the form below. Customize the text to express your personal outrage.

A group of Liberty Republicans won all the key positions in last week’s election for the leadership of the Dona Ana Country Republican Party in New Mexico. RLC Member David Clements is the new county chairman.  Dona Ana County is the home county of New Mexico Governor Martinez.

Justin Machacek is an RLC member and Director of the American Liberty Association

Grassroots conservatives from around the nation have traveled to Los Angeles for the Republican National Committee spring meeting.

A rules fight going back to the convention floor in Tampa, FL continues to rage on as many in a large minority are frustrated at the power grab and centralization effort going on within the GOP. Ben Ginsberg of the Mitt Romney campaign lead a rather successful effort in Tampa to instate rules that centralize the power of the party into the hands of an elect few and the presumed nominee. There was initial outcry as the Ginsberg team had got “too far” allowing nominees to veto and replace delegates for just about any reason they found. However, a compromise was found and the new committee rules modified just enough to pacify the opposition and still put the thumb heavily on the grassroots.

Staunch opponents say that these new rules castrate the grassroots and make the convention merely a stage show for the televised audience; a convention that would amount to nothing more than a tightly knit presentation of the GOP nominee’s platform and campaign launch. In many hypothetical scenarios these opponents may be right.

Reince Priebus gavels order at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus doesn’t want to stop there. He is now advocating moving the convention date forward and compressing the primary schedule of the states allowing GOP candidates more time to campaign & sell their ideas. It also helps cut the legs out from under grassroots candidates not funded by big money backers and Washington insiders like Karl Rove.

These efforts sound like a great plan if you trust the elite party bosses and the status quo of current modern politics. However, if you still have hope for a constitutional America… An America ruled by the people for the people… Where the Washington outsiders can still overcome the crony politicians trying to hold tight to the power currently in their clutches… Then you may be with the growing minority in the grassroots. You may appreciate that a man named Ronald Reagan utilized the party rules to eventually defeat the insiders.

You may also be aware that the claims of the establishment that “delegates at the convention didn’t know we were operating under House Rules, not Robert’s Rules of Order” are completely unfounded. That in fact, the House Rules allow for debate and a point of order noting such was attempting to be called. That instead of recognizing the point of order, the chair with the power of the gavel rushed the votes forward and moved on with little care or respect for the state delegates shouting “point of order” in unison from the floor.

All of this leads us to today, when Morton Blackwell proposed an amendment to the rules committee that reverted the rules back to what they were after 2008 restoring the grassroots, but losing measures to free states of primary limitations on delegates. As he mentions in the video below, his proposal would reject what he describes as a “power grab”. Today the RNC Rules Committee debated the amendment and the Blackwell effort failed to pass the committee with a narrow vote of 28-25.

All was not lost as an immediate amendment was proposed to strike down rule 16a(1) and renumber the rules passed the committee and will be presented to the entire body. According to the new Rule 12, a three fourths vote will be required from the entire committee for the amendment to be passed. This is not a complete answer to the grassroots, but is a positive step forward to eliminate the required binding of delegates in a proportional or winner-take-all manner. Link to GOP rules here: 2012 GOP Rules.

What is yet to be determined is if the outrage within the GOP will continue to grow? Will the grassroots gain the majority and be able to turn the tide of the party back to a party of the people?

For now, lets just see if the Republican National Committee has the votes to carry the change and adopt the committee report striking down 16a(1).

Once again Texas is taking the lead in challenging the overreach of the Transportation Safety Administration with a new bill to protect individual privacy against unreasonable and invasive searches. Rep. David Simpson has a new bill called the Texas Travel Freedom Act (HB80) in committee in the Texas House this week. It would provide punishment under Texas law for federal employees of the TSA who engage in inappropriate acts which would now be classified as “Official Oppression.”

It is not acceptable for government employees to treat innocent travelers like criminal suspects. As Rep. Simpson said, “Traveling is not a criminal act. Treating travelers as criminal suspects and forcing innocent citizens to submit to humiliating and unreasonable searches without probable cause as a condition of travel violates protections our forefathers envisioned in Section 9 of the Texas Bill of Rights and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Contrary to what some TSA agents have claimed, we do not believe that you give up your rights when you travel in public.”

Last legislative session state government leaders like Joe Strauss and David Dewhurst did everything they could to block this legislation, including using some very underhanded tactics. We can express them to face a lot of pressure from the TSA this time as well and to do what they can to undermine support for the bill and bully legislators into opposing it. They lack the strength of conviction to support the confrontation with the federal government over individual rights and state sovereignty which this bill is designed to oppose.

Legislators need your encouragement for the confidence to stay strong in the face of all this opposition. They need to know that the people are behind them.

The first step is to tell your Texas House member and key members of the State Affairs committee that you support the bill. Please use this form to send an email to the House before noon on Wednesday. The hearing on the bill is at 1pm. Change the wording of the letter to represent your personal concerns.