The Minnesota chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus has been busy, as usual.

Not only is Minnesota RLC Secretary Norann Dillon running for State Senate, but RLC members were among the first to rally behind State Rep. Tom Emmer, one of two potential Republican Gubernatorial nominees. Polls show Emmer defeating his Democrat opponents, so RLC members are working to help Emmer win the August primary.

The upcoming Minnesota RLC events include:

1) A Second Congressional District Meeting for RLC and Campaign for Liberty members on Thursday, March 18. Among the plans at the meeting are to formalize RLC/C4L participation at the Jason Lewis Tax Rally on May 8 and the Minnesota GOP Convention on April 29. Additionally, the Second Congressional District GOP Convention will occur on Saturday, March 20. PLEASE RSVP to this event.

2) The Minnesota RLC Convention on Monday, April 12. PLEASE RSVP to this event.

3) Outreach at the Minnesota GOP Convention on April 29. Stay tuned for details.

The Michigan RLC recently held a successful Convention with former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. The Nebraska RLC is holding its Convention with Governor Johnson in July. The Illinois RLC recently endorsed several candidates.

Additionally, the Wisconsin RLC and C4L chapters are planning to reach out at the state GOP Convention in late May. Meanwhile, Indiana and Ohio have primaries quickly approaching. The Indiana chapter is working to endorse candidates and Ohio RLC members are working to charter their chapter.

Activists in the Midwest are doing good work to keep liberty alive.

It is official. The Florida chapter of the RLC and other liberty organizations including the Campaign for Liberty will be converging on Tallahassee on March 22-23 with the message that government is best when it governs least.

Political activist and longtime RLC ally John Hallman of the Florida Taxpayers Union is once again in charge of legislative briefing, securing inexpensive accommodations, setting up meetings with legislators and the governors office and showing RLC members around the capitol.

At the top of the Liberty Day agenda is the Health Care Freedom Act. Based on model legislation crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the act would permit Florida to opt out from any particular national health care plan and, most importantly, protect individual Floridians from individual mandates to buy health insurance a la RomneyCare/ObamaCare. Other issues Florida RLC’ers will lobby on include taxes, spending, and term limits.

Jason Hellenberg of the North Central Florida RLC has volunteered to coordinate the 2010 Liberty Day at the Capitol and is working with Hallman. The annual grassroots lobbying trip to Tallahassee has become a signature project of the RLC that has yielded some legislative successes over the years and trained many RLC’ers on how to lobby effectively.

The tentative schedule for 2010 includes starting around noon on March 22 and finishing up in early afternoon on March 23. There will be a discounted block of rooms for us at the Baymont Inn near the Capitol (tentative).

For a recap of last year’s trip, go here. For 2008, go here. 2007? Try here.

For more info and to RSVP, contact John Hallman via e-mail.

Former State Representative Ken Lindell, the longtime leader of the Maine chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus, has announced a tentative agenda for Spring 2010.

Maine RLC members will have three upcoming meetings: March 13 in Augusta, March 27 in Bangor, and April 10 in Portland.  RSVP to the events on Facebook or contact Ken Lindell for details.

The California GOP is hosting a statewide meeting on March 13 in Santa Clara, and the California RLC affiliate will again be conducting outreach at the Convention and holding a separate Convention for RLC’ers.

Popular Congressional candidate John Dennis will be among the participants.  Dennis is running against Nancy Pelosi and is the founder of the San Francisco chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus.  He recently was endorsed by Congressman Ron Paul in his race.

Learn more about the Convention at http://www.rlcca.org/dw/doku.php/public:notices and RSVP on Facebook. There is still time (although not much) to apply to join the California RLC Board, so please review the details and contact California RLC Secretary Parke Bostrom if you have any questions. To become a delegate to the California GOP Convention, you must print off, fill in, and postmark the Pre-Registration form by March 4.

I’m not going to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this month because of work difficulties but I urge those who are going to raise to two questions of all potential political candidates, and to do so publicly:

1. Where do you stand on the Bush/Obama subsidies to Wall Street?  What would you have done instead?

2. What specific action plan do you have to offer to overcome Congressional and bureaucratic resistance to termination of programs? The emphasis is on specific.

Last night some members of the Republican Liberty Caucus of DC braved the 20 inches of snow that hit the nation’s capital this weekend to hear remarks from former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.

Below are Bradley Jansen, Governor Johnson, and Pranav Badhwhar.

If you missed the RLC teleconference with former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, here’s a full 90 minute recording of his opening remarks and all the questions from the great crowd who called in.

President Obama is giving his first State of the Union address on Wednesday at 9pm EST. We’re going to be covering it live with special guest bloggers and commenters as well as open participation for our readers. Watch this space for the live chat starting when the president takes the podium.

Larry Reed, the keynote speaker at the Republican Liberty Caucus Convention in 2009, will be addressing the Young Republicans of Southwest Florida on Feb. 2 in Fort Myers, Florida.

Dr. Lawrence Reed is the President of the Foundation for Economic Education, the oldest libertarian organization in the country. He will be speaking on “Great Myths of the Great Depression.” Prior to becoming President of FEE, he was President of one of the largest libertarian think-tanks in the country, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan.

Anytime Republicans have an opportunity to hear from prominent liberty advocates, there is a tremendous net impact of moving folks within the Republican Party in a libertarian direction. Learn more about the event and RSVP.

This press release went out today from the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida regarding events this past week in St. Johns County. You can find press coverage of these events here: Jacksonville Observer, Jacksonville.com,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

No Dissent Allowed: St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee

St. Johns County, January, 21, 2010 — The leadership of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee (SJCREC) dealt a blow to the grassroots and derailed recent attempts to reconcile long standing differences with the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida (RLCNEF) Thursday night when it refused to allow RLCNEF members access to a meeting where State Committeeman Jon Woodard stepped down and State Senator John Thrasher was elected to Woodard’s position. The election of Thrasher to Woodard’s State Committeeman post clears the way for Thrasher to run for the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Chair position to be vacated on February 20th by Jim Greer. There is a level of excitement within the party that has not been seen in a long time surrounding the race to succeed Jim Greer. Greer’s re-election a year ago has resulted in a leadership implosion within the RPOF. Thrasher, a sitting Republican State Senator, is seeking to lead the Republican Party out of its doldrums. Unfortunately for Thrasher, the SJCREC appears to have added fuel to an internal firestorm.

The latest in an unfortunate series of events occurred when the majority of the SJCREC members were not given notice the meeting would be closed in Executive Session, and only received the news upon their arrival at the meeting that night. To further exacerbate matters, SJCREC officials – allegedly in preparation for the vote on Senator Thrasher – performed a “purge” of the membership list for the stated purpose of removing members who had missed three consecutive meetings pursuant to state bylaws.

The purpose and accuracy of the list purge is in question, however, as RLCNEF member Cliff Johnson who is also a sworn member of the SJCREC and who had not missed three consecutive meetings, was told that he was not eligible to attend the Executive Session or vote in the Special Election.

While SJCREC leadership claimed that access to the Executive Session was limited only to SJCREC members, at least four members of the Duval County Republican Executive Committee who support Thrasher were allowed inside while known opponents of Thrasher and supporters of Sharon Day – also a candidate for State Chair – were told they must stay outside.

In a protest against the double standard and blatant cronyism on display, RLCNEF Chair John Stevens entered the meeting despite being told not to do so. Stevens was then asked to leave and refused. SJCREC officials called police and Stevens was escorted from the meeting. No charges were filed.

Chairman Stevens desired to attend the meeting to ask Thrasher what position he would be taking on Orange and St. Johns County REC members removed by Greer through the never-before-used grievance process last year. Stevens commented regarding the incident, “It was unfortunate that it had to come that. The RLC is working for accountability within the Party and we would prefer to do so quietly from within; but if members are being locked out and denied an opportunity to be heard then we are left with no option but to make our voices heard publicly.”

This incident in St. Johns is eerily similar to a situation that occurred last year in Orange County where Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC) Chair Lew Oliver prevented members of the OCREC from voting in the election for Oliver’s seat; the people barred from voting were supporters of his opponent, Deon Long, who is now running for the 24th District of the U.S. Congress.

Many of the registered voters of Florida agree with the message of the Republican Liberty Caucus. The

RLC’s message has begun attracting large numbers of people statewide. Support has poured out from around the state as this struggle with the corruption within the party has continued. Many of the recent changes in the RPOF leadership started at the grassroots level with large groups of dissenters, such as the RLC, calling for honesty and transparency in our elected leaders.

About The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida:

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida is a coalition of traditional conservatives and liberty minded Republicans working within the Republican Party to promote individual liberty, smaller government, state and national sovereignty and the Constitution. The caucus advocates the return of our nation to the values and intentions of the Constitution and our founders.

(i) www.rlcfl.org
(ii) www.rlcnef.org

CONTACT:

Frank Zilaitis
Email: frank@zilaitis.com
Phone: (321) 480-7597