In the past year Wisconsin has gone from having no RLC affiliate at all to having an active chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus.

In the past eight months the RLCWI has chartered its affiliate, reached out at the state GOP Convention, introduced itself to party leaders/activists, protested the Wisconsin GOP’s pre-primary endorsements, and endorsed a liberty slate of candidates. Their progress is documented at http://wi.rlc.org/.

The endorsed candidates for State Assembly, who will face primary opposition on September 14, include:

∙ Andre Jacque for State Representative, District 2 (Green Bay)
∙ Jim Steineke for State Representative, District 5 (Appleton)
∙ Brad Sponholz for State Representative, District 7 (Milwaukee)
∙ Chris Kapenga (pictured) for State Representative, District 33 (Waukesha)
∙ Evan Wynn for State Representative, District 43 (Whitewater)
∙ Both Jeremy Thiesfeldt and Timothy Lakin for State Representative, District 52 (Fond du Lac)
∙ Chuck Schmidt for State Representative, District 57 (Appleton)
∙ Scott Krug for State Representative, District 72 (Wisconsin Rapids)
∙ Roger Rivard for State Representative, District 75 (Superior)
∙ Dave Redick for State Representative, District 77 (Madison)

“This is a great slate of candidates. We hope they make it through their primaries so we can reshape the Wisconsin Assembly with a liberty slate,” said Wisconsin RLC Chairman Michael S. Murphy. Learn more about the candidates at http://wi.rlc.org/endorsements/.

Congratulations to the Wisconsin RLC!

If you live in Alabama or Arizona, we hope you’ll attend the following meetings.  New members are always welcome.

Alabama RLC Meetup

Who: Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus
When: Tuesday, August 31 at 7:00PM
Where: Southern Pain Specialists — in the “One Nineteen Health & Wellness Center”, on the Second Floor, Suite 204. 7191 Cahaba Valley Rd, Birmingham, AL 35242-6042. Map and directions: http://www.southernpain.com/Map.asp.

Pima County RLC Meetup

Who: Pima County Republican Liberty Caucus
What and When: The Pima County Republican Liberty Caucus will hold its August regular monthly meeting on Thursday, August 26th, beginning at 6:30pm. The meeting will be informal and will last 1 – 1 1/2 hours. We will discuss the primary election results as well as how to move the RLC agenda forward in Arizona.
Where: Canyon’s Crown Restaurant & Pub, 6958 E. Tanque Verde Rd., Tucson, AZ.
Facebook RSVP.

After hosting its Republican Secretary of State debate last week, the Michigan chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus has endorsed Anne Norlander for Secretary of State.

Norlander is the County Clerk and Register of Deeds for Calhoun County, Michigan. She has solid fundraising numbers although a poll from July indicates she is not at the front of the pack for likely Republican voters. Still, only a few percentage points separated her from her leading opponents.

Republican Liberty Caucus members hope to make up the difference to help Norlander get to the head of the pack before the election.

“I think Norlander won the support of our Board because of her understanding and willingness to manage fair elections and she seems to best articulate a limited government message in her debate answers,” said Michigan RLC Chairman Mike Hewitt.

Delegates to the Michigan GOP Convention will select the nominee on August 28.

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.

Last night the Michigan chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus hosted a Republican Secretary of State Debate at the Oakland County Commissioners Auditorium in Pontiac.

The candidates included were:
* State Senator Cameron Brown
* Oakland County Clerk & Register of Deeds Ruth Johnson
* State Senator Michelle McManus
* Calhoun County Clerk & Register of Deeds Anne Norlander
* State Representative Paul Scott

View the debate at http://blip.tv/file/4020645.

Thus far the Republican Liberty Caucus has not endorsed any candidate in the race.

Congratulations to the Michigan RLC affiliate for introducing these candidates to voters in a format that allowed them to hear their answers to the tough problems facing the state.

We haven’t done an updated map of how chapter development for the RLC is going since back in February of last year, so it’s high time we had a new map that gives a strong visual representation of how things are progressing. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last year, but we need to work on chartering unchartered states and developing contacts in the three states where we have no organization at all.

Let’s turn the whole map blue!

You can find information about your local chapter on our Chapters page.

Please be our guest at the first annual Calvin Coolidge Clambake. A banquet to celebrate the legacy of our great Laissez Faire President, Calvin Coolidge. President Coolidge once remarked that the business of America is business. While President, he cleaned up corruption in government left individuals and businesses alone leading to the great economic prosperity of the 1920s.

Our keynote speaker will be John Fund, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Fund is also a contributor to the Fox News Channel. Mr. Fund began his career in journalism after a stint as a policy analyst in the California State Legislature. He worked for syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak as their investigative reporter before joining The Wall Street Journal, where he has been deputy editorial features editor and a member of the Editorial Board.

John Fund is the author of three books: “Cleaning House: America’s Campaign for Term Limits,” “Regulation Through Litigation,” and “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.” This will be a very special and exciting evening to bring together advocates of small government and to raise some funds to help elect Maine Republican Liberty Caucus endorsed candidates to the Maine legislature.

Sincerely,

Ken Lindell
Maine Republican Liberty Caucus

First Annual Calvin Coolidge Clambake
Special guest and keynote speaker John Fund

Please join us for a lobster or steak dinner to celebrate a President who respected our constitution and loved liberty. .

Italian Heritage Center, Portland Maine
August 26th 2010 – 5:30PM
40 Westland Ave, Portland, Maine 04102

Please reserve your spot by clicking a link below:

* non-member Lobster dinner $50
* non-member Steak dinner $45
* RLC member Lobster dinner $35
* RLC member Steak dinner $30

Or send a check to: Maine RLC – PO Box 115 – Frankfort ME 04438

With momentum building in its campaign to bring common sense back to the State House, the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire endorsed 36 candidates after reviewing a second round of surveys submitted through the group’s website, http://www.rlcnh.org/survey.

The 36 include candidates for state senator, state representative and executive councilor. They join a coalition of 61 other Republicans already endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire.

“I am confident these leaders will work together once elected to bring common sense back to Concord,” said RLCNH Chairman Andrew Hemingway.

Thus far about one third of the 468 Republican state representative and state senator candidates have responded to the RLCNH candidate survey. The RLCNH board will continue to consider candidates who submit their surveys leading up to the primary and will announce new endorsements periodically.

The newly endorsed candidates include:

David Wheeler, Executive Council, District 5
Kyle Tasker, State Representative, Rockingham 1
Al Baldassaro (Incumbent), State Representative, Rockingham 3
Daniel Tamburello, State Representative, Rockingham 3
Donna Mauro, State Representative, Rockingham 4
Bob Fesh, State Representative, Rockingham 5
Steven Doyle, State Representative, Rockingham 13
Gary Wheaton, State Representative, Rockingham 14
Stephen B. Stepanek, State Representative, Hillsborough 6
Win Hutchinson, State Representative, Hillsborough 9
Muni Savyon, State Representative, Hillsborough 10
Shuvom Ghose, State Representative, Hillsborough 11
William Infantine, State Representative, Hillsborough 13
Jonathan Maltz, State Representative, Hillsborough 27
Lynne Ober (Incumbent), State Representative, Hillsborough 27
Andy Renzullo (Incumbent), State Representative, Hillsborough 27
Jordan Ulery (Incumbent), State Representative, Hillsborough 27
Tony Soltani, State Representative, Merrimack 8
Scott Spaulding, State Representative, Merrimack 8
Pamela Ean, State Representative, Merrimack 12
Garret Ean, State Representative, Merrimack 12
Bob Greemore, State Representative, Belknapp 3
Colette Worsman, State Representative, Belknapp 3
Greg Sorg (Incumbent), State Representative, Grafton 3
Charles E. Sova, State Representative, Grafton 10
Evelyn Logan, State Representative, Strafford 1
Carol Vita, State Representative, Strafford 3
David L. Mincin, State Representative, Strafford 3
Christopher Buck, State Representative, Strafford 4
David Childs, State Representative, Strafford 7
Tony Blane Wilson, Sr., State Representative, Sullivan 4
Thomas W. Laware, State Representative, Sullivan 5

Several of our endorsed Republican Liberty Caucus candidates succeeded in their primaries last night.

Justin Amash (pictured), 30, a one-term State Representative, won the primary in Michigan’s 3rd District. He will likely be elected to Congress this fall considering how Republican the Grand Rapids district is. Amash will replace moderate Vernon Ehlers as a new voice for transparency and limited government.

In Missouri, RLC endorsed candidate Robyn Hamlin won her primary to become the Republican nominee against longtime Congressman Lacy Clay (D) in an urban St. Louis district. Unfortunately, the district is heavily Democrat.

RLC endorsed State Senate candidate Brian Nieves has defeated two opponents in his bid to win an open Senate seat in Missouri. Nieves has a long history of electoral success and was the immediate past Majority Whip in the Missouri House of Representatives. He will likely win this fall due to district demographics.

In Michigan, RLC endorsed candidate Arlan Meekhof, a current member of the Michigan legislature, defeated his opponent in a bid for State Senate. It is a Republican district so Meekhof will likely win this fall.

Other successful Missouri RLC endorsed candidates included incumbent State Representatives Tim W. Jones and Shane Schoeller. Additionally, Paul Curtman was unopposed in his bid to become State Representative in District 105.

Other successful Michigan candidates included Lori Levi (pictured), State Representative, District 21 and incumbent RLC legislator Bob Genetski, District 88.

Two other Michigan RLC candidates were unopposed in the primary: Bret Allen, State Representative, District 29 and Chase Ingersoll, State Representative, District 53.

A very important victory also occurred on Missouri’s ballot initiative, in which voters approved Proposition C. 71 percent of voters supported a law banning the government from forcing residents to buy health insurance. Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma have similar ballot initiatives that will appear later this fall on ballots in those states.

Congratulations to all of our RLC candidates and to Missouri voters for passing Proposition C.