Florida RLC Chair Will Pitts.

In what continues to be an ongoing battle between the Republican Party of Florida establishment and the Republican Party of Florida grassroots activists, the St. Johns Republican Party Executive Committee passed a resolution requesting the Republican Party of Florida Chairman (Jim Greer) have Will Pitts — elected Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida Chairman — “banned from attending Republican Party functions, including sanctioned clubs of the Republican Party”.

Additionally, they resolved that Mr. Pitts be removed from the party under Fla. Stat. 103.161. Under this statute, “An individual removed from office by the chair shall not be eligible to serve on the state executive committee or any county executive committee of the political party for a period of no less than 4 years from the effective date of the removal.”

In 2008, the Republican Party of Florida sent a letter to the Republican Liberty Caucus explaining that the RLC would have to refrain from using the word Republican in its title because the state party owned the word “Republican”.  Of course, the RLC had previously been granted permission to use the word “Republican” and had the documentation to prove it, dating back well over a decade.  That was just the first of the Republican Party of Florida’s many recent attempts to rid themselves of principled, liberty-loving Republicans.

So what did Will Pitts do that was so wrong that he should be removed from the party? He:

1. attended a a rally in Minneapolis hosted by the Campaign for Liberty and wore a “Ron Paul” button on his lapel after the Republican primary;
2. attended an End the Fed (Federal Reserve Bank) Rally in Jacksonville; and
3. has spoken or written words “harmful to the GOP” — especially with regards to RPOF Chairman Jim Greer and Gov. Charlie Crist by stating they are “pathetic and embarrassing” and regarding Sen. John McCain and President George W. Bush.

Will Pitts is a small businessman who, in 1996, founded his company, the WG Pitts Company, a construction and real estate development firm serving Northeast Florida.

On July 25, he will have to report to the Republican Party of Florida at 1pm in Kissimmee, or be removed from the party.

On the coversheet of the RPOF Grievance package was a copy of the county resolution. It is obvious that this grievance was orchestrated by State Committeeman Jon Woodard and State Committeewoman Becky Reichenberg despite being filed by a Bill Blythe.  Not surprisingly, Wynona Mayer and John Stevens, who opposed Reichenberg and Woodard for their State Committee seats in 2008, were also named in the resolution to have removed form the Republican Party.

Last year, Reichenberg, Woodard, and former Chairman Bob Veit switched meeting dates and times and changed local rules to prohibit new members from joining the party that would not support them. Veit also said the Republican Liberty Caucus “represents narrow political philosophy … that had limited appeal to Republican voters no less all voters”.

But the establishment is clearly in control of the GOP.  Under their leadership, the party has shrunk to only 23 percent of Americans self-identifying as Republicans.  And they presided over the least popular, least effective Presidency in recent memory.  Not only that — but the establishment has totally hijacked the Republican Party from the grassroots activists who made it so successful throughout the 1980s and again in the mid-90s.

Please contact Bob Veit, Becky Reichenberg, and Jon Woodard to express your disappointment with their efforts to reduce the size of the Republican Party.

Please also contact Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer and politely request that Mr. Pitts be permitted to continue his participation in the Republican Party of Florida.

For the second year in a row, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Utah endorsed a slate at the state GOP Convention.  Below is a Utah RLC flyer handed out at the state GOP Convention this past weekend promoting the RLC-endorsed candidates.

Of the endorsed RLC candidates, only one — former State Representative Morgan Philpot — was victorious.  Philpot challenged the incumbent Vice-Chair of the Utah GOP and was successful in his bid for the office.  In the photo below, RLC members rally around Philpot (center) to help his candidacy:

At it’s annual Convention earlier in the month, Charity Davis of Highland was elected Utah RLC Chair.  At the Convention State Senator Howard Stephenson and State Representative Craig Franks addressed the Utah RLC.  In the below photo, outgoing RLC Chair Lowell Nelson is presiding over the business meeting.

South Carolina is a peculiar state. It’s managed to produce both Lindsey Graham and Mark Sanford, two politicians who come from the same place but are literally like oil and water.

Graham is the model of the kind of Republican who infiltrated the party after the Reagan era. He’s religiously conservative, completely irresponsible on budgetary issues, and has a record on civil liberties that can only be described as embarrassing.

Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater wouldn’t have recognized him as a Republican at all. He’s like an old-style southern Democrat but with less integrity.

Mark Sanford is almost his exact opposite. He’s fiscally conservative and a strong supporter of civil and individual liberty. He’s in the Goldwater tradition and willing to stick by his principles regardless of the cost.

Being from the same state, it’s inevitable that two such opposite politicians would clash. When Sanford held firm and opposed federal bailout money for the state, Graham tried to end-run him in the Congress and play havoc with states rights by giving legislatures federal authority to override governors to accept federal money.

Last weekend at the South Carolina Republican Convention, it’s not surprising that there were some fireworks.

On the floor, Graham made a speech arguing in favor of compromising Republican principles and moving to the center and was heckled by members of the audience who were Ron Paul supporters. In response he made a strong statement against libertarianism, saying:

“I am not a libertarian. If you are, you’re welcome to vote for me and help this party, but we’re not going to build a party around libertarian ideas. I am a Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Lindsey Graham, Carrol Campbell Republican.”

It was certainly not news to anyone that Graham isn’t a libertarian, and his self-identification with former Democrats, segregationists and pork barrel spendocrats tells the whole story about why so many in South Carolina aren’t happy with their senior Senator.

More interesting than Graham’s remarks was Governor Sanford’s reaction a few minutes later when RLC member Amanda Moore stopped him in the hallway and asked him what he thought about Graham’s comments on libertarianism. Sanford went on at length, and said:

“It’s funny it was almost a pejorative comment a moment ago. Senator Graham spoke and said ‘I’m not a libertarian’, and whatever, whatever, as if that’s an evil word. Liberty is the hallmark of the American experiment. That is the distinguishing characteristic of our republic and frankly, what’s made it great. In my comments last night I said that is the genius of America, of affording liberty so that in your pursuit of happiness versus my pursuit of happiness and the dreams that went with that you unleash individual initiative that can’t be there with central planning. People say, you know, ‘Mark, you’re kind of libertarian’ and they’ll say it as if it’s an evil word like ‘You’re a communist’ or something. I’m like ‘Throw me in that brier patch. I’m guilty. I love liberty’ and I think that ought to be a good thing and I don’t think that it should be something that people back away from. I’ve been accused of being a libertarian and I wear it as a badge of honor, because I believe in, love and support liberty.”

Sanford expressed a vision of the Republican Party which strongly contrasted with Graham’s concept of a party of appeasement and opportunism. Sanford offered a positive vision of a party which embraces rights and individual liberty and enterprise and initiative, a party like the GOP which freed the slaves and fought the monopolies and championed civil rights and won the cold war.

Sanford seems to understand that the arguments between conservatives and moderates in the party is meaningless and that the party needs to move on a course perpendicular to the old ideas of right and left, in the direction of liberty.

Lindsey Graham represents the worst of the failures of the post-Reagan GOP.

It’s not just that he doesn’t want to be a libertarian. He doesn’t want to be in a party which bases its policies on principles at all.

Sanford seems to understand that ideals and principles and doing the right thing matter. He represents hope for a better future for the party and a return to real Republican values.

According to the St. Cloud Times, “Republicans in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District elected Wright County Party Chairman David Fitzsimmons, a supporter of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign last year, to be the district’s new party chairman during the weekend.”

“Fitzsimmons became Wright County’s party chairman earlier this year and joined the local party leadership just two years ago, along with the increasing participation of Republicans who supported Paul’s presidential campaign. Fitzsimmons won 136 votes on the first ballot, compared with 53 for Knoblach and 17 for Vollkammer.”

“Fitzsimmons said he hopes to expand the party’s coalition by bringing disaffected Republicans, independent, Independence Party, Constitution Party and Libertarian Party members into the fold.”

The Minnesota chapter of the RLC also received an award from the Republican Liberty Caucus for their continued chapter growth at the recent RLC National Convention.

Congrats, David!

RLC members across the country are engaged in the political process and many have run or are running for leadership within their state or local Republican Parties. In Tennessee, for example, RLC Tennessee Secretary Matt Collins* was elected Davidson County Republican Party Vice-Chair earlier in the month.

A week ago Saturday, four of six Republican Liberty Caucus members running for District and State GOP Committee At-Large seats were elected. (The remaining two remain in contention for three Wake County seats yet to be determined due to the loss of a quorum.) A slate called “Republicans for Principled Change” was run.  Of those, the following RLC members were elected to party positions:

Durham County: Jeff Palmer*
Wake County: B.J. Lawson, John Underwood*, Andrea Walker

Five of eight candidates for the remaining three seats — Will Adkins, John Lahtinen, and several others — were also “Liberty Slate” members. These seats will be filled by appointment by the new District Committee.

Overall, the liberty slate secured 12 of the 17 at-large seats filled thus far, and only one liberty slate candidate lost to a non-liberty slate opponent. Many of those elected who were not liberty slate members are, nonetheless, responsible and fair GOP stalwarts with whom we look forward to working. Among them is District Chairman Zan Bunn who was reelected — soundly defeating a challenge by a vitriolic B. J. Lawson opponent with 68% of the county-weighted vote. A pro-state sovereignty resolution was also unanimously passed.

In Utah, the Salt Lake County Republican Party 2009 Organizing Convention took place last Saturday. RLC member Kurtis Constantine* was elected Secretary of the Salt Lake County GOP. He was also selected to serve on the Utah GOP State Central Committee. Joining him on the SCC will be RLC-endorsed candidates Nancy Lord and Merrill Cook.  This is the second year in a row that the RLC has run a slate of candidates for party positions in Utah.

According to Interim RLC Utah Chairman Rob Alexander, “At the convention on Saturday I spoke briefly with Mark Maxon, a K-TALK AM 630 Radio Host who is also a County and State GOP Delegate. Mark was impressed with our slate and said that he plans to dissolve his Defenders of Liberty organization and to encourage his radio listeners and the 40-50 people who have been attending the Defenders of Liberty meetings to get involved with the Republican Liberty Caucus (a 527 electioneering-focused organization) and Campaign for Liberty (a 501c4 issues-focused organization).”

If you haven’t already, mark your calendar for Saturday, May 16, when the Republican Liberty Caucus of Utah will hold its 2009 convention at the Tyler Library in Salt Lake County from 12 noon to 4 PM (recent minor time change). For more details and to RSVP whether you will be attending, maybe attending, or not attending, you can go online to http://tr.im/RLCUT2009.

These successes are a testament to the RLC’s mission of working within the GOP to promote liberty-related ideas and individuals. Our challenge now is to sustain these efforts as members of the GOP State Committee and as delegates at the upcoming GOP State Convention.

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RLC member Kurtis Constantine was elected Secretary
of the Salt Lake County Republican Party.
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* Denotes a state RLC Officer.