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.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Nebraska played host to Governor Gary Johnson on Friday and Saturday, June 18 and 19th.

On Friday evening, a group of about 20 attended an informal pizza party (see photo, above) with the Governor where they learned more about Johnson’s views on a range of issues, with the greatest debate coming in the area of immigration.

Governor Johnson took a bit of a walking tour of Lincoln with a couple of RLC members, seeing Nebraska’s historic capitol building (built during the depression without borrowing any money), as well as a look around the Haymarket area of downtown Lincoln, and a quick tour of the University of Nebraska campus. (UNL has just signed an agreement to become a part of the Big 10 Conference in 2011.)

Upon returning to the hotel, Governor Johnson took in a bit of the “Nebraska Liberty Summit”, being hosted by the Nebraska RLC, and consisting of leaders from the RLC, Grassroots in Nebraska, 912 groups, Minutemen Patriots, Campaign for Liberty, and others. The goal of the summit was to discuss ways that groups might work together in upcoming legislative sessions.

Following the summit, a reception/fundraiser was held, with 65 who bought $35 tickets to have a bite and a chance to talk with Governor Johnson. Another 10 or so came for Governor Johnson’s speech alone. Folks hung out for an hour or so afterwards, continuing conversations with Governor Johnson and others, and enjoying some evening snacks.
The RLCNE convention was held immediately prior to the Liberty Summit, with 20 members present. Elections of Officers and Directors for the ensuing two years was held, with the following elected to office until 2012:

Laura Ebke, Chair
Jon Tucker, Vice Chair
Amy Haberman, Secretary
Ron Schwab, Treasurer
Zach Dean, Director
Brian Petermann, Director
Mike Schwab, Director
Nick Sulser, Director

Officers and Directors of the Nebraska RLC come from seven different communities, and six different counties — both urban and rural — stretching from the far northwestern corner of the state to the eastern edge.

After a grueling Texas State Republican convention which ran more than 4 hours overtime, tired RLC members staggered into the Aloft Hotel in downtown Dallas to attend a special statewide meeting of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas. Most of the attendees were also convention delegates, but some had come in from around the state just to attend the meeting. The Austin, Dallas and Houston areas were most strongly represented among the group of over 30 RLC members who were in attendance.

The purpose of the meeting was to reorganize the Texas RLC state board and recharter the state organization to address a peculiar situation where the state has a number of successful and active regional chapters but no functioning state board. In the three-hour meeting the attendees were able to elect provisional board members and executive officers, approve a set of bylaws, fill out a charter application and discuss various issues of concern for Liberty Republicans in Texas. The meeting was moderated by RLC National Chairman Dave Nalle who is a Texas resident and RLC national board member Dan Shiell.

The overall mood was enthusiastic in the wake of the hard-won convention victory of Steve Munisteri, the new Chairman of the Texas GOP. Munisteri has a background of association with relatively pro-liberty leaders and campaigns, including having worked for Ron Paul, Fred Thompson, Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan. He is expected to be much more friendly towards Liberty Republicans than his predecessor who was quite hostile and had even denied Debra Medina’s new advocacy organization a booth at the convention. Many of those attending the RLC meeting had been working hard at the convention to assure a Munisteri victory.

The meeting agreed to elect officers and board members on a 60-day provisional basis to be confirmed or modified and approved in a teleconference to be held within that period. This will provide time for RLC members in chapters around the state to review the work of the representatives at the meeting and for additional board members to be selected. Joey Dauben of Ellis County was elected Chairman. Judson Vandiver of Dallas was elected Vice Chairman. Dave Nalle of Travis County was elected Secretary. Joe Petronis of Austin was elected Treasurer. Board members elected at the meeting included Jeff Larson (Houston), Summer Yen (Austin), Patricia Nalle (Manor), Dan Shiell (Dallas) and Stephen Schoppe (Austin).

At a dinner gathering after the meeting, National RLC Chairman Dave Nalle commented that “After a convention where hostile party factions were at each others throats, being able to sit down with a group of real Liberty Republicans who so clearly shared the same objectives restored my faith in our movement and our efforts and the potential for achieving great victories for liberty in the Lonestar State.”

On a Saturday in mid-May, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Utah held its annual Convention in Draper. A special thanks to RLC members Rob Alexander, Bryan Livingston, and Lowell Nelson for coordinating the convention and to all of the new officers and Convention speakers.

The Convention’s first speaker was Utah Representative John Dougall, who made a passionate speech in favor of persuasion instead of the use force. Dougall’s plan for maximizing liberty includes the importance of self-reliance in skills and education and the avoidance of debt. As more and more people become dependent, the more likely will be the calls for government to solve a problem that it cannot solve. He also stressed the importance of charity to help others achieve self-reliance.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (pictured addressing Delegates) was the featured speaker. He was elected on his promises and he kept them and was subsequently re-elected. He prevented billions in new spending by vetoing 750 bills, as well as thousands of line item vetoes. He was one of the most outspoken governors regarding bringing freedom of choice and competition to the educational system. He also discussed how much of law enforcement dollars are spent on the war on drugs. Johnson explained that much of the violence that occurs along the US-Mexican border is directly related to the prohibitive aspect of drug use. He says the “drug treatment model” does not work. He would have vetoed recent immigration legislation in Arizona had he been governor there, because he believes it could lead to racial profiling.

Johnson also discussed how we have to slash government spending by at least 43%, because 43 cents of every dollar America spends is borrowed. The Fed inflates (prints) money to cover our drunken binge. In the next 4-10 years, a dollar today will be worth only 50 cents then. Johnson believes that what’s happening in Greece is what is going to happen here. Many U.S. state pension funds are “under water”, with California being likely the one that will first fail.

Johnson believes the root of nearly all our problems is that the federal government is too large. He does not believe that attacking Iraq was warranted because we have the technology to know that Iraq didn’t have Weapons of Mass Destruction. Says Johnson, attacking Afghanistan was initially warranted, but the target, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, is not there anymore. America makes up 5% of the world’s population, but we spend 50% of the world total on military armaments.

Cherilyn Eagar, former Candidate or US Senate from Utah spoke for just a moment. She said that the campaign was exhilarating and she achieved some remarkable friends. She appreciates the successes of the Republican Liberty Caucus. Several other candidates for public office spoke, including Utah RLC members like Rob Alexander and DJ Schanz.

Mike Lee (pictured addressing Delegates), candidate for U.S. Senate from Utah, considers Cherilyn Eagar a patriot and a friend. Lee talked about how America is exceptional because of our tradition of liberty. He said that whenever government acts, it acts at the expense of liberty. He said we must therefore be mindful of what we allow the government to do. He remembers watching the 1994 election returns, thinking that it would be a happy change, but it didn’t turn out that way, even with a Republican president later elected. The Republican revolution in 1994 failed and has since died. But Lee believes we have a greater opportunity now in 2010, and we can’t mess it up this time. He says this time we must anchor it in something that is solid and time-tested–the Constitution. If we had done this in 1994, that revolution would still be vibrant today.

Here are a few photos from the Convention:

Lowell Nelson, Convention Chair.

Utah RLC members.

Utah RLC members.

The Utah RLC also elected its new officers:

Chair: Julian Babbitt, Cottonwood Heights
Vice Chair: Chris Lovato, West Valley City
Secretary: Bryan Livingston, Lehi
Treasurer: David Garber, Provo

Board Members:
Jeremy Hurren, Pleasant Grove
James Williams, South Jordan
Frank Staheli, Santaquin
Lowell Nelson, Highland
Clint Lord, Sandy
Jordan Gunderson, West Provo

Advisery Board:
Rob Alexander
D.J. Schanz
Rep. John Dougall
Rep. Craig Frank

In addition, the Utah RLC approved the following 2010 candidate endorsements:

US Senate:
Mike Lee

Utah Senate:
Daniel Thatcher, District 12

Utah House:
Rob Alexander, District 35
Chuck Bateman, District 5
John Dougall, District 27
Craig Frank, District 57
Ken Ivory, District 47
DJ Schanz, District 20

Before closing the convention, the floor was opened to an informal roundtable discussion of issues and ideas, including:

* Senator Howard Stephenson is sponsoring a bill that would implement Preferential (Ranked) Voting in General Elections in Utah;
* Representative John Dougall is sponsoring a constitutional coinage bill that would legalize and protect gold and silver in Utah;
* General support of an RLC “Liberty Index” was expressed, and the Board may publish its first such index of Utah candidates in 2011;
* Officers and board members will have a conference call monthly, and a face-to-face meeting quarterly. Events will be on a Google Calendar.
* Members are encouraged to help DJ and/or Mike Lee in their respective primary races.

Thanks to everyone who made the Convention a success!

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin, which was chartered in December of last year, had its first major presence at the state Republican Party Convention. The Convention, which took place over the weekend in downtown Milwaukee, featured Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty and the much-loved Congressman Paul Ryan.

At the Convention, Chairman Michael S. Murphy handed RLC literature out to longtime Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner and had a brief conversation with Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Reince Preibus. Additionally, the Wisconsin RLC received numerous requests for membership applications and talked to candidates who wanted to seek the Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin endorsement.

Several candidates who have already been endorsed by the state affiliate were being actively promoted by RLC members, such as Terri McCormick for Congress in Wisconsin’s 8th District and Ed Thompson for State Senate in District 31.

Below are some photos of Wisconsin RLC members at the 2010 GOP Convention. A special thanks to Chairman Michael S. Murphy and Secretary Paul Sanchez for their hard work to prepare for liberty outreach at the Convention.

Learn more about the Wisconsin chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus at http://wi.rlc.org/.

Secretary Paul Sanchez with RLC endorsed candidate for State Senate from Rock County, Rick Richard.

Two RLC board members with Wisconsin’s Voice of Liberty, Ken Van Doren (center).

Michael S. Murphy, U.S. Senate candidate Dave Westlake, and Paul Sanchez.

Wisconsin RLC Vice Chair Chris Ciancimino.

Wisconsin RLC Chair with candidate for Congress Dan Sebring (District 4).

Wisconsin RLC Chair with candidate for Congress Terri McCormick (District 8).

On Saturday evening, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia hosted its annual Convention in Arlington. The featured guest was former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. This was the first RLCVA Convention in northern VA, since the 2009 Convention was held in Richmond.

New Officers include:

George Primbs, Woodbridge: Chair
Steven Latimer, Charlottesville; Vice-Chair
Cindy Trautz, Sterling; Secretary
Cliff Dunn, Newport News; Treasurer

At-Large Board members:
Mitchell Bemos, Arlington
Eric Brescia, Arlington
Christopher David Pille
Rick Sincere, Charlottesville

The RLCVA website is http://www.RLCVA.org/. The Caucus recently endorsed Michael McPadden for Congress in Virginia’s Fifth District. The primary is coming up in June.

Overall, it was a very successful event. Below are some photos from the event.

Gov. Gary Johnson discusses issues with a future candidate.

Members look on during the business session.

Gov. Johnson speaks with Matthew Berry, running for Congress in VA 09.

New Chairman George Primbs (far left) and other members look on during the business session.

Governor Johnson while he was speaking to the audience.

In late February, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Michigan had its annual meeting, which featured guest Governor Gary Johnson. Here are a few photos from that event.

The Minnesota RLC held its Convention on April 12. Here are several photos from that event:

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.