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.”

This has been a long campaign for liberty and many people have earned our thanks.  Republican Liberty Caucus members played leading roles on every front in 2012 – running for office, working on campaigns, donating unprecedented amounts of money to our federal PAC, helping to promote and fundraise for candidates and serving as delegates to state conventions and ultimately the national convention in Tampa where we were witnesses to the beginnings of the events which culminated in this week’s historic defeat for the Republican Party establishment.  You worked hard with little respect or reward for a cause whose victory sometimes seemed distant and in peril.

There are many who are claiming that this election was a massive defeat for the Republican Party, but after studying the results for two days I’m surprised to be able to report what looks like some major victories for the liberty movement within the party.  Yes, the party took it on Mitt Romney’s chiseled chin, but the party’s losses are not necessarily our losses and while I certainly would have liked to have done better, in comparison to the party as a whole our candidates and our issues fared remarkably well.

Perhaps the most significant victory is a sign of change to come  While the party lost seats in both houses of Congress, the balance of power shifted and liberty candidates gained seats while the party was losing them.  Our endorsees and other sympathetic candidates now control a larger number of seats in both houses of Congress than ever before.  We lost only one incumbent House member and gained at least two solid seats in the Senate while the party lost 3 and gained more seats in the House than the party as a whole lost, effectively doubling the significance of our wins.  The failure of the party leadership and the Romney campaign did suppress turnout and that flowed down to races at lower levels, costing some of our most promising candidates wins they might have had in better years.   Yet 2014 is just around the corner and I expect many of those same candidates to run again and in an off year election we can anticipate the same kind of strong results we had in 2010 and more.

Two RLC candidates won new seats for liberty in the Senate, Ted Cruz (TX) and past endorsee Jeff Flake (AZ).  Four new liberty candidates took seats in the House, including RLC endorsees Steve Stockman (TX-36), Kerry Bentivolio (MI-11), Thomas Massie (KY-4) and Ted Yoho (FL-3) who was overlooked for endorsement.  Many previously endorsed candidates won reelection in the House, including Justin Amash, Tom McClintock, Walter Jones, Jim Jordan, Mick Mulvaney and others.  Perhaps most significantly hundreds of our endorsees won or held onto seats in state government, giving us a very deep bench to run for higher office going into the 2014 election.  Many other great candidates ran strong campaigns and came awfully close to winning, but the weakness of the national campaign and lack of support from state and national party organizations were challenges they couldn’t overcome.  With more independent funding and resources we expect them to do much better in 2014.

We also saw victories on key issues in several states.  Marijuana was legalized in Colorado and Washington and decriminalized in Massachusetts, which is likely to lead to a very important showdown over state sovereignty as the Obama administration and the DEA crack down on those states attempt to form independent drug policy.  In addition, Washington, Maryland and Maine voted to legalize same-sex marriage, a clear challenge to the unconstitutional federal Defense of Marriage Act, and while we prefer a non-governmental solution to the marriage issue, the passage of these propositions was at least a politically achievable step towards greater liberty for more people.  Less publicized but possibly equally important, Alabama, Montana and Wyoming voted on initiatives to nullify aspects of Obamacare within their borders, another development likely to provoke a constitutional showdown with the Obama administration.  It’s not going to be an easy four years for the president or his unconstitutional abuses of power.

Finally, after the attacks on the grassroots of the party launched by the Romney campaign, party leaders and special interests, in many ways a Romney defeat is a victory for Liberty Republicans.  In the long term it may benefit us more than defeating Obama would have.  The party establishment and the special interests which back them placed all their bets on Romney and his failure was their failure as well.  They have lost credibility with all the grassroots groups in the party and they are saddled with the blame for the abuses of power and bad choices which led to this debacle.  Now everyone knows what we have known for years.  If the Republican Party is to survive it needs a substantive change of leadership and a return to principles which can win elections.

After this election it is much more likely that our next presidential nominee will have strong liberty principles and Rand Paul’s stock as a presidential contender is way up.  We should also expect to see the party distance itself from single issue voters on the religious right and a deemphasis of divisive social issues.  This might well be the jolt the party needs to become the fiscally conservative and socially tolerant party which it needs to be in order to win and if it doesn’t happen quickly, we’re here to give change a push.

While this may not be the time for open celebration, this election has created many opportunities to expand the liberty movement within the Republican Party and our voices will be stronger and our opponents weaker than every before as we start a new political cycle.  We have more members with substantial campaign experience, we have better campaign funding channels and we have more experienced candidates.  Plus the Obama administration will supply us with plenty of opportunities for issue activism which can raise the profile of RLC leaders and our pro-liberty, small government agenda.

I’m looking forward to two years of great opportunities for growing liberty and winning key victories in the ongoing campaign to reclaim the Republican Party and make it the vehicle for the restoration of the Republic.

“A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.” –Mark Twain

In Texas, and across the country, we’ve been seeing a barrage of unwarranted attacks from the establishment, against pro-liberty candidates. Tommy Merritt’s deceptive attacks against David Simpson. Attacks from David Dewhurst, against Ted Cruz. They seem to be flooding the mailboxes of Republican voters all across this great state. The establishment wants desperately to remain in control, and the citizens are obviously tired of business as usual. So, when you can’t stand on your record, sometimes just painting the other person as unfit, is the only avenue left to retain control.

One of the most recent developments is in TX HD-64, in a race between incumbent Myra Crownover, and the RLC endorsed, TEA Party Challenger, Mike Brucia.

Yesterday, a piece of mail was sent out to Republican voters in HD-64, claiming it to be a “Voter Alert”. On the front of the mailer, it has a picture of Mike Brucia with a big circle and a line going across his face. The mailer is illegal, in that it did not state who paid for it, and on the back of the mailer it states “unofficial”.

On the front, it states that Mike Brucia is a felon, on the back there are snippets of obviously forged documents, stating that he was convicted for the crime of grand theft in the state of Florida. Mike became aware of the record before deciding to run for office, and that it was obviously a mistake. He contacted the Florida State Attorney’s office and provided the evidence they requested. A judge reviewed the case and cleared him of all charges. It was simply a case of identity theft.

The next case it makes, is it states that Mike Brucia is a devout Atheist. Which is rather funny, when he first heard about the attack mailer sent out against him, it was when he got out of church Saturday evening.

The Truth to the matter is that, Mike did an interview with an NYU PhD student in 2010, when he became the founding president of the Denton County Republican TEA Party. Interviews were conducted with leaders of TEA Party groups across the nation. The interviewer was trying to make the case that the TEA Party was controlled by a handful of religious zealots. Mike, not wanting to fall into his trap, stated that he considered himself an atheist most of his life, but found that the belief was rather limited.

He made that statement so that he could get back onto issues with the interviewer, who didn’t seem to care to much about the issues that the TEA Party was concerned with. He never expected to be running for public office when he made those statements, and regrets saying that now.

The last attack that the mailer makes, is it states that Mike is unfit to represent the state, because he can’t even balance his own budget. Back in 1985, Mike owned an operated a construction company, that he was behind in taxes for. He made arrangements, and got on a payment plan, the IRS broke the agreement and moved to force collection, Mike had no choice but to file a bankruptcy to receive court protection while he paid off all of his taxes and debts.

Anyone in Texas knows, that the construction industry has one of the highest turnover rates of any other industry. He has owned, and operated many of other businesses, and has had overwhelming success. He came up short with one of his construction companies, which is something that happens to the best of us in this country. He now owns a vending businesses in Denton, that has been very lucrative. Using that as justification that he’s “fiscally irresponsible”, is a laughable argument, to say the least.

None of these attacks that we’ve seen across this state have been surprising. The establishment knows that the people are fed up with the status quo, and they’re doing everything in their power to keep their control over the legislature.

Myra Crownover, a timid career politician, knows that she is not able to stand up on her record, and is therefore relying on the cowardice of lies and deception in order to retain her control. Will voters across Texas take these unwarranted attacks seriously? I’d like to think not, but we’ll find out in a few days.

CONCORD, N.H.–To bolster Republicans’ progress toward responsible government in the House of Representatives, the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire is endorsing David Simpson for state representative in a Hillsborough District 3 special election on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

Simpson, who is running for a vacant House seat representing the towns of Peterborough, New Ipswich, Sharon and Greenville, would bring important experience to reinforce the already impressive efforts of the Republican majority in restoring the common sense principles of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, free enterprise and adherence to the state and federal constitutions.

“The Republican majority has demonstrated that they are dedicated to bringing prosperity back to New Hampshire, and David Simpson will be a valuable addition to that effort,” said Andrew Hemingway, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire. “David’s experience, primarily in the areas of finance, budgets and small businesses, will be important as we continue to undo the economic damage wrought by years of Democrat control and public mismanagement.”

On his Web site, www.davidlsimpson.org, Simpson makes clear his commitment to improving the business climate in New Hampshire, which will lead to economic and job growth. He says he wants to work to protect the New Hampshire Advantage by maintaining a reasonable regulatory balance, making business tax rates more competitive and protecting individuals right to work free from union coercion.

“David Simpson will strengthen Republican efforts to restore common sense government in Concord,” said Hemingway. “He is unwavering in his commitment to the welfare and prosperity of our state, and he understands that the only way to get the state back on the path to prosperity is by returning to our legacy of responsible, honest and limited government.”

In general, endorsed RLCNH candidates are strong proponents of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility and free enterprise. They have shown their dedication to these ideals with their score on RLCNH’s 20-question candidate survey and their reputation among liberty activists. Endorsed candidates must score 80 percent or higher on the survey and they must have a strong character recognized by their peers.

For more information about David Simpson’s candidacy, please visit www.davidlsimpson.org.

Like Governor Rick Perry I was a cheerleader, and I’m excited about the opportunities to lead the growth in the liberty movement during the coming election year.  So I sent out a letter to our state chapters to stir things up a bit and get us rolling as we go into this new season of amazing possibilities – DN

Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia Endorses Patricia Phillips in Senate District 33

June 19 (Fairfax, VA) – The Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia announced its endorsement of Patricia Phillips today in her race for the Senate of Virginia in District 33. She has the Republican nomination in hand, and will face incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Herring in November.

Virginia RLC Secretary Rob Kenyon observed: “Patricia‟s dedication to federalism and liberty will be a breath of fresh air in the Senate, a body that desperately needs it. She‟s also a longtime advocate of good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, as evidenced by her opposition to the Dulles Metrorail boondoggle, and the effective selling off of the Dulles Toll Road, for example. Patricia will also be a voice in Richmond against unconstitutional federal mandates like the Affordable Care Act, and understands the duty of the state government to interpose itself in such cases.”

Phillips will represent a change from “business as usual‟ in the Senate of Virginia, and a welcome contrast to the unmitigated disaster that is incumbent Mark Herring’s votes for big government. The Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia and its Board of Directors is proud to offer its endorsement to Patricia Phillips.

The Virginia RLC was founded in 2007 and has formal chapters in northern Virginia and central Virginia. Members meet periodically to discuss issues, lobby, and endorse candidates.

In Kentucky’s Republican gubernatorial primary, RLC endorsed insurgent candidate Phil Moffett, despite performing better than expected, wasn’t able to beat his establishment opponent, State Senate President, David Williams. Upon first glance at the results with 70% of precincts reporting and Moffett down by about 7%, I was wondering where the vaunted Kentucky tea party network that propelled Senator Paul into office was. I was actually on the phone with RLC Chairman Dave Nalle earlier when I went to my favorite source, Twitter, and did a #KYGov search to find the aforementioned information. Looking at what I unearthed, I said to Dave, “I’m honestly stunned that anyone who voted for Paul wouldn’t also vote for Moffett”. After further researching the dynamics however, it turns out there were various factors at play that made for very different races, despite the candidate’s similar ideology and being the tea party insurgents pitted against the establishment.

In fact, one of the first articles I came across when I googled Phil Moffett, directly answered the question I had rhetorically posed to Dave. “Why Phil Moffett Is Not Rand Paul”, written by Kevin Brennan at The National Journal, provided immense clarification regarding their differences.

The first issue, and one that is always central in any race, was Moffett’s problem with name recognition. Despite marketing himself as Senator Paul’s heir apparent, there’s no doubt that Ron Paul’s network is what initially provided his son with momentum. That, of course, leads into Moffett’s second problem; fundraising – with which the elder Paul also aided his son greatly. Williams ultimately outspent Moffett 10-1, which speaks volumes about Moffett’s lack of traction in the cash procurement arena. Additionally, Moffett wasn’t able to capture Paul’s official endorsement, because Williams also supported Paul against Grayson in 2010.

Rand Paul’s national network, combined with media fueled fervor over whether the Senate would be turned over to the Republicans, was also undoubtedly an advantage for him that Moffett lacked. Although Moffett’s campaign and allies such as Western Representation PAC tried to pitch the storyline that Moffett’s campaign had a national impact because this GOP primary was the only one in 2011 in which the victor would face off with a pro Obama, Democrat incumbent Governor, creating national fervor in an off year over a primary that the media cares little about turned out to be nearly impossible.

Additionally, a major issue at play was the fact that there was a third dark horse choice in the primary. Jefferson County Clerk, Barbara Holsclaw, who is from Louisville just like Phil Moffett, ended up capturing 13% of the vote. She is reported to be well-liked by those who know her, but little known outside of her fairly small network. That Holsclaw and Moffett are from the same area and were both seen as outsiders, undoubtedly hurt our endorsee. In Rand Paul’s primary, it was just him, a nationally known figure with great fundraising capabilities, and the establishment candidate, former Democrat, Trey Grayson – who I believe was actually hurt by endorsements from the likes of Dick Cheney and Mitch McConnell.

Another aspect to note is the fact that Louisville is far north, right on the Indiana border. Having to compete for votes in his own hometown, and dealing with the fact that he wasn’t very well known in both the eastern and western stretches of his state were certainly a disadvantage. Moffett performed well in the Commonwealth’s two most populated counties, but was hardest hit primarily in the far eastern portions of Kentucky. When you aren’t raising enough funds, it of course makes travel difficult. Clearly, Moffett had trouble reaching some of the more off the beaten path rural areas, which make up most of eastern Kentucky.

Sadly, enthusiasm for Moffett didn’t peak, despite obvious potential. It’s possible that without Holsclaw, Moffett could have won in an upset, but unfortunately, that didn’t pan out for our anti-establishment businessman who valiantly took to the streets peddling common sense ideas. However, from an optimistic standpoint, it’s important to note that with all factors considered, Moffett actually performed well. As I noted above, Williams outspent Moffett 10-1 – yet he only won by 7 percentage points. Additionally, turnout for this primary was only at 9%. Given that Williams was the clear establishment favorite, he no doubt had somewhat of a machine, capable of turning votes out for him. As Rand Paul noted in his book, “The Tea Party Goes to Washington”, the tea party networks in Kentucky, while strong ideologically, aren’t terribly well-connected or organized – which of course tends to be the case with the movement nationally.

Considering the off year timing, relatively disorganized network of Moffett supporters, and comparatively dismal fundraising, the results were noteworthy. Certainly, liberty Republicans can learn a lesson from the failure of this campaign, and work toward building better infrastructure in the future. We need to effectively network and get out the vote for our candidates. As we move toward 2012, the Republican Liberty Caucus will certainly be on the ground, helping with just that kind of organization. Please join us!

It’s no secret that the trick to the success of many grassroots candidate backed by Tea Party groups and activist groups from the liberty movement like the Republican Liberty Caucus last year was using nationwide issue-based fundraising to drive money to local candidates from outside of their states.

The Ron Paul campaign showed how effective that strategy could be in their “moneybombs” in 2008 and it worked equally well for his son Rand and other grassroots Republicans in 2010. It made it possible for candidates whose support was primarily from small groups and individuals to widen their fundraising reach, largely through the internet, and thereby counter the influence of establishment PACs and even the Republican National Committee.

In an off-year election when there are far fewer races around the country there is the potential for this strategy to be even more effective for the small number of candidates who are running. The millions raised for hundreds of grassroots candidates in 2010 could carry far more weight when divided between only a handful of candidates in key races in 2011.

The main stumbling block is that people are still recovering from the 2010 campaign and awareness of the 2011 campaigns is not high among activists and potential donors. People just don’t think about politics as much a year when most of the elections are local and low profile. Nonetheless, there are a few very significant races being run and important victories which could be won for grassroots Republican candidates all over the country. There are special elections and state and local elections, including five governorships and a couple of seats in Congress up for grabs.

Most of these races haven’t really made it onto the national radar yet. There are four states with gubernatorial elections this year. The only one of these races which isn’t competitive is Bobby Jindal’s race for reelection in Louisiana. The other races are in West Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky and haven’t gotten much attention outside their states. There are two vacant congessional seats, one in California (CD36) and the other in New York (CD26), both elections are to fill partial terms of representatives who resigned. There are also high profile mayoral elections in about a dozen cities and elections for major statewide offices in some of the states which are electing governors. Most of these elections are in November with party primaries earlier in the year.

In most of these races it’s still not clear who the good candidates are or even who’s running, though we know that Governor Haley Barbour cannot run for reelection in Mississippi because of term limits. So far the only race to be getting much national attention is the contest for Governor of Kentucky. A lot of attention is already focused on the state and there is a heated Republican primary to see who will get the chance to challenge incumbent Democrat Steve Beshear. Based on the surge of support for Rand Paul last November and his double-digit win in the general election it seems likely that a grassroots Republican will stand a good chance of beating Beshear. The two main contenders are State Senate Chairman David Williams and Louisville businessman Phil Moffett who has emerged as the first strong grassroots candidate of 2011.

The Kentucky GOP primary vote is on May 19th, so the campaign is already well under way, and Moffett has the support of most of the same groups which backed Rand Paul, including the recently announced endorsement of the Republican Liberty Caucus. Moffett is running on an innovative platform of major tax reform, reducing the size of government and protecting state farms and businesses from overregulation by the federal government. He has struck such a strong chord with voters that Williams has started to steal his ideas, trying to obscure his long history as a political insider.

The Kentucky primary is early compared to other primaries this year so the campaigns are already well under way, and Moffett has been using moneybombs and online events to draw in donations from Tea Partiers and Liberty Republicans all over the country who helped get so many grassroots candidates elected last November. The question for his campaign is whether those activists and donors are somewhat burnt out so soon after last year’s election, or whether they will realize what an opportunity this is and rally to support him despite the lower profile of an off-year race like this.

Moffett’s campaign has set a goal of raising $200,000 and is about half-way there. That’s significantly less than his opponent is spending, but his relative lack of cash will be offset by the enthusiasm and hard work of his followers. As happened with Rand Paul, once he wins the primary larger donors within the GOP establishment are likely to come around and start supporting him against the Democrat incumbent.

The Moffett campaign may be setting the tone for the other races which will follow this year, and showing that there’s a great opportunity for principled, grassroots Republicans to mount serious campaigns and raise substantial money during an off election year. The fundraising strategies which worked in 2010 have the potential to be even more effective now. As the campaigns in other states develop we can hope to see more candidates with Tea Party and Liberty Republican backing emerge, and those of us who support smaller, better and more responsible government should be watching for opportunities to support the best candidates, even if they are in a different state.

Following up on the RLC’s strong support for Rand Paul — which initially looked to be an uphill fight that resulted in victory — the Republican Liberty Caucus today announced that it has endorsed Tea Party favorite Phil Moffett for Governor in Kentucky.

Moffett faces Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw and state Senate President David Williams in the May 17 GOP primary.

The RLC endorsed Moffett because of his issue position statements and support for individual liberty and limited government.  Moffett has some very creative ideas about reducing the tax burden on Kentuckians as well as plans to stop the overreach of the FDA and other federal agencies which are violating state sovereignty and placing unnecessary barriers in the way of business in Kentucky.

You can learn more about Mr. Moffett and get involved in his campaign at his website.

Plus he has a catchy campaign song: